So, unrelated to job performance, I always tip 20%. You could pour coffee on my head and I’d still leave 20%. It is not a reflection of my assessment of how well servers do their jobs or to punish them or their co-workers by withholding payment. My expectation is that any meal, snack or drink includes an unofficial surcharge equal to one fifth of the price.There are two types of tip creep inching ever upward like a vine snaking its way along a trellis.
Recently, I picked up a cheesecake to bring as a gift from a bakery I go to often. The bakery is doing well enough to grow into a global franchise, so it struck me as odd that they had added a tipping prompt similar to Starbucks. Even odder was that a new prompt popped up in a dance studio around that same time I registered my daughter for classes.
When we see tip creep like this, I think it’s reasonable to ask the owners if they pay their staff a living wage. If so, what entitles them to ask the customer for more? And if not, why not? In both cases, I wrote to ask. Turns out that at the dance studio, it was a glitch. When the pandemic first shut it down, the owner hosted virtual classes for free and set up the option of tipping the instructors. Since resuming in-studio classes, she hasn’t been able to figure out how to turn the website feature off, so instead she offers refunds whenever someone tips. The cheesecake bakery did not respond to my questions.
Most people do not, of course, take the time to inquire about instances of tip creep. But acquiescence has negative consequences., told me back in 2019 that the organization was tracking tip creep in the retail and tech sectors as well. “You walk into a retail outfit, they turn Apple Pay around, and you’re asked to tip at a flower shop or when you’re getting bottled water at a coffee shop. And suddenly that worker can be classified as a tipped worker and be paid $2” an hour .
THINK There is No regulation on how tips are distributed. I learned that a local restaurant owner was keeping the majority of all tips collected, giving employees only a small amount, and requiring them to say it was shared equally if asked. State labor laws were in his favor.