So why do we tip hairdressers but not other people?

[Mellyelly]

Just had an interesting conversation with my friends. It’s news to me that we’re supposed to be tipping our hairdressers. In a group of 7 I’m apparently the only person who doesn’t tip! Mortified! I simply did not know this was the done thing. I’m paying for a service. Why the tip? UK born just slow on the uptake apparently. Why not tip the checkout person? Or your dentist? I pay roughly 65 quid for a cut and blow dry. Not exactly cheap

im so confused

Doesn’t matter that she is self employed. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t earn well. My brother lived with a self employed hairdresser and he was absolutely minted, earnt more than my brother who worked in recruitment at the time.

Again, tipping someone shouldn’t be evidence that you ‘value’ someone. The person who provides a service charges a rate, and should provide equal and good service to everyone regardless of tips.

And many people who also have these type jobs who also don’t receive or expect tips. To the system is still unequal.

I’ve always known this was ‘a thing’, but stopped tipping the hairdresser when prices became utterly ridiculous. They are earning way more than me (my sister is one so I’m aware of salaries). I genuinely find it weird now that some people are still tipping when they are paid a salary just like I am. Bonkers culture.

I don’t tip anyone anymore. It’s something that should stop being an expectation.

If hairdressers are so well paid, I hope soon to see lots of MNetters encouraging it as a career aspiration.

I don’t tip anyone.

They’re getting paid to go their job just like everyone else is so why do they need to be given additional money by the public?

Otherwise, where does it end?

The only form of ‘tip’ I might give is if I pay for something in cash and the change is going to be less than 50p (for example) and I’ll just say “keep the change” as I hate carrying loose coins on me.

I give my hairdresser and beautician a Christmas bonus each year but that’s because I know them well so it’s like giving them a gift.

Can you imagine if every diner that a waiter served each day gave them a couple of pounds as a tip? Or every client that a hairdresser saw throughout the day? Or every passenger a taxi driver picked up during the day? Multiple that by 5 days a week? Multiply that by 4 weeks a month? They’d have a few extra hundred quid a month on top of their monthly pay……

There’s a national minimum wage now so it’s not as though some jobs are paying peanuts and therefore we should give people who aren't in professional roles a tip because they can’t afford a standard of living otherwise.

Or are we supposed to tip everyone who works in a national minimum wage job? (because not many could afford to do that).

And I imagine there are a lot of jobs that are paid a lot less than hairdressers, beauticians, waiters and taxi drivers, so why are we tipping them but not people in less paid roles?

People talk about hairdressers and beauticians etc as deserving of a tip as they provide a “personal service but everyone in any kind of job is providing a service to us of some kind and they are of equal value even if they aren’t plucking eyebrows or washing hair.

Maybe it’s time for a career change 😂

In my region, tipping at hair dressers was traditionally for the junior who washed your hair, made you a coffee and swept the floor, and this was before the minimum wage.

I have stopped tipping. I plenty of people on minimum wage don’t get tips, I see no reason to tip a person simply for doing their job. If a hairdresser does a good job, I they get my repeat custom, and that’s it. It’s not cheap to visit the hair dresser these days.

I dont tipu hairdresser but i tip the person that washes my hair. My hairdresser is the senior one and owns the business, the person that washes is a hairdressing student so yes I do tip a tenner every 6 weeks when I go.

If i had to venture a guess, its because most are self employed, so you used to be able to tip cash quite easily and because they run their own books, they have discretion to squeeze you in or be more flexible or throw in a freebie.

So the tip reflects an informal quid pro quo.

I cut my own hair so I tip myself.

So don’t tip 🤷🏼‍♀️

I feel sorry for both…

Only if they start offering courses at a Russell Group University…this is MN after all!

We do usually tip the delivery driver when we get a takeaway. Just a couple of pound coins though.

My hairdresser washes my hair, makes my coffee and sweeps the floor. I haven't seen a junior across two excellent hairdressers since about 1985!

The only person i 'tip' is my nail person, and thats because I've gone to him once a month for 5 years. Even then, I just round it up to the nearest fiver (my nails are either £28 or £32 depending on what i have so I give him £30/£35). To be fair its only because I dont have a purse and have no where to put random £ coins in change.

I do feel awkward about not tipping delivery drivers. I always order and pay online and never have change.

I never tip my hairdresser. Why should I? Is jot like I fet something very special there tbh

I don't tip hairdressers as their priced are ridiculous. Personally I don't tip anyone as I hate this imposed American culture. Why should I tip the water who is being paid a fair wage for the job, why not the person on the checkout or the person in the bank. It goes on and on, so I just don't do it at all. Dont get me started on these service charges- that's just restaurants trying to shame people into paying tips now

Exactly. So these days, there is no need to tip.
Everyone is at least on the minimum wage, including your hairdresser, and yes, washing hair and sweeping the floor is part of the job. Many people in different jobs are on the same minimum wage with no opportunity for tips. Why should they pay a tip? Why should anyone get a tip for doing the job they are paid to do?
People can carry on tipping if they want, but it’s not a ‘given’, and given the minimum wage, there is no reason why it should be.

Minimum wage only applies to people whose status is “employed”. It doesn’t apply to huge numbers of gig economy workers or to the skilled and semi skilled trades who were pushed into self employed contractor status at least forty years ago with the craze for deregulating every job in sight (except of course for senior jobs done by people making such decisions). Very few hairdressers will have employment contracts, the fee is a business service charge, not a wage.

Hospitality pay is often a fudge which assumes tips in the rate of pay. Most low paid workers in need of work are not in a position to take low pay claims to employment tribunals, even if they had a realistic chance of keeping their jobs after so doing.

I tip for good personal services such as hairdressers, wait staff and pay a Xmas/holiday bonus to regular providers of household services such as cleaning. I would also give a one off bonus to a tradesperson who provided an extra level of service above the standard work.

Why though if that’s what they’re being paid to do?

That’s their job that their employer is already paying them to do.

So why do you feel bad that you can’t tip them for doing what they’re already being paid for?

I don’t know, something feels awkward about taking food they’ve delivered and not tipping.

Tips stem from a time when service people were paid a pittance, the tips bulked their wage up. Since minimum wage came in that no longer applies but it’s still seen as polite to reward good service . Personally I don’t typically tip my hairdresser. I do usually tip in a restaurant