A tip is a gift, but it has somehow come to be regarded as mandatory.

Tipping someone is an expression of gratitude for service valued above expectations.  Because two patrons at the same table will likely value differently the service received, the notion of tipping minimums vandalizes reason.  No one deserves anything, especially those working in the service industry, which is the point: the better the service, the larger the tips, because generosity is earned, not guaranteed.

Your author is aware that restaurant owners in most states pay servers well below the minimum wage and that servers in those states need tips in order to earn the minimum wage or exceed it.  Therein lies the incentive for servers to excel.  It’s a self-policing system, as servers in those states who do not earn what equates to the minimum wage receive the loudest market signal that they’re working in the wrong industry and that they’d likely be more productive elsewhere.  It’s an abuse of words to assert that it’s the customer’s job to ensure that the server is paid well.

Before discussing the potential solution, it’s necessary to first address two absurdities, the first of which is tipping self-service kiosks.  Yes, it’s outrageous, but don’t let the outrage drown out the deafening market signal: Most people have been conditioned to believe that tipping is not only mandatory, but virtuous, so business owners took advantage.  If customers are giving away their money without a second thought, why wouldn’t the owners of the self-service kiosks provide that option for the unthinking masses?  Instead of asking, “Why are they doing this?,” ask yourself, “Why would I go along with it?”  Also, if tipping in the majority of states serves as the backstop for servers earning no less than the minimum wage, then, if we follow this line of reasoning in conjunction with self-service kiosks, tipping ensures that robots are “earning” a wage.

Next, there are a few states in which employers are required to pay their tipped workers their state’s full minimum wage.  For the purposes of this article, your author will focus on the West Coast, which comprises three of the top four wine-producing states in the country.  Servers in Washington, Oregon, and California earn their state’s minimum wage in addition to tips.  And so, in these three states, servers are objectively less incentivized to provide less than excellent service, but that hasn’t stopped patrons from tipping twenty or even thirty percent — on top of tax.

But why?  What do these culinary couriers provide?  Sure, they bring their customers what was requested, in addition to smiling and topping off water, but what else?  If you spend an hour dining at a full-service restaurant, how many of those sixty minutes are spent with your server?  Five?  And for that, my reader is compelled to tip no less than 20%.  Yes, this is indeed a mass psychosis.

But perhaps you disagree and believe that servers earning the full minimum wage also deserve twenty-percent tips — or more.  Let’s look into that.  If we follow that logic, everyone who provides a service “deserves” a tip.  Personal trainers, masseuses, lawn maintenance crews, accountants.  Lawyers — including “family law” attorneys — deserve a tip.  Can you imagine?  

Personal trainers spend a full, face-to-face hour with their clients, so surely we can agree that if this logic follows, personal trainers are more deserving of tips than are the servers who spend 8% of your dining hour with you.

Nor are personal trainers alone in this regard...and herein lies the solution to this madness.

Those who believe that tipping is out of control will have little luck in changing tipping expectations, and laws will prove just as futile (and insulting to an allegedly free people).  The only path forward is for the service industry itself to acknowledge that tipping is out of control and to alter tipping norms for its customers.  Yes, in a very real, entrepreneurial sense, the service industry must lead its customers — not enable them — and your author is doing his part.

I sell wine for Bartholomew Winery — the value capital of the Pacific Northwest, with a fanatical affinity for carmenere.  When I’m about to complete my customers’ purchases, I look them in the eye and ask, “May I skip the tip line?”  The responses range from “sure” to a try-not-to-spit-out-the-wine “no,” and all responses are great, as both sides of the counter are devoid of guilt.

My boss confirmed that I received more tips than anyone else at the winery in 2025, so I’d say I’ve implemented a winning strategy.  Winery servers beat restaurant servers eight days a week on knowledge of the products sold and on time spent with customers, but it’s customary to tip the former nothing and the latter 20%, which is exactly backwards.

The West Coast wine industry is best suited to lead the way in providing superior service while reminding its customers that tips are welcomed but by no means expected.  Here’s hoping the trend spreads across all service industries nationwide.

Casey Carlisle writes in the Pacific Northwest, and you’re not required to tip him for this article on Venmo @UncleNAP.

Image via Pixnio.