It’s Tipping or Life: The Rise and Fall of a Bizarre American Habit

Anglo-Saxons are inscrutable creatures. Courteous to the core but always in the starting blocks of epic, very loud hangovers; they converse in full passive-aggressive mode, but fight for freedom of opinion; they sit down to dinner at 5:30 and gorge themselves at midnight because (eh, you do) they are colossal hungry; they call Italian trifle – “layered Italian dessert” – our trifle. No: understanding them, for a continental European, is difficult. It is probably all part of the fascination that the United States and the United Kingdom above all exert on us, destination of profane pilgrimages to the temples of pop culture, the scene of innumerable training trips (the “study holidays” of the last century) and, for some verses, even exotic ones. Want to put guns on the loose, or drive on the wrong side of the road? Things from another world, to be seen in person.

The most alienating phenomenon of all, however, always remains her: the tip at the restaurant at the end of the meal, which they ask you not only if you eat but also if you take a taxi ride, if you go to the beautician, and so on. And, punctually, you never know how much to put in your wallet – with the potential attached very Italian fool. Tips – “tip”, from which “tipping system”, the tip system – are an integral part of the economy of Anglo-Saxon countries, and constitute, de facto, a large part of the earnings of certain categories of workers: waiters, but also taxi drivers, hotel bellboys, beauticians, barbers and hairdressers, to name a few. In the United Kingdom (which, extraordinary case, is more or less in line with the other countries of the continent) tipping is above all a good custom. In the United States, however, it is a matter of survival.

This is because, in the States, the fixed income of some categories is radically lower than in Italy, and in recent years they have reached negative peaks of 2.13 dollars per hour for waiters (the Italian hourly average updated to 2023 is, according to research by Jobbydoo, 10.70 euros). In the land of the free, the employer doesn’t even have to pay their employees the full minimum wage (about $15 an hour); provided, of course, that they receive tips from customers. Employees, therefore, have to literally make a living, relying on how generously the table will tip. A system that has been criticized by many for some time, and which showed itself in all its iniquity during the months of lockdown, when tips evaporated, reactivating the debate of public opinion on the tipping system.

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Yet, three years later, the New Normal has brought no news, if not bad. As reported by the New York Magazine in a piece by Emma Steiger, head of events and public relations at Oxalis and Place des Fêtes (in Brooklyn), the 2023 of tipping looks more like a nightmare than a glorious post-pandemic resurrection. Because we eat out more and more (and I believe you, after a year and a half at home), but we leave less and less tips. Partly because of inflation, but also because, as Steiger notes, people seem to want to hold the knife by the handle, and vent a little more frustration about who is, by commercial transaction, “at their service ”. Which is unnervingly close to the very origin of the tipping system.

We are in the Old Continent, it is the Middle Ages. Pay slips don’t exist. Lords and feudal lords limited themselves to giving pocket money to their subjects in exchange for their services, living, in fact, on the basis of the tips received. The custom lasted for several centuries, so much so that it was known even to the first groups of European settlers, who pointed it out – as soon as they arrived in the promised land – as feudal and retrograde (see if you were wrong), criticizing the distinctions of class and power it creates all within the company. Only, meanwhile, they shrug at the other form of unpaid labor in the New World: slavery. With the abolition of the slave system following the Civil War, space was created for the introduction of the tipping system. Because everything changes to never change, and having someone working around for free is always, really, very convenient.

Among the main protagonists of the change is George Pullman, an engineer from Chicago and owner of the Pullman Car Company, a manufacturer of railway carriages. Pullman has a concern for the ugly, very uncomfortable wagons that make up the rail cattle cars of the time. Thus he designs new carriages, equipped with large seats and elegant interiors, where handsomely paying customers can enjoy a decidedly luxurious experience by the standards of the second half of the nineteenth century, including table service and a restaurant car. Unfortunately, Pullman doesn’t have the same vision as an employer. And it employs the ex-slaves as waiters and “servants” of the travellers, bringing them back, in fact, to a condition of subordination with respect to the well-fed white customers: the guaranteed salary is very low, and the waiters, just like today, have to rely on the passengers’ spontaneous donations to make ends meet. With the arrival of mass migratory flows towards the United States in the late 19th-early 20th century, the system is ready to welcome foreign and unskilled workers, considered scum by the “natives”: it will be enough to pay them in tips, and employ them in those jobs that no one would dream of doing, such as service in restaurants. Of course land of the free

; title well NPR in a piece on the topic: Land of the Fee.

Cut to 2023: the tipping system involves a large part of the US workforce, carries its legacy of slavery with ease, and is dispensed through comfortable touch screens immediately after paying the bill, under the eyes of the employee who served us and everyone else queued up behind us. Which is equivalent in social pressure to having a booger to poke out your nose on the subway. “Like it or not, eating out in America also means leaving a tip, which should be worth about 20% of the bill.” So Emma Steiger from the piece of New York Magazine. “And yet, recently I find myself more and more having to convince a customer that the tip he gave is not high enough. (…) We have reached the point where it would be better not to go out to eat if you do not have the means to leave an adequate tip. (…) An unjustified low tip is a problem for all dining room staff».

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In order not to create trouble for anyone, it is enough to know the tipping etiquette by heart, because leaving only 5% is not only rude, but also miserly. And best of all, whether the idea of ​​tipping is right or not, knock it off and they’ll run after you.

Restaurants, Bars, Cafes, Delivery

At the restaurant, 15% should be left if the service didn’t completely satisfy you, 18% if it was exactly as it should be, 20% if they were excellent. In any case, 10% is always recommended, even when the service has had some flaws. Small additional tip: the waiters of Anglo-Saxon restaurants often come to break to ask how it’s going, especially when you’re biting into a hamburger and you don’t want to know that someone sees you dripping with sauce. Here, don’t leave less because they disturbed you. For them, this means taking care of the customer. At the bar, bill $1 for each beer or glass of wine, $2 for each cocktail. To those wonderful cafes they have that are not called Starbucks: 1 dollar per order. Last but not least

the delivery service: to that must be added 20% for the delivery boy, or the rider.

Taxi

A minimum of $2 per ride is always recommended, but usually you should go on 10% of the total. You know when in the movies everyone gets out of breath, pays in cash and yells «Keep the change»? Well, that’s always a valid strategy.

Hotels

If you’re still one of those who don’t like AirBnb, or who don’t like the hyper-gentrification that has resulted in practically every big city, maybe you get yourself a hotel, a nice and comfortable one, where they can even carry your suitcases. In case, remember to pass a tip to those who helped you. Between 2 and 5 dollars works very well.