It is also important to note that tipping in the US is the only way for wait staff to make a living wage, and that a large portion of tips are not taxed.
This is a dangerously stupid article. We tip people who are largely exempt from minimum wage requirements. Even the article acknowledges this: If you want to wring your hands and wonder about tipping, keep your eye on Seattle: the minimum wage is effectively doubling over the next few years, and tipped positions have a wage a dollar less than non-tipped positions. Watch and see if tips go down. I'll bet they do. 'cuz prices are going to go up and when you're tipping 20% on top of a 20% overhead increase, that macchiato just got spendy. And let's completely ignore why tipping has gone up, by the way - tip skimming. The advent of computerized point-of-sale terminals permitted restaurants to institute all sorts of fees and surcharges upon tips, effectively taking a third of the staff's tips "because." Now you know why your server, that was perfectly happy getting 15% 15 years ago, gets snippy when he doesn't get 25%. "Polite gift, demeaning handout" - or widespread tax on employees? Finally, Jesus fucking christ. I have a local restaurant. I like to eat there. I know my servers, I tip well. They have one table that, for reasons that have never been explained, entitles you to a free basket of monkey bread. Guess who gets to sit at the monkey bread table every.single.time? There's no mystery here: you foster a positive relationship with the owners and staff of any establishment you frequent more than once because it ensures that you will be treated kindly and fairly. That doesn't mean I tip extravagantly - but it means that when there's a problem with my food I discuss it like an adult, it means that I leave 20 percent (because they've got terminals and they're skimming - everybody skims) and it means that when I'm acknowledged as a returning customer I acknowledge the server, greeter or busser as a known acquaintance, not a stranger. Know where the service is consistently the worst? Airports. Know why? The staff knows that they'll never see you again and you have no incentive to reward their attention. This isn't even an unspoken rule in Hollywood - anybody who works in a "deal economy" has favored tables at multiple restaurants in multiple neighborhoods so that wherever the meeting is, you're going to get a spot in the corner away from the noise where you can speak privately and where your water glass is always full. It doesn't even cost much extra, just an acknowledgement of the relationship between you and the server. Wanna see what this article should be about? Know how you get rid of tipping? You take a large, far-reaching and culturally respected restaurant chain and have them come out in favor of a living wage by compensating their workers fairly. You have that chain let it be known that their industry is service and as such, their servers are paid like valued employees rather than hangers-on scrabbling for spare change (know why Tudor England got in the habit of gifting money to a house's staff? so they wouldn't steal your shit). You make tipping uncool and it'll be gone faster than gay marriage bans. You write fumbling, obtuse, misinformed articles like this and it'll be with us forever.Tipping is confusing, and paradoxical. We tip some people who provide services but not others who work just as hard for just as little pay.
Indeed, Tore Skjelstadaune, leader of the Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions (Fellesforbundet), which organises restaurant workers, waiters and hotel employees in Oslo, has spoken out against tipping except where service is exceptional. ‘It is a principle that you should have a salary you can live on in Norway,’ he told the Norwegian online newspaper Nettavisen in 2013.
Anthropologists as well as economists are left scratching their heads by tipping.
It seems that the more honourable that restaurant work is in a society, the less that staff are tipped. Hence, Japan is one of the few countries in the world where tipping is actually offensive, because it is seen as dishonouring the server.
I agree that this is the most interesting topic the author touches upon. I bet if you compared wages to the cost of living, you'd find that it is less about honor, and more about survival. That said, in China, wait staff get paid shit even in nice restaurants and they don't get tipped at all. I also doubt that economists are scratching their heads over it. I delivered pizza for a couple of years and tips were what I lived off of. Well, tips and shitty pizza. It's pretty clear that the guy driving his beater car around the suburbs needs what extra you are willing to give. That's why people do. There's only one way to deliver a pizza, and there is no special table. Oddly, pizza doesn't have a clear 20% rule. A lot of folk give $1-2 no matter how many pies you deliver.It seems that the more honourable that restaurant work is in a society, the less that staff are tipped.
China's a strange beast, though - that's a feudal economy with a market economy poorly welded on managed by a command economy and balanced out by a criminal economy. "Tipping" in that universe is a whole 'nuther custom. I'll bet you could learn a lot by studying "tipping" in China but you'd have to study things you wouldn't normally associate with the service sector. Delivery works like that. Consider: 1) I sit down at your table. The person that seated me gets a small part of your tips. That's contact (1). 2) The server comes by and brings menus and takes a drink order. That's contact (2). 3) The server returns with drinks and recites specials while also asking about appetizers. That's contact (3). 4) The server returns for a food order and may have to return again with a drink refill or if the customers need more time. That's contacts (4-6). 5) The server brings food and checks drinks. That's contacts (7-8). 6) The server checks at least once to see how the meal is. That's contact (9), maybe (10) if there are more drinks. 7) The server clears the table and asks about dessert. Contact (11-13) if there are desserts, coffee, drink refills. 8) Server clears the table again and brings the check. (14) 9) Server collects card. (15) 10) Server returns receipt. (16). That's up to 16 customer contacts. If the server is 25 feet from the kitchen, she's walking more than 100 yards carrying stuff exclusively for your use and she's doing it in livery with a smile on her face. Compare and contrast: you show up in your clothes, listening to your music, carrying a pizza. On the flip side, tipping gets stupid with wine. Why, exactly, is the sommelier entitled to $30 for selling me a $70 bottle of wine for $150? That said, in China, wait staff get paid shit even in nice restaurants and they don't get tipped at all.
Oddly, pizza doesn't have a clear 20% rule. A lot of folk give $1-2 no matter how many pies you deliver.
I read this while belly up to a bar at a sushi restaurant in Wilmington NC, I shared the potential origin story of the "vail" described as if it were left in Downton Abby England with the waitstaff. They all gathered around to hear my wisdom. -okay, that's a lie, but it definitely was a good topic to bring up. Dammit, now I need to leave an exorbitant vail.lot of folk give $1-2 no matter how many pies you deliver.
-I used to deliver pizzas too. I was horrible at it. I would get the pie there quickly and take FOREVER to get back. Major slacker. Even though I was a driver, I still struggle w giving 20% on a large order. Recently, I threw a party and hire babysitters downstairs for my friends with kids. It was a shit load of kids. I ordered roughly $100 worth of pizza for everyone. I gave him $10. I would NEVER give a server a 10% tip. But really, how much harder was his job than if I ordered $20 worth of pizza? It was still just one trip from his car.
I think the point is that some positions (non-restaurant workers) don't come with the situation where it is considered socially expected to tip, yet they are paid less than minimum wage with the expectation that tips will make up the rest. One example is coffee shop / fast food workers, who rarely get equivalent of 20% in the tip jar (even adjusted for the many more customers they serve in an hour). Side note, TIL: CA's minimum wage is $9/hr, tipped or untipped, it seems a few of my friends employers were breaking the law...We tip people who are largely exempt from minimum wage requirements. Even the article acknowledges this:
My ass. If you don't put a dollar in the tip jar for buying a $3 cup of coffee in Los Angeles you get a dirty look. McDonald's? Sure. But then, they don't have tip jars. They also aren't minimum-wage exempt - McDonald's has no servers, nor does Chipotle, nor does Burger King. Pizza Hut? Back when they still had wait staff, they got tipped. The two most revered fast food franchises I know of are Dick's and In'n'Out. Both companies pay their employees very well. Neither allow tipping.One example is coffee shop / fast food workers, who rarely get equivalent of 20% in the tip jar (even adjusted for the many more customers they serve in an hour).
I can't speak for the culture of LA, but I knew people working at a <not-upscale-but-local-and-still-frequently-visited> coffee shop in downtown Berkeley. Split among all of the workers of a shift, it usually came out to a handful of dollars at the end of the day. (Also, hence the TIL comment, since after tips they got <$9/hr)
No, it's not: divide the non-penny part of the bill by 5. For each five, it's a buck in tip. Round up. Tip in cash when you can help it. Don't demean underpaid people that bring your laziness a plate of food. Can we make another tag for articles written by people too young to comment on the outside world?Tipping is confusing