> tips exist because small businesses grossly underpay their workers.

Tipping culture exists as an excuse for service workers to not only be grossly underpaid, but also to be compensated unequally in ways that would violate nondiscrimination laws if employers did it directly.

There's nothing special about small business, it's not like big chain corporate table-service restaurants (or, say, massive gig economy firms) don't underpay just as badly as any small business.

We all understand that, but it's still negligent to not give a tip to workers, who you know depend on it. Until that industry somehow makes the shift away from tipping, people still need to survive.

> Until that industry somehow makes the shift away from tipping

Which it won't do as long as people are tipping, in fact, entirely new industries are being created with deliberate, engineered pressure to expand tipping culture into them.

There's a very good argument that if you are opposed to tipping culture, as well as taking every opportunity to oppose public policy which supports and accommodated it, you ought not participate in it, which only reinforces and perpetuates it.

So the guy delivering your food who may not even speak English can go fuck himself right?

Not gonna be a very popular hill to die on

that was my point

Americans sometimes seem unaware that tipping culture isn't universal.

Until I visited the US I'd never tipped in my life.

Tipping is a poor substitute for decent wages.

It's also very awkward. I remember going to a wedding with an open bar - drinks were free but then people were getting out cash anyway to tip the bartender even tho no payment was involved? It's very bizarre if you haven't grown up with it.

If the bar tender only handed you a beer bottle - sure, don't tip if you don't want to. Although you should, even if it's a single dollar (ie. proportional to what you are receiving).

But if you order some elaborate drink that takes time and skill to craft - you should tip as a way of saying "thanks for the effort". That was the original idea of tipping, after all - ensuring, measuring and providing direct feedback of service quality.

>If the bar tender only handed you a beer bottle... you should (tip), even if it's a single dollar

Have you ever stepped back and had a look at some of these paradigms you've been conditioned to adhere to?

I always wonder about non-customer-facing workers at small businesses. Who tips them?

> I always wonder about non-customer-facing workers at small businesses.

In places that have mandated tip sharing, the same people tipping the customer-facing workers (and, again, this isn't "small-business" specific; chain restaurants are no different than independents here), in places that don't, no one does. Tipping culture is more industry-focussed than scale-of-business focussed.