I’m a server and for the most part, my income kinda depends on tips. And I know tips aren’t required to be given when dining out, but it has just become part of dining out culture, tipping culture. But has it gotten too far? Tipping on a $5 drip coffee? Even as someone who relies on tips, I think tipping culture has gotten a bit outrageous. 

As a server I make minimum wage and tips. At the end of the night when I go to cash out and go home my tips are always more than my hourly, which means I’m more dependent on what people are tipping me than my hourly wage, kinda a crazy thought. But what if people just decided to stop tipping, well then I’d probably wouldn’t be able to fill my gas tank up all the way. So it’s safe to say, I’m very appreciative of the tips people leave me, but now it’s just like, the normal? It’s more weird to not tip than to tip. But here comes the hard part. You know how crazy expensive everything is right now, what people can’t afford to tip? 

I do get my fair share of no tippers. Sometimes they have to wait a long time, maybe their food comes out wrong, whatever it may be that can lead to a lower tip percentage or just no tip at all. But what about the people where tipping isn’t just in their current budget, totally fair right. But then it comes to the loophole of the economy we are in, you don’t tip, I may not be able to get gas. An odd, but harsh concept to accept right?

So it seems like tipping is now just a normal thing when dining out in restaurants. But I don’t know about you, but even as a server who depends on tips, I’ve been noticing a lot of tipping options that seem very unnecessary. Back to the $5 drip coffee, when you go to buy the coffee and check out, do you notice a tip option? I do. And yes I guess you can say those baristas are still serving you the same as a server in a restaurant, but if you have to go up to a counter and order, do you really have to tip? I mean you’re being served coffee but you’re not really being “served” right? You’re going up and grabbing. Grab and go to me means I might be skipping the tip option (does that make me a bad person?)

So what side of the fence are you on? Do you agree with me that tipping culture has gotten too outrageous and just too expected now? Or if there’s a tipping option are you always going to click that 10%, 18%, or even 20%?