By Lester Williams Jr, Contributing Writer
Should tipping be a reward for only ideal service workers, or should it be mandatory for all employees, regardless of position?
As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, tipping in 2023 has become more common due to businesses trying to make up for the money lost during lockdowns. Nowadays, customers are more likely to be asked for a tip even before an employee or automatic system does a job.
The increased expense and spreading of tips have become known as ‘tipflation,’ and this phenomenon can be seen in a customer’s daily life due to how companies have replaced tip jars with tablets and kiosk machines asking if they want to tip, how much they want to tip, as well as giving them tip options.
In the US, tipping is an American custom that has brought multiple problems, such as altering the relationship between employers, employees, and customers.
Some examples include workers’ performance being influenced by how well customer tips and the difference in tips between workers can lead to gender and racial inequality.
According to the Economic Policy Insititute, “research indicates that having a separate, lower minimum wage for tipped workers perpetuates racial and gender inequities, and […] the practice of tipping is often discriminatory, with white service workers receiving larger tips than black service workers for the same quality of service.”
Another issue arises when tip jars are replaced with tablets and kiosk machines; tipping has gone from a practice that people could easily forget if a customer does not notice the tip jar to now being a choice placed right in front of a customer’s face.
This shift from tip jars to automatic systems can lead a customer resenting a business and its workers due to the pressure of tipping placed on them instead of thinking of tipping on their own or by seeing a tip jar.
Despite the new pressure placed on customers by modern technology, customers are still motivated to tip and show appreciation for an employee’s good service. Some people see tipping as their method to guarantee good service.
According to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), “some people tip to help the server to supplement their income and make them happy. Some people tip to get future service. And then other people tip to avoid disapproval: You do not want the server to think badly of you. And some people tip out of a sense of duty.”
Ensuring promptness by tipping has become a common aspect of service-based jobs in the restaurant industry, such as waiters and delivery drivers.
PBS also says that “while tipping is not usually mandatory, it is the prevailing practice to leave a tip after meal at every restaurant in the United States. For most servers and bartenders in America, tips make up a substantial part of their income.”
Over time the concept of tipping has expanded to the point where customers are considering tipping employees for services outside of the restaurant industry, such as mechanics who work to ensure their safety when using their cars.
The link between restaurants and tipping is so prevalent that it is no surprise that some restaurants have attempted to manage the issue by introducing a no-tipping policy.
One example of this can be found in Portland, Oregon. A restaurant called Kachka created a wage equity plan that replaces tips by having diners pay a 22% service charge. The plan removes tips, adds a profit-sharing model, and gives employees access to free health care.
Bonnie Morales, co-owner of the Kachka restaurant, justifies the plan by claiming that factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation have resulted in the plan becoming something much-needed.
The spread of tipping has resulted in online businesses introducing their tipping services. This is a problem because it adds to the issue of customers being pressured to tip by making a choice that has now become more of an everyday occurrence in a customer’s life, regardless of if they are online or not.
Fiverr is a freelance services site that has built a system for tips for customers after they pay for a service which allows Fiverr to take 20% from freelancers’ tips.
According to Fiverr, when tipping, after an order is done, the option to tip is available for one week. Fiverr also suggests that the website avoids fraud by adding limitations such as making it so that tip that is based on 100 percent of an order’s bill can only be done if the order’s bill is below 25 dollars.
Despite the rules put in place, some customers that use Fiverr have conveyed that they are dissatisfied with how the website has managed tips.
Some issues that have been acknowledged include the site needing to set its own tipping limit of at least five dollars which, combined with tax, means all tips on the website are above seven dollars.
Another issue is the website claiming, “it’s customary to leave a tip for the seller’s service.”
This is a problem because some customers are used to tipping as part of an online freelance service.
With the rise of the internet, the nature of tips is challenged by the idea that customers must adjust how they view tips so they can manage the option to leave being more prevalent when they use online services.
Suppose a business within the US chooses to try and manage to tip. In that case, they must consider multiple options to maintain good relationships between all parties that make a business run, including the employers, employees, and customers.
