For most of us, it's second nature to go out for a meal and expect to add an extra chunk
of change when we're paying the bill.
But tipping is actually more controversial than you might've thought.
In fact, it may be better to get rid of the practice completely.
Here's why.
Unfair pay
Did you know the minimum wage for servers in the majority of the United States is $2.13
per hour?
And that it's been that way since 1991?
Sounds crazy, right?
But it's true, and it's standard practice.
The idea is that servers will generate enough money from their tips to make up for that
crappy wage.
Before tips, a waiter or waitress only makes $17.04 during an entire eight-hour shift.
It's easy to see how important those tips are.
"That's 15%"
"That's 13%.
These people depend on tips for a living."
Employees who don't make enough money are supposed to be compensated by their bosses.
But that isn't always a guarantee.
The US Department of Labor reported a whopping 84 percent violation rate of employers not
making sure their employees received proper payment.
Customers aren't always fair
One of the worst problems with tipping is that some customers just don't do it right.
Some people, for example, might not understand that tipping should be based on percentages,
so they'll put down a few bucks without calculating anything.
Other people simply don't believe in tipping, so they won't leave anything at all.
"I don't believe in it."
"You don't believe in tipping?"
And then there are some people who are just downright cheap — lots of them.
And it's always the server who ends up shortchanged.
In those cases, it would be better to have the service charge built into the cost of
the meal.
It enables discrimination
Putting the power in the hands of customers leaves some workers at risk of discrimination.
One study showed that African-American servers are tipped less than their non-black counterparts.
Another study showed that black cab drivers are tipped one-third less than their white
counterparts.
There's also the issue of gender.
According to a report by the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, the restaurant industry is
"...the single-largest source of sexual-harassment charges filed by women with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission."
That's an appalling fact, and managers and co-workers aren't the only offenders.
The people most likely to sexually harass waitresses are their customers — 78 percent
of waitresses reported that customers made lewd comments or have harassed them in some
way.
Uncertain income
If you work for an established bar or restaurant that's always packed, chances are you're doing
pretty well, wage-wise.
And you can probably predict your income with relative accuracy.
But if business isn't booming, servers may have no idea how much they'll make each week,
which makes it that much harder to plan for other bills.
It's hard to argue in favor of tipping when it creates so much uncertainty.
After all, not everybody tips like Ross.
"I tip way too much, way way too much, it's a sickness, really."
Unequal power dynamics
Too often, folks assume that servers and bartenders aspire to do something else professionally,
or that they're just doing these jobs on the side while they're in school.
This mentality feeds the misconception that service work is unskilled labor.
Edward Frame, who earned a six-figure salary working at a three-star restaurant in 2012,
said that tipping "...encourages people to think of service like a perk — something
extra — and not a career for millions of individuals."
If tipping were abolished, the power dynamic between customers and servers would be vastly
improved.
Divided tips
When you leave a tip for a server or bartender, you usually assume it's going to the person
who served you.
But some establishments pool their tips, especially if the amount of money spent by different
tables varies.
One party might jack up the bill with appetizers and booze, while another table could be a
family with small children on a tighter budget.
If tips are pooled, the server with the cheaper table gets as much as everyone else.
And that's good, but it does make problems for the customer, who's basically paying everyone
else at the restaurant.
And if there are genuinely bad or lazy employees, that could drag tips down for everyone.
That just doesn't seem fair.
Servers bias
Just as customers can discriminate against their waiters, servers can also be biased
toward their customers.
According to one report, white men tend to get better service than women, people of color,
the elderly, foreigners, and young people.
This is likely due to the server's expectation of what kind of tip they will receive from
different people, although servers can be as racist or sexist as anyone.
Taking tipping out of the equation could get everyone treated more equally.
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