If you plan on going to just about any establishment where money can be spent, you ought to have at least an extra 15% of what you plan on spending with you. 

You may have seen the recent TikTok trend of people doing things that could be considered the bare minimum for someone else, then flashing a phone or tablet with the image of the infamous, yet daunting, “tip” screen that nearly every restaurant, store, salon, ice cream and coffee shop meets you with at the end of a transaction. While the trend is an exaggeration of the tipping expectations in our society, it’s not too far off from reality. 

I work at a place that accepts tips, and I’ll be the first to say that from an employee standpoint, it’s great! Every other week I get a check that consists of minimum wage for each hour I worked on top of a split portion of every card and cash tip received while I was clocked in.

I am extremely appreciative of the amount of money I make from tips alone; however, as a customer at any other establishment, I am overcome with an immense amount of guilt when a tablet is turned towards me, asking for 15% or more of what I’m already spending as a tip. 

So if we all share this pressure to tip, why do we keep doing it? America is one of the very few countries with these outrageous tipping standards. Some African and Middle Eastern countries share the same gratuity morals, where tipping is customary and expected by servers, according to Western Union. In some South American countries, a 10% gratuity is included in the bill.

In America, we are expected to tip not only our traditional servers but also baristas, hotel staff, delivery drivers, hair stylists, nail technicians, estheticians and even sometimes the cashiers. 

There are people out there who argue that you shouldn’t go out if you can’t afford to tip, but the people who can’t afford to tip are the same people who have to live off tips. America’s tipping expectations have gone through the roof as a result of companies paying their employees at a minimum wage that hasn’t caught up with the living expenses we are being faced with today. State minimum wage in Arkansas is set at $11 an hour, a median rate compared to the other 49 states. In some states, employers follow the federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 per hour, which was set in July 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Now I’m no mathemetician, but someone who works 40 hours a week at a job receiving the federal minimum wage without tips would barely make enough money to pay for a one-bedroom apartment in most cities. 

So, yeah, tipping is nice and all, it really helps out broke college kids who don’t have the availability to work 40 hours a week at a minimum wage job, but those same broke college kids living off tips are the ones struggling to go out with friends.

With the tipping standards as high as they are, it is impossible to go out without feeling guilty for choosing “no tip” on the tipping screen or leaving loose change as their only offering of gratuity. 

The bottom line is, our tipping culture is toxic, and the real problem isn’t the customers, it’s the underpaying corporations.