Who invented tipping and why not just include it in the price of the meal?
Tipping is a concept developed many years ago in Europe. TIP is an acronym meaning “To Insure Promptness”. Today, tipping has become an “uniquely American” custom and is fully expected from your server, unless otherwise noted in the restaurant. Tips are an incentive for the server to give good service. Since tipping is expected, though not mandatory, the customer is given a certain amount of power to reward good service or punish inferior service. However, servers do depend on tips for a living. According to the Minimum Wage Act, employers are able to pay “tipped employees” less than the mandated minimum wage because in theory, servers will earn tips to make up the difference between the two wages. Michael Lynn, a researcher at Cornell University, actually did a study on customer reactions to restaurants who included tips in the price of the meal. Surprisingly, most people perceived these restaurants as more expensive than restaurants who expected customers to tip the server at the end
