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[quote=Anonymous]I would just like to point out that my wife is an Athletic Trainer. She is a emergency first-responder and a medical professional. She has a Masters of Science in Athletic Training, which included all sorts of medical training and cost a small fortune in schooling. On top of that, she must complete continuing education credits to stay licensed, has to pay for her licenses, and carries her own liability insurance. Her yearly costs to stay active in her field are around $600, sometimes more depending on the cost to obtain the required continuing education credits. She works with athletes on a daily basis. This includes carrying around heavy loads, working with sweaty linens and sweaty athletes, dealing with blood, bone fractures (sometimes with bones protruding from the skin), and all sorts of other gross things like wrapping sweaty feet. But despite all that, she loves her job. She gets paid about $22/hr. She doesn't get tips. She makes less than $30k per year, because she works for a school and doesn't have work to do during the summer. If she had work during the summer, she would still make less than $35k per year. Her job also includes occasional massaging of athletes. She also has to wash the linens for the athletes, and clean the water bottles, both of which she does at home at her own expense, and off the clock.

Personally, I value a good massage. And I tip for a good massage as long as the place does not explicitly state that they don't accept tips. But, I think any massage therapist making more than $20/hr ($160 per day) and demanding tips of 20% should get off their high horse or find a new line of work. Now, I actually tip $15 - $20 for a 90 minute massage if the massage was good to great. But that's only because I make over $100/hr doing consulting on top of the roughly $85/hr I make at my day job. I can cover the entire cost of a 90 minute massage with a $20 tip in a single hour of consulting. Trading an hour of work for an hour and a half of relaxation seems like a win to me. My wife, on the other hand, views the cost a bit differently. She sees the cost of a 90 minute massage as roughly 4 hours of work and the cost of tip adding roughly an extra hour, bringing it up to 5 hours of work for 90 minutes of relaxation. Her value equation is totally different than mine. And, the sad fact is that 97% of the population in Ohio makes less than me, so 97% of the population is going to see a value equation looking more like her view than my view. More interestingly, all of her earnings are going to retirement savings. I am covering all of our living expenses, and our discretionary expenses. So, technically, she is not even paying for her massages. But, she still views the cost in hours of her working time. She does not view them in hours of my time.

So, if you are a massage therapist, my advice would be accept ANY tip you get (no matter how small) as a welcome and UNEXPECTED bonus, and realize that there are other people out there who have more education costs than you, more licensing costs than you, and deal with worse body issues than you while being paid around the same or less than you, who also don't receive tips of any kind. If you don't like that, pick another line of work. And if your employer pays your less than $160 per day for a salary, find a new employer or start your own practice. If enough of you do so, your employers will be forced to address the poor pay. Be entrepreneurial and start your own practice and hire away all your employer's lower wage workers. 
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