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    Back to To the Point

    To the Point

    Is Tipping at Restaurants Becoming a Thing of the Past?

    Tipping is as American as apple pie -- fundamental to the $600 billion restaurant industry with tens of millions of employees. Customers may believe that tipping's fair play for waiters and waitresses when service is good or bad.

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    By Warren Olney • Nov 24, 2015 • 34m Listen

    Tipping is as American as apple pie -- fundamental to the $600 billion restaurant industry with tens of millions of employees. Customers may believe that tipping's fair play for waiters and waitresses when service is good or bad. But the kitchen staff rarely gets a piece of the action, and critics call it a way to pass labor costs directly onto customers and a vehicle for racial and gender discrimination. Now a movement to abolish tipping is under way. Will people who eat out accept menus with higher prices?

    The full episode

    2 of 3
    Is Tipping at Restaurants Becoming a Thing of the Past?
    1. 1:44Thanksgiving Travel, Cars and Cheap Gas
    2. 8:35Is Tipping at Restaurants Becoming a Thing of the Past?You’re reading this
    3. 43:15An Argument against Arts and Culture Charities
    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Warren Olney

      former KCRW broadcaster

    • KCRW placeholder

      Paul von Zielbauer

      Co-founder of Geezer magazine, former producer for To the Point and Which Way LA?; former reporter for the New York Times

    • KCRW placeholder

      Jared Morgan

      freelance producer

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Evan George

      Director of Content, News

    • KCRW placeholder

      Drew Nieporent

      Myriad Restaurant Group

    • KCRW placeholder

      Alicia Quirós

      Unite Here, Local 11

    • KCRW placeholder

      Erik Bruner-Yang

      Toki Underground / Maketto

      NewsNationalPolitics

    The full episode

    2 of 3
    Is Tipping at Restaurants Becoming a Thing of the Past?
    1. 1:44Thanksgiving Travel, Cars and Cheap Gas
    2. 8:35Is Tipping at Restaurants Becoming a Thing of the Past?You’re reading this
    3. 43:15An Argument against Arts and Culture Charities
    Back to To the Point