From coffee shops to fast food restaurants, the expectation to tip has become more common. With this rise of encouragement to tip,
Americans might feel pressure to spend their dollar on a service not worth the price. Without such pressure, the structure of the American economy might look different.
According to a poll from the Pew Research Center by Katherine Schaeffer about Americans who have worked for tips, roughly 43 percent of adults have been employed at a job where tips were offered. Almost half of the participants agreed that they worked a service job for the tips they would receive.
“Tipping culture in America is one of the most important things for the everyday worker who works in the service industry,” Jeff Seifried, previous city council member of Springfield and owner of Mother’s Brewery, said.
In American culture, tipping for a service is a sign of gratitude or respect. Service workers aim to make an experience enjoyable for a customer to increase their likelihood of receiving a higher tip.
“In America specifically, you are rewarded by the effort you put into the work,” Seifried said. “No matter if it’s tipping or in salaried work, tipping is one more example of a representation of how you are rewarded for your quality of work.”
With inflation on the move and prices rising, corporations are making an effort to stay between the invisible lines of a given margin. A margin refers to the rate of return at which a company benefits from production and marketing.
“In the last several years, there is increased rising cost in food cost, energy cost, you name it, it’s gone up,” Seifried said. “The everyday person who gives the tips is stressed out about it since it’s changed so rapidly. Say ‘Well this burger costs $10,’ three years from now, which is now, it probably needs to cost $18.”
Many workers in the food industry have a salary set at minimum wage. Therefore, tips are an advantage to make above what is expected.
“Here is what people forget to understand, at the end of the day,” Seifried said. “The employee is going to make whatever the agreed-upon hourly rate is. If the hourly rate is minimum wage at $13.75, a server’s wage is $6.88. However, it is $6.88 plus tips, If they don’t make $13.75 at the end of their shift, then the employer picks that up, so they are guaranteed minimum wage.”
With the increase in tipping expectations, consumers may be left confused about when it is appropriate to tip.
“What people are most angry about is over the last four years, things they felt like they had never been asked to tip for, that are now being asked to tip for is accelerating,” Seifried said. “Asking the customer to tip more addresses the issue of [employers] not being able to afford to raise wages.”
Tipping can also be based on the quality of the product one receives rather than experience. When Americans started to notice a rise in preemptive tipping within the last few years, people began to voice their concerns about tipping before receiving their item or experience.
“I wish [customers] could pay and then do a tip because it makes a lot of people mad,” sophomore Anya Gilman, who works at Starbucks, said. “They get confused about the system and say ‘What is this?’ I wish we had a tip jar or they could pay and then decide to tip.”
Unlike other countries, the extra money coming out of consumers’ pockets helps maintain a balance in the economy. This balance has become more crucial since the pandemic when the employment rate, especially in the service industry, decreased rapidly. When the minimum wage was harder to come across, businesses pushed the idea of tipping more.
“In many countries, there is no tipping culture,” Seifried said. “In Europe for instance, it is not expected to tip. The economy is different, the wages are different, the way people are compensated is different. If you are in a Marriott or Hilton in China, they will probably offer you a tip line, because it’s an American company. America is so dependent on tips because of the economic structure of running a business.”
One such country that follows European tipping norms is Denmark. Junior Cecilia Rasmussen who previously lived in Denmark, said she had to adapt to expectations of tipping when she moved to the States.
“When I first came to America a few years ago I was shocked,” Rasmussen said. “I was basically paying for an extra person every time I went out even though the waiters did the bare minimum. In Denmark, we don’t really tip unless it’s exceptional service and then we tell them that that’s the reason because it’s generally considered rude to tip. Most of Europe is very antisocial and it’s considered weird to talk with strangers, so we only exchange a few words.”
Despite the economic change from Europe to America, Rasmussen said that the responsibility of covering minimum wage should not belong on the plate of the consumer.
“I know that most waiters make minimum wage or less and that is wrong,” Rasmussen said. “But I don’t believe that it should be up to a customer who also could be struggling.”
When entering a job where tipping and quality customer service are expected, Gilman said her perspective of expressing gratitude with tips altered after joining the service industry.
“Getting a job kind of made me realize a lot of people in food services or teenagers around here rely on tips,” Gilman said. “Most of the time I do feel obligated to tip, but it’s kind of just a respect thing because I work at Starbucks and I know how much I rely on tips.”
Both consumers and workers play a role in the percentage added at the end of the service.
“Tipping is very personal,” Seifried said. “This makes service highlighted in terms of being able to deliver good quality customer service. American culture would say, you get to vote with your dollars whether you’re satisfied with the service.”