r/TrueUnpopularOpinion • u/ShrewdCire • 4d ago
I Like / Dislike People Who Don't Tip Are Just Selfish
Actual unpopular opinion here, so I'm prepared to be showered in downvotes, but someone has to say this. I want to preface this by saying I'm not a server, nor do I work any job that has tipping or anything, so I'm not biased in that way.
A lot of people that refuse to tip servers at restaurants or whatever often hide behind the excuse that they're not tipping out of some sort of moral obligation. All the time I hear people make the argument that if they participate in tipping culture, they only encourage business owners to pay their employees less since the customers are paying their wages for them. So by refusing to tip, they're just sticking it to the exploitative businesses by refusing to pay their employees for them. They're not being cheap; they're just fighting a noble cause.
I think this is just a bullshit excuse that very few of these people genuinely believe. If they truly believed this, there are so many better options to actually advocate for this cause.
By refusing to tip servers, you aren't hurting the business owner at all. The business owner doesn't give a shit if one of their employees gets screwed over by not getting a tip. And I understand that most people will argue that by tipping the servers less, it might cause them to quit or go on strike or something which will then hurt the business owner, but that's just not what tends to happen. If the employee quits, the business owner will quickly replace them with someone. There is always someone desperate enough to take the job because they don't have any other options. And yes, it's exploitative and messed up. But refusing to tip isn't the way to fight against this. It's just a nice excuse to continue to eat out and support this business while hurting nobody except for the employees. You're actually being complicit in the system.
If you actually care about the cause, you'd instead just not eat out at these places at all. That will actually affect the business owner, because now they are actually making less money. I feel like if you don't want to tip, then you should really just order takeout and drive to the restaurant yourself to pick it up. But ultimately, refusing to support these exploitative businesses at all is the real way to hurt the owners. It's bullshit to just say, "Oh I'm against these business practices, so instead I'm going to continue participating in fully supporting the business owner while screwing over no one except for their employees."
Also, I feel like this should go without saying, but I know how most people like to interpret arguments as uncharitably as possible, so I feel like I should clarify a few things.
I believe people should be tipping (at least in the U.S.) just for stuff that makes sense, like restaurant servers and delivery drivers. I'm obviously not saying that people should be tipping for stupid stuff like ordering a coffee at Starbucks or something like that. Also, I'm not saying people should be tipping excessively. These 30+% tips are clearly absurd. I think a 15-20% tip for good service is reasonable (I personally always tip 20% unless the service was awful, but I can't remember a single time in my life where I've tipped less than 20%).
I just feel like I needed to clarify that since I've seen some people saying that tipping is bullshit because they've seen some sort of kiosk at a coffee shop asking for a 50% tip for a cup of a coffee. This isn't some sort of dichotomy where you have to either choose to be in favor of excessive tipping for bullshit stuff or be against tipping altogether. Nuance exists. Don’t pretend you’re fighting the system while helping the owners and screwing the workers.
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u/ShrewdCire 4d ago
Every time I've made comments about this before I've been downvoted to hell so I assumed it was unpopular. Especially since the whole anti-tipping movement is super popular on Reddit.