Am I the only one who likes the tipping culture in the U.S.?

Great Debates
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I’ve seen a few threads about tipping here on SD. They usually turn into two camps…

The, ‘why should I tip someone for doing their job/they should be paid a fair wage anyway’ camp and the ‘this is the culture and we are paid little and need tips to make living wage’ camp.

I’ve never had a tipping job, well, except for that 6 week gig. However, I’ve never really bought into the first camp mentioned above. I never really understood people not tipping because they believe businesses should pay better. If the person was active in trying to change the laws to make the businesses pay better, that would be one thing, but to tip low/not tip because of a belief that you don’t try to change just seems to me to be an excuse to be cheap rather than a fervent belief.

Personally, I like tipping. However, I don’t think many people would consider me a ‘good’ guy in this respect because I am, for lack of a better word, a ‘mercenary’ tipper.

I tip very well when I think I’m going to get something from it. I want the person who cuts my hair to look at his/her appointment sheet, see my name and think “Mr. Murph is coming in, good! I will make sure his hair is done good and quickly”. I want them to wish to keep my business. This is what I think tipping is for.

Now, I don’t tip much for hotel maids, or if I eat in a restaurant that I’ll never eat again, though I will tip.

However, the Chinese take out place? Good food and I want the people there to know that even though I’m picking it up, I will tip. The food is ready and it is hot. I want the pizza delivery person to see my name on the delivery list and deliver to my house first.

Walking into my ‘regular’ restaurant I want people to notice me and be happy I came in, bending over backward to get me seated and food served well and hot. I’ve heard other patrons even notice this preferential treatment and complain. :smiley: However, if I do not appear to get this treatment, I will cut my tip drastically or take my business elsewhere. I usually give the server one time or maybe two to ‘catch on’.

When I was in Las Vegas on my honeymoon, I was able to get my wife and I seated *right by the stage * for one of her favorite singers. She was so thrilled. People were so averse to this. I heard many complaints while in line. If they would have assigned/no tipping seating, I would have had no chance for doing that and would have had terrible seats in the back.

I put this in great debates because I’m sure there are many people who think I am nuts, stupid or evil. I am also curious to what people in the jobs that need tips think of my ‘mercenary’ tipping.

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[note to mods: if this is too long of an excerpt, please delete it. I’m not sure how much it’s ok to post]

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Having worked both as a waiter and a pizza delivery boy in the past I may be biased. I may also be able to shed some light on the issue.

As a waiter I made around 2.15 an hour, not enough to make it without tips by any stretch of the imagination. If the restaurant had been paying me more then tips might not have been necessary, but also realize that such a move would have raised the costs of the restaurant considerably. Following economics, the restaurant would then only be able to hire skilled labor to the degree that it could afford it. Not a promising prospect in an industry where profit margins are so razor-thin.

Tips act as an incentive to provide better service to your customers, in fact they help to make sure that you are beholden to the customer first and the restaurant second. This is exactly how most restaurants (in the US anyway) want it to be because happy customers are repeat customers.

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2.15 an hour is not minimum wage! what am I missing here?

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Actually it’s $2.13/hr (I rounded up a little) if you are a waiter in Texas.

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litost, some jobs are exempt from having to pay the full minimum wage - and waiting tables is one of them. It’s assumed that the tips the waitor/waitress earns will more than make up the difference between what little hourly wage they’re paid and the minimum wage.

So when you don’t tip a waiter or waitress, you’re significantly lowering their income.

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[true story mini-hijack]I once went to the bar Coyote Ugly in NYC. I bought a bottle of Budweiser and waited for the bartender to move on before giving a tip, as I don’t like making a show of “here you go!” tipping, preferring to discreetly putting money on the bar (shrugs). After staring at me for about 10 seconds, the bartender said “If you don’t give me a tip you’re not getting any more drinks.”

Needless to say, I don’t go to that bar anymore. Besides, it’s overrated and the bartenders look nothing like the ones in the movie.[/true story mini-hijack]

I’m in favor of tipping, but I am not in favor of someone trying to bully me into tipping her :mad:

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From the thread title, I thought this was going to be a debate about whether we should abolish the system of paying serving staff low wages and expecting tips, in favor of paying a normal wage and not having tips, as they do in Japan, for example. In my opinion, that would be great. Why should it be up to the customer to ensure that the waiter does a good job by dangling the carrot of a tip in front of them? It demeans everyone. They should be paid what they deserve, and if they don’t do a good job, they should be fired, just like any other employee in any other business. It’s really a stupid way to do things. The only advantage I can see is to restaurant owners, because it allows them to offer prices seemingly 15% or so lower than what the customer actually ends up paying. But then it’s not really an advantage, because every other restaurant has the same advantage.

It didn’t occur to me that anyone would advocate NOT tipping under the CURRENT system where tipping is expected. Of course I’m going to tip for good service as long as that’s how we do it in the U.S.; otherwise I’d be depriving the waiter of his living.

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Actually, that is the way I should have phrased my OP. I muddied it up with more than one topic (mercenary tipping is OK? Tipping culture should be abolished? People objecting to tipping/not paying but do nothing to change the laws) and didn’t phrase the OP right but this was my intent.

If you guys tolerate me, I will learn. I promise! :smiley:

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There is a certain rationale for tipping a waitperson/bartender/bellhop, that is the price is for the food/drink/room and the tip is for the service. But what justification is there for the requitement that we tip, say, a hairdresser? The price is for the service and the service is all you get. And of all the different kinds of service personnel there are, why are only certain ones customarily tipped?

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In many states, as has been pointed out, the tips are considered to be part of the wage. If people didn’t tip, the restaurants would probably raise the food prices to pay the waitstaff minimum wage.

If waitstaff wasn’t tipped and made minimum wage, they would probably be the young types working at McD’s. After people started getting their orders routinely messed up and served cold by disinterested waitstaff, they’d understand why they were supposed to be tipping.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to wait tables, but it typically takes excellent time management skills and a passable amount of people skills (something many customers seem to lack). Making sure 15-25 people simultaneous get their orders, drinks, entrees, desserts and checks when they want it is a step above punching the fries button at McD’s.

If tipping wasn’t expected, I sincerely believe we’d get worse service and pay more for our food.

That said I have had problems with tipping bartenders just for a beer. However, I have found that it’s worth my money when I get mixed drinks. :wink:

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Diogenes, I thought it was Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) that didn’t tip, not Mr. White (Harvey Keitel).

Anyway, I like tipping, particularly in restaurants. The few times I’ve been to Europe, I though that service was absolutely horrible no matter where I went. IMHO it’s because the waitstaff has no real motivation, since they get paid the same either way.

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You’re right, Shah, the online script I copied it from had the names reversed. I should have read it more closely before I posted it.

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You are none of the above, andymurph. I am very much a “mercenary tipper” also. I have noticed many advantages of tipping well when you know you will be rewarded for it.

Most bars I frequent I tip very well at. What ends up happenning is I get free drinks every few rounds as a reward.

I try to ensure that the pizza delivery guy heads to my place first. If I get cold food, he gets very little tip. They do pay attention and go to the good tippers house first, as well they should.

I still tip, just not as well, when there is no chance of getting any benefit out of it.

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But what inherent reason is there that management can’t pay them more? Whether it’s the restaurant or the customer making up the difference is six of one or a half-dozen of the other. Why does the restaurant industry have to be different than any other service industry? When I go to a department store, I don’t need to tip the salesman for assisting me with my purchase. If (s)he does a poor job, I can complain to the manager, and (s)he will be reprimanded or fired. If (s)he does an exceptional job, I can praise her/him to the manager, and (s)he might get a raise or be promoted. Likewise, I don’t tip the customer service agent at my credit card company. In many industries, it is left up to the management to ensure that good service is provided. It’s certainly in their best interest to do so, since they will lose customers if they do not. There’s no reason the restaurant industry couldn’t do the same.

I disagree. A restaurant with bad service would lose customers, and would quickly rectify the situation. We would pay more for the food, but save money on the tip, so it would even out, AND be less hassle. Good waiters could still be rewarded by the management, but wouldn’t be penalized by cheapskate customers.

Think about this, too: How many times have you gone to a restaurant where the poor waiter is obviously overworked, but trying very hard, so you leave them a good tip? Where’s the incentive for the owner to do anything about their poor treatment of the waiter? They get their help for cheap and run them ragged. If the customers express their displeasure by not tipping, it only hurts the waiter, who will then have to redouble his/her efforts until the job becomes so difficult that they end up quitting, which leaves the management free to hire a new waiter to run ragged.

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If the customers have to tip to motivate the working staff, let’s employ this in all industries! I don’t see why competitive market forces are sufficient motivation.

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But many people would continue to tip. I know I would. Result: Waiters make a “normal wage” like $6.50 per hour in Denny’s or $22.50 per hour at Sir Walter Raleigh’s plus all the tip wages that would still be coming in.

I like the idea that my waiter works a little harder in the hopes of getting a few extra dollars, and that if my waiter is slow & surly, I can apply corrective measures and save a few dollars on my restaurant bill.

If the restaurant pays a “normal wage” and there is no tipping, I am stuck with a bigger bill and no recourse when I feel the service was lacking. I’ve been in a few restaurants where I was glad that I could tell the waiter exactly what I thought of the poor service, and not in some indirect way like telling the manager, but in the most direct way: the waiter’s pocket book.

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Restaurants frequently pool all the tips and divide them between the kitchen staff, so you are in all likelihood affecting everyone’s pocketbook. Except the management, of course.

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Perhaps not too long of an excerpt (let me think about that), but could you at least get rid of the extraneous carriage returns and blank lines next time, so that it doesn’t take forever to scroll through? Example:

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P.S. Forget to say - if you’re wondering whether or not a post is OK or not, the acceptable solutions are:
a) Don’t post it
b) Check with a moderator first.
The wrong thing to do is post it anyway with a note “BTW, my post might be breaking the SDMB rules.”