Weapons of the poor: Tipping and resistance in precarious times

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse how tipping practices are given meaning and acted upon by customers and employees. Though the concept of moral economy, the article traces the ideas of rights and entitlement that are embedded in tipping. The findings indicate that customers and workers enjoy tipping. The tension between them arises from customers’ use of the tip as a mediator of individual feeling and workers’ emphasis on the tip as an economic income and on the collective processes of service production. Workers use the practice of pooling tips to reduce the economic risk and the processes of individualisation. These strategies are defined as weapons of the poor as they are developed in circumstances of economical vulnerability. The focus is on 24 in-depth interviews with customers and employees. This article offers new insights into the moral economy of tipping and the ways in which it affects the forms of resistance available to workers.

Do tipping motivations predict loyalty to the server in a restaurant?

“…Social norms are individuals' socially expected patterns of behavior subject to person-to-person or person-to-group interactions (Cialdini and Trost, 1998), and dictate the way in which they should behave in certain circumstances (Earley and Ang, 2003). For some, the act of tipping represents that of a moral economy, meaning that consumers tip because of concern or to do the right thing (Mulinari, 2016). The practice of tipping is a behavior expected of restaurant guests and many servers shun consumers who do not tip the amount appropriate for the bill.…”

Tip Work: Examining the Relational Dynamics of Tipping beyond the Service Counter

“…Workers reward customers they perceive to be good tippers with extra care, insider access, and service personalization, while sanctioning poor tippers with inferior service or by rejecting humiliatingly low tips outright (Erickson ; Mars and Nicod ; Paules ; Sallaz ). By striving to actively make tips from their interactions with customers rather than passively receive them, tipped workers gain a sense of control and empowerment over their service jobs (Brewster and Wills ; Gatta ; Mars and Nicod ; Mulinari ; Paules ; Sallaz ; Thompson ).…”

“…Fellow tipped workers may collaborate on labor tasks with the mutual goal of bringing more gratuities into the establishment (Lewis ). They may also attempt to stabilize their tip earnings by pooling together and sharing their gratuities among a larger group of coworkers instead of handling them on an individual basis (Mulinari ). The fact remains that gratuities can be significant sums of money, especially to low‐wage workers, and how these sums are divvied up rarely results in all workers receiving what they perceive to be their fair share.…”

“…Other tipped‐out workers at Match, Terroir, and The Neighborhood resort to small acts of resistance to strike back, directing their ire against fellow workers, not managers or customers (Mulinari ; see also Harris and Ogbonna ). Antonio, a Latino food runner at Match in his twenties, told me that he had recently stopped going out of his way to help a certain server because he felt she was tipping him out less than she should be.…”

Personal and Social Tipping Norms: Race and Sex Differences

“…The argument suggests an individual's moral beliefs may influence h/her norms (Han et al, 2019). Mulinari, Guest, and Isaksson (2019) argued that tipping represents a type of moral economy in which guests feel empathy for the server, or are concerned to do the right thing, by leaving him/her a tip. As such, it can be postulated that restaurant guests' guilt might affect their moral code, and ultimately, their tipping behavior.…”