I tried not tipping on a US visit. You can get away with it, but people will be angry.
It's just a silly local custom you have to put up with when in America.
this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2023
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It's the way our tax system works. Employers have to pay taxes on payroll; they don't pay taxes on tips. By having customers pay servers directly, they reduce their tax burden.
Believe me, we don't like it either, but we are familiar with it, so there is little incentive to change.
Tipped employees are primarily paid directly by the people they serve. If you are not tipping a tipped server, you are declaring their work is worth less than minimum wage.
It is lawful to do that, but it is a real dick move.
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You have to tip 20% of the bill minimum. You can round-up only from there.
It's considered very rude to tip less than 20% because in the US, most service workers are legally allowed to be paid less than the minimum wage ($2 or $3 per hour is not uncommon).
You should give $1 to a bartender for every drink you order. If it's an expensive city, you should give $2 per drink.
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You should take a look at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_states_by_minimum_wage and see what the minimum wage is in the state you are visiting. The minimum wage where I am is one of the highest in the nation so I don’t tip anymore.
Edit: I am aware many states have below federal minimum for tipped employees. My point was if they’re visiting one of the states with a high minimum wage, they should forgo tipping. Nobody below bothered to link it, but here's the minimum wage page for tipped employees: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped. It's worth noting that even in the states that can pay tipped employee as little as $2.13/hr, the employees never actually make less than the federal minimum of $7.25/hr because the employer has to make up the difference if the employee doesn't make enough in tips, not that $7.25/hr is even remotely a livable wage in 2023...
Regardless, tipping is an inherently flawed system, and it's not the responsibility of the consumer to pay specifically the server a living wage while everyone in the kitchen suffers (I would know, I've been there). If you're not happy with the wage laws in your state, get involved in politics and exercise your right to vote to do something about it.
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(6 replies)
When in Rome…