Hacker News Reader

Comment by itsnotafight | Hacker News Reader

How much responsibility does Square/Toast/whatever POS with integrated client facing tipping have for the recent change in culture? How much did they drive it vs. respond to demand? Does it matter?

(Personally I don’t think they have any culpability per se, just interesting to think about the mechanisms at work).

View on HN

I only tip on traditionally tipped service.

Barber, tattoo artist, barista, bartender, waitstaff, pizza delivery... I'm sure there are more but that's my usual.

I'm not tipping the people at fast food or the other places that have started 'asking' for tips

> Barber, tattoo artist...

I don't understand tipping for these services.

I would think that they make way more than minimum wage, especially tattoo artists. What's next? Tipping at the car shop?

It’s a personalized service in a way that car repair isn’t.

I still don't understand where we are supposed to draw the line here.

Is it OK to tip a therapist or a doctor?

General rule to help you out: If you need a 4yr degree to do a job, you don’t get tips.

Plus it has to be a "personalized" service, apparently?

I was genuinely curious so I googled where I'm supposed to tip and how much. It seems like there are an awful lot of rules about tipping, and they don't follow a clear, consistent pattern, not even for when to do it, e.g. before or after receiving a service.

So much work to keep an outdated tradition alive.

What about police officer at traffic stop? Or judge or prosecutor prosecuting you? Aren't those also pretty personalized services? Why are they different?

Tipping them could be misconstrued as bribery.

What I really don't understand about these two is that they get to set the rate very often. They are independent and thus should be able to set rate where they do not need tips. It is like being consultant setting hourly rate and then expect still getting some extra...

I wonder if they set the defaults themselves.

But also, I've been to some places where the default choices start at 25% now, which I believe would be too bold for these PoS companies.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com