RE: Uber Adding Tipping on the App Sets a Bad Precedence for Expectation
I generally agree with you regarding tipping. And with your disclaimer that I do tip well anyways 😁
In most cases it would make more sense for the business to pay the right wage, rather than the customers decide what to pay. (Which just means the normal customers subsidize the ones who want to be cheap.)
It feels good to give a tip just because you want to rather than you feel obligated. I wish that's just how tipping worked.
Counter-intuitively, tipping (when it becomes an obligation) is PERFECT for cheap people because it allows them to opt out and essentially not pay for service they received. The company should just pay whatever amount customers are supposed to feel obligated to pay, and then tips can be tokens of appreciation on top, that you did because you wanted to.
It's tricky because the people who work the tipped jobs usually LOVE tips - they earn more that way than through a normal hourly wage for the same kind of work. Unfortunately, like you said, it's pretty unfair for the consumer.
I have to be honest, I don't mind tipping cuz it does feel good to give a nice tip when deserved. But it could be a better system.
Ya I guess I do like tipping too. Times where it's really annoyed me is when I used to play poker. The casino could easily just pay dealers per hand.
But instead players are expected to do it, and it doesn't feel good or anything, you just do it as your duty when you win a hand. And a few people who don't mind being anti-social don't do it.
Eating in restaurants I always enjoy tipping. I guess what would be best for everyone is if they were paid a better base salary but people still realized that it's nice to tip.
Yes, but if tipping didn't exist for that particular industry, the pay would likely have to be higher, otherwise people wouldn't take up on those jobs.
Take Uber right now. I bet the founders are only doing this because they've noticed Uber drivers are starting to leave them because they are unhappy with the pay. So if they did nothing, Uber would lose those drivers. But instead of paying them higher wages, their "solution" is to coerce customers into tipping the drivers.
At the same time they pretend the Uber driving costs for the customers didn't actually increase because the customers "don't have to" pay the tips, so Uber can continue to pretend its tariffs are "competitive" with its competitors. But as we all know from other industries where tipping has become "expected" that this is not how it works, and the costs have indeed increased for customers with this move. Maybe not in the short time, until everyone gets accustomed with this move, but definitely in the long term.
Agreed. Tipping is a "lose-lose" action, because customers lose by feeling anxiety over how much they should be tipping or if they should be tipping at all, and the employees also lose because it just means the employer will not be paying them what they are worth "because they are getting tips anyway."
Tipping should be discouraged everywhere.