r/antiwork Jan 14 '22 Silver 5 Helpful 16 Wholesome 10

So sorry, I'm broke so I can only pay you $77 for my food. You were great though.

Post image
30.2k Upvotes

View all comments

15.0k

u/Shruikathemonk Jan 14 '22 Silver Gold Helpful Wholesome Starry

American tipping culture is a cancer.

232

u/Anxious-Sir-1361 Jan 15 '22

I'm Canadian; the tipping culture is similar. What bothers me is what I call the “good-looking girl” subsidy. These are waiting jobs at chic spots where the waitresses bring in 6 figure tips per year (before they become real estate agents), more or less for being hot. I'd rather the tips are for those that need them.

226

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

Well, you just highlighted another problem with tipping culture. It makes it impossible for workers to be paid equitably.

10

u/CJLB Jan 15 '22

I always hated working kitchens because I felt like I was working twice as hard as the servers for less than half the money. Then I tried serving for a few years and realized I just hate the service industry in general. But at least the bump in pay from serving quickly earned me enough money to go to trade college.

5

u/Anxious-Sir-1361 Jan 15 '22

The hypocrisy suck. At least you took advantage of it to move forward in your life. For the record, serving can be challenging. The job that’s pretty cruisy and fun IMO, except maybe Friday/ Saturday night when your swamped, is being the bartender.

8

u/Drift_Life Jan 15 '22

Also, hot girls aren’t hot forever

3

u/SoftNSquishy Jan 15 '22

Uggh yes, yet another reason why capitalism is sooo so fucked.

-15

u/Sammy279123 Jan 15 '22

Equitably? Who says it needs to be equitable. That’s similar to saying top real estate sellers should make as little as the chump who just shows up for work and texts all day. Or Vice versa. I’m not a chippendale model because A: they wouldn’t hire me and B: if they did then no one or less people would hire their crew. Some things in life are just the way they are but at the end of the day, people need to eventually find out what they’re good at and productivity needs to happen to deserve your pay..

13

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '22

Being pretty isn't the same as working hard and being paid by merit.

3

u/cookiemonstah87 Jan 15 '22

There are studies showing most people always tip the same percentage, whether that's 0% or 50% of a bill, unless something was exceptionally good or bad. Working harder or being better at your job as a server doesn't net higher tips, but giving someone a boner does.

Also comparing serving to being a Chippendale dancer is apples and oranges. Servers are hired to take orders, deliver food, and interface with customers. Chippendale dancers are hired to look a certain way, dance, and make people horny. A Chippendale is absolutely more productive by being more appealing to customers. A server's productivity has absolutely nothing to do with what they look like, so expecting their pay to be determined by whether a customer wants to sleep with them is pretty fucked.

0

u/Sammy279123 Jan 16 '22

You’ve taken on the “role” of defining what something is. Yeah, there are people that have static tip amounts but if my service is terrible I tip to reflect that. If my waitress/waiter is talking to their friends instead of bringing me a water refill then that’s poor performance. You’re wrong about my analogy and the Hooters franchise success proves it