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More and more places are asking for tips. Hidden cameras reveal who is and isn’t getting them
During the Marketplace spot check of 100 Ontario businesses, workers at six fast-food restaurants told undercover journalists they don’t keep their tips.
Be it buying a burger and fries or getting your car repaired, enter your credit or debit card into a machine and you might get a not-so-subtle nudge: how much would you like to tip?
But a hidden camera investigation by CBC’s Marketplace involving 100 businesses has exposed there’s no guarantee the tip you leave is going to the person it was intended for.
CBC journalists went undercover as consumers at businesses — including sit-down restaurants, fast food, retail, auto service centres and self-serve kiosks — counting up who’s asking for a tip, why, and where all that extra money is really going.
While it’s illegal for employers in some provinces to pocket tips, front-line employees say it’s still happening. The undercover team heard that complaint at six Ontario fast-food establishments, while research found that hundreds of employees have filed complaints about their tips being held back in Ontario and other provinces that have similar tip-protection legislation.
Marketplace is not naming the businesses it visited in an effort to protect the identities of workers who spoke to undercover journalists.
“Some of those places are actually breaking the [employment standards] law, but it’s easy to hide,” said Michael von Massow, a professor at the University of Guelph who studies the economy of food and tipping.
The complaints come as Canadians are leaving bigger tips than before.
Square, a technology and payment services company, says the average tip in Canada left on its platform jumped from 16 per cent in 2019 to 20 per cent in 2023.
Tip prompts appeared on payment terminals at 72 out of 100 places visited in the spot check, with suggested tip amounts ranging from five per cent up to 30 per cent. The machines also included options to leave a custom amount or no tip.
And the scope of where people feel pressure to tip is growing, too, says Marc Mentzer, a professor of human resources at University of Saskatchewan’s Edwards School of Business who has studied tipping.
“The phenomenon of tipping is spreading to transactions that would never have been considered … five years ago,” he said. Read more.
- For the full investigation, watch “Tipped Off” Friday, Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. (8:30 in N.L.) on CBC TV, YouTube, and CBC Gem.
Black Friday sales are designed to give you FOMO. Don’t let them
Black Friday is here, and it’s hard to miss. Posters scream about big sales while emails flood inboxes — warning the savings are for one day only. It’s become one of the busiest shopping days of the year. But experts say it’s also a time when impulse spending can spiral out of control.
Canadians’ overall holiday spending is forecast to rise 10 per cent this year compared to last, to about $1,478 per household, according to a survey by the consulting firm Deloitte. Many consumers are looking for deals, with 48 per cent of those surveyed saying they plan to shop on Black Friday.
Annie Taurasi, who was doing some shopping at Sherway Gardens in Toronto on Monday, says she’s buying food, skincare products and gift cards for her family this year. She knows how good it feels to get a deal.
“I feel accomplished, really, like I could spend twice as much now,” she said.
But another shopper at the same east-end mall said she often feels bombarded by all the advertising.
“You get two or three emails from the same company a day, so sometimes I find it a bit too much,” said Michelle Latchman.
Ying Zhu, an associate professor of marketing at the University of British Columbia, explains how those ads are designed to tap into consumer emotions and encourage buying.
Red text, like on Amazon’s Black Friday deals, triggers excitement and action, while yellow, like Walmart uses in its stores, is linked to happiness and affordability, she says. Others use a countdown clock or phrases like “one day only.”
They “generate a sense of urgency,” Zhu said — triggering a fear of missing out, a.k.a. FOMO.
“But the reality is there will always be some deal. So if you don’t get this one, later on you may even get a better one. In order to be a smart consumer, we have to prepare ourselves to deal with this.”
Social media is adding another level of pressure and increasingly shaping shopping decisions, Zhu said. Sometimes, consumers feel so connected to an influencer who is recommending products that they trust them completely. Read more.
Recycling is failing as a way to reduce plastic. Here’s why
Recycling plastic isn’t working.
The figure most often cited is that only nine per cent of the world’s plastic has ever been recycled. That statistic is taken from a 2017 study looking at how much plastic the world has thrown out from 1950 to 2015.
It’s a lot: 6.3 billion tonnes, or the weight of nearly 54,000 CN Towers.
The 91 per cent of plastic that isn’t recycled is mostly sent to the landfill, burned and/or unaccounted for in the environment — a demoralizing statistic for people who diligently put their containers and plastic bottles into recycling bins.
As 175 countries negotiate a binding treaty on plastic pollution in Busan, South Korea, why is recycling still seen as a way to stop this pollution crisis?
The world is actually making more plastic. Production has skyrocketed in recent decades with “the annual production of plastics … soaring from 234 million tonnes in 2000 to 460 [million tonnes] in 2019,” according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Plastic producers and the fossil fuel companies that provide the necessary petrochemicals see a demand for products and only support a solution that won’t hinder meeting that demand. In a statement, the Chemical Industry Association of Canada — which is present at the current negotiations — said it supports “an agreement that has plastics circularity at its core, so used plastics are reused and remade, rather than discarded.”
It went on to suggest that a sustainable future — from renewable technology to modern health care — means “the world will need to rely on plastic more, not less.” Read more.
What else is going on?
What would a trade war actually look like?
“This would raise trade costs to levels last seen in the run-up to the Great Depression,” said one financial expert.
Health Canada approves obesity drug Wegovy to reduce risk of non-fatal heart attack
The treatment supports chronic weight management and is now approved to reduce the risk of non-fatal myocardial infarction, according to manufacturer, Novo Nordisk.
Hyundai recalls over 48,000 cars sold in Canada to fix rear-view cameras
The rear-view camera image may not be showing up on screens.
Marketplace needs your help!
As we approach the holiday season, are you on the lookout for sales? Have you noticed any sales that aren’t really a good deal? Send us your stories! marketplace@cbc.ca
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