I don’t give tips because I don’t support a system based on hidden injustice. It is a socially normalized way of not paying a normal salary, but shifting part of the responsibility onto the customer’s shoulders, even though the customer has simply come to receive a service.
Historically, the idea of tips did not arise as a token of gratitude for a job well done. It arose as an instrument of power and humiliation. The rich gave or even threw small change to servants to emphasize the social hierarchy. It was not remuneration, it was a favor from above.
In the US, where this problem is still prevalent today, former slaves were often not paid at all after slavery was abolished. They were faced with the fact: “Work, and if the customer gives you a tip, that will be your reward.” Tips became a substitute for wages, not a bonus.
I have no desire to participate in this legacy — a system where a company can avoid paying a normal wage because “the customer will pay extra.” This is neither fair nor transparent.
And yet people are made to feel that if they don’t pay extra, they are bad, stingy or disrespectful. This is social pressure, not gratitude. If a tip is expected, it is no longer voluntary. If you are looked at askance because you paid exactly what was on the bill, the problem is not with you. The problem is with the system that tries to emotionally pressure the customer to cover the employer’s responsibilities.
Good service is not extra. It is not a bonus. It is work.
I pay for the service. Not for the illusion that I am a “good person.” Not for maintaining a system based on historical injustice.
That is why I do not give tips.