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As the holidays approach, Canadians say they’re being tipped over the edge

Published

9 months ago

December 19, 2023

Cathy Khalil recently tipped five bucks on an $18 box of doughnuts at one Ottawa store — and says she has no regrets.

“I think when people see [the options on the debit machine] they feel obligated, sometimes, to tip,” Khalil said. “[But] I’m not tipping for the sake of tipping. I’m tipping because I want to tip, and it’s coming from me.”

She may be in the minority: As the holidays approach and Canadians shell out money for gifts, food and other festive purchases, some experts say people are recoiling from all those tip requests that come with an increasingly wide variety of debit or credit card purchases.

“It’s starting to feel more like an obligation, something that you just have to do,” said Cynthia Borja, a psychologist with the Decision Lab, a Montreal-based company that researches people’s behaviour.

“People are starting to feel that it’s no longer that act of giving thanks to that individual that’s serving them.”

Tip fatigue

Borja says Canadians are feeling what’s come to be known as tipping fatigue. According to Decision Lab’s own research, roughly three in five Canadians they surveyed felt pressure to tip more than they’d like to, while more than 80 per cent said tipping culture needs an overhaul.

Those findings echo polling done by the Angus Reid Institute earlier this year, which found roughly two in five Canadians feel the pressure to tip is pushing them over their spending threshold.

As a result, they’re not going out as much as they once were, Angus Reid found.

“Consumers are not only feeling fatigue,” said Bruce McAdams, a professor at the University of Guelph who researches the restaurant industry. “They are also questioning what tipping is. Is it about what it used to be about originally? And no, it isn’t.”

The average gratuity jumped from 16 to 20 per cent between Jan. 1, 2019, and Jan. 1, 2023, according to technology and payment services company Square, which says it counts hundreds of thousands of Canadian businesses as clients.

We expect to tip for food delivery, at restaurants and hair salons. This expectation that we now pay extra in a wider range of situations is a sign of “tip creep,” McAdams said.

“It’s also your dry cleaner, your oil lube person,” he said. “I was at a gift shop the other day and they asked for a tip when I was just paying for some candles.”

According to polling from the Angus Reid Institute, roughly two in five Canadians feel the extra cost of tipping is making them less likely to go out. That sentiment is most common among Canadians under the age of 55. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

‘Creates inequity’

Researchers have also noted that tipping is where one’s biases emerge, with people forking over different amounts based on a server’s age, race, gender or looks.

“It’s been shown to be discriminatory. It creates inequity,” said McAdams. “It can create divisions in restaurants between front-of-house and back-of-house.”

Those divisions, in fact, manifested themselves in Ottawa this year when baristas at the Toronto-owned Bridgehead coffeehouse chain rebelled against a policy change that would have included managers in the tip pool. (That policy, introduced just after Ontario hiked the minimum wage, was later reversed.)

Another finding from Decision Lab’s research was that nearly three in four people they spoke with said that when they were confronted with tipping requests, they took it as a sign the establishment was underpaying their staff.

Many people also told Decision Lab that they would prefer Canada had a no-tipping culture, as exists in other countries like Japan.

Angus Reid polling also found a shift in attitudes after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 60 per cent of respondents wanting to go tip-free.

But that sort of systemic change could be hard to bring about: While CBC Ottawa spoke to many people who were against tipping, they didn’t want to admit that on camera — largely because they didn’t want to sound cheap or be judged by friends and colleagues.

“If we start with, maybe, going a little bit back to that [idea that tipping is] actually a process of thanking [a worker], that might be a good first step,” said Borja.

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Langford, Heim lead Rangers to wild 13-8 win over Blue Jays

Published

9 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Rookie Wyatt Langford homered, doubled twice and became the first Texas player this season to reach base five times, struggling Jonah Heim delivered a two-run single to break a sixth-inning tie and the Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 13-8 on Tuesday night.

Leody Taveras also had a homer among his three hits for the Rangers.

Langford, who also walked twice, has 12 homers and 25 doubles this season. He is hitting .345 in September.

“I think it’s really important to finish on a strong note,” Langford said. “I’m just going to keep trying to do that.”

Heim was 1-for-34 in September before he lined a single to right field off Tommy Nance (0-2) to score Adolis García and Nathaniel Lowe, giving Texas a 9-7 lead. Heim went to the plate hitting .212 with 53 RBIs after being voted an All-Star starter last season with a career-best 95 RBIs. He added a double in the eighth ahead of Taveras’ homer during a three-run inning.

Texas had 13 hits and left 13 men on. It was the Rangers’ highest-scoring game since a 15-8 win at Oakland on May 7.

Matt Festa (5-1) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the win, giving him a 5-0 record in 13 appearances with the Rangers after being granted free agency by the New York Mets on July 7.

Nathan Eovaldi, a star of Texas’ 2023 run to the franchise’s first World Series championship, had his worst start of the year in what could have been his final home start with the Rangers. Eovaldi, who will be a free agent next season, allowed 11 hits (the most of his two seasons with Texas) and seven runs (tied for the most).

“I felt like early in the game they just had a few hits that found the holes, a few first-pitch base hits,” said Eovaldi, who is vested for a $20 million player option with Texas for 2025. “I think at the end of the day I just need to do a better job of executing my pitches.”

Eovaldi took a 7-3 lead into the fifth inning after the Rangers scored five unearned runs in the fourth. The Jays then scored four runs to knock out Eovaldi after 4 2/3 innings.

Six of the seven runs scored against Toronto starter Chris Bassitt in 3 2/3 innings were unearned. Bassitt had a throwing error during Texas’ two-run third inning.

“We didn’t help ourselves defensively, taking care of the ball to secure some outs,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

The Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a double and two singles, his most hits in a game since having four on Sept. 3. Guerrero is hitting .384 since the All-Star break.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Blue Jays: SS Bo Bichette (calf) was activated and played for the first time since July 19, going 2 for 5 with an RBI. … OF Daulton Varsho (shoulder) was placed on the 10-day injured list and will have rotator cuff surgery … INF Will Wagner (knee inflammation) was placed on the 60-day list.

UP NEXT

Rangers: LHP Chad Bradford (5-3, 3.97 ERA) will pitch Wednesday night’s game on extended five days’ rest after allowing career highs in hits (nine), runs (eight) and home runs (three) in 3 2/3 innings losing at Arizona on Sept. 14.

Blue Jays: RHP Bowden Francis (8-4, 3.50) has had two no-hitters get away in the ninth inning this season, including in his previous start against the New York Mets on Sept. 11. Francis is the first major-leaguer to have that happen since Rangers Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in 1989.

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AP MLB:

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Billie Jean King set to earn another honor with the Congressional Gold Medal

Published

10 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Billie Jean King will become the first individual female athlete to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey announced Tuesday that their bipartisan legislation had passed the House of Representatives and would be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature.

The bill to honor King, the tennis Hall of Famer and activist, had already passed unanimously in the Senate.

Sherrill, a Democrat, said in a statement that King’s “lifetime of advocacy and hard work changed the landscape for women and girls on the court, in the classroom, and the workplace.”

The bill was introduced last September on the 50th anniversary of King’s victory over Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes,” still the most-watched tennis match of all-time. The medal, awarded by Congress for distinguished achievements and contributions to society, has previously been given to athletes including baseball players Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente, and golfers Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer.

King had already been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Fitzpatrick, a Republican, says she has “broken barriers, led uncharted paths, and inspired countless people to stand proudly with courage and conviction in the fight for what is right.”

___

AP tennis:

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Account tweaks for young Instagram users ‘minimum’ expected by B.C., David Eby says

Published

10 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

SURREY, B.C. – Premier David Eby says new account control measures for young Instagram users introduced Tuesday by social media giant Meta are the “minimum” expected of tech companies to keep kids safe online.

The parent company of Instagram says users in Canada and elsewhere under 18 will have their accounts set to private by default starting Tuesday, restricting who can send messages, among other parental controls and settings.

Speaking at an unrelated event Tuesday, Eby says the province began talks with social media companies after threatening legislation that would put big tech companies on the hook for “significant potential damages” if they were found negligent in failing to keep kids safe from online predators.

Eby says the case of Carson Cleland, a 12-year-old from Prince George, B.C., who took his own life last year after being targeted by a predator on Snapchat, was “horrific and totally preventable.”

He says social media apps are “nothing special,” and should be held to the same child safety standards as anyone who operates a place that invites young people, whether it’s an amusement park, a playground or an online platform.

In a progress report released Tuesday about the province’s engagement with big tech companies including Google, Meta, TikTok, Spapchat and X, formerly known as Twitter, the provincial government says the companies are implementing changes, including a “trusted flagger” option to quickly remove intimate images.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024

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