Reply to How much do you tip a massage therapist for a 60 minute massage?

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[quote=Anonymous]The main thing this thread makes clear is that no tipping amount is generally correct.  NONE.  There are people who wave away any tip; there are decadent fools who would prefer $0 over the "insult" of receiving a mere $10; there are people who really need $20 but will gracefully suffer if given less.  There are people who can afford to give nothing, people who can afford to give 20-30%, even a few people who can easily pay $5000 per massage if they feel like it....

Every new therapist-client pairing will more or less randomly assign one of the many types of therapist to one of the many types of client, and since neither therapist nor client is psychic, the only solution (other than becoming an activist or superhero or something and working to fix the deeper systemic problems of which this tipping controversy is just a symptom) is to COMMUNICATE.  If you pick a simple tipping rule and use it everywhere, you are WRONG...  sometimes.  Because you generally don't know what a particular stranger expects or needs until you ask, and a stranger generally won't know what you expect or need until you tell them.

Why are so many therapists willing to seriously damage their precious, irreplaceable hands for their work, yet unwilling to tell every client their actual feelings on this matter?  Is it so much harder to open up about that than to destroy your own body for money and another's health?  Is it hard for the client to honestly yet humbly say, before the massage, that they can afford to pay $X extra per massage (and no more) and that they would welcome the therapist's feedback on that, even if the therapist chooses to permanently reject them as a client because they can't pay enough?  Maybe it is.  Probably it is.  In that case, then THAT is one of those systemic problems lurking behind the tipping debate:  We are awful, monstrous, well-meaning animals that utterly SUCK at communicating with each other.[/quote]

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