Americans Who Moved Abroad Share What Things Are Scams In The US, Here Are The 45 Best Posts

But the public shouldn’t HAVE to!!! How some people who don’t tip are treated is appalling! The whole tipping culture is wrong on every level. I’m from the UK and I tip when I get good service, but it’s NEVER expected and never judged (to our face at least)

Yes. Until we manage to straighten this inequitable s**t out, please do NOT penalize and screw over the poor servers trying to pay rent and bills on their tiny paychecks plus tips. Give them the tips they deserve, at a minimum 15%, more if they were really great at their job. Take your protest to the restaurant industry as a while, as well as any legislators who are on their payroll——sorry, who are aiding and abetting the rampant wage theft of the restaurant industry——sorry, who have the power and influence to enact changes that help employees instead of employers. But do NOT hurt those trying to make a living in a tipped job. Please.

And what a great number of people don't know, is that service people have to declare taxes on those tips. So first you're underpaid, you then have to depend on the charity of others to make your wages however small they are, then the government TAXES you on those charity wages. I love my country, but it's so f****d up.

People are generally unaware, here and overseas, that our already appallingly low minimum wage is even lower (as you correctly say, $2 an hour) for those the IRS deems “tippable positions”, like wait staff. So yes, they don’t earn a living wage and the IRS has deemed you responsible for helping with that on a voluntary basis.

The government allows that amount. It's the same amount allowed for physically or mentally disabled workers. Restaurant help needs to stand up for themselves, because we are all dealing with the high cost of living. The owner wants a restaurant. The owner should pay his workers.

Nope. That won't change it. It only facilitates it more.

But that's the point - workers should be paid a decent wage.

No, tipping should not be mandatory. The restaurants need to start paying their servers more. I will only tip if the service is good. A tip should be a bonus for exceptional customer service.

There were days I lost money because I was required to dry clean and starch my uniform daily (on my dime).

MIchigan tipped wage is north of $5/hr. Still ridiculously low, but many servers are pushing back on a new proposal to work for Michigan minimum. No doubt the restaurant owners are influencing this view. To be fair, eateries in C and N Michigan (outside the cities) see customers fall off in winter, one of the drawbacks to a tourism economy.

If everyone in South Carolina just stopped tipping today, servers would be paid the same hourly wage all other MW workers in the state as has been required under Federal law since 1966. But that MW is $7.25 per hour. Less than $250 per week take home. THAT's what needs to change. For ALL MW workers!

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All workers are guaranteed at LEAST minimum wage, just like the workers at Walmart, home Depot and McDonalds. STOP TIPPING and the servers will either leave or force their employees to pay them

You've never been to Europe.

No American workers earning MW are earning a decent income. Servers are the lucky ones who at least have the potential to earn more. No one stocking shelves at Walmart does. This whole thing about tipping culture is yet another distraction that people are falling for. It's meant to make us jump up and down about servers (who overwhelmingly earn more than minimum wage) so we don't demand that the minimum wage be raised for ALL workers. To be clear, the mean average income for servers in the US is more than double minimum wage. But the employer only has to pay them as little as $2.13 an hour. If you were earning more than twice what you could get in any other job, would you care that it was from tips? Especially knowing that, if your tips disappeared, your employer would then have to pay you the same MW that all other MW workers earn. It's the MW that's the issue and this is the tail wagging the dog to keep Americans from demanding real change.

I'd rather pay the 15 dollars and know that the employees could pay their rent with less worry.

And yet they are already higher than in Europe. And there they have normal salary

So it ends up being approx. the same price as it would if the tip were separate. I don't understand how this is even a point. Pay them fairly. Adjust prices accordingly. Stop making your customers feel bad just because they're as broke as the staff you refuse to pay fairly.

In theory it might work like that, but not in the actual world, much less instantly. Should the servers just stop eating for that period or live in the streets? In my opinion it would work much better to pay servers a liveable wage first and then not tipping wouldn't bankrupt them. Yes, then there might be greedy servers demanding the same amount of tips, but customers wouldn't be feeling guilty. And for context, I'm a waitress in no-tipping country and I'm grateful for that, but I would still tip in US because I don't want to starve anyone.

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