I recently posted a video about tipping on TikTok and Instagram, and the comments made clear just how differently people feel about when a tip is expected.
Some people tip only at sit-down restaurants. Some leave a dollar for coffee. Some refuse to tip anywhere they have to pay before receiving their order.
One person wrote, “I’m not tipping for no service, period.”
I understand why people are irritated. Tip screens now appear in places where most of us never expected to see them. Prices are already higher, and nobody enjoys being handed a tablet while an employee says, “It’s just going to ask you a few questions.”
A surprise tip prompt at a checkout counter, however, is not the same as sitting at a bar or restaurant where the person serving you earns an income built around tips.
Food preparation and serving jobs make up 9% of employment in the Dayton metro area. Those workers earned an average of $16.26 an hour, including tips, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That may sound sufficient in isolation, but MIT estimates that a single adult without children needs about $20.53 an hour to meet basic expenses in Montgomery County.
We talk a lot about supporting Dayton’s restaurant scene. We celebrate openings and mourn closings. But we do not always extend the same enthusiasm to the people making those experiences possible.
Paul Rogers of Troy is a bartender, and he compared tipping to sales commission.
We understand why a salesperson might earn more for generating more business. Bartenders and servers also sell. They recommend an entrée, explain the cocktail list, and convince you to order another round.
Still, service industry labor is often treated as less skilled and less deserving, even though consumers consider the service itself essential.
People say service workers should earn livable wages. Yet when tipped workers make good money, the reaction can become: Not that much.
Lilly Youngquist of Dayton has worked as a barista, a coffee shop general manager, and now a lead barista. They told me much of the job is invisible.
A barista may need to troubleshoot plumbing, maintain expensive equipment, keep several orders moving, and remain warm toward the next customer immediately after being berated by the last one.
“You got yelled at today by one customer? The next one just needs a word of encouragement?” Youngquist said. “There’s no time to even begin to process getting yelled at.”
Youngquist said managers who have never worked as baristas may underestimate the job’s demands. Customers can make the same mistake.
We see the drink, not everything it takes to make and serve it.
That distance makes it easier to decide the work is simple. It also makes it easier to view a tip as a prize for exceptional friendliness instead of part of a worker’s expected compensation.
There is a fair argument that employers should pay workers more rather than relying on customers to fill the gap. But that is not the system tipped workers are currently navigating.
Ohio’s minimum wage in 2026 is $11 an hour for most nontipped employees. Employers may pay tipped employees $5.50 an hour because tips are expected to make up the difference.
Refusing to tip does not force the employer to raise that wage. The business still receives the full price of the meal or drink. Only the worker loses money.
Nelson Connolly of Xenia, who attends beauty school, explained the distinction. When he cuts hair, he is comfortable receiving the established price because he is not dependent on an additional tip. For a server or bartender earning a tipped wage, he said, the tip is understood to be crucial.
That social contract has become harder to recognize now that payment systems ask for tips nearly everywhere.
We do not have to respond to every tip screen in the same way. We can question service charges, oppose exploitative pay structures, and support businesses that include higher wages in their prices.
But at a full-service restaurant or bar, the menu price has never represented the entire cost of the experience. Under the system we currently have, the tip is part of what we should expect to spend. If the meal fits our budget only when we leave out the worker’s compensation, then the meal did not truly fit our budget.
Refusing to tip may feel like a protest against the system, but the business still gets paid. The only person who loses money is the worker who served you.