Tip (gratuity) - Circumstances

Circumstances

In countries where tipping is the norm, some employers pay workers with the expectation that their wages will be supplemented by tips. The practice of tipping is controversial. Some have criticized the inherent "social awkwardness" in transactions that involve tipping, the inconsistency of tipping for some services but not similar ones, and the irrationality of basing tips on price, rather than the amount and quality of service (a customer pays a larger tip to a server bringing him a lobster rather than a hamburger, for example).

A number of economists have suggested that tipping is economically inefficient. A paper by Yoram Margalioth of Tel Aviv University argued that there was a negative externality associated with tipping. The paper also opposes tipping based upon the author's opposition to tax evasion.

Ian Ayres, Fredrick E. Vars & Nasser Zakariya published a paper suggesting that tipping contributed to racial prejudice, since ethnic minorities would often be less able to pay a large tip. Two other American studies have contributed to the thesis that tipping is racially discriminatory, finding that ethnic minority servers and taxicab drivers received lower tips on average than their white counterparts. In the study of the servers, an attempt by the author to isolate other possible contributing factors, such as poor service, found that "After controlling for these other variables … the server race effect is comparable across customer race."

A study from a Cornell University professor concluded that "consumers' assessments of the quality of service correlate weakly to the amount they tip," relying more on superficial factors such as the attractiveness of the server or the amount of the bill.

Tipping may not be expected when a fee is explicitly charged for the service. For example, a service charge is often added to bills in restaurants and similar establishments. Tips may be described as "optional", but are very often considered by the establishment and diners as almost obligatory. A tip is expected on top, sometimes by not emphasising that a service charge has been levied.

Bribery and corruption are sometimes disguised as tipping. In some places, police officers and other civil servants openly solicit tips, gifts and dubious fees using a variety of local euphemisms.