Live data from Hacker News

You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

wsj.com

501–508 of 508 posts

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A very easy, relatively pleasant way to get through life in the US if you're well-off enough that you routinely buy coffee in expensive coffee shops: just always tip. Anywhere there's a tip line. You never have to figure anything out, and sometimes people really appreciate it. This echoes the sentiment that 'if you can't afford to pay a X% tip, you can't afford to buy the product'. Problem is that it seems to keep g…

Tips shouldn't be expected if you're on regular minimum wage rather than the tipped wage.

Maybe service workers should wear badges showing their hourly wage, then customers would know how much they should tip. /s

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#502

Hacker News threads about tipping are always rough. US tipping is not complicated. You are being asked to share with a service worker's employer some of the burden of compensating them. The notion that you're rewarding exceptional service is a polite fiction. Depending on where you are, the tip is either expected or it isn't. Unfortunately for the mindset of a typical software developer, there won't be much clarity o…

To elaborate on this, there are currently only seven US states that require employers to pay tipped employees full state minimum wage before tips: Alaska, California, Nevada, Oregon, Minnesota, Montana, and Washington. For seventeen states, the state minimum cash wage payment is the same as that required under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act ($2.13/hour).

This is not to justify abstaining from tipping in the seven "full-minimum-wage" states. This is merely to provide some quantitative clarification of "being asked to share with a service worker's employer some of the burden of compensating them".

Source: https://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#503
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the straight forward and honest opinion. You are right, I don't suffer from any misunderstanding. I simply don't want to pay more than advertised and I think tipping is just the wrong way to pay for services - that should just be included in the price. And then I guess I'm simply not a very empathetic person and I have no problem with other people considering me a jerk - I simply don't care. And as long…

You say you feel no guilt because you "have no problem with other people considering me a jerk." To me, guilt has little to do with the sense that other people consider me a jerk--guilt is about the knowledge that I've hurt someone. I think it's respectable, even admirable, to not care about what other people think of you. But if you hurt people when it benefits you and you can get away with it, it's not quite suffic…

Sure, I don't care about that either.

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I encourage you to talk to service workers to see how often this happens

It's illegal. They can sue the restaurant. As far as I can tell most servers like tips because it lets them earn much more money than minimum wage. Also, nowadays it's quite easy to get a message out to a huge audience. I'd certainly boycott any place that were so horribly mistreating its employees.

Seriously, go over to reddit and read /r/legaladvice for a while.

The almost daily litany of posts of "my employer is doing (list of highly illegal things involving wages), what should I do" will be a pretty big wakeup call for you. And if you think "well they can just sue" is an easy answer, remember employees who are identifiable as the source of wage complaints are at risk of being fired. That's illegal, too, but do you really think an employer who's already breaking labor laws will be scrupulous about not retaliating?

Also, these folks will really open your eyes (click through to the full report linked at the bottom):

https://www.epi.org/publication/wage-theft-bigger-problem-fo...

Their data (2012) showed that the amount recovered from wage claims against US employers was three times the dollar value of all robberies in the US combined. Just the amount recovered; the amount actually owed but not paid is likely to be larger.

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#505

Hacker News threads about tipping are always rough. US tipping is not complicated. You are being asked to share with a service worker's employer some of the burden of compensating them. The notion that you're rewarding exceptional service is a polite fiction. Depending on where you are, the tip is either expected or it isn't. Unfortunately for the mindset of a typical software developer, there won't be much clarity o…

Thank you

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a false equivalency.

How is it different? They are both a group of people providing you with added value for a specific price.

The simplest difference is expectation.

Re: You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping

#507
I am sick of these practices. They will only hurt those who work for tips. I stopped tipping once I realized this borders on extortion. I don't give a damn you won't serve me next time, your manager will have a different opinion when proper reviews will appear online. It will also push me into making my own food. I got really fed up with this practice when certain gas stations put labels that filling yourself is against the law. Tipping IS A MATTER OF CHOICE and is NOT OBLIGATORY!!! If you think subversive actions like coercing people to leave tips will go unnoticed, dear managers, YOU ARE WRONG!

Business doesn't grow through pulling strings but through good service. It's our money you work for, not the other way around.

Any attempts of coercion will be met with only the due amount.

Tired of this stupid thing, freakin' enough.

Post reply on HN