Businesses are starting to introduce new options for
tipping at self-checkout machines, putting even more pressure on
customers amid rising inflation costs. Despite having zero
interaction with employees during transactions, self-checkout
machines at places such as coffee shops, bakeries, airports, and
sports stadiums are giving customers the option to leave the
typical 20% tip, according to a report from the Wall Street
Journal.
Business owners believe that the prompt for a tip can
boost staff pay and increase gratuities — but customers are
questioning where and to whom the extra cash is going,
considering self-checkout is done by the customers themselves.
“They’re cutting labor costs by doing self-checkout. So what’s
the point of asking for a tip? And where is it going?” are some of
the questions customers ask. But tipping researchers claim this is
a way for companies to put the responsibility of paying
employees on the customer rather than increasing employee
salaries themselves. Self-tipping is viewed by many customers as
a way to guilt-trip the person into tipping on something when
they typically wouldn’t.
Many companies told the Journal that these tipping
prompts are optional, and the extra gratuity is split between all
employees. However, experts say that tips at a self-checkout
machine might never even get to an actual employee since
protections for tipped workers in the federal Fair Labor Standards
Act don’t extend to machines.
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