I posted to facepalm about an invoice I received for HVAC work I had done where over 1/3 of the bill was the option to tip. I'd never seen this before so I was surprised because seeing something like that on a bill for this sort of work is new to me.
I was generally looked at as the a-hole in this situation, but since I received it, it's been making me think a lot. Are trades jobs paying so little now that they don't receive a living wage anymore? Is this our future where the consumer is required to make sure everybody else is compensated fairly? I live on the border of Mexico, so there's big business in this line of work, and also the possibility of exploitation.
What are your thoughts on tipping now being included on trade jobs? The billing software this company chose to use is fully customizable, and so tipping isn't just a feature they can't remove. Is the workforce marketplace getting so bleak, that we're going to have to resort to tipping every profession to make it affordable to live? I mean this could just be a way to thank employees for a job well done, but when I've seen tips implemented elsewhere, it's usually in an industry where people can't live without those tips.
I'm open to discourse about this…I'm just really shocked that so many people were siding with the employer for doing this. I feel that this shouldn't be normalized, since this behavior can be used to justify paying lower wages!