Almost all service industry jobs in the U.S. make most of their wages on tips and relying on people to tip them. Baristas, bartenders, and servers are a few of the occupations that rely on tip money. A lot of work goes into working a service industry job that most people don’t seem to think twice about. You have to deal with food and beverages while doing side cleaning, and on top of that making sure you provide exceptional customer service. After all this work, a lot of the time the workers go untipped, which cuts out of their paychecks. It’s as if they were doing that service for free. Close to all service jobs pay their employees less than or about minimum wage. Food servers make roughly a couple bucks an hour while they are struggling to get customers to tip.
Some people like to argue that it’s unfair they HAVE to tip and supply the workers pay through their tip money and that employers need to be paying their workers a livable wage as other countries do. Although employers SHOULD be paying a livable wage, that’s not how the current system works. By not tipping these service workers because they are upset that they have to supply extra cash on top of your meal or coffee, people are only hurting the workers and making it more likely for them to struggle financially.
There is one thing I ask people who hate tipping or constantly are mean or annoyed with service workers: what if it was you? What if it was your child? My parents never really understood the importance of tipping until I started in the service industry hosting, serving, and being a barista. Once my parents saw what hard work it was and how all of my income was relying on people’s tips, they became generous tippers when they went out. People just look at the person who is making their coffee or taking their food out to them as having an easy job, but a lot goes into those jobs, not to mention having to please every customer they come into contact with no matter how difficult they may be. Honestly, service workers are underpaid even when tips are calculated out: it always seems like you’re doing way more work than you’re getting paid for.
Aside from the aspects of tipping, being nice to service workers can also go a long way. Most likely they’ve been dealing with some pretty rude and grumpy people so don’t add onto that. Instead of acting like your service worker needs to go above and beyond to make you happy, think of yourself as equals. If you’re nice to this person they’re going to be nice back; if you’re acting entitled chances are they aren’t going to want to serve you. Service workers are not robots.
Tipping has become a cultural courtesy. It might not have been such a necessity a decade ago, but as the times change, more and more people enter the service industry. These workers are getting paid close to or less than minimum wage. Tipping has become a primary part of going out. Tipping your waitress or bartender is now the equivalent of waving back to someone who has just waved at you or even helping that dog out of the road that’s about to be hit. If you can’t afford to tip, then you can’t really afford to spend your money on the service being provided.