The Wife and I had a walk and a pint the other day. I whipped out a very crisp tenner I’ve been carrying around in my phone wallet for the best part of a year. The guy behind the counter literally laughed at me and told me to put it back in my wallet because they no longer took cash. I was actually quite chuffed he rejected it as a form of payment because I just proved to myself that cash is no longer that important. I paid on my Chase card instead and sucked up the tiddly cashback 
At which point I’d have stuffed it into that charity box sat on the bar… obviously.
Sorry Graham, there’s a cost of living crisis apparently, so today that tenner went into my car which will get me to work for a week and a half.
I genuinely couldn’t care less about physical cash anymore, it’s too much hassle in my book.
So if ever I have occasion to do a bit of odd-jobbing around your place, I can whistle for the tip, then ? 
I’m afraid so Graham. I no longer tip anyone anymore for anything. People call me tight because I won’t leave a tip after a meal, but of course there’s now a national minimum wage and most adults are being paid £10 an hour+. I serve in a shop and no bugger gives me a tip!
And on the shop front, very few people are now paying in cash, indeed I probably only take physical cash for payment twice a week if I’m lucky. Whether folks want to admit it or not, most people probably no longer give a brass monkey about cash.
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So that’s a yes, then?
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can assure you most of the informal businesses that you frequent aren’t being paid this (under reporting hours etc, to no benefit of the person you’re not tipping, i may add; they’re likely not earning enough to pay tax) and literally anywhere employing under 18s, aren’t being paid well.
while i wouldn’t say you should be tipping 20% like some american’s would, you should tip informal industries like delivery drivers, staff at small food shops etc.
also, you should report them to HMRC for suspected underpaying of staff anonymously, so they go sniffing around to seeing if people are being paid properly if you have a few minutes
You have a fair point with the under 18s, but much like with America, for everyone else, that’s an issue for your employer. Be mad at them for not paying you a living wage, not the customer for not tipping to make up the difference. Employer’s I’m sure are thrilled that their underpaid employees blame the customers for their situation. Means the capitalist propaganda machine still has some juice left.
And even with the under 18s, which is actually under 24s IIRC, that’s more a political issue than anything. Vote for a politician that wants to put an end to paying them under the assumption they have a good family life, and live with their parents rent free.
It’s not everyone else’s job to make up for the failings of capitalism and politics, frankly.
By participating in the exploitation of workers the customer is complicit. The actual costs of everything will go up as tax becomes more digitised, cash transactions lower significantly and suddenly lots of people are pulled into the taxation system.
All I’m saying is that, you guys should start tipping now so when the prices go up later you can drop the tip.
For example, here regardless of your age the top bracket for a takeaway role is £8 an hour, obviously off the books (at benefit to only the owner). No one is going to work that (or be able to) when it becomes unviable to pay these people in cash. No one is also going to work it as a minimum wage job, because there are better jobs with better hours, less weekends etc; so suddenly you’ll find them all in the gig economy at a massive premium OR like in the US, you’ll find them in the gig economy just not delivering to people without big tips (which will also increase the throwaway of food, increasing prices further).
Just some food for thought.
@Recchan you have a civic duty to report such occurances:
It’s not true that ‘every under 18/24’ is being paid less than £10/hr either. Supermarkets typically just have one rate, for example.
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I can guarantee a lot of takeaways will pay the minimum wage. The only people losing out and being exploited in the above are the underpaid workers.
The method of payment has nothing to do with it, neither is it a reason to support tipping. If the owner can find people to work at £8, they will still be willing to do so at the minimum wage.
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Pretty much guaranteed that anyone working for less than NMW are probably off the radar/undocumented individuals working long hours cash in hand. I can find the words to describe the people running so called businesses who treat people like second class citizens, but the words are just a bit too strong for a public forum.
All I know is, my entire working life, I’ve paid tax on every penny I’ve earned. It rankles me that some find it acceptable to tip people in the service industry that probably aren’t paying their taxable dues like most people do. I refuse to subsidise anyone in the form of tips who clearly isn’t in the employ of a reputable business, but then it isn’t an issue for me anyway as I stopped tipping around the time NMW came about. I don’t frequent the types of informal businesses that may abuse their employees and I think I’m a good judge of what is or isn’t a reputable establishment.
As far as I’m concerned, physical cash is often a thoroughly corrupt form of payment and I wish it would just disappear.
You see (and this is almost certainly straying from the topic) when I tip, it’s an expression of gratitude for a job well done. The tippee(?) may be on their uppers or nicely off - I never give it that thought.
I feel, though, that I’m in a minority.
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To be fair, tips should never ever be expected by anyone no matter what their job is. If someone wishes to tip because they’re well off, good on them if that makes them feel better. As I said earlier, I work in a shop environment and I don’t get tips for anything and I feel I do as good a job as anyone else. The point also is, I earn NMW+40p an hour and I don’t expect the punters who come in to chuck me a couple of quid here and there when I’ve given them great service because that would be absurd in my view.
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That’s feels like a huge misrepresentation of my motivations, frankly.
I think I’ll just carry on doing what I do when the fancy takes me. 
Croesus….
As somebody who ‘did my time’ in retail, I can empathise, and I felt the same at the time.
Nowadays I do tip in the following circumstances:
- restaurants where I have had very good service, and no service charge has been added
- housekeeping in hotels where I have stayed more than 3 nights and been happy with the level of cleanliness throughout my stay
- takeaways - except where the driver calls me from their car because they can’t be bothered to come to the door
In each case, the amount of ‘one to one’ service I have received has been rather more than I would receive in a shop (unless I was trying to resolve a complaint or issue).
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Outrageous. Although I think I would give that driver a tip - but it wouldn’t involve cash….
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Nearly the same just not takeaways as we don’t order them [no such opportunity here] but with addition of refuse collectors as I can be a bit cheeky with what I ask them to take, and the postman because he will take my Mail [already stamped] saving me a trip and I like him.
R-
Banking cash is a chargable activity for businesses, so what this organisation are doing is flagging up that they don’t bank their cash. Not something I’d be choosing to shout about if I was a business owner.
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