To Tip or Not to Tip: That is the Question

Going on tours, I always have a dilemma. Does the tour guide expect a tip, or is the tip included in the service?  Does the guide earn a living from tips, or is it culturally taboo to give tip (yes, in many Asian countries, tipping can be considered an insult).  For a person new to a foreign country, the answer is not a simple one, often requiring careful observation to see how others behave so that one can follow suit accordingly.  But when everyone is looking at others for guidance on the topic, the dilemma becomes a collective one.

For the average American and Western European, the question of whether or not to tip would sound ridiculous to begin with.  For them, the answer is, yes, no matter where you go, you should tip, just because that is the culture of where they come from.  The idea goes that even if tipping is not culturally inherent in a particular place, service personnel, especially tour guides who work hard all day, would appreciate the extra money anyways.  It's just nice to give people extra money, no matter what.

But that logic is potentially harmful for foreign visitors to begin with.  Suppose that enough foreigners go to a certain destination that had no tipping culture.  When the foreigners start tipping en masse, the tipping culture is now established, making it a norm where it was not before.  For any future visitors, tipping will be expected, making journeys more expensive (if they follow suit with tipping) or potentially unpleasant (if they do not follow suit with tipping).

Furthermore, the economics of the local service industry will change with tipping.  People who were previously paid salaries in accordance with the fact that no tips will be given may now have their salaries reduced because bosses expect workers to have their salaries supplemented by tips.  What used to be stable incomes for workers now become highly fluctuated, relying on unstable amounts of tips.  As bosses take advantage of tips to pay lower salaries, workers become less able to predict their incomes in advance.

The result is damaging for tourists and for workers.  With tip becoming a norm in a society that had no experience with it in the past, workers may use implicit coercion to squeeze tips out of tourists, worsening tourists' experience in the process.  With unsteady amount of tips as main source of income, workers are less able to manage their finances, making it more difficult for them to plan major purchases and spending ahead of the time.

For tourists themselves too, the uncertainty of whether a tipping culture exist or not creates social uncertainties.  Do I tip if I don't see anyone else tipping? Would that make other people look bad and force them to spend money that they budgeted for something else? But if I don't see anyone else tipping, should I follow suit? Then everyone, including myself, may become a huge disappointment for the service personnel expecting tips as a major source of income for that day of work. 

The solution should be a clearer indication of whether Tip is expected.  In most places, tipping (or lack thereof) is a cultural phenomenon that Foreigners are not expected to understand.  It of course is hard for locals to make clear that tipping is needed because culturally speaking, tipping is supposed to be voluntary and not compulsory.  But if tipping is so entrenched in the service industry as a major source of revenue, as in the case of US, foreigners should be given clear and advance notice that tipping is expected.

Many articles note that tipping, a practice that is supposed to encourage better service, does not actually lead to better service.  Service personnel who are beautiful or manipulative tend to get more tips, even when their services are mediocre.  The recent shift toward "service charge" added directly to the bill can be a solution for many places where tipping is still in the cultural "Grey zone."  If customers know that they are paying extra to receive service in clearly written form, their dilemma should be better resolved.