You’re right. I forgot about when we all voted for tipping culture. Tipping culture is ridiculous and if I could change it I would. Is this honesty the only thing you have to feel superior about? You’re restating the most common complaints about a universally disparaged and outdated system like it’s some kind of revelation.

Do you think we chose this system or even have the power to change it? I agree. It’s not logical or productive. But, refusing to tip only hurts the workers and doesn’t change the system. Most Americans that are here to complain about the system are really just cheap and don’t want to pay for anything. If we didn’t have tipping, food prices would increase. Americans can’t handle that either.

If your servers get $15 an hour, the tipping argument doesn’t even apply. Some servers get less than $6 an hour and work places were 20% is the high end of the tips they’ll get. I think it’s pretty obvious who this does and doesn’t apply to.

When have I ever said restaurants don’t make a profit? Small margins are still a profit. When you sell a lot of product, small margins can make you a lot of money. Unfortunately, there’s no room for adjustment with small margins. So, increased labor costs would require increased revenue. Prices are currently falsely deflated by tipping. I’m all for getting rid of tipping and setting prices fairly, but people would complain about that too. One thing I know for sure, tipping your server doesn’t solve anything except taking money they earned right out of their pocket.

Oh right, you read it on Reddit so you know it’s a fact. Obviously, I’m the naive one here.

Agreed. But again, not tipping does nothing to achieve that goal. You’re just hurting the servers to make a moral stance, supposedly for them. Let’s all push for higher minimum wage for tipped staff, but let’s not hurt those staff with our meaningless gestures.

Not tipping doesn’t fix this problem. Complaining about tipping on Reddit doesn’t fix this problem. Demanding higher wages for tipped staff is the only possible fix. Otherwise, your just skipping out on your bill to your servers detriment and justifying with a paper this moral argument about how it’s not your responsibility to fix society. It all of our responsibility to do our best. Stiffing your server is not that.

Restaurants work on razor thin margins. Even the successful ones. My dad owned two and I worked in others for a decade. There are no massive profits in these industries. Look how many successful restaurants closed during the pandemic cause they couldn’t handle a single bad year after long-term success.

Even if none of this was true, the owners will never notice or care that you don’t tip. The servers that are just trying to feed themselves or their families will definitely notice the lack of tip. Especially when some of them make less than $6 an hour. Do you think an hour of their labor is worth less than a value meal at McDonald’s?

Did you pull yourself up by your bootstraps too? People have every right to expect to be paid fairly for their work. The nuances of this argument get lost because people don’t realize how low minimum wage is for tipped positions in some states. Unfortunately, those also tend to the be some of the states with the worst tippers. If you know your server is underpaid and you pay less on your bill because of it, then you decide to not contribute to making up that difference, you are ab AH and essentially skipping part of your bill.

If the restaurants owners paid the staff properly, your bill would be higher. You clearly understand this, so not tipping is denying a server appropriate pay for their work. You can complain about the system all you want, but workers are the only ones that suffer. And, it likely doesn’t cost you any more than it would if the prices were as high as they probably should be.

You’re a confusing person. Did you work service jobs in the US? Cause you’re justification of “I’ve been there” doesn’t fit at all. Did you ever risk not eating because of your income when working the service industry? If not, maybe consider yourself lucky and realize you actually have no familiarity with the importance of tipping. Tipping can mean the difference on a single mothers ability to feed her children. But, in your opinion, it’s more important that a 19 year old can feel like a big shot even through they can’t actually afford their bill? If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford your bill. I don’t care what jobs you’ve worked. You know nothing about the service industry in the US if you don’t know that’s true.

And BTW, I worked BOH most of my time in restaurants so I generally watched servers make more than me in less hours. I STILL understand the importance of tipping.

Thank you for the only realistic take on this

You were ripping people off when you were 19 then. Servers hate teenagers for this reason. Their mommy and daddy’s give them money to go out and then they pocket every cent they can to go party. If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford the bill.