Originally Posted by
hedur
Huh? Are you joking?
No. Not joking. I've never had a waiter talk to me about my tip and their kids or livelihood. Yes, I'm aware it comprises a majority of their wages, but the way you frame it - "that's why we tip them" - is logically incorrect.
That's where statements like "their livelihood depends on it!" and "you didn't tip me enough so I can't feed my kids!" comes from. That's why someone just said, "So I'll go ahead and lower your wages to $3.75 an hour. Is that ok"?
You're basing your argument off of random OMNI posts? LOL.
The assumption is that waiters make less than minimum wage which is why it's a job where tipping is expected. And in most states they DO make less than minimum wage so it makes sense to tip. In the states where they don't, it doesn't. But it's too engrained in the culture now to change it.
Again, I really don't think the causality is the way you describe it. The minimum wage in the U.S. came into being in the mid 1930's. I'm not sure when/where waitstaff became exempt from it (if it wasn't that way at the law's inception). Lots of articles talk about the origins of tipping...first page of Google results has a few theories that get you at least back to the medieval times.
I don't think that tipping makes any more or less sense based on whether the state has a minimum wage applicable to waiters. Culturally, the custom makes the same amount of sense everywhere within that culture... (For what it's worth, I *don't* believe it's the most economically efficient system for compensating waiters, but I guess there are other positive elements of tipping that have made us culturally choose that trade-off.)