Tipping situations

I have seen numerous posts about tipping, and I am wondering what people's feelings are on a variety of cases.

First, I want to say that I always tip at restaurants and for things like pizza delivery, bartenders, the rare cases where I take an uber or something, etc. That is a standard part of the social contract–if you go to those places, you should expect to tip, at least in my view. I even tend to tip well if the service is bad if I feel it is due to there not being enough waiters/waitresses hired, since that isn't their fault, or if the food is bad, because again that isn't their fault.

So this isn't an anti-tip post.

My question about tipping relates to expanded tipping.

• For example, tip jars as checkout counters at places like Subway, or McDonalds, or a bakery, or other places where you stand in line, place your order, wait, and pick up your own food, and clean your own space (if you eat there).
  • I have real mixed feelings about tipping at these places. This seems to just be a way for the employer to try to get around paying their employee–and, on top of that, it is not clear how the money is divided.
    • If I give a tip on a subway sandwich order it is not clear whether the machine knows to give it to the person who made the sandwich over the person at the cash register, or somebody who works a different shift. It is also not even clear if the company owner really gives the money to employees.

I am just wondering how people handle the expanding role of tips in the economy. Again, I am not talking about standard tipping rules at restaurants, pizza delivery, car rides, etc.

Do you feel that one is obligated to tip at any location that has a tip jar?

• I have heard about cases where people are asked to give tips when buying movie tickets at major chain movie theaters for example—but it doesn't seem to me that we should make that part of the expected social contract here.

At the same time, I feel that not-tipping when it should be expected is pretty low and basically stealing labor for an employee. So I struggle over what to do in these expanded cases.

I am wondering what rules other people follow here when it comes to the expansion of businesses asking for tips.

• Do you give tips at fast food?
• Do you give tips for movie tickets or cashiers at general stores etc if there is a tip jar?
• Does merely requesting a tip as part of the checkout process via credit card, or with a tip jar, obligate one to give a tip?

I am really curious what internal rules people are using in these new cases.