As I’m sure people here know, a gratuity - or tip - at its’ best meant as an additional amount of money above the cost of something to show gratitude for going above and beyond the job parameters and / or for exceptional performance of the experience one has directly with a worker.
Nowadays, tho, it seems we’re still referring to rampant and unearned / unfounded additional percentages on bills as “tips”, which they clearly are not. Obviously, we need to return to the days of tipping in its’ original form with absolutely no shame or judgement on not paying one, as well as seeing to employees being paid fairly… but until then, I believe it’s only proper to alter the nomenclature of this… thing… to something more accurate.
A couple of suggestions (these are just inspirations, I’m sure you lot will have better ones):
- employer exploitative wage cutting charge
- arbitrary “just cuz” unfounded surcharge
- we don’t care about our employees or customers fee
- entitlement ransom charge
…and if this appears to be a way of calling out and shaming today’s completely out of control tipping culture, well… that’s because it is (as well as attempting to reintroduce fairness and sanity to transactions for both sides).
EDIT: thanks to those who’ve enlightened me as to the origins of tipping, which I was initially unaware of. Reworded the opening statement to reflect this.