To Tip or Not to Tip?
In the United States, tipping, especially in restaurants, is a given. It's a custom so well-worked into the grains of our society that even if you aren't sure how much to tip, you know you'll still tip. I think this is a practice that's also understood internationally. Foreigners who come to the United States understand to tip, but as those in the service industry know all too well, the amount given as a gratuity is often underwhelming.
This isn't necessarily a reflection upon one country or another, or businessmen versus those dining for pleasure. Rather, it's a mutual ignorance of another country's customs.
Sites like Tipping.org, Tipping for Success and The Emily Post Institute all exist so that we, in theory, can figure out how to tip to command respect—or maybe just deter disdain—from others.
I'm on the fence about this one. As a former restaurant manager and server, I've been on the other end of the dining room. I've been paid $2.83 and $2.13 an hour, and had to tip out 6% of my sales to my support staff, who received $4 and $5 an hour. Tipping out based on sales, not tips, ensures that the support staff takes home a proportional amount of money according to the work they did to help that sever attain his or her nightly sales. It also ensures that the server takes home the amount of money that directly reflects their tips. If a server had a couple of big tables that left large tips, he or she keeps the bulk of that money. If a server had a poor night, with several tables that left poor tips, it can result in a situation where the server is literally paying others—the house, the support staff—for the opportunity to work. I've seen hotel servers borrow money to get their cars out of the parking lot after a slow shift.
However, this isn't the responsibility of the diner. The diner comes to a restaurant to be waited upon, to receive food that is prepared and served by someone else. Guests pay to not have to do anything. This doesn't entitle them to treat their server or support staff like servants or minions. However, the guest shouldn't be made responsible for a business owner's decisions. Turnover runs rampant in a restaurant. Servers and managers alike understand that if the compensation is unfairly distributed, they can walk at will. It's not the diner's fault that he or she chose to eat at a restaurant that pays its staff well under the market average. How can they know these things, anyway?
So yes, tip, and tip well. If the service is poor, that's a conversation to be had with a manager, not with your wallet. If it is inexcusably poor, and the food subpar, let your business do the talking and simply never return.
Comments