Tipping Case Study

In the spring of 2016, 19 million people went to a restaurant. All of them confronted with the question, how much to tip? Many people believe that tipping is a way to reward a server for exceptional service, or to reprimand them for atrocious. However, with the way servers get paid, it is clear that this is not the case. Tipping at restaurants should get banned as it promotes poor business practices, raises ethical problems, and perpetuates discrimination.

Tipping in restaurants should get prohibited because it promotes poor business practices. As stated before, tipping is part of how servers get paid. According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, much of states’ minimum wage laws do not apply to tipped workers. In New York, despite a raise to

Jonny Pugh from the University of Oxford explains that many businesses have implemented a recent development in tipping technology. He goes on to explain that “instead of leaving a jar on the till, some coffee shops and sandwich shops have started asking customers to press a button on an iPad to indicate how much they would like to tip”(Source A). This seems to put unnecessary pressure on the customer to tip. These businesses are manipulating social norms in a way that makes customers question where and when to tip. Consequently, tips are a supplement to what employers pay them, instead of a reward for good service. Sanjay Sanghoee of The Huffington Post says, “most customers are unaware of this reality and don’t tip for this reason but for good service. That means the real problem here is in the disconnect between employers and the public about what tips are really for.”(Source C). The fact that customers are typically unaware of what their tip actually does, they may feel that it is used as a reward system for their server. Furthermore, not everybody tips the same anyway. If a customer tips of less than 15-20% what right do they possess to seize that server’s money? They have the same amount of right to do that as they do to refuse to pay the bill. The tipping system raises ethical questions that need to be