Ali Williams

Jayci Reed takes a call for an order during her shift. Reed works as a waitress at Atlantic Golf and Country Club.

Tipping. Most people hardly think twice about it. But if a person takes a moment to consider the spare change they put in the tip jar or on the restaurant table, the story impacts almost everyone: the tippers and the tipped.

According to a 2014 Economic Policy Institute article, there are approximately 4.3 million tipped workers in the United States, and roughly 2.5 million are waiters and bartenders. These tipped employees are expected to earn the majority of their wage from tips, which are optional funds that customers choose to pay. Whereas tips were once thought of as an act of courtesy, a new debate has sparked across the country surrounding today’s so-called tipping culture. Customers feel more pressure than ever to pay additional funds, while tipped employees do what they can to live off an uncertain wage in an increasingly inflated economy.

AHS students responding to a survey shared a wide variety of opinions on tipping. The questions in said survey included topics like frequency of tipping, employment as a tipped employee, and more. Thirty-five people partook in the survey to offer their thoughts. For more information on the survey results and overall information on tipping in today’s society, check out the info box below.

The first question asked about tipping frequency, and the results were mainly positive, with 74.3 percent of survey respondents saying that they leave a tip “every time I can.” The next question, a multiple choice, asked about what kinds of workers should receive tips. An overwhelming 91.4 percent of respondents said that waiters, waitresses, and similar restaurant servers should receive tips. Another 64.9 percent said that public transportation drivers (e.g. bus or Uber drivers) should receive tips, 60 percent said that hotel and motel cleaning staff should receive tips, and 54.3 percent said that all workers in an establishment who offer courtesy services should receive tips. In particular, sophomore Eleanor Brummer’s response to the survey question was, “With the current situation of tips being seen as included in a worker’s pay, I believe they should be receiving tips, but ideally tips would be unnecessary because their actual wages would be enough and tips would not be expected in order to make a living.”

Sophomore Dasia Baxter believes that the inconsistency of tips is not enough to sustain most livelihoods. Though she had never worked as a tipped employee, she said anyone offering courtesy services should receive tips. She said, “Workers really need to be tipped because they’re servicing you and they deserve it.” Along with the standard restaurant workers and servers, Baxter said that Disneyworld employees should also get tipped, comparing it to the way servers at buffet restaurants earn tips. Overall, she said that tips “should be an even split from regular income,” or tips should be extra money on top of a more liveable hourly wage.

An insider perspective is also vital to get the full picture. Senior Riley Wood has worked as a tipped employee at the Atlantic Golf & Country Club since September of 2023. “The more you get tipped, the better it reflects on your service,” Wood said. She said her job was worth the wage because of her positive experiences with customers. She earned an estimated $100 in tips each night.

Freshman Walker Gary said that in today’s economy, “Everything’s going up right now, those wages and however many hours they work would not be sustainable.” He said that the minimum wage for tipped employees nationwide should be raised. “There are a lot of people that don’t tip, and figure ‘oh they just have a minimum wage to take care of it,’ they don’t have to tip,” said Gary. “In case people don’t tip, [the workers] do have something to kind of rely on.”

The discussion on tipping culture will continue for years. Whether or not people agree with leaving their spare change at the restaurant table for a server to collect, maybe they’ll think twice about where that money goes and who needs it most.