I feel like even if they paid their delivery people a reasonable wage they'd still expect tips. Ive had movers that made over 50/hour not including the cost of materials/truck/etc ask for a tip.
I was all for Uber being tip free until drivers started driving for Lyft which does tips in-app, and now all the drivers expect it.
I've always felt this way with Pizza. Most places charge a delivery fee. That itself should be the tip. If it costs more to deliver a pizza then work it into the price.
I believe Amazon did this with Amazon Fresh. The tip option in the app went away, and when I asked the delivery person, he said their pay had been increased and they were good. No tip required. He said it with a smile on his face, but who knows if he was really dying inside.
The worst part for me - places here in NZ are trying to introduce it. I've solved it by not going back, that that doesn't work if the practice spreads.
Curious, I live in Auckland and haven't seen mention of tips except in 'hipster' cafes and I rarely see gold coins or notes. I wonder if it's less about baiting Americans and more about emulating Americans.
I live in Lithuania and random places are trying to introduce it, such as news agent type of convenience store. "A pack of cigarettes and here's your tip", em, no.
>The solution is to pay them better and forbid them from taking tips. Make it clear to customers that it's not even allowed, let alone expected.
That's basically what Uber did (except for "you have to refuse once"). They tried to make it a tip-not-required zone and make everyone understand this going in. And yet still, you hear the refrain,
"What, I'm basically a cabbie. Don't you tip cabbies? Shouldn't I be getting tips?"[2] [3]
Even the media coverage comes with that implicit assumption. To paraphrase: "under the ruling, Uber drivers can solicit tips -- you know, like cabbies, duh".[1]
It's like people think that tipping cabbies is some fundamental invariant of reality rather than a default custom that can be overridden by explicit agreement. [2]
My uncle still thinks I'm a bad person because I didn't visibly tip the Lyft driver. "No, it's through the app" 'sure, sure...'.
I imagine the "contractor" status of Uber drivers gets in the way. If they'd bite the bullet and hire drivers as proper employees, a prohibition on taking tips might stick.
There's a restaurant in my neighborhood that does this (no tips, built into the price) and I really appreciate it. It's so much "easier" that I'm more inclined to drop in.
Why are we taught by people to tip some personell and not to tip others?
Because the first group has a very low income. That's why.
Because corporations cannot be trusted to treat their people nicely. That's why.
Because the first group usually works hard and shows effort, while the others don't. That's why.
I don't mind to tip when someone has done an excellent service, but i always try to make sure my tip goes to that person directly and not some weird strange thing like a jar or a fund the corporation came up with.
Don't neglect that you get a little bit of affirmation from it. I am the powerful money holder here, you are the person relying on charity from me to make the rent. Maybe I'll even make you dance a little for it.
Really helps cement the power relationship and emphasise the class differences.
That's the incentive to work hard so that you are not part of that group. That group doesn't have much to offer, and often didn't work hard to offer anything society valued. I knew, from an early age, that the consequence of not trying at school was ending up in a dead-end job.
> Because the first group usually works hard and shows effort, while the others don't
Citation needed - their work is hard because they have little leverage. Some have the deck stacked against them, fair enough, but that first group exists in places with less opportunity inequality, and far more welfare than in the US.
Many people spend most of their lives on their careers, trying to improve their worth to society, and offer things deemed valuable. Few go into accounting for the love of it, but because society desires accountants.
EDIT: there are exceptions. Temporary jobs held by students, people from impoverished backgrounds, or who were never motivated to succeed, low-skilled immigrants that fall into these last two categories. These are exceptional, sympathetic situations (except students, their condition is temporary), but society should seek to reduce these groups, rather than normalise them by developing some kind of coping mechanism. Welfare is a good safety net for all citizens, but low-paid work is too. The problem is groups who are stuck in ow-paid work with little opportunity to escape; in those cases it's not "greedy" corporations to do anything - it's exclusively the governments role to participate in any social engineering efforts.
>That's the incentive to work hard so that you are not part of that group.
It's an incentive, but not the solution. It's way way more complex than a "just work hard and everything will be ok" stigma.
>Some have the deck stacked against them, fair enough,
Over 80% of the world population lives in poverty. I don't know what kind of decks are dealt, but casinos would be purchasing these decks by the millions.
> and not some weird strange thing like a jar or a fund the corporation came up with.
BTW, if a company puts out a tip jar, by law that tip jar must actually go to the employees. The company cannot come along and take the contents of the jar for itself (and if they try, employees can sue them).
Sometimes the company just takes it for itself. Sometimes the restaurant is contracting out with a third-party company for deliveries and the delivery fee goes to the third-party company (but, again, not to the driver themselves).
With pizza, your solution can't work. You have to pay the driver base pay, and they get tips on top. So the base pay has to come from the menu price + delivery fee, and if you get rid of the delivery fee, it has to come from the menu price. But if you raise that, you're distorting demand by making in-restaurant purchases more expensive.
I was all for Uber being tip free until drivers started driving for Lyft which does tips in-app, and now all the drivers expect it.
I've always felt this way with Pizza. Most places charge a delivery fee. That itself should be the tip. If it costs more to deliver a pizza then work it into the price.