Have you experienced customer service in countries where there is no tipping? It is often entertaining and involves unpredictable "extra work". Perhaps digital reputation systems will provide a stick to replace the carrot of tipping, unless labor laws evolve to impose Fair Reporting on mobile logistics data.
Stereotypes of French waiters aside, service is just fine in Europe. (Speaking as a former resident with very fond memories.) Tipping is just a way for American employers to rip off their most vulnerable workers.
Tipping is a truly toxic practice, and it's a burden on customers as well. Why would anyone want to be assigned extra work to evaluate how unhappy they are in order to calculate how much extra they should pay?
> Tipping is just a way for American employers to rip off their most vulnerable workers.
Could you please elaborate? I don't see how tipping can be involved in ripping off workers in the United States.
Employers are always required to pay their workers minimum wage - the federal minimum wage in the worst case, and sometimes the state minimum wage when it applies and is higher. See: http://www.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/flsa/002.htm
> If an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages[] do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference.
Except that the legislators and employers take tips into account when lobbying for and setting the minimum wage.
We see it as "that waiter was nice, leave a generous tip".
Employers see it as "if they don't do a good enough job they won't make any tips, and the problem will naturally work itself out." This is patently unfair because it treats tips as implied expected income, and wages are set so low that you can't make a livable income without them. This is patently unfair.
For jobs where tipping is expected, in most states the expected tips can be taken away from the minimum wage - so a server could be paid $2 per hour + tips.
While that may be technically true, I imagine any waiter not able to pull in tips to exceed the minimum wage would soon find themselves out of a job, especially in at-will states. In practice tipping just transfers the cost from the employer to the consumer.
In theory yes, but it's basically not optional when the overwhelming social consensus is that you're a horrible person if you don't tip, even for mediocre service. Maybe it started out as a way to reward excellent service, but now it just allows businesses to deceive customers by posting prices that are less than what you actually end up paying.
Yes, I have. Japanese customer service wipes the floor with US customer service, and they'll run down the street to return your "forgotten change" if you attempt to tip in a restaurant.
The flip side is that it is thoroughly expected that you remain loyal to your establishment. No going to a restaurant just because it's close by. You go to your good friend's restaurant instead, even if it's across town.
This arrangement isn't free or magical. It exists because of the cultural wrappings.
There's quite a few service industry jobs in the US that don't do tipping. I haven't found things to be better or worse.
What irks me the most is that tipped industry veterans will declare, very forcefully, that 20% is the minimum in all circumstances -- which is somewhat fair, as I do believe in fair wages. However, if a minimum exists, why are we even tipping?
Tipping actually gives an incentive to do way too much and often to pester the customer with unecessary attention. Probably not everyone is fond of getting her glass ostensibly refilled every 5 minutes, which happens with the emphasize on service that a tip intensive system creates.
