Mel Nichols, a 37-year-old bartender in Phoenix, Arizona, takes home anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour with tips included. But the uncertainty of how much she’s going to make on a daily basis is a constant source of stress.
“For every good day, there’s three bad days,” said Nichols, who has been in the service industry since she was a teenager. “You have no security when it comes to knowing how much you’re going to make.”
The amount tipped workers make varies by state. Fourteen states pay the federal minimum, or just above $2 an hour for tipped workers and $7 an hour for non-tipped workers.
I never tip. Tipping culture should die.
That’s wrong. What you should do is never go to restaurants where workers rely on tips. They have to tip out the bartender/busboy/runner at the end of the night and you not tipping means they’re losing money when that happens.
So maybe don’t be an asshole and abuse an already terrible system.
Tipping means facilitating this system.
By not tipping in a place where it’s expected, you’re facilitating the system and ensuring the employee is exploited.
If you don’t patronise places where tipping is expected, then you’re not facilitating the system.