在美国的很多餐厅和酒店里，消费者们似乎不再像以往那般慷慨，对于商家要求支付小费的行为也愈发不满。
Across the US, there's a silent frustration brewing about an age-old practice that many say is getting out of hand: tipping.
图源：视觉中国
随着通货膨胀不断接近历史高位，一些消费者已经忍无可忍，在社交媒体上发帖抱怨去麦当劳汽车餐厅还被要求给小费。还有很多人表示，哪怕只是在附近的面包店吃个松饼或者喝杯咖啡，商家也会向他们索取小费。
Some fed-up consumers are posting rants on social media complaining about tip requests at drive-thrus, while others say they're tired of being asked to leave a gratuity for a muffin or a simple cup of coffee at their neighborhood bakery. What's next, they wonder — are we going to be tipping our doctors and dentists, too? fed-up：感到厌烦的；忍无可忍
电子支付则加重了这一现象，顾客会被自动提示在通常不会支付的地方留下高达30%的小费。和原先的小费罐不同，电子支付的要求会产生社交压力，且更难绕过。你的慷慨与否被暴露无遗，任何靠近屏幕瞥一眼的人，包括工作人员，都能看到。
根深蒂固的小费文化
小费最早诞生于中世纪的欧洲，是一种主人与仆人之间的习俗，仆人因表现出色而获得额外的酬金。
Tipping in Europe was born in the middle ages, a master-serf custom where servants would receive an extra gratuity for excellent performance.
19世纪五六十年代，富有的美国人在欧洲旅行时发现，在欧洲的酒馆中，人们会留下小费以确保快速和良好的服务，于是他们便将这一做法带回了美国，作为一种感受贵族生活的方式。因而也有传言说小费（tip）一词是由“确保及时”这一短语（To Insure Promptitude）的首字母缩写组成的。
Tips were left in European taverns to ensure quick and good service. Wealthy Americans discovered it for themselves in the 1850s and 1860s while traveling in Europe. American travelers brought it back to the states as a way to feel aristocratic. The word itself has been said to be an acronym for "To Insure Promptitude," but that is merely a myth.
英格兰乡村的中世纪酒馆 图源：视觉中国
但小费并没有立即在美国兴起，起初人们对它的抵制程度很高，小费被认为是 "非美式的"。外出就餐已经很贵了，为什么在贫困中苦苦挣扎的美国人还要在账单上支付更多的钱？
这似乎也是一种阶级主义倾向的体现，即上层阶级为那些在服务行业工作的下层阶级留下小费。
But tipping did not take off immediately in the US. There was a high level of resistance to it, and tipping was deemed "un-American". Eating out was already expensive, so why would struggling Americans have to pay more on top of the bill? It also seemed to enforce classist tendencies, where the upper class left a small gratuity for those in the lower classes that worked in the service industry.
1915年《西雅图星报》刊登的安妮·摩根反小费的文章
“我们离开欧洲就是为了逃避小费及其所代表的贵族观念，它是民主中的癌症”，威廉·斯科特在1916年写道。
"Tipping, and the aristocratic idea it exemplifies, is what we left Europe to escape. It is a cancer in the breast of democracy," wrote William Scott in 1916.
尽管存在反对，但在废除奴隶制和美国内战之后，小费在美国南方扎根了。服务和招待往往是被解放的奴隶们最先从事的工作。这个行业的一些雇主不提供小时工资，低级别的雇员只能依靠顾客的怜悯留下小费作为报酬。
Despite this resistance, tipping took root in the American South after the abolition of slavery and the American Civil War. Service and hospitality were often among the first jobs freed enslaved people took. Some employers in this industry did not offer an hourly wage, and lower-class employees relied on the mercy of patrons to leave a gratuity for pay.
根据曾报道过美国小费的记者尼娜·马蒂斯的说法，小费是通过当时新成立的普尔曼公司由铁路开始传播的，该公司提供豪华的铁路列车服务，创始人乔治·普尔曼雇用新解放的南方黑人作为搬运工和服务员，付给他们微薄的工资——每月12美元至27.5美元，其余则靠小费来赚取。
随着普尔曼公司的火车驶向全国各地，小费逐渐成为一种常态。
According to Nina Martyris, a journalist who has covered tipping in America, tipping began to spread by rail—through the newly established Pullman Company—a luxury railcar service. Its founder, George Pullman, hired newly liberated Southern black men as porters and servers. He paid them a paltry wage—between $12 and $27.50 a month—and the rest was to be made on tips. As Pullman cars made their way across the country, tipping became a norm.
乘客在普尔曼公司的豪华列车中用餐
“小费疲劳”在所难免
尽管一个多世纪以来，小费一直是美国传统文化的一部分，但新技术的出现和期望值的变化已经逐渐扰乱了其长期的规范性。小费的不确定性以及其经常造成的压力，让一些消费者疲惫不堪，他们被迫向某些行业的工作者支付小费，并且无力自主决定小费的金额。
Tipping has been a regular part of American culture for well over a century, but the emergence of new technology and shifting expectations have scrambled long-standing norms around the practice. That uncertainty, and the pressure it can often create, has left some consumers feeling exhausted by the frequency with which they’re forced to decide which workers to tip and how much.
“如果你为一家公司工作，那家公司的工作就是支付你为他们工作的报酬，”居住在纽约市的鞋类和服装设计师 麦克·贾纳韦说。“他们不应该榨取已经在那里花钱支付员工工资的消费者。”
"If you work for a company, it’s that company’s job to pay you for doing work for them," said Mike Janavey, a footwear and clothing designer who lives in New York City. "They’re not supposed to be juicing consumers that are already spending money there to pay their employees."
小费疲劳意味着一旦涉及到支付小费的行为，消费者就会产生负面情绪而离开。在最坏的情况下，这可能会导致顾客减少支付的小费金额，甚至完全不给小费。
At the very least, tip fatigue means customers are leaving interactions that involve tipping with negative feelings. But at the worst, tip fatigue could cause customers to tip less or stop altogether.
图源：视觉中国
“小费疲劳”现象出现的一个重要原因是数字支付系统的日益盛行，这一系统已经取代了大多数企业的传统收银机。突然间，消费者不再有机会往小费罐里投一美元，他们只能对着平板电脑，回答是否想给员工留下一些额外的消费。
图源：视觉中国
经济状况和其他文化力量对美国人给小费的多少似乎也有一些影响。平均小费率似乎在疫情的早期阶段飙升，然后在过去一年里急剧下降。
由于美国经济的未来有很多不确定性，可能包括通货膨胀的缓解、经济衰退或两者兼而有之，一年后人们对小费的态度如何，还有待观察。
The state of the economy and other cultural forces appear to have some effect on how much Americans tip. Average tipping rates appeared to spike during the early phases of the pandemic before declining sharply over the past year. With so much uncertainty about the country’s economic future — which could include relief from inflation, a recession or both — it remains to be seen what the attitudes toward tipping are a year from now.
你对小费文化怎么看？留言告诉双语君你的看法吧。
编辑：朱迪齐
实习生：沈佳璐
来源：美联社 雅虎新闻 7Shifts Retail Insider