Hey Folks!
I’ve been living abroad for over half my life in a country where tipping is not the norm. At most you would round up. 19€ bill? Here’s a 20, keep this change.
Going to the US soon to visit family and the whole idea of tipping makes me nervous. It seems there’s a lot of discussion about getting rid of tipping, but I don’t know how much has changed in this regard.
The system seems ridiculously unfair, and that extra expense in a country where everything is already so expensive really makes a difference.
So will AITA if I don’t tip? Is it really my personal responsibility to make sure my server is paid enough?
False. If tips don’t bring your pay above minimum wage, the employer is legally required to make up the difference. If they’re not doing that, they are breaking the law.
Tipping culture is, and always has been, a ploy by the restaurant industry to get away with not paying their employees a living wage. If they could push 100% of the employees’ wage onto the bottom of a customer’s bill, they would do it. That’s not the customer being a piece of shit, that’s the restaurant owners.
But it’s a difficult system to break because, typically, tips add up to notably higher than minimum wage. So neither restaurant owners, nor the workers have any incentive to ask for it to be changed, and no one is going to pass legislation that forces food industry workers to make less because then they’re the bad guy.