I got a bone to pick with cheap employers, of which there are several in my resident state of Utah. Here’s what they do.

1. They don’t pay competitive hourly wages for jobs that don’t require significant waiting on the customer, like a server does in a restaurant.
2. They then put up signs saying “please tips our workers,” because they’re too cheap to pay a decent hourly wage.
3. They seemingly lure in prospective employees with the promise of tips.
4. Everyone ends up confused, from the unsure consumer to the under-paid worker.

My car wash does this. My car gets run through a machine, then an hourly worker rubs it down with a towel in less than three minutes. When done, they look at you while standing next to a ginormous sign asking for tips. Fast food restaurants have begun doing this too.

I have no problem tipping upwards of 20 percent for good service where standard (i.e. restaurants, cabs, bag boys). But when hourly workers start doing it, it feels lame on principle alone. Or maybe I’m just a cheap skate (what’s an extra few bucks to me).