Tipping began as a way to avoid paying former slaves
After the Civil War, American restaurant owners used the custom of tipping to hire formerly enslaved people without actually paying them a single cent in wages.
While tipping began as a feudal European gesture for 'extra' service, it took a darker turn in the United States during the late 1800s. Following the abolition of slavery, the hospitality and rail industries championed tipping specifically to keep labor costs at zero. By 1901, the practice was so entrenched that legal challenges failed, effectively shifting the entire burden of a worker's survival from the employer to the customer's whim.
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