Jul 29, 2025 By Kent James 6 min read

I am not a fan of tipping. I tip well (20%), but I am not happy about it. I tip 20% because I’m told that’s the new standard, and I don’t want to be seen as a cheapskate.

Since it’s an option and not an obligatory service charge, tipping makes me feel like I have personally hired someone to please me, and my payment is based on how much they do that. I don’t want them to treat me well because they hope to get a good tip; I want them to treat me well because I’m a customer and they should treat all customers well. I believe in equality. Part of my discomfort comes from the origins of tipping.

Tipping took hold in America during the period following the Civil War when wealthy Americans returning from Europe brought back the aristocratic custom of paying servants extra if they provided good service. Ironically, the custom mostly died out in Europe. Reconstruction was a time when southerners were trying to adjust to the end of slavery, with white southerners trying to get as much labor out of the newly freed slaves for as little money as possible. The freed slaves had limited employment opportunities, but “serving” customers in the service industry was open to them because in the South, serving white people was a customary role. As it was under slavery, the employers often paid them nothing; unlike slavery, the employer had no obligations to feed or house the employees, so they had to live on tips as their sole source of income.

When I was young, I worked a series of restaurant jobs, from fast-food (Arby’s, Burger Chef) to a very high-end restaurant near Aspen, Colo., called the Snowmass Club. I was always paid the minimum wage and never got tips. At the Snowmass Club, I was a dishwasher, the lowest on the totem pole. The kitchen staff started in the afternoon and would finish sometime after midnight, while the wait staff (mostly men, as it is for most high-end restaurants) would start at 5, and they’d usually be done by 10; with their tips, they made two or three times what I made. While they had to deal with customers, it’s not like the kitchen doesn’t have people who can cause tension, as the series, “The Bear,” so accurately portrays. And in the days before computers, a lot of tips were never reported to the IRS (I’m not sure what percentage of cash tips are reported now). I’ve always had a bit of a chip on my shoulder when tipped staff complain about having to pay taxes on their income, since the lower paid staff have always had to pay taxes on their income.

Tipping is now ubiquitous. Places that didn’t use to ask for tips now do. How much should I tip someone at the bagel shop for spending 30 seconds to bag my bagel and hand it to me? Most of these employees make the minimum wage (or close to it), so they can use the additional income, but it’s as though tipping is used to make up for the wages their employer is too cheap to pay. If I’m replacing the wages that should be paid by the employer, I’m essentially allowing the employer to get away with underpaying their employees and increasing their own profits.

Last spring I was fortunate enough to travel to Japan, where there is no tipping and tax is already included in the price. You order an item on the menu for a set price and that’s what you pay. What a concept! Some argue that without tips, service workers would not provide good service. That was certainly not the case in Japan. It would probably cut down on the service performance designed to increase a tip, which can sometimes be so over the top to be annoying.

I don’t need to be asked every 10 minutes how everything is, or if they can get me anything. I like service workers who are polite, but not subservient. I do not want to recreate the power dynamic at the origins of tipping (aristocrat-peasant or master-slave). I would like to be treated as an equal, with each person considering the needs of the other person in the relationship. As a customer, I won’t waste the server’s time if I’m not ready to order and I can do things such as hand them a dish they’re having trouble reaching. In return, I would expect them to be polite, properly record and submit our order, and bring it when it’s ready.

Some argue that tipping is a way to ensure good service; poor tips are a sign of poor service, so poor servers will either get better or leave the profession. I doubt this is true. Does the server really know when they get a 15% tip instead of a 18% tip, and that that was a sign of service not quite up to par? How would they know what part of the service was not up to par? Certainly no tip would probably indicate an unhappy customer, or maybe a tourist from a country where tipping is not expected. Or maybe someone who was cheap and didn’t mind denying a server part of their wages.

Most servers are not getting rich on tips and deserve higher pay. But I would rather that come from higher wages (the tipped minimum wage of $2.83 is ridiculous), not optional tips. Some restaurants have tried eliminating tips and charging higher prices to make up for the higher labor costs, but that’s been a struggle. Part of the problem is the customer sees the higher prices but cannot know how much wages were increased to make up for the loss of tips.

I’m not sure of the answer to the problem, but I do think a uniform, livable minimum wage would be a step in the right direction.

Kent James, of East Washington, has a doctorate in history and policy from Carnegie Mellon University.