Are you cheap if you don’t tip? (American tipping culture)

[OmniStrife]

I always tip but never EVER go over 12%~15% fuck tipping culture, I tip cause society deems it a must and not because I want to or think servers deserve it.
I miss Japan, where tipping is considered offensive and where you'd get a 1,000,000 times better service than anywhere in the spoiled NA service industry.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

Um what? I wish people who never worked in restaurant industry did not get to comment on these threads. Its so infuriating each time.

You know when you leave a tip for a server on a credit card? You know how that tip gets rung in through a Point of Sale machine? You know that when a server now gets their pay stub at the end of the week they get taxed on that tipped income? Oh no.. You don't know any of this? Sounds about right. And every place I've ever worked at has cash tips declared as well. This is because the employer would also get in a world of trouble if they were non-compliant in reporting all income for their employees and paying their employer portion of those taxes. I've worked in several restaurants as a server, and now also on the corporate finance side for major restaurant groups

So in simple terms, yes we could move to have employers pay the staff a higher wage and eliminate tipping, but guess who will still be paying that wage? Did you guess the customer? Well then bravo! Because any restaurant that tries that in the US, also raises their price by about 20%. And then guess what, the government collects sales tax on that because its now sales instead of a gratuity. So you get to pay an extra tax on that 20%, so now we've made the government happy for sure.

Other downsides of eliminating tipping and paying a set wage would be that it reduces the incentive for servers to upsell. Now you may hate when servers upsell you, but it is how good servers make more money by being good at their jobs. Since after all, being a server at many places is a sales job, it makes sense they earn what is basically a commission.

There are definitely other caveats here and there as well. For example, employers DO have to make up their wages if their tip credit wages + their tips do not equal minimum wage. So for example, in NY, minimum wage is $15/hr and tipped employees are $10/hr. So if an employee works 30 hours, and makes $300 from employer and only $50 in tips. They would fall short of the $450 for the week for min wage and employer would have to pay them the $100. So if you can convince everyone at once to stop tipping servers, it would result in employers paying their staff more. But, that would still be a massive pay cut for the employee, and the restaurant would likely go out of business since most restaurants lose money already, and paying a higher wage to their staff without increasing menu prices would drive them out of business.

So, as much as there are SOME people who like to just say "TIPPING IS STUPID! LETS STOP TIPPING AND TAKE IT TO THE MAN!!!", that really makes no sense and shows a very uneducated opinion on the topic that is just loosely hiding the true reasoning of being cheap.

Click to shrink...

Tipped wage in New York state is $7.50, not $10. Employers should be paying their employees directly, not the customer.

 

[mrmoose]

I don't understand why the tip should depend on the amount payed for food. Since this is seemingly a unpreventable labour issue in America, how about if the servers have cost per minute worked, and you tip them based on the time they spend serving you?

Click to shrink...

Besides the general correlation that ordering more food often means more work for the server, there's also the thinking that at a more expensive restaurant, you'd want better waitstaff so the tips should be commensurate with the price. That still doesn't explain why I have to tip 20% of the cost of wine when all they did was open a bottle, but on a bigger level it makes some sense.

If it was combined with a requirement for business owners to pay the full minimum wage though? surely that would curb abuse?

Click to shrink...

I live in a state where business owners have to pay the full minimum wage to waitstaff... and it is still customary to tip.

There's a flawed premise here that suggests most servers don't like their tipping wages in America, but many articles suggest that the servers generally prefer that opportunity they get to make money from tips. Many restaurants have tried to be tip free and many of them went back to tipping.

Click to shrink...

I do think servers in middle to high end restaurants or ones with a lot of traffic/regulars make bank, but then you probably also have a ton of waitstaff who barely make it. It is the law, at least here, that the restaurant cover at least the server making minimum wage if they don't have enough tips to get there, but nobody waits tables for minimum wage.
The tip free part, I think there are other factors at work... these are usually not the cheaper establishments, so presumably to get decent wait staff they're going to have to pay more than minimum wage, and the price is reflected in the bill. So having generally higher prices than the competition (but no tipping) is going to kill them because that's how people's brains work when they see prices. It's also one of the reasons why airline and hotels and cell phone carriers and what not have a base price they advertise then tack on all these fees.

 

[BAD]

These are just arguments for ending the tipped wage system though. Some waiters would fight it but plenty would not because the current system isn't great for them. Why have mandatory baseline tips when you can just eliminate tipped wages altogether and let people tip if they want for exceptional service or something?

Click to shrink...

People are conflating the issues here. The premise of the OP is if you are an asshole for not tipping - the answer is 100% yes, you are an asshole.

That is very separate from whether someone dislikes the tipping system and wants it to change. Call your legislators for that. Taking services from a waitress and not paying her for it under her wage structure is just being a cheap idiot.

 

[Darkstar0155]

Shockingly, when you have a system built on the premise thst everybody should be an asshole if they want to succeed, you're often left with situations where people have to act like assholes to make it through the day.

As I see it, a poor person not paying the tip because they can't afford it doesn't rate much of a talk, and we should make an effort to carve out that understanding.

Click to shrink...

A poor person not paying another poor person (most servers are not making bank) for services rendered doesn't justify anything. Your still a asshole and not paying someone for work they did, since 80% of their salary comes from tips, and if you know that and don't pay, your not (fully) paying for the services they gave you.

No. i shouldn't feel obligated to help crowdfund paying your employee a liveable wage after I already paid you for an a meal that wasn't even cheap

Click to shrink...

You paid for the meal, the portion that goes to the owner and all the other staff that isn't your waiter/waitress. You didn't pay for your full experience as you didn't pay the server for the service they gave you.

 

[Dyle]

If it was combined with a requirement for business owners to pay the full minimum wage though? surely that would curb abuse?

Click to shrink...

In theory, but it's pretty difficult to find a number that both workers and business owners will agree upon. The problem is that the entire industry has to move together at once; restaurants that experiment with different billing structures will inevitably be punished, either in terms of profitability for the business owner or cost for consumers. As far as legislation goes, there are many different competing factions with different proposals, making it challenging for any one proposal to become law.

 

[Pankratous]

if you can't afford to eat out, don't eat out

Click to shrink...

Yeah, let's make the barrier of entry to have a good meal out even higher. Fuck poor people.

 

[Bio]

I'd advise you to read the entire quote chain between me and Kirblar, because that isn't what happened, and I'm not talking about myself either.

Click to shrink...

I read it, and I understand that you weren't necessarily talking about yourself; my response was general, the 'editorial you'.

And my son's mother comes from a very similar background to yours; Vietnamese refugee who fled with her family when Saigon fell, lived in refugee camps for over five years and basically grew up an indentured servant. She still tips every time she goes out, and she did that even when I first met her as a single mother of two kids.

Being poor sucks, I know that firsthand. I also know it doesn't obligate other people to serve us for free. The current system sucks but the answer is not to line the pockets of restaurant owners and stiff the other poor people who are doing all the actual work, and I'm sorry but I find it hilarious that you or anyone thinks there are a large contingent of poor people out there who can afford a $40-50 dollar meal but can't afford at least a $5 tip on top of that.

If someone is dedicating 30-90 minutes of their labor to serving you, taking care of you, and you don't tip them I'm sorry but you're being an asshole. Again, editorial you, not you specifically.

Yes, poor people deserve nice things once in awhile. People also deserve to be compensated for their labor and the reality is we're the ones who have to pay for that service one way or another. Whether it's in the form of tips, or higher menu prices because their restaurant pays them an actual living wage, that doesn't change.

 

[VeryHighlander]

Yeah, let's make the barrier of entry to have a good meal out even higher. Fuck poor people.

Click to shrink...

"Good meal" doesn't HAVE to mean go to a sit down restaurant where someone brings us food. Jesus Christ. Go to a buffet or some shit lol.

 

[Zampano]

Tipping is a terrible, discriminatory and anti-worker practice that shouldn't exist in 2020.

That said, if you don't tip you probably are an asshole.

 

[Poodlestrike]

The discussion had spun into different places by the time that happened.

Being accused of "taking the side of the corporations" is f'ing ridiculous here as well, as though the corporations just love having a big chunk of their revenue mandated to go to FOH instead of being under their discretionary control. They would vastly prefer a no-tipping situation too if everyone else were participating! There's a fundamental disconnect about who the winners and losers from the US tipping situation are because so many are coming from it from a "but I dont want to have to tip!" situation where they don't like it that assumes the waitstaff are net losers in the situation and must be victims in need of saving, where that isn't the case at all!

Like, "don't dine and dash on your servers" shouldn't be a hard position to understand. Not tipping is just dine and dashing, but only on the labor.

Click to shrink...

I really, sincerely doubt that the big restaurant chains want to have to raise their menu prices and deal with new tax burdens like they'd have to if tipping went away, man.

And again, the dine and dash argument is putting way more vitriol into the situation than is called for. Like I said, I'd get it if you were hammering away at the rich jerks who get huge meals for the whole table and don't tip, but somebody wanting a sit down meal who can't afford the extra shouldn't be demonized.

Yes, if you cant afford the services you are inquiring, you shouldn't be accepting them. Simple as that, its has nothing to do with how well off you are. Just because your poor doesn't mean you should expect others (who are almost surely also not well off) to give you free services.

Click to shrink...

What *should* happen is that they should be paid directly so the business transaction doesn't become a moral burden. In the meantime, we all try to get by.

 

[Kirblar]

Did you not repeatedly quote me with stuff like this (well before I even interacted with you)?

How is it inaccurate then for me to characterise your position as the corporations not being the villains, but poor people who can't afford to tip sometimes are?

Click to shrink...

Because someone who doesn't tip is stiffing part of the bill. The~15% of the bill that goes to pay the labor.

The employers are not the ones who created the system that exists today, nor are the workers. The problem here with you and others is your framework for processing this situation. You're viewing it through a "the employers are deliberately underpaying the workers!" perspective, which... isn't what's going on whatsoever. That paradigm will poison everything because it doesn't reflect things like

a) The tipping system predates everyone participating in it.
b) Waitstaff, as a collective, end up with more money under the tipping system due to their wages being directly tied to a % of pre-tax business revenues.
c) Restaurants that attempt to move to a EU model end up at a massive competitive disadvantage, bleeding staff due to the lower take home pay and losing customers due to the nominal increase in menu prices (even though the new prices are basically just old prices + tip added together.) They don't keep the US system because they love it, they keep it because moving away from it screws the business over.

Restaurants are still paying their managers, their cooks, etc. normal hourly or salaried rates, providing required benefits, etc. It's this specific situation that's an outlier.

 

[VeryHighlander]

Wtf why is that Ferrari faster than my Camry? It's not fair that poor people have to resort to 4 cylinder eco boxes

 

[LCGeek]

People are conflating the issues here. The premise of the OP is if you are an asshole for not tipping - the answer is 100% yes, you are an asshole.

That is very separate from whether someone dislikes the tipping system and wants it to change. Call your legislators for that. Taking services from a waitress and not paying her for it under her wage structure is just being a cheap idiot.

Click to shrink...

The problem is the Op wants to have a moral argument with people who are cheap or worse expecting them to change. Such people aren't really here at the site they are just randoms in the real world with no way to legally control them.

So what if they are an asshole is that really a hard thing to deduce considering the discussion?

 

[OmniStrife]

What I have trouble with is this notion that waiters are dependant on tipping to survive as if there are no other jobs out there and they are forced to do waiting or bartending jobs. They go into that line of work percisely because they're pampered with extra cash for no fucking reason.
I was a technical trainer for all my life, and in my first 6 years I was paid a shit wage to stand and teach for 10 hours a day straight without including my commute.
Gruelling job, both phisically and mentaly, never once was I tipped or expected to be tipped.

 

[kai3345]

Yeah, let's make the barrier of entry to have a good meal out even higher. Fuck poor people.

Click to shrink...

those working in the service industry are often poor people. their wages rely on tips. if you can't afford to pay them properly, don't go out to eat.

 

[VeryHighlander]

What I have trouble with is this notion that waiters are dependant on tipping to survive as if there are no other jobs out there and they are forced to do waiting or bartending jobs. They go into that line of work percisely because they're pampered with extra cash for no fucking reason.
I was a technical trainer for all my life, and in my first 6 years I was paid a shit wage to stand and teach for 10 hours a day straight without including my commute.
Gruelling job, both phisically and mentaly, never once was I tipped or expected to be tipped.

Click to shrink...

Oh my fucking god you are ignorant as fuck. They get paid four fucking dollars an hour

 

[OmniStrife]

lol as if 100% of poor people only work in the food industry, plenty of shit jobs are out there where you NEVER get tipped.

 

[Deleted member 29280]

You paid for the meal, the portion that goes to the owner and all the other staff that isn't your waiter/waitress. You didn't pay for your full experience as you didn't pay the server for the service they gave you.

Click to shrink...

Its almost as if the owner should direct more of the money I paid for the meal to go to the waiter/waitress' paycheck.

 

[VeryHighlander]

lol as if 100% of poor people only work in the food industry, plenty of shit jobs are out there where you NEVER get tipped.

Click to shrink...

Name one of those jobs that's $4 an hour I am waiting

 

[Deleted member 5086]

I read it, and I understand that you weren't necessarily talking about yourself; my response was general, the 'editorial you'.

And my son's mother comes from a very similar background to yours; Vietnamese refugee who fled with her family when Saigon fell, lived in refugee camps for over five years and basically grew up an indentured servant. She still tips every time she goes out, and she did that even when I first met her as a single mother of two kids.

Being poor sucks, I know that firsthand. I also know it doesn't obligate other people to serve us for free. The current system sucks but the answer is not to line the pockets of restaurant owners and stiff the other poor people who are doing all the actual work, and I'm sorry but I find it hilarious that you or anyone thinks there are a large contingent of poor people out there who can afford a $40-50 dollar meal but can't afford at least a $5 tip on top of that.

If someone is dedicating 30-90 minutes of their labor to serving you, taking care of you, and you don't tip them I'm sorry but you're being an asshole. Again, editorial you, not you specifically.

Yes, poor people deserve nice things once in awhile. People also deserve to be compensated for their labor and the reality is we're the ones who have to pay for that service one way or another. Whether it's in the form of tips, or higher menu prices because their restaurant pays them an actual living wage, that doesn't change.

Click to shrink...

The post you were quoting was referencing the fact that Kirblar did not feel employers were the bad guys for not paying their employees a living wage, but was chastising poor people instead.

My first post in this thread was also in response to a member who said that if you're broke, you should stay at home and eat a sandwich (I assume, no matter the circumstances). I found this attitude very insensitive, as it isn't taking into account this hypothetical person's situation at all. It was not meant to generalise poor people, or even depict this situation as common. I am poor, live in a country where tipping is not common, and has still tipped every single time it was expected of me (sometimes rather generously).

I don't disagree with you at all on a general level. I was just responding to very specific statements.

 

[OmniStrife]

Oh my fucking god you are ignorant as fuck. They get paid four fucking dollars an hour

Click to shrink...

This is a legal issue then, everywhere else they get paid AT LEAST minimum wage. Oh and also, no one puts a gun to your head to work at $4 an hour. They go in cause they expect the tips.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

People are conflating the issues here. The premise of the OP is if you are an asshole for not tipping - the answer is 100% yes, you are an asshole.

That is very separate from whether someone dislikes the tipping system and wants it to change. Call your legislators for that. Taking services from a waitress and not paying her for it under her wage structure is just being a cheap idiot.

Click to shrink...

You don't need to tell me that, I'm a fucking waiter lol.

 

[VeryHighlander]

This is a legal issue then, everywhere else they get paid AT LEAST minimum wage. Oh and also, no one puts a gun to your head to work at $4 an hour. They go in cause they expect the tips.

Click to shrink...

Got it, so you're an ignoramus.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

This is a legal issue then, everywhere else they get paid AT LEAST minimum wage. Oh and also, no one puts a gun to your head to work at $4 an hour. They go in cause they expect the tips.

Click to shrink...

Er, no they go in because that's they job they could get. Just like any low end service job.

 

[Meauxse]

I always tip but never EVER go over 12%~15% fuck tipping culture, I tip cause society deems it a must and not because I want to or think servers deserve it.
I miss Japan, where tipping is considered offensive and where you'd get a 1,000,000 times better service than anywhere in the spoiled NA service industry.

Click to shrink...

What I have trouble with is this notion that waiters are dependant on tipping to survive as if there are no other jobs out there and they are forced to do waiting or bartending jobs. They go into that line of work percisely because they're pampered with extra cash for no fucking reason.
I was a technical trainer for all my life, and in my first 6 years I was paid a shit wage to stand and teach for 10 hours a day straight without including my commute.
Gruelling job, both phisically and mentaly, never once was I tipped or expected to be tipped.

Click to shrink...

This is like bad take central. In a 4-6 hour shift, I would regularly walk 4-8 miles. Just because you had a shitty job teaching doesn't mean you can shit on a system you quite obviously have no grasp of.

Oh my fucking god you are ignorant as fuck. They get paid four fucking dollars an hour

Click to shrink...

$2.15 in Louisiana.

As for why choose to be a server:
On the job training with no prior work requirement
Malleable hours
It's 80% of my city's work

But let me just go ahead and find another job because reasons. If any of these arguments were about another industry, it might be more obvious how shameful they are.

 

[OmniStrife]

Name one of those jobs that's $4 an hour I am waiting

Click to shrink...

Why do they go to work at a $4 an our job then, don't tell me that's their only option cause that's a lie for most people.

 

[TheMango55]

If people wouldn't mind their bill being 15% higher for the restaurant to pay the server directly, why are they so offended at tipping 15%?

It's the same amount of money.

 

[Kirblar]

I don't understand why the tip should depend on the amount payed for food. Since this is seemingly a unpreventable labour issue in America, how about if the servers have cost per minute worked, and you tip them based on the time they spend serving you?

Click to shrink...

It really shouldn't, but it's how the system is set up. You're hitting on the reason why moving to a no-tip model leads to lower wages. A fixed % commission system results in wages that scale up 1:1 with the price of the food, while a salary based on the labor used won't scale in that same way.

 

[MJForum Poster]

To the few people trying to make the argument that sometimes poor people go out to eat and can't afford to tip - when I was in middle school and high school without a job, myself and my friends went out to eat and still scrounged up money for a tip. It was all about picking a restaurant that we could afford and ordering items off the menu that left us with the buffer to tip.

 

[OmniStrife]

This is like bad take central. In a 4-6 hour shift, I would regularly walk 4-8 miles. Just because you had a shitty job teaching doesn't mean you can shit on a system you quite obviously have no grasp of.



$2.15 in Louisiana.

Click to shrink...

Why would you go and work for $2.15? That's exploitation and you can't tell me with a straight face that that was your only option.

 

[kai3345]

Why do they go to work at a $4 an our job then, don't tell me that's their only option cause that's a lie for most people.

Click to shrink...

Why did you work your shit job as a technical trainer for 6 years? There were surely better options?

 

[OmniStrife]

Why did you work your shit job as a technical trainer for 6 years? There were surely better options?

Click to shrink...

I liked doing it, I was good at it and there were prospects of promotions.

 

[UsefulSpoon]

The west coast states have full minimum wage for tipped employees. The other states need to get with the program.

 

[shnurgleton]

Why would you go and work for $2.15? That's exploitation and you can't tell me with a straight face that that was your only option.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, why can't poor people just get 6 figure jobs instead?

 

[OmniStrife]

How do many food industries outside of NA survive perfectly fine without tipping? Where often you get a much better service to boot?

 

[OmniStrife]

Yeah, why can't poor people just get 6 figure jobs instead?

Click to shrink...

Aw come on... do min wage and above entry-level jobs don't exist?

 

[shnurgleton]

How do many food industries outside of NA survive perfectly fine without tipping? Where often you get a much better service to boot?

Click to shrink...

Social safety nets and better living wages

 

[mute]

If people wouldn't mind their bill being 15% higher for the restaurant to pay the server directly, why are they so offended at tipping 15%?

It's the same amount of money.

Click to shrink...

Haven't there been a handful of cases where specific restaurants have switched to a more expensive menu, but no tip policy, only to switch back or not get much business?

 

[VeryHighlander]

Why do they go to work at a $4 an our job then, don't tell me that's their only option cause that's a lie for most people.

Click to shrink...

First of all, they aren't working for $4 an hour only, they work the job knowing that most people aren't cheap pieces of shit and will tip them. The tips balance out the shit wages and make it a lucrative job that many people without education across the country can do regardless of age sex or technical knowledge. Secondly, who the fuck are you to tell poor working class people that there are Other Options? What the fuck are you talking about? You have such a mind numbingly moronic take on this that I have to assume I'm either talking to a child or a spoiled brat. Either way, fuck off.

 

[Darkstar0155]

Its almost as if the owner should direct more of the money I paid for the meal to go to the waiter/waitress' paycheck.

Click to shrink...

And then you would be paying apx 15% more for the meal. Justify it however you want, all your doing is screwing the waiter/waitress. If you don't want to deal with the requirements of the current system, don't participate it in. If you go out where tipping is expected, and not tip, your screwing no one but the waiter/waitress and being a absolute asshole.

There aren't many times I am willing to fully call people assholes, but this is one of them. Yes, your a asshole and a cheapskate if you go out to eat at a restaurant in the U.S. and don't tip. Full Stop. All your justifications about the "system" etc is solely to make you try to feel less like a asshole and justify your shitty behavior.

 

[Meauxse]

Why would you go and work for $2.15? That's exploitation and you can't tell me with a straight face that that was your only option.

Click to shrink...

No, I had other options like painting houses in August in New Orleans, moving truck assistance, and other physical labor.

You seem to want to write a whole industry off because I should have been able to bootstrap myself up? Your two initial posts in the thread were full of so much wrong and disinformation that I have trouble believing you want to discuss the issue and instead just want to put it on me for "choosing" the job.

How do many food industries outside of NA survive perfectly fine without tipping? Where often you get a much better service to boot?

Click to shrink...

Again, patently untrue. It's very well evidenced that service in the US is easily some of the best in the world, specifically due to the tipping industry.

 

[Kirblar]

Haven't there been a handful of cases where specific restaurants have switched to a more expensive menu, but no tip policy, only to switch back or not get much business?

Click to shrink...

Its way more than a handful at this point.

Its the same behavioral fallacy behind the JCPenney "no coupons" debacle on the consumer side.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

Run out on the bill and give the server all the cash instead

 

[Lunaray]

In most other countries, the service fee is already included in the price of the food or as a mandatory add on to the bill, while here it is not. You are already including a tip by default, whereas in the US it is opt-in.

 

[mrmoose]

Yeah, let's make the barrier of entry to have a good meal out even higher. Fuck poor people.

Click to shrink...

Isn't that exactly what would happen if we ended tipping culture and paid waitstaff a reasonable wage instead? Menu prices would go up and the "barrier of entry" would go up with it.

I realize there are different groups of people here, but those advocating tipping less than 15% because "screw the owners for not paying their employees" aren't going to be happy if prices rise 15% (or whatever) to pay a living wage.

 

[CloseTalker]

Man, we must get a tipping thread every two months here, and it's the exact same conversation each time. Some poster thinks they're bringing up some novel point that the whole idea of tipping is flawed, and it shouldn't have to happen. And every response is essentially "well okay, but the reality of the situation is these people don't make much money and rely on tips for their wage, so if you don't like doing it then just don't eat out"

 

[OmniStrife]

No, I had other options like painting houses in August in New Orleans, moving truck assistance, and other physical labor.

You seem to want to write a whole industry off because I should have been able to bootstrap myself up? Your two initial posts in the thread were full of so much wrong and disinformation that I have trouble believing you want to discuss the issue and instead just want to put it on me for "choosing" the job.

Click to shrink...

Waiting is also a physical labor job, and I know how grueling it is, my wife waited for a year when we immigrated to Canada.
I'm just saying that waiters fuck themselves over with going for these $2 /hr jobs in the 1st place, (unless it really is the 100% only option)

 

[Chairmanchuck (另一个我)]

In most other countries, the service fee is already included in the price of the food or as a mandatory add on to the bill, while here it is not. You are already including a tip by default, whereas in the US it is opt-in.

Click to shrink...

Then why do people pay 30$ for an italian meal?

 

[Morrigan]

This is just ridiculous, the hyperbole is crazy. I got an idea how about we think about the less fortunate and the servers who may also be less fortunate at the same time. The privilege is crazy with this post.

Click to shrink...

It was sarcastic.

I read it, and I understand that you weren't necessarily talking about yourself; my response was general, the 'editorial you'.

And my son's mother comes from a very similar background to yours; Vietnamese refugee who fled with her family when Saigon fell, lived in refugee camps for over five years and basically grew up an indentured servant. She still tips every time she goes out, and she did that even when I first met her as a single mother of two kids.

Being poor sucks, I know that firsthand. I also know it doesn't obligate other people to serve us for free. The current system sucks but the answer is not to line the pockets of restaurant owners and stiff the other poor people who are doing all the actual work, and I'm sorry but I find it hilarious that you or anyone thinks there are a large contingent of poor people out there who can afford a $40-50 dollar meal but can't afford at least a $5 tip on top of that.

If someone is dedicating 30-90 minutes of their labor to serving you, taking care of you, and you don't tip them I'm sorry but you're being an asshole. Again, editorial you, not you specifically.

Yes, poor people deserve nice things once in awhile. People also deserve to be compensated for their labor and the reality is we're the ones who have to pay for that service one way or another. Whether it's in the form of tips, or higher menu prices because their restaurant pays them an actual living wage, that doesn't change.

Click to shrink...

Great post, really can't find much to disagree here.