THE HARD TRUTHS ABOUT TIPPING.

In October, a widely circulated Reddit post complained a Vancouver liquor store was now asking customers to tip on their purchases. “What’s next, the freaking grocery store??” said writer OutrageousCamel. Clearly, it’s gut-check time as a country. Tipping, a wildly irrational practice at the best of times, is beginning to enter entirely new frontiers of madness. As many as 40 per cent of Canadians want tipping abolished and restaurants such as Earls are beginning to experiment with new “no tipping” policies. Despite this, the practice only seems to get stronger. And it’s far from a harmless tradition. Below, Tristin Hopper writes about some hard truths about the state of tipping in modern Canada.

GETTY IMAGES / ISTOCKPHOTO A University of Guelph restaurant industry veteran who has studied the effects of tipping shows the average Canadian server earns about $30 an hour when tips are included.