Tipping Is Weird Now | Hacker News Reader

Tipping Is Weird Now

theatlantic.com

13 pointsfortran778 comments

> For years, I’ve happily subscribed to the practice of throwing down at least 20 percent almost anytime the little iPad spins my direction ... If you can afford a $7 latte, they argued, why are you bristling at a $1 tip that would help your server?

If the extra $1 constitutes the "true" price then why not set that price and get rid of the tip?

Tipping is stupid. It's much better to have employers pay employees properly in the first place.

Personally I think bosses like it because they don't have to pay their part of payroll taxes on it. Employees like it because they don't have to pay income tax on it.

So, it's a tax scam at best. Instead, as a few (and you) have said, just pay them right to begin with. Tax shouldn't feel like gouging if you're getting paid appropriately anyway.

Another way to look at it: Why force these people to cheat on taxes while letting the rich not pay taxes at all?

The tax argument certainly made sense when most people payed cash, but when it all goes through credit cards, doesn't that force reporting?

This is dishonest flame bait. Nobody is being "forced" to cheat on taxes and the majority of "rich" people, save for smugglers and organized criminals, don't have any income that the Government doesn't know about.

I live in Canada. Tipping has reached ludicrous levels with many places starting at 25% by default when you pay. You can tip at Subway now. Like, I get it, but really? Why can't you tip the person putting your order together at McDonald's?

What can't you tip for, hypothetically speaking? Can you tip the programmers on top of the subscription fee you pay for a SaaS product?

It's just lunacy. Pay your workers, bake it into the price. If you can't compete we seek service elsewhere.

Europe has a much more sane tipping culture, and VAT included in pricing to boot. There is zero transparency about how much things cost these days and it frustrates everyone. How can we even discuss sustainability of wages and cost of living if it's so obfuscated nobody knows what the baseline is?

If everyone stopped tipping the wait staff at once this country would literally implode.

Definitely not just in Canada. Used to be that places I frequented with a touchscreen cash register had preset tips of 15%, 18% and 20%... now, the lowest choice is usually 20%.

I find the new(ish) touchscreen tipping so offensive. Defaults at 25% is not uncommon. I’ve switched to cash now to just avoid the whole thing. Can we hear from service workers? Are you guys just making bank now?

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