Americans partly owe today’s tipping culture to Prohibition — when restaurants lost lucrative alcohol revenue, they became more willing to let customers supplement server wages, and what began as a controversial custom eventually became something diners were simply expected to do
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A man in Paducah, Kentucky spent 1916 trying to convince his countrymen that leaving a quarter on a restaurant table was an act of treason.
His name was William R. Scott, and his book The Itching Palm is one of the odder artefacts in American economic history. Scott counted five million Americans living wholly or partly on gratuities, roughly a tenth of the workforce, and put the annual national tab somewhere between $200 million and $500 million. Tipping, he argued, was flunkyism, a willingness
His name was William R. Scott, and his book The Itching Palm is one of the odder artefacts in American economic history. Scott counted five million Americans living wholly or partly on gratuities, roughly a tenth of the workforce, and put the annual national tab somewhere between $200 million and $500 million. Tipping, he argued, was flunkyism, a willingness
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