Pros And Cons Of Tipping

In the United States the custom of paying gratuity has become a costly social norm. The expectation of leaving a substantial tip for average service should be challenged. Tipping is not only unnecessary, but also causes social issues. The many reasons that tipping should be abolished include public opinion, tipping messes with the overall pay of workers, other countries views and psychological problems pertaining to the subject.
Public opinion has showed that if you stray away from leaving a tip, your actions can be seen as rude or disrespectful. According to Elite Daily editor John Haltiwanger, “Bad tippers are rarely people you’d want to be associated with.” and “Being a bad tipper is a sign of poor character.” This is a prime example that
One of these problems is racial discrimination. Cornell University did research on the question “Does a server’s race affect the size of tips that consumers leave?” Their findings to this question were that “Both black and white restaurant customers tipped white servers more than they did black servers, even when the quality of the service from the white and black servers was the same.” This shows that it is very common to racially discriminate through tipping. By getting a lower tip a black server could be angry or even disappointed in himself for not getting as much as a white server, even though it is in no way his fault. Another way that tipping is discriminatory is through employees looks. As said by Huffington Post, “Studies by Michael Lynn, the Cornell professor and tipping expert, have shown that waitresses with larger breasts, smaller body sizes and blond hair tend to earn more tips than waitresses without such attributes.” This study shows that this type of discrimination is common and very apparent in today’s society. This could impact the self-esteem of many waitresses and waiters in America. It should not be a common practice to tip based off of looks instead of quality of service, but that is what this country has turned to. A separate problem from that is the sexual harassment waitresses’ experience. It is common for customers to behave inappropriately to female servers but because of the need for a good tip, waitresses put up with the harassment. A report from Huffington post says “This dynamic contributes to the restaurant industry's status as the single largest source of sexual harassment claims in the U.S." This study shows how tipping lends itself to such a large problem in this country and is one of the many reasons it should be