Does Power Play a Role in Tipping?
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/checkup/canada-tips-gratuities-living-wage-1.6587896
Tipping is seen as a social norm across the globe as many countries believe it is important to reward good service in establishments. However, as Bob Becken explains in his article “Canada’s tipping culture is flawed and there’s no clear fix in sight: experts,” Canada has taken tipping to a level that is displeasing for many consumers as establishments have not only raised the prices of their goods and services but still ask for tips on top of that.
While tipping, by definition, is optional, the expectations for tipping is high in Canada given its role as a social norm. Despite this, there has been some shifting from Canada’s tip culture to raise prices in lieu of enforcing a tipping policy. By doing this, workers have an improved living wage and don’t need to rely on tips as much. But where does this stand in terms of consumer behavior, though?
As it turns out, according to University of Saskatchewan business professor Marc Mentzer, both consumers and staff may actually prefer the option to tip as it gives power to consumers and staff more control over their income. With the current tipping policy, consumers have the power as they own the money being used to pay and “negotiate” an amount to tip depending on how good the service was. Knowing that good service would result in a high tip and bad service would lead to little or no tip, the server is motivated to do well to earn a high tip.
If there were simply raised prices instead of tipping, servers may not be as motivated to perform well due to there being less incentives and consumers may be turned off by the increase in prices. While consumers have the right to pay no tips in some cases, the control associated with tipping may make it a better option from a power standpoint.