Tips are rooted in American culture, but their origins are murky. Tips may have started in the late Middle Ages when a teacher gave his servant some coins as an expression of goodwill.
In the sixteenth century, it was expected that guests at English mansions would give a “vail” or a small amount of money at the end of the visit to compensate the owner’s servants who worked beyond their normal duties.
Kerry Segrave, author of “Tipping: An American History of Social Gratuities“, explained that in 1760, the lackeys, valets and servants of gentlemen waited for vouchers, which supposed a great expense for the guests. The nobility and the aristocracy began to complain. An attempt to abolish the vailes in London in 1764 sparked riots.
Tips were soon extended to British business establishments, such as hotels, pubs and restaurants. In 1800, the Scottish philosopher and writer Thomas Carlyle complained about having tipped a waiter at the Bell Inn in Gloucester, “the dirty scrubbing of a waiter complained about his assignment, which I considered liberal.” I added sixpence, and [he ] produced an arc that was about to reward with a kick, damn the race of footmen!
It is not clear when the word “tip” entered the English language, but some speculate that the origins of the word come from Samuel Johnson. Johnson frequented a coffee shop that had a bowl labeled “To ensure promptness,” and Johnson and other guests would put a coin in the bowl throughout the night to receive better service.
This was soon shortened to “T.I.P.” and then simply tip.
Before 1840, the Americans did not tip. But, after the Civil War, the newly arrived Americans visited Europe and brought the practice home to show that they had been abroad and that they knew the Gentile rules. A New York Times editor complained that, once tips were established in the United States, it quickly spread like “evil insects and weeds.”
In the 1900s, Americans considered tips to be the norm and, in fact, were frequently criticized for overstepping boundaries. The British complained that the “liberal but wrong” Americans gave too much importance, which led the servants to feel neglected by the British. Similarly, a 1908 Travel magazine discovered that Americans went over but received poorer service because Americans did not know how to treat servants and service members.
As tips became widespread in the United States, many considered it to be antithetical to democracy and the American ideals of equality. In 1891, journalist Arthur Gaye wrote that advice should be given to someone “who is presumed to be inferior to the donor, not only in worldly wealth, but also in social position.” “Tips, and the aristocratic idea he exemplifies, is what we leave Europe to escape,” wrote William Scott in his 1916 anti-tipping pamphlet, “The Itching Palm,” in which he argued that tips were so “un-American” “as” slavery. “
In 1904, the Anti-Aging Society of America emerged in Georgia, and its 100,000 members signed pledges not to tip anyone for a year. In 1909, Washington became the first of six states to pass a law against overturning. However, the new laws were rarely enforced, and, by 1926, all anti-rollover laws had been repealed.
Tips changed again in the 1960s, when Congress agreed that workers could receive a lower minimum wage if part of their salary came from tips. The minimum wage for workers who receive tips is $ 2.13, which has not changed in more than 20 years, provided that those workers receive at least $ 7.25 in tips per hour. Saru Jayaraman, author of Behind the Kitchen Door, explains that a minimum wage of $ 2.13 means that his total salary will go to taxes and forces encourage workers to live off their tips.
Others have noticed that because waiters live off their tips, tipping in the United States is more mandatory than voluntary, rarely related to the quality of service and may be based on racial and sexual discrimination. Professor Michael Lynn’s extensive research on tips suggests that this story and the association with giving money to inferiors may be the reason why we continue to tip today.
Lynn postulates that “[it is]a council because we feel guilty that people wait for us.” According to reports, this guilt of society was noticed by Benjamin Franklin in Paris, who said: “To surpass is to look like an ass: not to carry out is to look like an even bigger ass”.
To combat many of these problems with tips, some American restaurants, such as Sushi Yasuda and Riki Restaurant, have become the news to prohibit tips in their restaurants and, instead, pay the waiters higher salaries. In 2015, several restaurant groups also banned advice.