Anyway, I had a mini discussion about tipping with a friend and her cohorts on facebook the other day. Before I get into it, I just want to say that I have good manners. I recognize social norms, and I try to include them in my life. I hold elevators for people; I cover my mouth when I cough or sneeze (sometimes I even put my face inside my shirt); I usually let others go through a door before I do if we get there at the same time (Dwight: I never let anyone walk behind me, 70 percent of all attacks come from behind.) But this tipping thing is out of control. I mean, I do tip... But it's out of guilt or some weird responsibility.
So why do you tip?
Based on performance? No you don't, otherwise there wouldn't be any relationship between the bill and the tip (i.e., 20% tip) If you go to super cuts and pay 15 bucks for a haircut instead of going to a boutique and paying 50, and the $15 haircut ends up being just as good, will you tip 20% of 15 or 20% of 50? If both stylists do an equal job, the tip should be the same if it's based on performance--the same dollar amount, not the same percentage.
Also, if you tip because of performance then you have to give a $0 tip when the service is bad; you don't have to, but you should. Think about it for a second: if a waiter totally sucks at his job, should you be encouraging him to stay in the field? But do you have the guts to stiff him?
Do you tip based on need? "Oh those poor stylists who have to slave all day cutting hair, they deserve to get paid more than the salon pays them!!!" So that's my fault? The salon rips them off and somehow I have to make up for it? Why don't I just pay the normal rate, and then give my tip to charity.
Do you tip based on guilt or good manners?
This is why I tip. I feel bad if I don't... I don't want the waiters to feel like I'm a jerk.
The next question is how much do you tip?
I'm a 15% tipper. You can call me cheap, but I'm just poor. If I have to really tip more than 15% then I'll just stop going to restaurants where tipping is "suggested". Honestly, if my wife and I go my favorite sit down mexican place (Pancho and Lefty's) we end up paying about 18 bucks for the entrees, with my 15% tip I get out the door paying around 21 dollars (I pay on price before tax suckas). If we go to Cafe Rio we pay around 15. So that's a $6 premium for sitting down and having someone bring me my food. That in itself is insane, but whatever. Every cent more that I have to pay in tip just makes me want to abandon my lovely Pancho.
Now the economics of the situation.
What would happen if everyone stopped tipping? Let's go through it chronoligically.
First, waiters would be pissed. And they would gripe or quit or whatever. Nobody would be a waiter for 3 bucks an hour.
Second, restaurants would have to pay more money for waiters or else switch to an assembly line style (e.g., Cafe Rio, Chipotle, etc.)
Third, either prices would go up, or services would go down.
Prices might go up because the restaurants would have to compensate for the higher wages, and basically your tip would be injected into the price. If tips are a standard percentage, and not based on any real measurement of performance, then it's the same difference.
Service might go down because you may have to go get your own food and bring it to your table (OH NO) Or, what I think is the most likely outcome, prices would go up a bit, but servers would just make less money.
But how much are servers worth? My old friend that worked at red lobster would flirt her way to around 20-25 bucks an hour. Another friend at an Italian restaurant could handle 4 tables an hour, and make 20 dollars with ease. Are servers really worth that? Now I'm not talking about some theoretical "worth", I'm talking about the market price. Would there be enough servers if the base wage was set at $11/hr (the wage of a good grocery checker)?? I think there would be in this job market.
My point is that tipping kind of screws up supply and demand for workers. It's kind of like commission. The fact that there is a potential for 20-25 dollars per hour means that a lot of really talented people go out there and get server jobs. (And some don't make that much money) . And because there is this huge surplus of supply (waiters) the demanders (owners) can actually reduce the price they pay. As a result, we have waiters making 3 dollars an hour. Legislatures even recognize this strange relationship, and exempt these service jobs from the minimum wage.
The owners have totally duped you.
They get to
1) Charge you a premium for the experience (sit down costs more than assembly line)
2) Make you pay the labor costs (with tipping) in addition to the bill.
I know what some of you are thinking "But John, the waiters wouldn't be as good and we would lose out on the fun of going to a restaurant and being dazzled by service." I don't really think that's true. Pricey places would still have great waiters, and most places could still get great waiters for 11 or 12 dollars an hour. Do you tip teachers, mailmen, bank tellers, loan officers, mechanics, doctors, nurses, police officers, plumbers, or grocery store clerks? And do they all just completely suck?
Waiters are totally overpaid. I know, it's hard to remember all that stuff and deal with all the crap, but people would still work as waiters for less money. If not, then restaurants would just have to pay more, and so would we... but right now waiters are paid artificially high amounts because we are all guilted into paying them tips.
One final point.. why is a tip based on a percentage of the meal? Why do I pay a higher tip if the waitress fills up my soft drink rather than a water? Why do I pay more if they put a plate with a steak on my table instead of a plate of salad? It's really rather silly.
5 comments:
Agreed...but for now, it got me through school flirting my way to a tip!!! J/K I feel the same way. We were out to eat the other night and I felt bad for not tipping more than 15%....It really is a weird topic b/c honestly (this is a generalization) MOST waiters/waitresses do not have any schooling but they are making 25-30 per hour. Not to mention (another generalization) 90% of them have lifestyles that most employers will not hire them. (ie constant smoke breaks, drugs, always hung over in the mornings (thats why they love night shifts),language problems and everyone loving everyone else as far as relationships go). Its crazy how some professions expect a tip and for others its not going to happen.
John, I'm currently in an economics class so I really enjoy reading your blog because it has accurate information with your witty personality. In fact, we have a blog for class that we are required to blog at least once a month. I try to blog twice a month, to butt kiss a little bit and because I think its fun. As I am writing my blog, I try to write it in the mind frame as John Berger. I do a horrible job so Jenna always tells me, "Why don't you just have John write your blogs?"
I have to take on a psuedo name so noone really knows who I am. My name is Jonathan and the address of our blog if you ever want to check it out is:
http://econtufte.blogspot.com/
I think my post of supply and demand with regards to pumpkins vs roses was decent but about 25% what you could do.
Oh yeah, and on one I copied bits and pieces out of one of your blog posts. I promise to be more creative and not steal anymore of your blog posts!!
Just for fun, here is how I tip. I firmly believe that tipping should be performance based but that's not quite how the system works, as you've so adequately described. So, I created my own system. I guess you can think of it as a graduated 5 star system based on $50 dollar increments. Basically I give the server a 1-5 star rating; performance. For every $50 I've spent on the meal the server gets $1 for each star; percentage. Now obviously the percentage will have a wide variance of 4% to 25% in most cases but I believe the difference between a $20 meal and a $50 meal is really just the name of the restaurant I'm sitting in and not the type or amount of service I'm being provided. As far as I'm concerned it works out to be quite fair and I've never felt awkward about the amount of the tip.
I generally don't feel bad not tipping, but I like to be passive-agressive about how I feel about that servers performance. Here is what I mean: The next time you have really bad service - try tipping something paltry AND wierd - say... 1.38 or whatever. It will piss them off and confuse them. :)
What can they do? By that point it is too late to spit in your food!
hehehe
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