Manager Stops Customers From Leaving, Demands Tips; Internet Calls It Harassment

Tipping has become a hot topic in personal finance for Americans since the pandemic. As people are prompted to leave tips for a growing number of services, a debate has ensued over what is the limit to tipping. Recently a viral video on TikTok showed a manager tracking down customers and stopping them from leaving until they paid their tips. The post left viewers infuriated with some calling this kidnapping. However, the video also said that the customers were allegedly getting services for hours.

The TikTok clip shared by user Gladys Nicole (@gladys_nicole) showed an unnamed manager confronting a group of customers. The clip, which had over 1.6 million views at the time of writing, had a text overlay saying that the manager tracked down the group because they paid $0 in tips.

Gladys claimed that the manager stopped the customers from leaving the place and directed them to go back and pay their tips to the waitress. The TikToker claimed that the group had enjoyed multiple beers and had a pool table to them for hours. The discussion seemed to be moderately heated and the manager was clearly mad and animated.

While this may be a rare incident, the comment section of the video had a clear opinion and that is “tipping has gone out of control”. Several users were up in arms against the manager calling it unfair and even illegal. One of the users called out the business for not paying their employees fairly and pushing the blame on to the customers.

Another user shared a very valid opinion which anyone who travels around the world can corroborate. The user said customer are set up in the U.S. to pay the salaries of the workers and this isn’t the case anywhere in the world but in America.  

Another viewer went on to call the incident ‘harassment’ on the manager’s part. The user went on to ask Glady’s the name of the place saying that they would “make sure that it gets out there”.

Consumer’s Have Reached The ‘Tip’ Of Their Tolerance

According to a survey of 1,199 Americans, conducted by CouponBirds, about 76.1% of consumers believe that tipping has “gone too far”.  The survey which also included 629 service industry workers found that, half of service workers, 51%, agreed to this and said that they would prefer to be paid a fair liveable wage and would let go of tips entirely for it.  The sentiment is prevalent and it has even led to the coining of terms like ‘tipflation’.

In another viral video, a chicago-based content creator and a server, listed the services she will not be tipping, with zero guilt. She said, she will not tip drive-throughs,  fro-yo, Auntie Anne’s and any to-go orders.”

Flipside of The Issue

On the other side of the increasing ‘tipflation’ are service workers who are often not paid the minimum wage as tips are expected to make up for it. In New York, businesses have a tip credit system that allows them to pay workers less if tips push their pay over the minimum wage limit.

The CouponBirds survey also found that 6 in 10 service workers rely on tips for more than 30% of their income and about 38.5% of tipped employees are paid between $7.25 and $10 per hour before tips, which is significantly low. The survey also found that about 2 in 10 employees were paid a mere $2.13 per hour before tips.