Tipping in the service industry

[CapnAwesome]

No, of course not.

Because other countries, say Spain and most southern european, pay less for minimum wage and don't have tipping. So how do you explain that?

Those countries more likely than not provide for their citizens in ways which the US does not. When you don't have to pay ridiculous prices for healthcare, then yeah, maybe a smaller minimum wage with no tipping would provide for the basic necessities.

Not to mention in most states they can pay tipped employees less as long as their tips total up more than the minimum. So that's a problem with the government's minimum wage laws, not tipping.

It's a problem with the government's minimum wage laws, but it's also a problem with owners not paying enough. There's no law that states an owner must pay their servers the bare minimum. That they do is on the owners. Tipping allows owners to not pay their staff much, instead pushing that responsibility on the customer.

So obviously tipping is a cultural thing. Also part of the reason you normally get better service in the US.

Yet a few minutes on Google reveals that studies actually say the opposite, or are at least split on the subject. It makes sense if you think about it. Given that tipping is something society expects, people give tips regardless of the service. Sure, they might tip slightly less for bad service, and they might tip slightly more for good service, but when we are talking small percentages on an already cheap meal, it's not actually that much money.

I don't think people are not tipping in Spain because they have health care. Really people are not that deep thinking. I also don't think there was tipping in those countries before they got universal health care. So that explanation is quite a stretch.

There are still tons of non-tipping cultures with lower wages than the us you'd have to explain. Since the us actually has fairly high wages except compared to a very very small amount of countries, the explanation falls well short. Tipping is just cultural. Every culture has a different tipping custom. I don't see much of a pattern to it.

Not to mention I'd much rather get a tipped job in the us than the flat minimum wage in most European countries. The minimum wage in Europe isn't all that special and in some countries is awful. It's better in the west coast of America for sure plus you get tips.