Woman Talks About the Moment She Realized Tipping Culture In US Is ‘Getting Out of Hand'

The ongoing debate surrounding the tipping culture in the US is not getting resolved anytime soon. While the culture has been prevalent for a long time now, the ongoing inflation has complicated tipping decisions. Per the new tipping norms, customers are expected to pay higher and higher amounts. There is a large section of people who think that it is the employer's responsibility to compensate servers well so that they do not have to depend on tips.

In a viral video posted on TikTok, Janine (@beautybyjrw), an esthetician talks about how tips in her service work. She says that she never sets any prices and clients usually leave her an extra tip. “None of that seems unreasonable. It’s never expected, always appreciated,” she says.

However, she doesn't like the fact that tipping has now seeped into almost every transaction nowadays. She goes on to talk about the time when she ordered a pair of earrings from a major online retailer and how she was asked to leave a tip at the time of the checkout. 

"Excuse me? Like what am I tipping for?" she asks. She says that her online experience was smooth but it did not involve a direct service from an employee. "The moment that I realized just how out of hand tipping culture is getting," Janine says. She talks about the incident and says how there was absolutely "no service provided." "I just ordered online," she quips. "These companies need to start paying their employees properly," she concludes.

People flocked to the comment section to write about what they felt and some people asked about how the tipping culture works in the world of beauty. One user asked: "As an esthetician, what do you see as an appropriate tip amount? Because surely the rule isn’t still 15-20% for a $500 service, is it? This question has kept me from going. What is a typical tip?"

Another user wrote, "Tipping in general is ridiculous for restaurant service. A 15% tip on a $50 meal equates to $90 an hour if they spend 5 min of their time on you."

The US norm of tipping at least 20% on a meal has always been a topic of discussion for European travelers. In recent years, the trend of including a tip prompt in every transaction has become routine. After the pandemic, digital payment systems have also started including tip prompts, and for a long time, many people were happily paying more to keep the business ongoing. 

As per the experts at the Emily Post Institute, tipping at a sit-down restaurant should be calculated on the pre-tax total. "For large parties, this can be quite different than the total," they note.

A Pew Research study found that American tipping behaviors vary widely depending on the situation. Nearly six in ten, which is 57% of the respondents, in this survey said that they would pay 15% or less as a tip for an average meal at a sit-down restaurant. The study also found what the TikTok user tried to say—most people associate tips with service. In this survey, 77% of people said that the quality of the service was one of the major factors that dictated how much they would eventually pay as a tip.

The study also found that most Americans were against automatic service charges. Most adults were only comfortable paying tips in a sit-down restaurant and 78% said that they were willing to pay a tip in bars, and rideshare services.