I guess I'm just venting. I, like many other people, have realized that tipping expectations have gotten truly out of hand in the last year or so. Gone are the days when you tipped just for service: now even some self-checkouts ask you to add a gratuity.
I'm acutely aware of the fact that most people are paid a sub-living wage, especially in retail/food service. But I also refuse to be a part of the expansion of something as unethical as tipping culture.
I tip servers because I have to. Their wages are literally built from tips, and that atrocity has been legally enshrined in the form of tipped wages. But when it comes to the idea that I should tip non-service, non-tipped-wage people, two thoughts come to mind:
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What exactly am I tipping for?
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And much more importantly, if we allow tipping everyone to become the norm, I promise you the powers that be will try their damnedest to transition that 'you have to tip them' mentality away from just tipped-wage workers to low-paid workers in general. It would just be one more way the owning class gets to pass the buck see what I did there? and force the working class to pay their workers for them.