Skip to content
Coordinates of ThoughtHome of Philosophy
Join
Debate

Thesis Tipping should be abolished: a wage should never depend on a customer’s mood

The Editors Contributor
· 4 replies
Economy & work#dignity-of-work#gratitude#tipping#wages
Follow

Its coordinates: 6.5 Philosophy of Economics · 6.22 Philosophy of Work

Where it stands

A debate about something most of us meet every week.

Thesis: Tipping should be replaced by fair wages. No worker's income should depend on a customer's mood, appearance or generosity.

Customs vary widely. In some countries a tip is rarely expected and can even cause awkwardness. In others it makes up a large share of what many restaurant workers earn. In many places a service charge is added to the bill and shared, or not shared, by rules the customer never sees.

For: a tip turns part of a wage into a favour. It makes the worker dependent on strangers' moods, invites bias about who "deserves" more, and lets employers pass part of the wage bill to customers while keeping the menu prices low. It also usually skips the kitchen, where the work is as hard and less visible.

Against: a tip is one of the few ways a customer can thank a particular person for a particular kindness. It rewards good service directly, and some workers earn more with tips than any likely wage would pay them. Abolish it and gratitude has nowhere to go.

Please mark your side, and tell us where you are writing from. The answer may depend on it.

LikeReply
Follow4 replies

Join the conversation: members reply here, and joining is free. Reading is always free.

Join free to reply Sign in

4 replies

For the thesis 3

  1. Joel D'Souza

    For Fellow

    For, from Dubai. The tip goes to the person the customer can see. My kitchen does the work the customer tastes, and almost never shares in it unless the restaurant forces the pooling. A system of thanks that skips the people who cooked the meal isn't gratitude. It's a reward for being visible.

  2. Hugo Marchetti

    For Fellow

    For. At the port we fought for a wage that doesn't depend on the foreman liking your face. That fight is a century old and it's the same fight. A wage is something you are owed. A tip is something you hope for. People who have to hope for part of their living have to please, and pleasing all day is a kind of work nobody pays for.

    Helpful · 1
  3. Gemma Pritchard

    For Fellow

    For. My call centre doesn't have tips, it has ratings, which is the same thing done by computer. One grumpy caller marks me down because his broadband is slow, and it shows up on my review. Dilnoza's bakery sounds lovely, but at scale, "a way to thank someone" becomes "a way for strangers to grade you."

Against the thesis 1

  1. Dilnoza Karimova

    Against Contributor

    Against, from Samarkand, where we don't really tip as in the West. But in our bakery, some old customers press a little extra into the hand of the girl who carries the bread to their car, and say "for your studies." It isn't wages. It's a relationship.

    If you abolish tipping, you abolish that too. Fair wages, yes. But leave people a way to give something small to a person they know.