the $2.13 tipped wage hasn't moved since 1991. went down a rabbit hole on how we got here
edit: since a few people pointed it out, $2.13 is the federal minimum, not what every state pays. 7 states (AK, CA, MN, MT, NV, OR, WA) don't allow the tip credit at all, servers there get full minimum wage plus tips. but around 15 states, mostly in the south like TX, GA, TN, still pay exactly $2.13
so i spent a few evenings digging into where american tipping actually came from. some of it surprised me, figured this sub would appreciate it
- it started in england in the 1700s. guests at rich houses had to pay the servants on the way out. for the coat, the hat, the gloves. it was called "vails". when some rich families banned it and raised wages instead, footmen literally rioted in london in 1764 :)
- after the civil war rich americans brought it home from europe as a status thing. tons of people hated it back then, called it un-american
- washington banned tipping in 1909. mississippi, arkansas, iowa, south carolina, tennessee followed. by 1926 every one of those laws was gone. nobody could enforce them
- pullman (the sleeping car company) paid porters tiny wages and let passengers cover the rest. that's pretty much the model we still have
- 1966 is the big one. congress finally gave restaurant workers minimum wage but added the "tip credit", owners could count tips as part of it. then in 1996 congress froze the tipped wage at $2.13, where it had been since 1991. regular minimum went up since. this one never did
stuff i didn't expect:
- "TIPS = to insure promptness" is fake. the word shows up in english slang in the early 1600s, way before acronyms like that were a thing
- "tipping comes from slavery" isn't quite right either. the custom came from europe. that history explains how it got locked in here and who was made to live on it, not where it started
- service quality barely changes how much people tip (Lynn & McCall 2000 if anyone wants to look it up). stuff like a touch on the shoulder, a smiley on the bill or a piece of chocolate with the check does more, that's from other studies by the same guy, Michael Lynn
7 states, CA and WA among them, don't allow the tip credit at all. curious what people here think would actually fix it. ban it everywhere? or do menus just go up and everyone gets mad, like what happened to danny meyer's no-tip restaurants
made a video on all this if anyone wants the long version. visuals and voice are ai-assisted, script and research are mine: https://youtu.be/pKfkXNOqwJA