Here’s a Tip: No more tipping
I recently acquired a rather spiffy new mobile phone that is chock-full of all kinds of snazzy features. I am still figuring it out and finding new features all the time.
I came across one, though, that I almost wish wasn’t on the phone. In the handy-n-fun tools section, where among other things, there is a calculator, there is also a separate tip calculator.
I have a couple problems with this. First, are we as a nation so bad at math that we can’t approximate an appropriate amount for a tip in our heads? I refuse to accept the fact that there is anyone reading this right now who can’t figure out ten percent of the bill instantaneously. A tip is supposed to be in the range 15% or so, so c’mon, ten percent plus about half again more. It doesn’t have to be exact to the penny. In the ballpark is fine.
OK, so suppose for some reason you can’t trust your own math, or perhaps there are complicating factors, like multiple guests, and you’re going dutch, whatever. Is there any reason that a dedicated tip calculator function needs to be devised if you already have a regular calculator function? Is it that hard to punch in Total check X 1.15, and then divide by number of people? And all anyone ever has is a 20 dollar bill anyway, so what’s the deal?
But in fact, my real gripe here is not so much with the means of calculating an appropriate tip. I am more frustrated with the entire practice and custom of tipping in restaurants as a whole. Whatever purpose tipping your waiter or waitress may have had at one time, here and now in 2007 it is simply more trouble than it is worth for all concerned–the waitstaff, the customer, and the restaurant owner, and the rest of the staff in the restaurant, and I would guess it’s probably even annoying for the people who are just walking by the restaurant at the time.
Before I get into my reasons as to why tipping should go away, let me state up front that I have no problem with waitstaff getting paid appropriately for their time. I just think the restaurant should either just add the tip to the bill automatically or adjust the prices on the menu so that they can pay the waiter whatever he would make if all his customers tipped the standard rate.
So here’s why I think tipping doesn’t work and should just be eliminated:
Supposedly the word “tip” means “to insure promptness.” It’s not only apocryphal from an etymological standpoint, I don’t think it works as in incentive to waiters, either. The reason is that there isn’t a direct cause and effect between the size of the tip and the quality of the service. I think most people just tip whatever their standard amount is. Most people figure 15% or so, and round up just to be sure. No one wants to get embroiled in some kind of value judgment of their waiter at the end of their meal, and unless things were extraordinarily bad or extraordinarily good, there is little difference in their tip. Most of variation in the size of the tip is probably due more to the habits of the tipper than the waiter’s performance. Some people, for a variety of reasons, just don’t leave big tips, and other people leave big tips. Sometimes it seems to be a need to impress others, or worse, it’s one of those people who may have waited tables for summer or two in college, and just like reformed smokers, are constantly making the point that you don’t know what it’s like to be waiter, and that no matter how much you leave, it’s not enough. And even if you don’t want to make a value judgment about someone who is just trying to make a living, be assured that many waiters have no qualms about making a value judgment about you.
And even if the size of the tip had a more direct correlation to the quality of the service, since when did it become my job, the paying customer, to be the one who gives the restaurant’s employees incentives to perform? Isn’t that the job of the restaurant manager? If a waiter is slacking off, I would hope his supervisor would notice and either fire him or write him up or something. My only involvement in assessing the performance of the waiter (and in most cases, our dining experience is influenced by all the employees) is if I like the place, I’ll come back, and I don’t like the place, I won’t.
And if you ever do decide that a restaurant or waiter is so bad that you decide to exercise you’re tipping rights by leaving a dollar or something like that, be prepared for the parking lot confrontation. You’re already halfway to the car, already fuming about the awful meal and shoddy service, vowing never to return, when the waiter who ignored you for 45 minutes before taking your drink order suddenly is sprinting across the parking lot saying “What the hell is this?” Yeah, that will convince me to pull out my wallet and pull out five more bucks. While I am at it, let me make a reservation for my next birthday party.
I have been to other countries where tipping in restaurants is not expected. It can be done. The service was fine. We can do this.
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I think if everyone everywhere took a stand and stopped tipping all together, the businesses would be forced to pay them more, because of labor laws…
I rather like the custom. It makes me feel like I’m paying for a service, not merely for some poor person’s time.
An hourly wage is like selling your life. Working for tips is like selling your abilities. These are two very different things. And though, at the end of the day, the amount of money may be the same, the meaning of the money may not be.
truth is you’re to cheap to tip.
[…] Original post by Mr. Alex […]
I agree with a lot of the points that you make, but you fail to take into consideration that some of the incentive for people to eat at restaurants is to enjoy the power of the tip, so that in those extreme situations, when the service is either extremely bad or extremely good, they can choose whether or not to give those extra dollars.
When people are at home, they can’t bitch to the person who made them food, but when they eat out, they have a chance to nibble at the hand that feeds by being stingy on the tip. Its a big incentive.
Whenever you have a business in which your employees interact with hundreds of people a day, you want to ensure that every interaction is a pleasant one for your customers. Telemarketers have their calls randomly recorded or monitored for quality. Allowing you to pay a portion of your servers salary ensures that they do the best they can. Simple reward conditioning.
My father in law is the biggest jerk to waitstaff but he tips huge. Without tips, waiting tables would be just another low paying fast food job.
I tip in the ballpark of 20%.
Many places require that percentages of all tips are given to kitchen, bartender and bus boys.
Geekfoolery » Archive » Here’s a Tip: No more tipping…
Why aren’t food servers never satisfied with their tips? Why do we even bother tipping when the service is almost as bad as the food sometimes? A must read article to read before you tip your server next time….
Great comments, thanks everyone.
Rubin, I’m not cheap, I just want to know how much the bill is. And that’s the other thing about tipping I don’t like… If I even SAY I don’t like tipping, I’m labelled as cheap!
Simon, if you enjoy the power trip of holding a few extra bucks in reserve or flashing them on the table, hey, have at it. The system is set up for you. The power trip goes two ways, unfortunately. If you’re a lousy customer, we all know there are waiters who will tamper with your food.
And Jason, I disagree that tipping ensures anything, or at least that was the point I was trying to make. You even say you tip 20%… that sounds like all the time. If tipping really worked, the scale would slide a lot more. Now waitstaff can rely on the fact that unless they really screw up, they can count on your 20%. And the fact that tips are split with the kitchen and the rest dilutes your power even more. The difference between a 10% tip and 25% tip on a $100 check, divided up, and with taxes taken out…. comes out to what, a buck or two?
Alex,
I’ll chime in on this one. As you know I’m a 20% er … sortof.
Did you know I have 2 reasons?
First: you have seen me eat and I’m an interesting character. Thats worth extra
Second: 3rd grade math …. Double the first dollar amount in the bill = close to 20%.
(Ex: $64.56 —– $6 X 2 =12 )
I do typically tip higher in low cost family style dining and in places I frequently visit.
great article!
having worked in the restaurant business for over 20 years, I couldn’t agree with more.
SO honestly I think you are just too cheap to tip. I am a server, and let me tell you we rely solely on your tips. We get paid less than three dollars an hour and after taxes, most of the time we don’t even get a paycheck. You think not tipping us would make the restaurant pay us more? NO it won’t. The RESTAURANT itself, when it is a franchise, does not choose what to pay their servers. We all get paid the same thing. So we LIVE off of YOUR tips. And when you don’t tip we will remember you. We run our asses off to get you our fifth Coke and then you decide not to tip us. ALSO it is NOT our fault that your food took so long. We have NOTHING to do with the food making itself. So next time you are sitting in a restaurant asking this college kid runnign around like crazy trying to make you and all of our other four or five tables happy, just remember that if it weren’t for our tips, we would make NOTHING. So THANKS for not tipping us, I enjoy working for you for an hour to get nothing out of it, I’m sure you would LOVE to do the same.
Hey, Lauren, thanks for the comment. Just so you know, I do tip, and I tip the standard rate. But I think you missed a paragraph that I wrote:
“Before I get into my reasons as to why tipping should go away, let me state up front that I have no problem with waitstaff getting paid appropriately for their time. I just think the restaurant should either just add the tip to the bill automatically or adjust the prices on the menu so that they can pay the waiter whatever he would make if all his customers tipped the standard rate.”
I am not saying that everyone should just stop tipping and leave the waiters and waitresses of the world hanging. I am saying the entire structure should change so that you get paid fairly for your time and effort like you would in any other business, and you wouldn’t have to worry that some guy you just spent the whole evening on thinks a dollar is a good tip, or maybe he comes from a different country where tipping isn’t the norm.
I’m on your side here. I think the problems I have pointed out with this absurd system where restaurant owners get to push the responsibility for compensating thier staff directly on the patrons has created the obviously bitter attitude that you and many other waitstaff have towards customers (spend five minutes on bitterwaitress.com to see).
So Lauren, I DO tip, I DON”T want to see you run around and not get paid. And I do read your comments.
Here’s an idea to all the waitstaff/bartenders, etc… if you can’t tolerate the fact that some people tip well and some people don’t agree with the concept, get out of the industry. OR just shut up about it because a nine year old can go back to the kitchen and carry out my food for me. That’s why its a minimum wage job. Go to school and get in another industry where you don’t have to rely on other people’s gratitude. I tip; In restaurants I tip so I don’t look like a dolt, and I really hate that there is that pressure not to look like a dick to those poor waitresses who can’t make money any other way that they live off my $5. But the reason I voluntarily tip is to get better service at places like bars and clubs. Its like a payoff. I give the bartender a huge tip right off the bat, who’s he gonna fill up first next time I go to get another drink? Me. I took care of him SO he would take care of me. Not the other way around. Its called the service/hospitality industry for a reason.
as a waitress you have no idea how much work it truly takes to serve people. NO a 9 year old can NOT do the job we do..in fact the majority of people cannot be a GOOD waitress. i hate the fact that you think you can do it..because you probably CAN’T! you have to have a million things on your mind at once and keep a smile on your face when people are rude. we RELY ON YOUR TIPS. making less than 3 dollars an hour can’t pay for anything. so next time..have a little more respect and heart for your waitress
Hey Blair, thanks for the comment. However, please go back and read what I said, because you seem to be taking issue with things I didn’t say.
–>NO a 9 year old can NOT do the job we do..in fact the majority of people cannot be a GOOD waitress.
Hmmm… I didn’t actually say this.
–>i hate the fact that you think you can do it..because you probably CAN’T!
I never made this point either.
–> we RELY ON YOUR TIPS.
I know you do, and what I was trying to say is that the system of tipping is as bad for you as it is for the customers. I actually made the point at the start by saying, “I have no problem with waitstaff getting paid appropriately for their time. I just think the restaurant should either just add the tip to the bill automatically or adjust the prices on the menu so that they can pay the waiter whatever he would make if all his customers tipped the standard rate.”
I have travelled in other countries where tipping is not the norm, and it seems to work. Recently in Costa Rica I would get the bill and the gratuity was already in there. Perfect. I can pay the bill and ask for exact change and everyone is happy. In the Philippines, the tip is generally the equivalent of 2 or 3 bucks, regardless of the amount of the check. It works. In Taiwan, except in US chain restaurants, there just is no tipping. It works.
I have respect for waitstaff… have some respect for bloggers and go back and read what I said!
We need to start a standard 2 or 3 dollar tip, and let the restaurants pay their own employees. Restaurants raise their prices and we are responsible for the raises the employees get? Someone needs to start a movement with a catchy name, use the internet and get the ball rolling.
tipping is out of hand…
Tipping can promote an antagonistic division between the customer (who might perceive the service as mediocre), and the server (who assumes the tip is a given). Why are the customers put this position and why are we expected to participate as a financial planner for the server ? Why is it the customer’s job to provide the restaurant’s employees an incentive to perform? Isn’t that the job of the restaurant manager/owner ? The customer’s only involvement should be assessing the quality of the food, service, and atmosphere, and determining if it’s worth a future visit. What if this insanity was the norm for every industry out there ?
People who are or were in the waiting industry are constantly making the point that “you don’t know what it’s like to be a waiter, and that anything under 20% is a personal insultâ€. You’ll get the usual weak arguments (or should I say misdirection and personal attacks) from those in the industry if you question any part of the process. Funny how they never seem to address the substance of the tipping issues.
• “The prices will double or triple if tipping is abolished and waiters paid an appropriate wageâ€. Yeah right. Supply & demand will continue to work. Prices will naturally seek a level where the customer can still afford to eat out, and the restaurant can make a profit. If there’s a niche, it will be filled.
• “It’s really hard work and low payâ€. Jeepers, hard work (and stress) can be said for a lot of jobs out there. Face it – It’s primarily menial labor with some basic people skills and memorization mixed in. It’s not rocket science. Take some personal responsibility. Either accept it, or move on to a job that’s easier and/or compensates you more. This is America. As for low pay & the below minimum wage stuff, save that red herring for someone else. Many waiters make good money with tips (and not reporting it all).
• “Tipping well gets you better serviceâ€. Maybe, assuming you go to the same old place on a frequent basis, get the same server, and they remember you as a regular high tipping customer, but then you should tip every service related profession using that logic. By the way, what is considered “tipping well ?â€, as many in the industry consider anything less than 20% an insult. Let’s end the bribery and the veiled threat of inflicting poor service. In most fine restaurants, tips are often pooled and the incentive for the server to perform probably diluted. Michael Lynn (referenced above) has studied tipping habits and written numerous papers on the subject. He indicates that the biggest reason people tip is not for great service, but for social approval. For me the bottom line is simple - If an establishment wants my continued patronage it had better give me good service or I’ll go elsewhere.
• “You’re just being cheap, if you can’t afford to eat out stay homeâ€. This is my favorite irrelevant misdirection. Just insult the person asking a question on tipping culture ethics instead of addressing the substance of the question. I can afford to tip 1000 percent on a $200 meal, but what’s that got to do with my questions on the culture ? By the way, I don’t like strawberry ice cream.
The current culture of tipping may be too entrenched to abolish, but one can dream. Still, the arguments to simplify the system are too strong to ignore, and worth a good discussion.
Tipping is obviously in the best interest of the restaurant industry. I have no problem promoting self interest, except that in this case, it’s at the expense and frustration of their customers. Restaurant’s can pay their employees less than minimum wage (with backing from the federal government), and count on customers to make up the difference in tips. Of course they like the current system, because it gives them pseudo-contractors as opposed to the complete responsibility that comes with having real employees. (By the way - If tipping is truly at the discretion of the customer, and not required the law, how can the government justify taxing tips ? )
Tips are humiliating both for the worker and the customer. They sanction a social division: those who have the power to determine the income of others and those whose income is dependent on that determination. Also, they create a distorted social interaction, where one group of people, those being tipped, must necessarily be obsequious toward those disbursing the tips. Moreover, tipping creates problems for people spending someone else’s money as well as causing some damage to the treasury in the form of minor fiscal evasions. The costs of work must be included in the price and must not be subject to the discretionary power of customers. Dissatisfied customers have several options, the first being exit-taking their service elsewhere-the second, voice-complaining about poor service. A democratic society should abolish tips while increasing the compensation of those who have customarily received them.
If I need a television, I go out and pay for a television. End of story. If I order a steak from a restaurant, I expect to receive and pay for a steak. Why then do I need to tip extra for getting the service a business offers ? It’s not like I get a steak and the waiter also details my car. When a coke costs 2.00, shouldn’t I expect a refill? Isn’t paying a 1000 percent markup on a product enough ?
Instead of relying on tips to supplement its employees’ incomes, restaurants should raise their prices by 20 percent and the wages of their servers by an equal amount. This has several advantages. Servers would get steady wages and not be at the mercy of poor tippers; servers would be unable to hide any income from the Internal Revenue Service, and customers would be spared the pressure of deciding how much to tip.
Here’s an idea to all the waitstaff/bartenders, etc… if you can’t tolerate the fact that some people tip well and some people don’t agree with the antiquated concept, get out of the industry. OR just shut up about it because you can train a monkey to go back to the kitchen and carry out the food. That’s why it’s a minimum wage job. It’s menial labor not rocket science ! You defend tipping so much cause if you were really paid what you were worth, you’d never get more than minimum wage. Get some education and get in another industry where you don’t have to rely culturally accepted begging and on your customers being your financial planner.
I tip; In restaurants I tip so I don’t look like a dolt, and I really hate that there is that pressure not to look like a dick to those poor waitresses who can’t make money any other way that they live off my $5.
You got to be kiding me! I wait tables, make 2.13 an hour and rely on my tips. Why should you tip!?! Becasue we aint McDonalds, we serve your food, fill your drinks, whatever my tabel needs i get it for them. They have the luxury of being waited on hand and foot! So heres an idea, if your cheap ass cant tip, dont go out to eat! When you go to McDonalds, you need something, get your ass up and get it yourself…Red Lobster you are paying a server to do it for you! Get a clue!! Watch the movie Waiting, Garentee your cheap asses will tip then! And if not, i dont forget a face ever, i will be more then happy to wait on you that second time. I wont expect a tip, but dont expect any service…and alittle extra sauce!! haha!
And no, not just anyone can be a waiter/ waitress, there is alot more to just filling drinks, preparing your food, using a computer to put in orders. I think everyone should have to wait tables once in their lives, thats if they can hang. Its not as easy as it looks! Its a very high stress job, look we have to put up with assholes like you! I make more money waiting tables then i ever did book-keeping. Most people where i work tip the propper 20%…you always have your trash of coarse, but like i said i wont forget your cheap ass face!
Sticks & stones….. Must have found your button.
Kelly:
How much food preparation do you do ? Are you also the chef ? And I like the way you in the industry assume 20% is “proper”. Seems to me it used to be 15%, and years before that it was 10%. Do you think 20% is the minimum tip these daze (otherwise you’re trash) ? And I love the same old tried arguement of if you haven’t worked in the industry, you can’t talk. I have worked in the industry as well as retail in my day and can attest that it’s not rocket science. Sure dealing with the public can be shit, but dealing with people can be shit in any industry out there. So no sympathy there.
Witholding service is also a great idea ! I’m sure a competent restaurant manager will be fine with that. Especially after a few complaints from their bread & butter (i.e. customers).
How do you feel about abolishing tipping and just being paid a regular wage ? Simplify things for the customer & wait staff ?
Love the name calling by the way. Keep it up. It really supports your cause.
Whether people like it or not servers only get paid 3.13 an hour. The reason they recieve such a low hourly wage is because we are tipped employees. Its not rocket science of course but how many jobs are? When you have five or six tables and they all expect your full undivided attention right when they need it. Customers need to understand if you see your server running around trying to take orders,refill drinks, bring things extra to the table,help food run, bus tables, take payments your server can’t always be right there or bring your box right away. All of you who responded should keep in mind that MOST servers are doing the best they can with what they are given. And WE DON’T COOK YOUR FOOD! When something doesn’t come out rare enough or well enough or you get a baked potato instead of a sweet potato there is no need to yell at your server, they most likely put it in the computer right but they cooks made it wrong. Trust me your server cares far more about your dining experience then the cooks, for one your server is the one you yell and two they are the ones getting tipped. And while some of you may not like people saying you haven’t worked at a restaurant you don’t understand- trust me thats true. Before I worked at a restaurant I didn’t understand. Now whenever I go out to eat I tip 25-30 percent. I don’t think everyone should tip that much but I know how good it feels to have a good tip. Also, at my restaurant we have to tip one percent of our sales to the food runner, bartenders, and barbacks. Thats usually four percent of our totally sales. So if we make 50 dollars we usually only walk away with 40. Another note about tipping if you go out to eat with a group of people and you split your credit cards by 2,3,4, so on…. it is nice to tip on the total bill not tip based on the amount charged to your credit card. For example if an 80 dollar check is split three ways that would have been a 16 dollar tip instead we get 9 dollars. But what mostly offended me on this website was that someone commented “Get some education and get in another industry where you don’t have to rely culturally accepted begging and on your customers being your financial planner.” Most servers including myself ARE getting an education and most likely working harder then you by working at a restaurant and going to school full time and taking care of their personal life.! Working at a restaurant you can work at night therefore you can go to school during the day! That was inappropriate and an unintelligent thing to say. If you don’t want to tip your server then I don’t bother going out to eat, like it or not it is customary to tip between 15-20 percent.
Stephenie:
Perhaps it would be more appropriate if our customer rants were more strongly directed towards the restaurant owners and restaurant lobby. We’ve all heard details explained by servers such as yourself of being paid less than minimum and working hard. I won’t dispute that. In most cases I’ll grant you, that unless you beat the system by working in a higher end restaurant, you just make a regular living. In many cases it looks like the restaurant owners have the best deal, at the expense of their employees and their customers. Unfortunately on forums like this you just get responses from us two schnooks… the customers and servers.
That being said, please understand, costs have been going up on meals with inflation. You’d think that with inflated costs, the tip percent would go up accordingly. But for some reason, as someone said, “20% appears to be the new 15%”. Now many servers are advocating minimum 20% (or more) on the entire bill (Tax, and alcohol) or you’re a cheapass. Frankly we’re getting hit with inflation too. That’s why we’re tired of hearing about the server’s need for a “living wage”.
Gotta go. Will finish later.
Where did the whole idea of tipping come from?
Who decides on who gets a tip and who doesn’t?
My understanding was that tipping was just a small gift from those well off to inferiors. Why it’s stuck with a few selected service industries and not others I don’t know.
Tipping spread from England to colonial America, but after the revolution it was frowned upon (temporarily) as a hangover from the British class system. One only tipped one’s social inferiors, which, lest we forget, did not exist in the brave new world. Unfortunately, the working class eventually got around to swallowing its pride, and tipping returned with all the fervor it possesses today.
The fifteen percent standard is mostly a question of what the market will bear. In the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s the norm was 5 - 10%. In the eighties the restaurant lobby won the ability to pay tipped employees less than half the minimum wage, but employees had to report a minimum of 8% of their tips. A big advantage for the owners, at the the expense of their customers. This appears to be about the time 15-20% became the norm. Many European restaurants generally add a ten percent gratuity to the bill, and spare their customers the complication and frustration of tipping.
In New York, 20% is the new 15%; and waitstaff on every web site out there are pushing the envelope with demands of 20% as the bare minimum, even as inflation increases the costs of the meal. I’ve heard it said that because the cost of living has increased, the tip amount has also increased; this is said by those who don’t understand the idea of percentages (or conveniently ignore it to promote their own self-serving agenda).
I officially decided to STOP tipping today. It’s getting outrageous. I go out and eat, pay $30,.. then I have to pay a server $4.50?! That’s the cost of two drinks or an appetizer or a small entree! No way. I’d rather go pick my OWN food up and refill my OWN drink. I think your service in carrying food to my table and filling my drink is worth a single dollar. Don’t whine about how much you would make if you didn’t get tips… how about revealing just how much you make WITH tips. You people just don’t want to lose the lucrative pay (with tips) that you wouldn’t get if you had to work for minimum wage!