A lot of us would like to get rid of it, but how? You can't just turn around and raise minimum wage... Oh wait you can because that is EXACTLY what we did in Oregon. $12.50 for rural counties, $13.50 for urban areas, and $14.75 for Portland Metro. Nationwide it's $7.25. We are the only state with a variable minimum wage.

I think it's terrible and should be done away with. Pay your employees a living wage. They shouldn't have to rely on grumpy people that take offense to everything to get paid.

As an American, I agree totally. I also believe that employment regulations should be set by law, not unions, not individual contracts... same for everyone.

Americans do NOT like tipping. It's getting excessive at this point. Everyone wants a tip for practically nothing.

Nobody ever mentions that tipped employees often make $20+ per hour. If they were paid a fair wage they'd probably take home less.

I hate tipping culture. But I personally am not doing anything to change it (no activism, no protesting) so I tip because I'm not going to punish the people serving me because the system is broken.

I don’t defend it. Although it seems there’s no way around it. At least in my area of the US. I did happen to land a job where my hourly pay is $5, when most other places only pay $2.13-$3.30. Still sucks.

I think the only reason I personally defend it in a way, is because how else are waiters supposed to get paid? I highly doubt they'll raise their minimum wage (which is already lower than the national minimum), it's sorta a vicious cycle

I hate tipping. I don't want to tip but I do it because it's the decent thing to do. I know what it's like to make $2.13 an hour and work so hard and have to try to read people's minds but not get tipped because you came to the table too many times, or didn't come enough times, or somebody just doesn't want to tip because they "paid for the meal so why should they have to tip?" Funnily enough, it's usually non-tippers who are the most obnoxious and demanding and stay at the table for hours and leave a huge mess and a server on the verge of tears because they just did all that work and put up with horrible people for basically nothing. It should change and servers should get a living and stable wage but that won't happen unless the law changes. But until that happens, people in America need to tip their servers because even though you paid for the meal, you definitely did not pay for the service.

Ok America. How do we fix this? I think we all agree we (the customers) do not LIKE this system. But that’s the system in place until something changes. If we just stop tipping that only hurts the already low paid wait staff. So what do we do? We have so many serious issues in this country. I feel like our government was an experiment that’s failing badly. How do we scrap it all and start over?

Worst thing is that it's spreading to other countries like Australia which is a country that actually pays its workers the proper wage, thank you very much...

Honestly, everyone in India that I tipped really liked it.

No, most of us are still screaming for a living wage, but our leaders don't think that's necessary.

It's not that people defend it so much it's that if you don't tip, due to the current system, the employee gets screwed. You're not teaching the business a lesson, you're just punishing a minimum wage worker.

Tipping. Because why should your employer you when the customer can do it for them?

We don't like it, we are just stuck with it

The system is like blackmail and bribes. I won’t give you good service unless you pay me or if I give you good service I expect something in return. People should be paid a reasonable salary to do their job to an expected standard without the need to have to do this to get a living wage. It’s demeaning!

the rest of the world pays living wages so tipping is a courtesy not a necessity

Because the Dollar is god in America slave wages will always continue.

Don't particularly "like" this but it's ingrained for now.

I agree, people just doing their jobs expect to be tipped.

Getting a tip should be the result of good service and not mandatory. I normally tip the staff in a restaurant, but if service is c**p I won't

We hate it too.... but please tell me how we can change it when people literally depend on tips? What are we supposed to do? Stop tipping? Screw over the ppl not the business? Do you actually think that we can impact a capitalist system by complaining? Ppl need jobs & money. We don't want to have to tip. But we also don't want to f**k over the employee when it doesn't hurt the employee in the least but.

I'm going to blame tipping (or lack there of) on the delivery apps. I know what the delivery people make and just giving them $4 makes them make $4 more than minimum wage that hour. Unfortunately this has slowly conditioned us to think about this tipping methodology when going to an establishment

In Germany very common, if we go to a restaurant or hairdresser.

Fake tips, in a culture that requires tipping, just make things worse. Movies use the trope "Here's a tip for you - Invest in Plastic! (or some other pithy phrase)" to denote here is the jerk, because we've all known someone like this. Wait staff have stories of the fake twenty dollar tip that has on the reverse a Bible saying. Often left on the table by the Christian group that just had a big Sunday brunch after church let out.

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I defend it because I work for tips and make much much more than I would hourly. I make $30-60/hr in tips. You don't have to tip me, but please stop trying to "help" servers by taking away the whole reason we chose this job. Get takeout if you feel so terrible for servers.