Caitríona Redmond: What's the deal with tipping these days?

Tips are a vital way to give thanks for excellent customer service, but aren’t obligatory

Caitríona Redmond: Irish tipping culture is vastly different to the US, where staff can be paid far less than minimum wage, with the balance of their income coming from customer tips.

As we tap to pay and carry less physical money, cash tips have been declining. Service charges have been increasing... but the practice could be more transparent.

Irish tipping culture is vastly different to the US, where staff can be paid far less than minimum wage, with the balance of their income coming from customer tips. Some proponents of the system say that this encourages staff to work harder to earn tips, but I believe a living wage for all is the only fair way to compensate staff whose wages shouldn’t be at the whim or budget of a customer. After all, if a business can’t pay its staff enough to live by, they shouldn’t expect their customers to pick up the bill.