Photo: Moment RF
It used to be that you were only expected to tip at a sit-down restaurant, but these days people are being hounded for tips even at some self-service kiosks. The predictable result of this is 90% of Americans saying that tipping culture has gotten out of hand.
That’s according to a survey done by WalletHub. In the same survey, 40% of people said they think tipping should be done away with and replaced with an employee rating system that businesses could use to determine staff pay.
So how exactly did we get to this point? Jonathan Horowitz with Convive Hospitality Consulting says that many businesses are asking their customers for tips just because of how easy it is. He said, "Technology is different, so it makes tipping a lot easier from a technology standpoint. You can just flip over a screen and say 'Push a button.'"
He also said that in the case of restaurants that have begun asking for tips, despite not being traditional sit-down restaurants, profit margins are likely a major factor. He said, "Labor has gotten so expensive, owners and operators are relying more on tipped wages than they ever have before."
That’s in line with the WalletHub survey, in which three out of five respondents said that businesses are replacing employee salaries with customer tips.
So how are consumers responding to more and more businesses requesting tips? Often, by just saying no. Horowitz pointed out, "The same person who may tip 20% on a traditional restaurant meal with a server still might press that button that says 'no tip' on a kiosk."
That being said, don’t expect these requests for tips to disappear just because customers are turning them down.