McDonald's issues statement on why workers aren't allowed to accept tips

McDonald's has shared the reason that it does not allow staff working at its outlets to accept tips.

The fast food giant might fall into something of a grey area when it comes to tipping - it's not a sit down restaurant but equally in some places people would also tip at a bar or coffee shop, which is arguably more casual than McDonald's, though it perhaps depends on the bar.

McDonald's also has front of house staff, who operate the tills, in addition to the people who are working in the back preparing the food, so surely they'd be entitled to a tip if customers felt so inclined?

However, it seems McDonald's company policy means that this isn't the case, saying it does not allow employees to accept tips anyway.

But why is that?

No tips under these golden arches (Richard T. Nowitz/Getty)

The fast food behemoth explained in a statement on the FAQs section of its website: "Tips are not accepted as McDonald's restaurants have a team environment which is not about rewarding individuals.

It added: "If a customer would like to make a donation then they can do so in the RMHC boxes."

So there you go, if you go to a McDonald's the employees are not permitted to accept tips.

Tipping has increasingly become a point of contention as increasing numbers of businesses are beginning to request a tip.

In the US, tipping at bars, cafes, and restaurants is expected, and in some states not tipping is not an option as the law means that employees are reliant on tips for the majority of their pay check.

Tipping is becoming more widespread (lechatnoir/Getty)

In these states, businesses are allowed to pay their tipped employees less than the federal minimum wage if they can show that their employees' take home pay is at least federal minimum wage after tips are accounted for.

Other states have a different approach, where tipped employees are paid minimum wage and tips are then split with non-tipped staff - for example, people working in the kitchen.

But the US is something of an outlier when it comes to tipping, with other countries having an optional tip or a 'service charge' which is added to the bill, but not the same heavy expectation of a tip.

With costs continuing to rise, some restaurants even resort to using the service charge as a way to cover costs without putting the prices up on the menu.

In most of Europe tipping is generally an optional extra while in some countries, for example Japan, the practice is actively frowned upon.