Americans are asked to tip everywhere they turn these days. It’s led to more than tipping fatigue. It’s led to a revolt.
In the years after the Civil War, when tipping first sunk its teeth into the American economy, many took a dim view of the practice. Critics rightly viewed it as a European import, borrowed from aristocratic households and continental restaurants and hotels, where it was customary to tip servants, servers or porters. Tipping was a reminder of societies with established classes, hierarchies that detractors said had no place in a democracy.
In the 21st century, tipping has become as American as pickup trucks, Walmart and burgers on the grill. At every turn - and every turn of the countertop tablet - Americans are confronted with a decision on whether to tip - and how much. Restaurant servers, fast-casual counter workers, bartenders, baristas, ride-hail drivers, babysitters, hairdressers, apple orchard owners, impound lot operators and even self-serve kiosks at the airport all want a cut of the action.
More telling perhaps were the 13 scenarios that YouGov posed to nearly 1,150 Americans, curious if diners would tip less than they normally would due to any one of the situations. Half of the respondents said they would tip less for “poor food quality.” Nearly a third said they’d tip less for “overpriced menu items.” Nearly a quarter said they’d tip less for a “long wait time for seating.” Nearly half said they’d tip less if the “restaurant is dirty.
The American dining public’s arbitrary checklist of rewards and punishments reminds me of something I read in Segrave’s book: The 1933 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary defined a “tip” as a “small present of money given to an inferior, especially to a servant or employee of another for a service rendered or expected.” The 1989 edition relied on the same definition, Segrave noted.
Banks had the cheek to say the quiet part out loud. As a society, we don’t talk in these hierarchical terms anymore - not without a dog whistle - but some of us still play the part when signing the credit card receipt. If we don’t get treated exactly how we expect over the course of an evening, we will exact a toll on the person “serving” us. Those expectations may be reasonable.
Americans have been railing against tipping from the start. William Howard Taft was “the patron saint of the anti-tip crusaders,” according to the New York Times. The Anti-Tipping Society of America, formed in 1904, asked its members “not to give a tip to anyone for 12 months,” according to Segrave’s book. Little more than a year later, the society went dormant.
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America imported tipping from Europe — and then took it too farAmericans are asked to tip everywhere they turn these days. It’s led to more than tipping fatigue. It’s led to a revolt.
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