Comment by kristopolous

> Started off as a way to pay people less, especially for odd jobs.

Kind of. American tipping came out of the post-slavery south as a form of exploitation where people weren't guaranteed a wage.

This is why tipping was common in historically black jobs like hospitality, food service workers and railroad porters.

There still a federal "tipped" minimum wage at $2.13 - which some states still abide by, roughly corresponding to the historic south https://www.epi.org/publication/waiting-for-change-tipped-mi...

These also seem to be some of the worst tipping states according to most sources, https://www.lyft.com/blog/posts/the-united-states-of-tipping...

Which kind of makes sense - if people in those states invented tipping to pay people less, then those states paying tipped people less isn't that surprising ...

Cultural behavior patterns last decades, which is why there's some dissipation 150 years later.

These things can be weird. For instance coat check (person who holds on to expensive coat) and car valet (person who holds on to expensive car) is functionally equivalent with a 100 year separation so the tip culture sticks.

Same goes for the shoe shiner and car washer; the person who makes your mode of transportation more presentable.

Maybe this sounds like crazy free association, but the pattern seems to hold. Take porters and food delivery drivers, for instance, not that different.

Anyway, when you start scratching at weird american anomalies like tipping and the electoral college, usually you find something to do with slavery's long tail.