'The Kindness of Strangers': The Tip and the Minimum Wage in France, Germany, and the United States
International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, Vol. 32, 2016, Forthcoming
36 Pages Posted: 10 Oct 2015
Date Written: October 9, 2015
Abstract
A large number of employees work for tips; but the tip is an ambiguous institution – in economics, ethics, social practice, and law. This article explores those ambiguities in three countries – France, Germany, and the United States. In all three serious efforts were mounted to suppress the tip. In all three those efforts failed. And all three eventually legislated a minimum wage. But the status of the customer’s tip as the employer’s wage varies in each. This essay explores how that has come about and why it is so.
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