I'll add an anecdote of my own. One night I served a couple drinks. The man paid and I went on my way. When I returned to the table to see how they were doing, the man said to me "I'm going to tip you even though I know you have a closet full of designer jeans at home."
I had a lot of choices at that moment. I took a few seconds to select from among them. And then I said, thoughtfully, "Well, as a matter of fact I don't have any designer jeans, but I think I deserve to have nice things as much as anyone else."
At this point, his date (I presume they weren't married) took over. "She's on her feet 8 hours a day," she started out, and I walked away. (For the record, it was usually 12 hours or more.) As I remember, he was a white, middle-aged male. And that exchange, it seems to me, was about status and who should - and should not - have it.
