NPR on Why We Think We Tip (We're Wrong)

I don't tip unless a server deserves it. It's not my responsibility to subsidize their wages because their boss wants to make a higher profit and not pay them a decent wage. In many professions, a "tip" could be considered a bribe...imagine tipping a cop or a teacher. It also feels like blackmail when servers perform their job, the job they're paid to do, according to how much one greases their palm... It's not very professional. To be quite frank, if servers want better wages, they should unionize and protest, not panhandle customers... The truth is, good service is rare now a days... between servers who can't speak English, have the nerve to call you "dude" or "bro"...spend more time bitching to other waiters in Spanish about how people don't tip enough, or are spending more time chit chatting with their coworkers than doing their job... it's hard to really empathize with them. Yeah, it isn't an easy job... but many aren't. That doesn't mean a customer should be forced to subsidize their wages....and how many actually report their tips as income and pay taxes on them? Do the rest of us have the privilege of cheating on our taxes and getting away with it that easily?

My girlfriend used to only make about $2.50 an hour before tips.  That was standard in Pennsylvania.  It's also mandatory for them to declare revenue based on a percentage of their sales and the government taxes them based on that.  So if you don't leave the tip, the Government taxes the server on money they didn't even receive.  Often she would get checks for $0 or owe money because overall tax is deducted from their hourly wages based on the assumption that customers are tipping her a certain amount in cash.  If you don't tip, the Government still assumes you were paid in cash and the server must pay taxes on that.  Tip because it's how the system works.  It's assumed in our society and if you go out to a restaurant and don't tip you are being disingenuous because you should know what you are getting into before the bill arrives.  Don't go to a restaurant if you aren't prepared to tip.  That being said, if a waiter or waitress is disrespectful or shows atrocious service then they aren't really doing their job and don't deserve a tip.  Just remember that waitstaff hardly has any control over what happens in the kitchen so it's not really fair to penalize them for mistakes that happen back there.    

they don't do it in Europe because servers actually get paid what they should.

When did the memo go out pushing the standard rate from 15% to 20%... Clearly the writer is an ex or current waiter... but aren't they all?

To spread good karma. It is only table waiting and they have to earn a living, also. The tip, also goes a long way to destroy the class system. California is rife with bigotry.

Angela Garcia as NeonMosfet

It's an idiotic and uncomfortable social practice and one I hope that any new restauranteur would think twice about before blindly instituting. Several modern eateries around LA disallow tipping, choosing instead to pay their staff a working wage. Some even go so far as to price food at even dollar amounts and include tax! Imagine ordering a $20 meal, paying with a $20 bill, and getting no change! It's a truly transformative experience.

What ticks me off is that this simple type of transaction – one where no one is guilted into anything of nickeled and dimed with tricky pricing – is such an outlier that most will never have experienced it.

I ask you: Where is the outrage?

Most people "leave a tip that ... best captures, in monetary terms, the quality of service ...."

"[M]ost of us tip the standard percentage regardless of the quality of service received."

Huh? The contradiction hardly matters, however, since NPR evidently provided no methodology or data to justify the conclusion (their usual approach).

"[I]s a mandatory gratuity charge better than our practice of tipping, or is it, like universal health care, just one step in the wrong direction towards -- gasp -- socialism?"

How can a gratuity ("something given voluntarily") be mandatory? I think you mean "mandatory tip," e.g. (not i.e.). More importantly, if you're going to make fun of the American aversion to socialism, then you need to cite successful examples of socialism and explain the highly visible failures.