US’ tipping culture has officially gone nuts!
I have previously written about America’s toxic tipping culture, but in the nine months, self-checkout machines have started asking for a tip, meaning I do all the work, and the machine wants a tip. WTAF?
I have never personally seen a self-checkout machine ask for a tip, but I certainly will not tip a damn machine; I’m already paying 12-15% more for groceries than I did pre-pandemic, and I am not going to give a company a f**king tip on top of the purchase cost, especially when I have no way of knowing where that tip goes. Many companies who employ a tipping system on their self-checkout are claiming that it goes to the employees working at the time of the transaction, but excuse me if I don’t believe that!
I generally avoid situations where a tip is ‘recommended’; let’s call it blackmail; we know how little the servers make, so we feel guilty if we do not tip. I do not order from food delivery services, if I want the food that badly, I will get in my car and drive to my preferred restaurant. We always hear about servers/delivery drivers posting to social media, including photos of receipts, when a person does not tip, or more likely, does not tip 18-20%, only tipping 5-10%. As a Briton, we believe a tip is for exceptional service, not simply doing your job. An 18% tip on a meal for a family of four could easily be $15-20.
It really is time for our government, you know, the ones we elect to represent us, allegedly, to overhaul the whole pay and tipping system; they could start by abolishing the mandate that allows employers who are in the service industry to pay employees as little as $2.13 per hour, creating the tipping culture we have today, bringing their wage to the state minimum wage. They could also vote to increase the federal minimum wage to at least $15 per hour; which was set at $7.25 per hour in July 2009.
I don’t expect anything to change any time soon. Congress is bought and paid for by monied interests representing many business sectors who want to maintain the status quo as it increases their bottom line. The “campaign contributions“, or legal bribes received by members of Congress is a drop in the ocean compared to the money they save by paying lawmakers to maintain the current regulations and laws.
Should I ask for a tip from residents when they move into a home they found through one of my adverts? Of course, I shouldn’t; my employer compensates me fairly. This is the problem: we should not have laws on the books that allow employers to pay basically slave base wages, pushing the burden onto the general public through tipping. Only in America, where it’s legal to bribe politicians, could this happen!