Ever been to a restaurant with a small party (1-4 people) and received a bill with 18% tip included automatically? While that alone seems a bit weird to me, the line for “additional tip” was even more bothersome. Also, have you noticed that tip screens keep being pushed in front of you even though you are not dining in somewhere? Something is up…

The search begins… I decided to research the origins of tipping culture because it seems uniquely American. Others and I, who have traveled overseas, have been told that tipping is insulting. I wanted to look further and get a sense of why.

Not alone in tipping fatigue. I came across an NPR article titled Got tipping rage? This barista reveals what it’s like to be behind the tip screen: HTML. The title itself suggests many experience tipping fatigue. As I read that article I thought “okay, I get it, the barista is paid less than minimum wage and tips help them earn a living wage.” But I could not also help but wonder two questions:

1. Why are baristas (and restaurant workers) paid less than minimum wage?
2. Why don’t workers demand higher pay from their employers instead of demanding higher tips from customers?

So I continued the search…

What I found. NPR has a 46 minute podcast that goes into excruciating detail on the legacy of tipping here in America. When you have time, take a listen to Why We Can’t Escape Tipping: HTML. There is also a 2015 NPR article titled When Tipping Was Considered Deeply Un-American: HTML. A couple things jumped out to me right away:

• Tipping is a feudal tradition from the Middle Ages that supports a class/caste system. As mentioned in that podcast “by tipping someone you render them inferior.”
• The United States had several states with bans on tipping until 1926. Even The NY Times had many editorials against tipping in the 1870s and 1880s.

But that’s not the real a-ha! moment…

Tipping in America is rooted in slavery. Or as stated earlier, tipping supports a class/caste system.

• Tipping took off after the Civil War. Why? Millions of freed slaves were now looking for work. Business owners didn’t pay recently freed slaves just as slaves were not paid before being freed. Enter tipping.
• Pullman luxury railroad cars only hired Black, and specifically Southern Black men because, apparently as Pullman himself stated “the plantation trained them how to be pleasing.”
• The Pullman “Palace on wheels” created an upper class fantasy for middle and lower class people.
  • Dr. Moore comment: Sounds a little like “influencers” and wasting time watching them.
• Journalist John Speed wrote in 1902 “Negroes take tips, one expects that of them – it is a token of their inferiority. But to give money to a white man was embarrassing to me.”

On the anti-tipping movement. In addition to anti-tipping editorials in The NY Times and people who shared the perspective of John Speed:

• Several notable anti-tippers include Leon Trotsky, Willam Howard Taft, Mark Twain, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Babe Ruth.
• The labor force was also against tipping because it demeaned them.
• The Georgia Anti-Tipping society had 100,000 members.
• Traveling salesman felt like the were bearing the burden of tipping.
• Several states enacted laws that made accepting or giving a tip a misdemeanor. But it was impossible to enforce.
• In 1916 William Scott published The Itching Palm – a “long diatribe” against tipping.

On that Itching Palm book. You can find a copy here: HTML. Here are my take-aways from listening to a discussion of the book during the NPR podcast:

• Tipping is equivalent to flunkyism – 5 million itching palms in America.
• “Tipping is the price of pride“ and “a new form of slavery.”
• He even quoted the Bible while equating tips to gifts: Exodus – a gift destroys the heart, Luke on covetousness.
• Paying a tip is like paying a ransom to a pirate to avoid having your ship sunk. I.e., akin to a bribe to have your food delivered the way you requested.
• Tipping is an exploitative labor practice.
• However, William Scott was very much for better wages for laborers – from their employers.

So what killed the anti-tip movement? Three things.

1. Formation of the National Restaurant Association lobbying group in 1919. This smells like the American Medical Association and abortion (See Before Roe: The physician’s crusade: HTML)
2. Prohibition (1920-1933) lead to reduced restaurant revenues. That necessitated tipping.
3. The first minimum wage law in 1938 that was part of FDR’s new deal – but that law excluded restaurant workers! Looks like the National Restaurant Association was successful in their lobbying!

The main person in the podcast, Nina Martyris, states tipping is an “Un-American, two-tier system to exclude restaurant workers.” I would almost disagree. America was founded on slavery. So the two-tier system Martyris refers to is just an extension of the two-tier system in America’s founding DNA. A never-ending pursuit for free or near-free labor by the wealthy few.

Meanwhile, Europe included a “service charge” in restaurant bills. So, as tipping faded away in Europe where it started it was only reinforced in the United States. Read on…

1966 Congress enacted sub-minimum wage tip credit.

• Until this point, restaurant owners could pay employees $0. (Free to near-free labor again)
• Then, with the passage of sub-minimum wage tip credit, the tip had to make up the difference between sub-minimum wage ($0.63/hr) and minimum wage. If tips did not, restaurant owners must make up the difference. Read: unenforceable.
• The sub-minimum wage amount tracked minimum wage (about 40-50% of minimum wage) until 1996 when…

1996 Congress fixes sub-minimum wage at $2.13/hr.

• Why, what prompted this? Lobbying by the Restaurant Association.
• Federal sub-minimum wage was $2.13/hr in 1996, it is $2.13 today in 2023. (Free to near-free labor again)
• Some states require restaurant workers get paid a minimum wage or above. In California, minimum wage is $15.50 (compared to federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr). But for tipped employees it is $11 to $12/hr but must earn at least $15.50 with tips. If not, the employer is supposed to make up the difference.

Closing thoughts from podcast interviewee Nina Martyris (HTML)

• She is surprised more people are not bothered by the systemic inequality inherent in tipping culture.
• One reason why not, which relates to what is in the American DNA: Majority of service workers are women and people of color (40% apparently are people of color).
  • Dr. Moore comment: this speaks to Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste and how race is a smokescreen for caste.
• Tipping also fosters sexual harassment. Make yourself more sexually appealing to get a bigger tip.
• The power dynamic is reinforced by the tipping mechanism.

Closing thoughts / possible action plan of Dr. Moore

• Be aware (woke?) of the legacy of tipping and what is embedded in tipping culture DNA today.
• I’m early in trying this, but for now, when I go to a bakery to purchase something off the shelf, I no longer tip. I routinely observe those in the dominant caste happily refuse to tip in these situations (channeling their inner William Taft or Babe Ruth?). I will not channel my inner “traveling salesman” and bear the burden as described earlier.
• My response if there is any complaint: “I fully support you earning a living wage but not through this caste-based servility tipping culture. Your employer should, pardon the pun, bake the labor costs into the price of the item. At that point, all customers will share the burden more equitably.”
• When at a restaurant, I do tip. But now I am fixing it at 18% of the pre-tax amount everywhere no matter what. Phones have calculators. Or for mental stimulation, pull out a pen and paper and do the calculation.
• If things get too confrontational (if service diminishes because I didn’t bribe, I mean tip, enough), then just avoid situations that involve tipping. I.e., cook at home, more prepared foods from grocery stores, etc.
• Or, move to Europe or other location where there is no tipping.

Well, I suppose that is enough “food for thought” for now.

-Dr. Moore