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Did you know that tipping culture in the United States became prevalent after the Civil War? When the enslaved were emancipated, they entered the hospitality and restaurant industries, but they weren’t offered livable wages and had to rely on patrons’ gratuities. In other words, tipping became an exploitative practice that the formerly enslaved were subjected to. They were expected to be grateful for it despite its insidiousness. Since they didn’t have the political power to galvanize and protest against their working conditions, they decided to abide and play along.
In 1916, William Rufus Scott highlighted in “The Itching Palm” his case against tipping and its negative impact on society. Before tipping became normalized, anti-tipping associations were established, and anti-tipping laws were passed. Yet, after all these years and amid the constant attempts by the anti-tipping movement to eradicate it, tipping culture remained steadfast and held on to its place in American culture. As of today, tipping in the United States is still a contentious topic. To better illustrate, and as an aside, if you’re old enough to remember the Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs, there was a scene in which Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) expressed his disdain for gratuity. Needless to say, his team of criminals emphatically disagreed with him because they’ve always been conditioned to leave a tip, whereas Mr. Pink would only give a tip for services that he deems justify it. Anyway, I’ll provide a clip of the scene if you’ve never seen it.
Tipping was introduced to America in two ways… First, Americans began traveling to Europe and brought this custom back. At the same time, European immigrants, most of them poor, had worked under a tipping system in their countries and also brought the practice to America. Furthermore, tipping practices were seen as a European import, and there was resistance to it because of its feudal nature. Simply put, the feudal nature of tipping was seen as un-American and distasteful. Americans had believed that a class system is established when a tip is given. Meaning, by tipping someone, you relegate them as your inferior, your class inferior, moral inferior, and lastly, your social and economic inferior. From white America’s perspective, who better to literally capitalize and take advantage of (free men) than a group of people who were fresh off experiencing unspeakable horrors (slavery) and needed paying work. George Pullman, the founder of the Pullman Car Company, said this about his reason for hiring Southern black men… “The plantation has more or less trained them to be pleasing to the customer”. That disparaging comment, coupled with a $ 27.50-a-month wage, frustrated these Southern black men because the rest of their earnings would have to be made through tips, and that wasn’t always guaranteed.
In summary, it becomes abundantly clear that modern tipping is far more than a casual token of appreciation; it’s a lingering system that has been kept alive because of a discriminatory culture. In addition, tipping “culture” has cemented itself as a direct byproduct of emancipation, which withheld fair compensation from Black workers. To make matters worse, tipping practices in America have shifted the responsibility of basic income from employers to the fluctuating generosity of customers. This model incentivized employers to institutionalize wage instability from its very inception. With that in mind, recognizing this history is a vital step toward rectifying a labor landscape marked by inequity, establishing dignified base wages, and ensuring fair compensation that replaces the exploitative origins of gratuity.
Works Cited
“The Land of the Fee: Throughline.” NPR.Org, 25 Mar. 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/03/22/980047710/the-land-of-the-fee. Accessed 4 Aug. 2026.
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