The Truth About Tipping

Tipping isn't about rewarding good service. It's about not paying wages. Here's what actually

happened. After the Civil War, restaurants wanted free labor.

So they hired newly freed slaves and paid them nothing. Customers were expected to tip instead.

The system worked perfectly for owners. Zero labor costs. All the risk on workers.

Then it spread. Other industries saw the model and copied it. Why pay employees

when customers will do it for you? Laws tried to fix this. Minimum wage was

introduced. But restaurants lobbied hard. They created a separate lower minimum for

tipped workers. It's still legal today. So the practice stuck.