I'm really disappointed in this article. Tipping culture needs to go away. It is disingenuous on all fronts. The customer gets lied to about the price of something. The company gets to subsidise their workforce to the detriment of the employees. And some employees will not file their earning correctly and commit tax fraud. If companies paid a living wage with benefits the employees would be much better off and the public wouldn't be left holding the bag. NPR should have done an article about the real costs of tipping culture on the public. Tipped employees get shit for minimum wage, no health benefits, and will not be able to contribute/pull from the full benefits of social security later in life. And the public will be continually stuck trying to fix this stupid problem all because of greedy ass companies skimming as much money as they can from us.

We need to revise the federal minimum wage, because it is obviously VERY VERY far behind a living wage as it was intended to be, and remove any caveats regarding tip based positions allowing a lower hourly wage. I've seen estimates that out the minimum anywhere between $23-$33 an hour if it kept up with inflation and/or productivity so anything less is just plain criminal.

Look, I know it's idealist, but corporate profits are at an all time high. C-level execs make hundreds to thousands times what their lowest level employee does. It's disgusting. The greed and their assumption that we will just let them continually be more greedy is disgusting. Maybe they don't need all that. They can actually pay their employees better. They choose not to because we have barely any social nets in this country, what does exist can be really hard to get, and people have to eat and have a home. They prey on desperate people, hide behind the idea that minimum wage is "supposed to be for teenagers, and refuse to entertain the notion that they are the problem.

NPR had the audacity to use a picture of a worker protesting for a living wage in this article. They completely miss the point of the protests and overall labor movement if they think it's a customers responsibility to pay workers right.

NPR like most American manipulation media is controlled by the rich. So this article is once again showing their true colors.

During the pandemic, my family just stopped eating out except for special events. A habit we have kept to consciously, even today. Between the severely degraded standards of service, extreme increase in prices, and the “tip everyone” mentality (atop of now a 20% tip is bare minimum now?) the only service I use on a regular basis is a haircut.

Since we’ve stopped eating out we have learned how to cook a lot of great food we never would have eaten or learned to cook, lost weight, become healthier in our food choices. It’s solved a lot of problems for us. Also, we are able to actually save a significant portion of our income now instead of blowing it at restaurants and coffee shops.

People don’t need to eat out, and the food service industry is seeing now that people are voting against current practices and prices with their wallets. People are reprioritizing what is important and what is not. Adapt or die out, it’s pretty simple.

How about employers pay a decent wage - one where tipping isn’t necessary, we move to universal healthcare and we stop tipping altogether?

I read this article too and I don't see where npr is saying this is ok. They are giving these workers a platform to express their side of it but what the workers are really saying is that they are being exploited financially. This main guy being interviewed says he loves doing this but the laws are allowing the business to subsidise his wages based on customer kindness. That is clearly not ok, the tipped minimum wage is clearly not ok.

"If there is some means of tipping that's available to you, that should signal to you that workers there aren't being paid enough," says Schenker.

I think everyone is getting pretty sick of tipping. Workers hate the uneven wages and being beholden to customers. Customers hate the escalation in tipping amount, social anxiety and hidden prices. I wish businesses would just abolish the practice but that isn't happening

Look, I know it's idealist, but corporate profits are at an all time high. C-level execs make hundreds to thousands times what their lowest level employee does. It's disgusting. The greed and their assumption that we will just let them continually be more greedy is disgusting. Maybe they don't need all that. They can actually pay their employees better. They choose not to because we have barely any social nets in this country, what does exist can be really hard to get, and people have to eat and have a home. They prey on desperate people, hide behind the idea what minimum wage is "supposed to be for teenagers, and refuse to entertain the notion that they are the problem.

I think everyone is getting pretty sick of tipping. Workers hate the uneven wages and being beholden to customers. Customers hate the escalation in tipping amount, social anxiety and hidden prices. I wish businesses would just abolish the practice but that isn't happening