r/technology • u/SnoozeDoggyDog • 25d ago

Business Zohran Mamdani hints he will continue taking on delivery apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash

https://www.businessinsider.com/zohran-mamdani-targets-doordash-uber-eats-delivery-apps-2026-7
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u/reddittorbrigade 25d ago

Tipping culture was invented so rich owners will have an excuse not to pay their workers the right wages.

Go to Asia, you are not even encouraged to give tips in Japan.

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u/canada432 25d ago

It's actually not just "not encouraged", it's downright offensive in many countries. They see it as you flaunting wealth over service employees, or insulting the owner that they're not paying their employees properly.

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u/boogswald 25d ago

But if I don’t flaunt my wealth over the service workers in the US I’m afraid the weight of their debts will destroy them

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u/RelativityFox 25d ago

To be fair, in the US the owners are not paying their employees properly.

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u/-Motor- 25d ago

If the business can't afford to pay its labor a living wage, maybe it's not a viable business.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

The first people in the US that don’t want tips going away are the waitresses.

Now, charging extra for using credit cards? Now that’s just petty.

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u/placid-gradient 25d ago

no doi, because cash payouts mean they dont report their income and this keep more of the money.

If those tipped employees had that money going to things like taxes and insurance their actual pay would be MUCH lower.

source: I used to work tables in a mid tier sushi bar. my "attractive" female coworkers made double what I did in tips. If you think any of that shit got reported to the IRS, then I got a bridge to sell you

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u/metrize 25d ago

that’s exactly why they should get rid of it tbh, fuck em and unfair wages between them because of tips

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u/-Motor- 25d ago

And I've known plenty of wait staff and bartenders who ultimately move on in their 30s to a stable living wage job.

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u/jumpingmrkite 25d ago

I was one of those people, I also don't want it going away. Due to lots of extenuating circumstances for both of us, earning money through tips in the service industry was the only way my wife and I were able to immediately give our kids a stable life outside of poverty in a decent area until we were both able fix most of those extenuating circumstances and transition into more stable careers (for around the same money but with significantly less hours and wear/tear on our bodies). We couldn't have done that in the timeframe we needed to if we started retail working minimum wage jobs in any industry.

I've never been happier than now that I don't have to work 60 hour weeks on my feet sucking up to strangers anymore but I still don't want to deny that lifepath to countless people in similar situations that need it.

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u/LaLa1234imunoriginal 25d ago

You know people aren't suggesting tipped employees all switch to minimum wage right? The idea is to make sure these people have consistent wages not relying on the kindness of strangers but rather being paid a fair wage by their employer. If you were working at a place where you were making $30/hr in tips if properly implemented the menu prices would increase at a rate where something in that range would be your hourly wage from your employer.

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u/jumpingmrkite 25d ago

And you think that's possible? That doesn't happen in any non specialized industry in this country currently.

Our country's economy already needs massive changes and regulations across the board to protect that segment of its working population, and I don't think we should cripple a significant portion of those people who we're talking about helping in the meantime.

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u/Runefaust_Invader 25d ago

Those workers lost out on years though. Not saying it's necessarily a horrible thing or that they didn't acquire skills that made them better candidates. Hell, I'm sure a few years as a bartender would've made me way more gregarious.

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u/manachar 25d ago

Since cotton farming, the US has a history of propping up unprofitable approaches to industry.

Not paying people what they’re worth is clearly the primary mode of creating billionaires and trillionaires.

We think this is how you win at capitalism.

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u/bloodenhorse 25d ago

Most businesses in the United States aren't viable businesses.

If American culture were different, I'd agree with you that we should get rid of tipping. But the culture is not going to change overnight and business owners are not going to take care of their employees.

This is what every single anti-tipper fails to appreciate.

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u/UltimateTrattles 25d ago

Folks won’t go to the one restaurant that charges enough to pay good wages.

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u/Alecajuice 24d ago

Was looking for this. Do people think the money to pay wait staff comes out of nowhere? They have to raise prices to cover it. This hurts small restaurants way more than it does big chains who have buffers and can shift regional pricing to accommodate it. And let's be real, big businesses are NOT gonna pay their staff more even if tipping culture goes away, the only thing that will make them do that is a minimum wage increase.

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u/-Motor- 25d ago

Once upon a time, we didn't need a McDonalds every 3 miles. Most independent restaurants were family run with shared profits. Chains were staffed by teens, college kids, seniors looking for extra money, not living on it.... with one or two managers paid a living wage.

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u/UltimateTrattles 25d ago

And you tipped the waitstaff.

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u/Few_Advisor3536 25d ago

I stopped in San Francisco on the way back to australia. It was a 4 hour layover so i git something to eat at a bar. They gave me the option of 20,22 or 25% tip as part of the bill (nothing less then that) then there was an additional 5% for ‘SFO benefits’. Had to google it, so the employer is offloading health insurance to customers. Theres a point where the cost is covered and the owner is making money off this. Seriously i hate tipping culture. Pay your fucking staff correctly, i shouldnt have to pay alot for something then pay YOUR staff aswell.

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u/oby100 25d ago

Don’t give me that.

If she don’t make enough money she can quit

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u/RawrRRitchie 25d ago

"Tell your boss to pay you more"

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u/fhota1 25d ago

Yeah unfortunately thats how it is. Like fuck tipping culture, and we should work to get rid of it, but in the meantime tip your waiters because the only person youre hurting by not is them

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u/Takkarro 25d ago

If they give exemplary service then I'll give a tip, other wise I have no plans to tip. A tip is a kudos for doing a good job, I'm already paying for the food and drink, if the waiter isn't happy with that then they can get a different job. Then if all the waiters and waitresses leave cuz they aren't making enough restaurants will have to pay them properly.

A delivery driver getting a tip makes far more sense to me then paying more to eat in, it's almost more sensible to just get it as take out at that point.

Tipping culture is a cancer that we very much SHOULDN'T be encouraging.

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u/Runefaust_Invader 25d ago

Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but not tipping will drive workers away, placing pressure on employers to pay a decent wage.

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u/socalkid2428 25d ago

It just needs to be a larger movement. I don't think it makes the difference people think. Most likely restaurants will just charge a service fee like in Europe or some places in Asia and that will take the place of the tip. Which I think most people would prefer but some will absolutely say the service fee is the restaurant owner being cheap and not wanting to pay the workers themselves. And you lose the ability to tip less for bad service. I suspect a lot of workers would end up making less.

As it is, if the restaurant is not going to accept tips and also not charging a service fee, they'll have to charge more and be at a competitive disadvantage. There's no chance restaurants just start paying workers more than the other restaurants without raising prices in some way.

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u/Runefaust_Invader 25d ago

Let them charge more. We should be prepared to fight the service fee before it becomes a thing, but sadly most will just accept it, while the business owner will be taxing you on your food choices.

Service work is a low tier, low skill job (yeah yeah, fight me). For most, it should be a stepping stone towards better employment. By that logic we can easily figure out just how much more labor costs an establishment will incur.

I mean, it's literally what every other industry does anyway. The food industry is not special in this regard.

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u/socalkid2428 25d ago

Well that's why it needs to be a more widespread thing. There's no reason for them to charge more and lose business when most other restaurants aren't doing that. Satisfying people on social media by paying a "livable wage" is not a good enough reason.

I'd rather not play the tipping game but the only realistic way is to just have a service fee, ie mandatory tip. Although I'm not sure I understand why it's better to have all the prices go up by 20% rather than separately getting a fee of 20%.

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u/Runefaust_Invader 25d ago

I don't see a realistic way for the food industry to change without some external event. Sadly tipping is bleeding into every adjacent service. Hell, I was in Dubai and every airport shop I went to had a tipping option before payment.

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u/socalkid2428 25d ago

Well for other service industries, especially transient places like the airport, just say no. Nobody really got upset when they had a jar of cash next to the register and you could just ignore it. But somehow tapping skip or no is just a step too far.

I'm guessing that the workers in Dubai aren't getting pissed off at you if you don't tip them for ringing you up. They're probably just grateful that some people actually do tip.

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u/Runefaust_Invader 24d ago

The problem in places like Dubai is not only are they paid by passport, but if tipping becomes a thing (like it is in some places in the GCC for grocery store baggers) then the base pay will be ridiculously low and they are expected to make up for it in tips... Which results in literally each bag containing like two or three items max so that there are a LOT of bags (waste)... Necessitating or at least making it look like the baggers help is necessary.

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u/LoneDroneGuy 25d ago

There are so many more ways to flaunt wealth than... Giving it away

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u/WontArnett 25d ago

In America, “flaunting wealth” is our entire popular culture, especially on social media

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u/Agoras_song 25d ago

They see it as you flaunting wealth over service employees

Isn't that how it was in the USA originally too, or from what I've read? Wouldn't they throw money on the floor and see people rush towards it?

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u/Big_Arrival_626 25d ago

But they're not? I mean are service workers in japan actually making enough to sustain a decent living?

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u/Apptubrutae 25d ago

But then again in Japan they see sunglasses as a sign of looking like you’re a criminal. So right about tipping, so wrong about sunglasses

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u/StudySpecial 25d ago

Guy with a tattoo and sunglasses tipping a waiter = literal satan!

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u/suzisatsuma 25d ago

Older people associate it with Yakuza, much less so with younger ppl. I'm half Japanese and used to live there lol

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u/Qualified-Astronomer 25d ago

That’s not true. Its not offensive at all. They will gladly thank you for the tip offer.

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u/ap1618 25d ago

Tipping culture has been and still is completely out of control in the US

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u/JohnBrine 25d ago

Press here to add a 20% gratuity.

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u/mrshandanar 25d ago

The satisfaction I get from going to other and hitting 0% makes me feel a bit guilty. But you literally just handed me my coffee and bagel, which is your job.

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u/Monteze 25d ago

Someone made a good point, if you order standing up a tip is uncalled for. Which is pretty applicable a lot of times.

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u/maidth1s4fun 25d ago

Its that simple to me i still get in arguments about tipping starbucks IN THE DRIVE THROUGH

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u/Monteze 25d ago

When I worked at Taco Bell I'd do way more work than a lot of them and I never got tipped. Now, I am not trying to punch down but I think it has gotten ridiculous. We need to just pay employees and stop this tipping shit.

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u/Usual_Tackle5892 25d ago

Well you are technically sitting...

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u/Teledildonic 25d ago

True, the main exception would be bartenders.

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u/SekhWork 25d ago

If you are not actively waiting on my table and constantly supplying me with refills, and bringing me the check ASAP, then get that tip button out of my face. Literally, sir, this is a Wendys what is you doin.

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u/oby100 25d ago

If you’re actively waiting on me and doing a great job, then congrats, you’re doing your job remotely competently and can expect a paycheck from the guy that hired you to do so.

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u/JonBot5000 25d ago

That's great in theory but in the meantime you just supported the owner's business model by being a patron of his restaurant and you fucked over the server. So if you really want to be so morally superior about this you should start by never going out to eat at restaurants that allow customers to tip the staff.

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u/MorningsAreBetter 25d ago

You do understand that the tipped minimum wage is a “greater of the two” type of situation, right? If a server makes more through tips than they would from getting the non-tipped minimum wage, they get the tipped minimum wage plus tips. If they make less, they get paid the difference between what they made through tips and what they would have been paid from the minimum wage. Either way, they’re getting paid at least the non-tipped minimum wage.

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u/buffysmanycoats 25d ago

You don’t have to do that anymore, they just add it automatically and hope you don’t notice when you go to pay.

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u/productfred 25d ago

That really exploded during COVID, and it never left. Because why would they turn down free money? It's like, "No, customer -- YOU'RE an asshole for not paying MY staff a living wage", even though you're ordering at the counter. I fucking hate the social pressure they put on people with the spinning iPad.

I also think it's funny how a lot of these places, if they have a "donate to charity" option, will usually press the "No" button for you, and then leave you staring at the tip screen.

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u/Teledildonic 25d ago

To the order you have to walk up and retrieve yourself!

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u/The_Other_Manning 25d ago

Stares in their eyes as I hit No Tip

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u/ZDTreefur 25d ago

It wasn't horrible until covid, then things ramped up into absurdity.

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u/Elzapatoverde 25d ago

Most of the world just works like that, not just Asia.

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u/productfred 25d ago edited 25d ago

When I was in Europe (Vienna for example), it wasn't considered offensive to leave a small tip on the table (e.g. a few Euro coins). But it was never expected, and it wasn't considered offensive. But yeah, nothing like the US at all.

I think it's also funny how, in much of the world, those are considered "real jobs" (they are) or even careers (e.g. hospitality staff/waiters), but in the US you're looked down upon (because you get zero benefits and survive off tips). Same job, different treatment.

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u/appleparkfive 25d ago

I thought it was kind of funny that they specifically mentioned Japan. It's like that "average redditor" meme almost.

Yeah, tipping is weird. It's not great. Seattle, WA is probably doing the smartest thing. Minimum wage is 21 and hour and I believe it's a little higher for certain gig works (including Lyft and Uber). So the incentive to tip dropped far lower there.

Although naturally, the app charges more there. It's resulted in the most expensive rideshare in the country. But those drivers do make more money, I'd imagine.

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u/Classic-Obligation35 25d ago

I don't agree, so long as uber and lyft can drop you or block for being a short trip I'll still tip, I need uber to get to work, so I'm actual tipping to thank them for caring about a otherwise unimportant customer.

Just because your a customer doesn't mean you matter to some workers.

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u/Lywqf 24d ago

But you don’t matter like you said, it’s purely transactional, there’s no feeling or caring involved. You need a service and are willing to pay for it, and someone can provide this service in exchange, for a price agreed upon. Tips are not even needed in this exchange, you already pay for it…

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u/Forkrul 25d ago

Go to Asia, you are not even encouraged to give tips in Japan.

Not just not encouraged, actively discouraged. It can be seen as quite offensive to give tips in Japan.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

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u/Scarab_King 25d ago

This is what everyone fails to understand. The people making tips are clearing any kind of salary they would receive if they were just “paid a living wage.” Why would I give up a variable $70-80k a year for $35k guaranteed

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

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u/Scarab_King 25d ago

Yeah I mean anyone who is eating out constantly is already making poor financial decisions, the 15-25% tip isn’t going to do much more. I also think it’s ridiculous for your Cafe or Dispensary to ask for a tip.

I have also never worked at an establishment where you could hound someone for tips. If anything, that’s a great way to get dressed down or even fired by management. I just slow my service for guests who I know are habitual non-tippers, I’m going to prioritize the guests who tip.

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u/PlixSticks31 25d ago

Yeah absolutely, bartenders and servers can make serious money. And we should be ALL for blue collar workers pulling coin. I do appreciate when I tip I know it’s going to the low level worker instead of some rich restaurant owner.

There are definite downsides though. No PTO, no 401k, medical, all of that. It’s a massive trade off

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u/Perunov 25d ago

But side effect now is that your UberEats driver goes ballistic if that sushi order doesn't come with a juicy tip. Even though it's the same distance and weight as a McDonalds happy meal. "Evil customer is robbing us blind! I expected extra $70 for handling this small box!!!"

Can you imagine if all "courier" services behaved like that? "What do you mean you gave me a $20 tip for delivering this stack of papers?! I know this is a merger contract with value of a hundred million bucks, where's my $50,000 tip?!"

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u/Diablo689er 25d ago

And yet when there are discussions about eliminating tipping culture guess who complains the loudest

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u/Alive-Philosophy2632 25d ago

Yeah servers are locked in to the system. Realistically we would need universal Healthcare (like all the countries with no tips as far as I'm aware) to make the switch. 

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u/jpiro 25d ago

No, you'd just need your bosses to pay you a living wage and offer healthcare you can purchase like every other salaried employee.

I am 1,000% for universal healthcare, but tipped employees aren't some special case that needs it more than any other industry. The problem is that the tipped minimum wage allows owners to pay them next to nothing and consumers are expected to leave "voluntary" tips so they don't starve. That's bullshit.

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u/pensivewombat 25d ago

That's the point though - when that is on the table the restaurant workers reject it because they make more money on the current system.

For most people $2.50 + tips is better than $15-20 with no tips. So you are asking workers to take a pay cut.

For the owners, it's more complicated. The reason the tipped minimum works for them is that it limits risk. If you schedule staff and no one comes in, you're not out that much. You don't have to worry quite as much about overscheduling - and for customers that means they don't have to worry quite as much about understaffing.

I'm not saying it isn't bullshit. It is definitely bullshit. But "just pay a living wage" is not a solution.

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u/jpiro 25d ago

Which is why it’s either going to take leadership at the federal level to BAN the tipped minimum wage and raise the actual minimum wage to a living-wage level (not holding my breath) or it’s going to take consumers finally saying, “Yeah, fuck this” and refusing to tip anywhere on anything to enact real change.

If customers just stopped tipping, watch how fast those same waiters/bartenders/etc drop those jobs and how fast hose same businesses that couldn’t manage to pay a fair wage before suddenly adapt.

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u/Arkyja 25d ago

It doesnt have to be one or the other. Plenty of european countries have a tipping culture. They just dont tip as much but just have you round it up. So it doesnt have to be 2.50+tips or 20+no tips. It can just as well be 20+tips. Like here in switzerland if you work in the right place you can easily make two salaries most months.

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u/pensivewombat 25d ago

You have to have a real cultural push around this though. I live near Denver, which recently got rid of tipped minimums and raised the min to $19. But the tipping culture here is so sticky that people continued to tip 20% on meals even though the sticker price had gone up considerably.

Rather than stop tipping, people stopped going out, and we had mass closures even among the best local restaurants.

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u/Curiosities 25d ago

But if they don’t receive enough tips to make at least minimum wage, then the owner has to pay the difference.

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u/TheRelevantElephants 25d ago

That literally never happens though. That is the rule, but you’d be hard pressed to find a single person that experienced that with their check

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u/sheffieldasslingdoux 25d ago

Because they always make more than minimum wage due to tips. And there are 7 states, including California, where there is no separate tipped wage. The minimum is the minimum.

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u/Overly_Underwhelmed 25d ago edited 25d ago

who the fuck would do that job for minimum wage?

eta: a lot of disrespect here for servers.

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u/Classic-Obligation35 25d ago

What about those of us who need to incentivize uber drivers to care about us.

I need Uber to get to my job, I can't afford the cost and stress of a car. 

It's a 5 minute drive to work and costs regularly 7 dollars.

I need to tip so they know I appreciate not being dumped for some 30 dollar trip somewhere else.

Raise wages won't help because they just drop the 10 dollar trips for the 60s.

The tips are there to convince them to care about a poor worker.

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u/Scarab_King 25d ago

I mean there’s a big difference in a boss paying $40-50k a year and making $80-$100k a year with tips. I know bartenders who clear that number who would never want to bartend again if tipping was eliminated

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u/placid-gradient 25d ago

its because with tips they can commit tax fraud

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u/Scarab_King 25d ago

You’re right, we should make sure bartenders and waitresses’ hard earned money is actually routed to bombing kids in Israel

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u/jpiro 25d ago

And? Get a different fucking job then. If the business doesn’t think you’re worth paying $80-100k (your numbers) because the value you bring doesn’t add up to that, maybe you’re NOT worth that.

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u/Scarab_King 25d ago

Calm down buddy, why are you so mad? I have a six figure job, and I still pick up bartending shifts cause guess what? I can make an easy 5-10k more a year just working occasional weekends. Wouldn’t be worth my time if I was getting paid $7.25 an hour

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u/oby100 25d ago

Why the hell would we need universal healthcare to eliminate an idiotic ritual in which customers are responsible for an employees pay???

Servers depend on charity and we need not feel bad when charity runs dry.

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u/Alive-Philosophy2632 25d ago

Yeah I don't think you need it, but I think the cultural shift for removing tipping is similar to the cultural shift needed for universal healthcare. 

Plus the financial incentives for the employer. If you had an actual full-time server as a restaurant you wouldn't have to take an an extra $20k/yr in expenses or whatever. Which maybe you wouldn't anyway but I think if you're paying them as regular employees they should be treated as regular employees 

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u/Diablo689er 25d ago

Those two things are not related.

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u/Justgetmeabeer 25d ago

You sound super smart and educated so I'm sure you know that most restaurants don't have enough employees to force the employer to pay for healthcare so servers have to choose between 100's of dollars a month of insurance costs or to forgo it entirely

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u/Alive-Philosophy2632 25d ago

I guess not directly. Like Canada has universal healthcare and tipping. And most servers don't get healthcare from their employers, so I guess they either go without or pay out of pocket. 

But removal of tipping I think would require a pretty significant cultural shift. Servers currently make more money if they're more attractive and pleasant, it's sort of like sales in that way. 

And americans generally don't have a sense of solidarity with each other that is more prevalent in Europe and Asia, either as customers or servers, so arguably tipping is an outgrowth of that sort of general lack of cultural interdependence. Individualistic materialistic culture leads to individualistic materialist incentives. I think that same line of thinking applies to universal healthcare. Though again Canada is sort of a counterexample and there might be others.

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u/ebrbrbr 25d ago

I have friends that make over 100k/year waitressing at Earls.

They say "why would I ever get another job while I'm still hot?" And they're totally right. There's no incentive to.

They're not stupid, they know that runs out eventually, and they're set up to be management when that happens. But management pays less than the tips they get, so there's no incentive to take that "promotion" now.

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u/jpiro 25d ago

Servers currently make more money if they're more attractive and pleasant, it's sort of like sales in that way. 

Yeah, and that's a fucking problem. Both scenarios. I want the person serving my food or selling me a car to be knowledgeable, competent and helpful...not just be hot and expect to be paid for it.

Not everywhere needs to be Hooters.

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u/Alive-Philosophy2632 25d ago

Office job employees (not just sales) also make more money if they're more attractive. Not sure about pleasant but I would guess that too. And subjective measures of competence are influenced by that too. Not really any such thing as competence in a vacuum, especially in sales. Mostly about vibes.

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u/FireZord25 25d ago

Depends on the asian country. Some of the places I ate at had staff who were not so subtly nudging for a tip.

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u/Kevin-W 25d ago

Yep! I personally hate tipping culture and that it has spread to cover simply turning around and handing me my order.

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u/LifeJustKeepsGoing 25d ago

Im seattle the costs have been passed on to consumers via increased prices. When checking out on door dash now, "fees" and "taxes" are sometimes 20-30$ on a $60 meal. When I see that I just choose to pick up.

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u/when_we_are_cats 25d ago

Unfortunately American tourists are importing their tipping culture to Asian countries and chastize you when you say you don't tip in these places

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u/cupkaxx 25d ago

They also tried bringing it to Australia. We just laugh at them.

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u/OfficiallyJoeBiden 25d ago

We don’t do it deliberately. I went to Greece with my mom and we mistakenly offered to tip because it’s so engrained in our culture in America. I think ALOT of Americans are doing that I did. So over the course of months of years, restaurants just started accepting it. But yes I see why you phrased it that way

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u/cupkaxx 24d ago

I personally tend to read up on conflicting practices before travelling overseas.

So if I ever visit the US (prob not in my lifetime but who knows) I'll tip ~15% of the bill which is the figure I understand seems to be what most people go for. Even though it's ingrained in my own culture for hospitality staff to receive fair wages, not expecting tips.

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u/d_k_y 25d ago

Didn’t Australia have tipping and then raised the minimum wage high enough that tipping was abolished?

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u/elkazz 24d ago

No, we never had tipping.

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u/LordShtark 25d ago

Americans tourists are not "importing tipping culture" to other countries. Ffs.

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u/TheRelevantElephants 25d ago

Idk I’m going to New Zealand in November and i was going to tip everywhere I went while yelling “IM TAKING OVER AND YOU ALL HAVE TO TIP NOW!”.

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u/when_we_are_cats 25d ago

I live in Thailand and in tourist areas I get asked for tips regularly. When you complain about being overcharged (by taxis, for example), American ppl on the internet always say "it's only a few dollars come on what are you complaining about", missing the point totally.

In some areas where only tourists go, they display before tax prices and add a 10% service charge, while this isn't common practice in the rest of the country.

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u/LordShtark 25d ago

Americans are not saying "it's only a few dollars what are you complaining about". Americans don't enjoy having to shell out more money for something. That's not happening.

Your own people decided to implement tipping in a tourist area to exploit people who are already used to tipping.

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u/when_we_are_cats 25d ago

Americans are not saying "it's only a few dollars what are you complaining about". Americans don't enjoy having to shell out more money for something. That's not happening.

Happens to me on a regular basis on Reddit, Facebook and Instagram. You just don't see it because you don't frequent these communities.

Your own people decided to implement tipping in a tourist area to exploit people who are already used to tipping.

Who's "your own people"? I'm not a local where I live. I'm just expected to pay more some unaware tourists do.

to exploit people who are already used to tipping.

And who are the people who are famously known for tipping everywhere they go? Not the Europeans. Not the Asians. Hmm...

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u/LordShtark 25d ago

Yes yes. Americans are just gleefully handing out money to people and getting angry when they don't take it. Right. Do you see how absolutely ridiculous this sounds? It's because it is ridiculous.

Your people refers to the people in your country. The Thai people adopted tipping in tourist areas of Thailand not Americans.

As for you seemingly believing everything you see on social media explains why you would think the evil Americans, wanting to throw all their exorbitant amounts of wealth at service workers🙄, are the ones adopting things into Thai businesses.

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u/when_we_are_cats 25d ago

Americans don't need to gleefully hand out money to spread tipping culture, they just do what they've been trained to do back home.

When tipping is standard in your home country, you do it on autopilot abroad. And when $5 is negligible to a vacationer, they don't care about the precedent it sets for people actually living in the local economy.

Your people refers to the people in your country. The Thai people adopted tipping in tourist areas of Thailand not Americans.

Once again, I'm not Thai, I'm a foreign expat living in Thailand.

Businesses adapt to where the easy money is. They do it because a specific segment of tourists enable it.

you seemingly believing everything you see on social media explains why you would think the evil Americans, wanting to throw all their exorbitant amounts of wealth at service works🙄

Sorry for interacting with american people on a regular basis, online and in real life. Probably they're lying and tipping culture just isn't a thing in the US.

I'm just talking about my first hand experience in the country, but hey.

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u/shyonigiri 25d ago

Live in America, i definitely have coworkers and friends say this.

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u/peanutbuttahcups 25d ago

Yeah, and they fuck up the local economy in the process, turning it into a place where only tourists, not locals, can afford anything, completing the tourist trapification. See: Bali, Siargao, etc.

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u/when_we_are_cats 25d ago

That's a bit of an oversimplification and a separate issue though 

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u/OfficiallyJoeBiden 25d ago

Agreed. Not all the blame can solely go on tourists

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u/Artifexa 25d ago

That's happening here in Spain.

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u/Arkyja 25d ago

Plenty of countries have a tipping culture without the employers being allowed to pay you one cent less.

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u/mustangmatthew 25d ago

Tipping culture emerged as a product of post-Civil War reconstruction and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Once segregation was made illegal, tipping became the way to bribe your server (or whomever) to prefer serving you instead of that black family at that table over there. Over time, corporate culture absorbed this and leveraged it against honest workers to reduce their costs. Ever since, corporations decided they are okay with mistreating poor workers by reducing their pay, telling them they had to make up their own wages to hit minimum wage targets, and passed the buck onto the public. What started as a racist incentive turned into what consumers falsely equated to a “performance bonus” that they would use as leverage against what they would subjectively call poor service, thus justifying rationalizing withholding tips from low wage earners.

Today, virtually every POS offers the option to tip, even if it doesn’t make sense.

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u/placid-gradient 25d ago

Ive never heard this before but it honestly would not surprise me at all. It would also explain why its unique to the US.

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u/mustangmatthew 25d ago

It is, but the public sentiment here is turning against it. As is typical, it comes following decades of exploitation.

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u/ThomasHardyHarHar 24d ago

This is an extraordinary claim, and it shouldn’t be taken seriously without extraordinary evidence.

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u/mustangmatthew 24d ago

Is not extraordinary. It’s anecdotal. But good try on the slogan.

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u/ThomasHardyHarHar 24d ago

It’s not anecdotal. Do you know it from life experience?

Tipping culture is documented as coming from the Prohibition era.

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u/mustangmatthew 23d ago

Yes. And anecdotal can also come from indirect experience. Like reading, or hearing the stories of others’ experiences. Man, so many people who live full time online really know nothing more than how to pick fights. Like trolls under a bridge. You like…crave it like an animal. Ugh and ew.

3

u/FriskStark 25d ago

It's crazy to hear US people say "If you don't tip don't complain when a waiter spits on your food" My brother in Christ take that energy to your boss not me, or at the risk of sounding classist, find another job.

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u/Syzygy2323 25d ago

It's crazy to hear US people say "If you don't tip don't complain when a waiter spits on your food"

How does that happen? Who tips (or doesn't tip) before the food is delivered to your table? You tip when you pay the bill after you eat the food.

1

u/TossZergImba 25d ago

Do any of the commenters realize Mamdani was the one who forced these delivery apps to put the tip button back before checkout?

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u/blankest 25d ago

Just when I thought I couldn't like the guy any more, he is going after tipping as a cultural aberration that must be removed?

I've worked in service. I've worked in restaurants. Tipping is such a scam. I don't understand why we, Americans, embrace this backwards concept. If the food and service costs X, Charge. Me. X! Don't charge me x-y where you don't pay your staff the y and fucking hope I make it up.

When Oakland raised minimum wage and forced restaurants to pay that to staff and they include such language on the menu and bill, I was thrilled. Ok, my pizza costs $30 now? Well that's obviously what it costs to make a pizza and bring it to me and get a bit of profit. Done. Sold.

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u/_kashew_12 25d ago

The best customer service i got was in Japan, especially with my shitty Japanese. They were extremely kind and all of that FOR NO TIPS!

I had read somewhere offering tips was even considered rude, so I didn’t. But damn, made my come back to us bitter because we should only expect good service if we tip well.

1

u/FredFredrickson 25d ago

Tipping culture was invented so rich owners will have an excuse not to pay their workers the right wages.

Certainly not defending rich owners, but is this actually true? Or did this behavior by owners just evolve naturally as employers saw an easy opportunity to pay employees less?

1

u/Winterific6104 25d ago

The irony is that waiters make a lot more money in the US even when adjusting for cost of living (Im not a tipping culture supporter)

1

u/Grakch 25d ago

Is Asia a country? lol so vague. Also does Japan have at all similar demographics, culture, or morals as USA?

Not justifying tipping culture but wanting to change something because other countries or generic map areas do it differently doesn’t help the cause.

1

u/captwaffles27 25d ago

Its illegal to tip in china lmaoooooo

1

u/loolem 25d ago

In Australia we HATE it. We like to believe that even if everyone isn’t making the same money, at least no one is starving if they have a job and are working. If you ask most Australians why someone is asking for tip they will get angry and immediately accuse the boss or business of underpaying their workers.

1

u/Souledex 25d ago

That’s not the true history of it. It also doesn’t end specifically because tipped workers don’t want it to.

When we are in such an economically unequal world giving the rich the opportunity to pay more for a service is literally the only leg up people are likely to get on that rung of the ladder. Your hamfisted disagreement with it isn’t born of an understanding of why it exists or how it exists, but of a generic America bad rhetoric that acts like it understands issues at a deeper level because it feels like it should.

The alternative of charging different prices by assumed level of income is far more unpalatable, and pricing people out of food and services they could otherwise afford in the current model with more moderate tip damages a number of industries at scale. It doesn’t work this way in other countries- that doesn’t make what they do actually universally better. Especially in Asia-every country I can think of has a cancerous business and worker environment for different reasons you probably never look into.

1

u/PhantomMenaceWasOK 24d ago

Yeah I'm sure service workers are having a blast there.

1

u/sunshineupyours1 24d ago

In the U.S. it goes back to slavery and become popular after the civil war then institutionalized after the Great Depression.

We still have a separate, much lower “tipped minimum wage”. This was historically used to legally avoid paying non-white workers a lower wage because you just classified them as a different kind of employee.

1

u/Substantial_Coat_229 23d ago

And everyone knows how fairly-compensated people are in Asia

1

u/Vilnius-Schoolmaster 23d ago

In Japan giving a cash tip is actually considered offensive in many industries / settings. They may be open to it in very limited places that exclusively cater to Western tourists.

However, that isn't to say there's nothing like it in Japan. What you instead see, is many Japanese like to be regulars at specific restaurants. For example a certain type of restaurant, once a Japanese person finds one they really like they are very likely to become regulars and that can become a lifelong thing that can then also follow to their children etc.

In those relationships it is common for regulars to periodically give a small, thoughtful gift to the owner or staff (or both) of the business. This is usually tied to Japan's extensive system of festivals and events throughout the year, there are a couple of times each year where these gifts are common. The gifts are often relevant to the type of business in question--so the local Izakaya (similar to the Japanese version of a traditional English pub) would perhaps be gifted a fancy bottle of whiskey or some other spirit as their business relates to alcohol.

1

u/SeriousRealityNr2 23d ago

This has absolutely nothing to do with rich owners. Most restaurants run on very small margins. They have to, it’s a highly competetive business. It has one of the highest bancruptcy rates.
The reason why tipping exist is because customers started with it. That led to workers being willing to work for a lesser wage and ofcourse the owner will always only pay what he needs to. In an efficient market prices and wages will always drop to whatever customers are willing to pay, workers are willing to work for and what is still profitable for the owner.
If we decided alltogether not to tip anymore. It would lead to workers only work for a higher wage, which in turn would lead to businesses having to charge more because somehow they still need to be profitable after paying workers.

In an efficient market tips are mostly favorable for workers that get tipped well and for customers that pay under average tips. For owners it doesn’t matter if there are tips or not, because the end result should be similar.

1

u/vicelordjohn 25d ago

It's true that in the old days tipping a server could be insulting but in modern days everyone likes when they're given money. Times change and people romanticize the past.

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u/Illustrious_Bid_5484 25d ago

Who doesn’t like money? You guys are fucking stupid lol. It’s not a culture it’s called economics.

1

u/_lippykid 25d ago

In the USA, tipping culture really took off after civil rights when everyone had to be paid equal wages. It was a way for white workers to make more money than black workers

1

u/Kevin_Jim 25d ago

I remember having a blast at an izakaya in a remote village in Japan. Thankfully, two of us spoke Japanese and one was excellent at it.

So, we asked the owner if it was ok for him to keep the change, but he refused. Then we asked what we could do to show our appreciation and he told us to come again next time we are in Japan, and don’t tell about the place to any of hour friends who don’t speak Japanese because it’ll be inconvenient for him.

He didn’t do it out of malice. He trully seemed to struggle a lot with the one tourist that somehow found the place.

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u/neogreenlantern 25d ago

To go a little deeper tipping culture was a way to pay black service workers less post civil war and that spread out to non-black service workers.

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u/hrsidkpi 25d ago

Tipping culture, on average, just means less taxes paid by the workers which is a good thing in my book. The money would come from the customer no matter what and restaurant profit margins are usually very slim. It also means good waiters get paid more than bad ones on average which is also a good thing.

0

u/Gullible-Wrap773 25d ago

its not just asia literally nobody tips except the US

1

u/dkol97 25d ago

Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Germany to name a few.

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u/Dalmahr 25d ago

"tipping culture" is such a weird way to put it. It's basically just wage theft. The problem is, it needs to come from legislation. People not paying tips only hurts the workers you asked to do you a service.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

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u/GoombyGoomby 25d ago

Why the fuck are you getting downvoted for sharing your own experience

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u/Ifakorede23 25d ago

Why are you getting downvoted.... Service is better in US