Long story short, I was thirsty after running an errand at the Town Square Mall — so I stopped into Tai Chi to get a mango milk tea. The total cost was $6.20 for a small-sized mango milk tea. Of, course I enjoyed the drink, but I figured it’d be cheaper.
Here’s the price breakdown — $4.99 for the drink, a $0.41 sales tax and a $0.80 tip.
I could’ve easily not left the 80-cent tip, but did it out of generosity. Generosity is a key reason why Americans leave tips — there’s a permeating belief that the more you tip, the better service you’ll receive the next time you dine out. Tipping is unnecessary in settings, such as Tai Chi, putting pressure on people to leave extra bucks after a purchase because tipping culture in America is out of hand.
A WalletHub survey found that three in four Americans believe that tipping is out of control, 64 percent say that a tip should be given when felt like it and half leave tips due to social pressure. These results mean a lot, especially since there’s confusion about when to tip. It’s standard to tip after a meal at a sit-down restaurant, but it’s not necessary to tip after a small purchase at a kiosk. Cornell Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behavior Michael Lynn comments — “We’ve had the option of tipping for a long time because of tip jars, but you could kind of ignore it … technology is making it harder to say no.” Lynn’s remark implies that people are pressured to tip in atypical settings, such as fast-food restaurants or coffee shops, due to the “leave a tip” option popping up in front of them. Two terms help explain the confusion on when to tip — “tipflation” and “tip creep.”
“Tipflation” and “tip creep” are terms describing the expansion of gratuity to various industries in the United States. During COVID-19, people were encouraged to leave generous tips for small businesses and low-wage workers. Increased gratuity stems from fin-tech companies, such as Clover, creating software for digital payment, including tips. This software puts social pressure on people waiting in line because the tip amount is revealed to the employee, resulting in people “guilt-tipping” since they don’t want to be rude by not leaving gratuity.
Do not, I repeat, do not skip out on tipping servers after your meal — unless service wasn’t on par. I’m no cheap person — I tip 15 to 20 percent each time I ride in a cab while doing the same after getting haircuts — but, lines are drawn when you’re being asked to add gratuity after your drink gets handed to you at a boba tea joint. That’s not a service. As I mentioned earlier, I tipped out of generosity, but, at the same time, I fell victim to guilt-tipping just because I didn’t want to be rude.
When I was at a pizza place in Florida, I picked up a pizza for my grandpa and the total was around $14.50 for a medium-sized pie, but it ended up being close to $20 after a $5 tip. A case of guilt-tipping was evident as I hesitated signing the receipt verifying my purchase when it asked for a tip. The nice me, of course, left a $5 tip and the woman behind the counter was grateful. I was confused about leaving a tip as I was picking up a pizza at a sit-down restaurant and wanted to avoid my grandpa flipping out if I didn’t leave a gratuity. As another example, Empire Bagels has good food, but happens to be a little pricey. I make occasional stops to order a grilled chicken Caesar salad wrap — the cost of that alone is $12.50 and adding a 16-ounce strawberry banana smoothie into the mix is another $8.75, with total cost of these two items being $21.25. I see the total for my order, hit continue and what do you know? — the “leave a tip option” pops up in front of my face. I didn’t know what to do, so I left a 10 percent tip — the order was expensive enough and the tip raised the total up two dollars to $23.25 with tax. The total was around $24. The point of all these examples is to just show that America’s tipping culture is out of control due to guilt-tipping and people’s confusion about when to tip.
Tipping is frowned upon in Japan because service staff are paid well, and a tip can be misinterpreted as needing to do more to provide good service. A solution to eliminate the toxic tipping culture in the United States is to pay service workers better wages. Servers can make less than minimum wage — $7.25 — and the restaurant is responsible by law for paying the difference if the server doesn’t accrue enough tips. Sadly, restaurants often don’t add to the pay and expect servers to rack up tips. In France and Spain, tipping is included in the meal’s price, so it’s not expected to leave tips. In Italy, the bill gets rounded up. It’s still a good gesture to leave a few bucks after a meal in these countries, but it’s not needed as the price serves as the tip. America could experiment with these tactics in unnecessary settings — that way, people wouldn’t be incentivized to leave a tip each time they purchase at a kiosk. Leaving gratuity for splendid service should be encouraged if you are willing to spend a few extra bucks, but absolutely not necessary for little things.
Christian Bongiorno is a sophomore majoring in political science.
Views expressed in the opinions pages represent the opinions of the columnists. The only piece which represents the views of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the Staff Editorial.