Why Tipping Is Almost Mandatory in the US

You go with your partner to a restaurant in the United States, read the menu, order two $15 dishes and a $20 bottle of wine. Total: US$ 50 (R$ 250).

But you end up paying $60. When paying at restaurants you have to pay about an additional fifth of the bill.

Payment is conceived as a voluntary reward to thank you for the good treatment received, but in practice it is almost mandatory, regardless of whether the service was excellent or disastrous.

And that doesn’t just happen in restaurants. In bars, at the hairdresser’s, at the hotel or in the taxi, the customer assumes that he has to leave a generous “tip”.

And, in case any customer still doesn’t know this etiquette, the bill usually comes with a reminder (“suggested tip: 18%, 20% or 22%)”. Some establishments even add the “service charge”, giving the customer the option to increase their contribution.

The story

Many foreigners are hesitant or annoyed when tipping in the US. The origin of the American tip culture comes from outside the country.

“If a man with his horse lodges in an inn, in addition to paying the bill, he must give at least one shilling (English coin) to the waiter, and sixpence to the maid, the groom, and the shoeshine boy, which equals half a crown. .”

This text written in England in 1795 by an anonymous journalist is quoted in the book Tipping: An American History of Social Gratuities (Tipping: An American History of Social Tippingin free translation) by Kerry Segrave.

The historian says that in the US there was no practice of tipping until at least 1840.

The English traveler John Fowler visited a city in the State of New York in 1830, where he recorded the following expense: “total, 81 cents; waiter 0, maid and boots, ditto; and courtesy and thanks for the treatment. Something similar would be seen in England ? It will take some time for this to become a custom there.”

Fowler, a famous railroad engineer, believed that the elimination of tips would be a trend exported from the US to Europe. But just the opposite happened.

The tipping culture took off in the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Americans imported this custom from Europe, where it was more common, explains to BBC News Mundo the doctor in social psychology William Michael Lynn, author of more than 70 publications on this phenomenon.

Thus, an elitist vocation motivated early Americans to tip their own country, imitating the customs of the European aristocracy.

However, while on the Old Continent the habit was not consolidated in all social strata, on the other side of the Atlantic it did. Because?

‘We will not pay you’

The emancipation of slaves in the US in the late 19th century played a key role, says Saru Jayaraman, a labor rights activist and president of One Fair Wage.

“Restaurants and hospitality companies wanted to continue to have free black labor, so they adopted this culture from Europe and turned tipping into an extra salary incentive. So they told black people: we’re going to hire you, we’re not going to pay you, but you can get tips”, she explains to BBC News Mundo.

Over the course of the 20th century, the “tipping” culture took hold in the US, but not without resistance – six states temporarily abolished the practice in 1915, prominent opponents such as former President William Howard Taft emerged, and anti-tip groups were formed. until in 1966 the tip was definitively consolidated when Congress enacted the “Tip Credit” clause.

This system allows service sector entrepreneurs to pay certain employees less than the minimum wage, on the assumption that this will be complemented by the generosity of customers.

Thus, today in the USA the minimum wage for workers who receive tips is US$ 2.13 (almost R$ 11) per hour.

However, only Puerto Rico and 15 of the 52 states maintain the federal minimum wage. In the rest of the country, it is higher and varies from US$ 2.33 (R$ 12) in Wisconsin or US$ 6.60 (R$ 34) in Illinois to US$ 12.50 (R$ 64) in New York. and US$ 13 (R$ 67) in California.

‘I’m pretty and they give me more tips’

“I basically live on tips,” says Diana, 30, who works as a waitress at a Peruvian restaurant in Miami.

His salary is $6.98 an hour, the legal minimum in Florida, which averages out to about $1,200 a month.

However, counting tips, his monthly income exceeds US$ 4,000 (R$ 20,000) gross. “What I’m paid by the hour is barely enough to cover my taxes,” she tells BBC News Mundo.

With her job as a waitress, Diana paid for her university studies, helped her family and even saved a little.

And if tips are good for restaurant workers, in nightlife they are even bigger.

“In my experience, in one night you can earn between US$300 and US$1,000 (R$1,500 and R$5,000). if you’re good-looking. I’m good-looking and I notice that I get more tips,” explains Silvia, a 36-year-old Cuban chef who works at the bar at nightclubs and private parties in Miami.

‘White men get more tips’

The relationship between tips and the physical appearance, gender or race of the person receiving them has been the subject of study and also a matter of controversy.

A report by consultancy IPUS CPS published in the specialized magazine Eater indicated that between 2010 and 2016 white employees in the US earned an average of US$ 7.06 (R$ 36) in tips per hour, compared to US$ 6.08 (R$ 31). ) for Latinos, US$ 5.57 (R$ 28) for blacks and US$ 4.77 (R$ 24) for Asians.

In addition, white waiters, just over half of the total, accounted for 78% of jobs in fine dining restaurants, where tips are higher.

According to a more recent study by One Fair Wage in New York in 2020, white waiters earn $5 more an hour than black waitresses.

“White men always receive more tips due to the implicit prejudice of American workers”, says the president of the NGO.

Jayaraman says One Fair Wage is not calling for the abolition of tips, but for laws that equal the minimum wage for all workers, considering that reliance on tips puts employees – particularly women and minorities – in a more fragile position.

“If you live almost entirely on your tips, you are very vulnerable to prejudice and customer harassment. This is why our industry has the highest rates of sexual harassment in the US, along with huge disparities between women, people of color and men whites who receive tips”, he denounces.