Isn’t this just a way for business to get around paying their employees decent wages? And haven’t we just accepted this is “the way it is”?
I am not advocating “stiffing” people who work for tips (because, as I mentioned, we have embraced this process as a society, so we’re kind of stuck with it). What I’m questioning is the process itself and why/how it exists in the first place.
It’s odd that not all service-related jobs involve tips, only some do. Why is that?
The goal of tipping is to encourage a high level of service. Perhaps one can think of it as the difference between doing the job efficiently and efficiently and enthusiasticaly. In some service jobs, efficient is all that is wanted-no tipping.
Obviously there are exceptions, but one-on-one service seems to be the major criteria for tipping. As for why not have the employer make the decision and pay the efficient and enthusiastic employee extra-that is very hard for the supervisor to judge and rate at a distance. So letting the customer do that is to everyone’s advantage.
We tip people because not all of us have access to cows.
I think efficiency is paramount. I’m not sure what added enthusiasm brings to the table (no pun intended for waitstaff here). One could make the argument that if tipping is critical in one service job, it would be in all.
I don’t buy the argument that it’s hard for a supervisor to judge and rate at a distance in jobs where people work for tips. What’s the difference between that setting and one in which the employee doesn’t even work in the same office as his/her boss? Furthermore, wouldn’t customer feedback to the supervisor make up for any deficiency in the supervisor’s direct monitoring?
But if you feel people should be doing their jobs the best they can, tipping means little.
I think everyone should be giving 100% anyway. Does a person who works in McDonalds work any less hard? Perhaps, perhaps not? If a person in McDonalds is giving great service, then why shouldn’t he get a tip?
The most likely answer is it lowers the price. If there was no tipping, resturant owners would have to figure in the cost of tips into the price of food and raise their prices accordingly. This would mean the cost of meals would rise.
This is why people always quote prices without taxes. I used to work in hotels in Chicago and the tax was something close to 20% and people would be in shock when you told them. Because that’s a big increase over the price.
But when you break things down it’s less of a shock to sell. This is why an airline ticket is $100.00 plus all sorts of assorted fees. People THINK they are getting a deal.
When I bought a computer item off the Internet I found one deal that was excellent. When I added in shipping and state sales tax, I found it was better to go toanother site that didn’t charge tax or shipping. I saved $20.00 even though the second site had the item for $7.00 more, because that site didn’t have to charge tax and offered free shipping.
But not everyone does that.
I think that is the reason why tipping stays, it allows owners to give the appearence of lower prices.
As alluded to by rbroome, it’s a form of bribe.
I like tipping, and I hate that it’s taxable (income). It’s a personal thing between customer and server, and none of the government’s (or the management’s) business .
Peace,
mangeorge
And my pay is a personal matter between my employer and myself. What’s the difference?
I’ve worked in places where we had tip jars, but made minimum wage or above. The theory is that it will encourage the employees to work harder and provide better service. IMO, it doesn’t work. The lazy guys are still lazy (although they’ll bitch just as much about poor tippers), and the guys that work hard and try to go the distance for customers will still do so whether or not there’s an expectation of tips.
Also I’ve noticed that it’s mostly smaller, independent places that allow tips and tip jars. Big chains (fast food, corporate retail, etc) employees are usually prohibited from accepting tips. I think the reason on a corporate level is, if tips are allowed, customers are going to feel that they’re expected to give tips to get decent service. Consistency is very important to big chains. They want their customers to have the same experience every time they come in, and employees are always expected to give 100%. At smaller places the thinking tends to be more “We’ll put the jar out, but customers don’t HAVE to tip us. They can if they want to though”.
Tipping is taxable? I don’t get this (probably because tips work different in the UK) but here if I give a waitress a fiver for giving me good service, that fiver goes in her pocket, so it can’t get taxed. Do tips legally have to be declared and handed in, in the US?
Yes, tips are considered income and must be reported. A W-2 even describes income as “Wages, tips, other compensation.”
Cash tips are much harder to tally, but rest assured any tip paid via credit card will be documented by the employer and reported to the IRS.
They legally are supposed to be taxed in the US. I know what you’re thinking - how does Uncle Sam know just how much you were tipped? How do they know the number you put down on your tax return is accurate? I think the answer is that the IRS doesn’t know. A certain degree of underreporting probably goes on. But this risks auditing, and an IRS auditor is probably going to find it hard to swallow if you report only $5 in tips at a black-tie white-tablecloth kind of restaurant.
The server isn’t the customer’s employee?
I’m not sure what you’re asking.
But income is income. The IRS is interested when money changes hands, and cares little for the details of the personal relationionship between those involved.
I know that. I just don’t like it. A tip is, like a bribe, a gift. Only with a bribe, the return is usually understood. Not so with a tip. So let’s tax bribes. 
This is the issue. When I was a server, you had to pay tax on 8% of your income. I was a horrid server, and rarely made that. I didn’t particularly care because I was a shitty waiter, but that was based on lifestyle issues. What it meant for MOST folks is that they could use the calculator (provided next to the daily time sheet) to calculate the 8% that was the required minimum and fuck off the g’mt who wanted else. The m’gmt was only concerned with the corporate bottom line, and if you reported the 8% required, you nearly always hit minimum, and if you didn’t, based on percentages, you got fired for not selling enough.
I forgot this in the other post. I have to go back to the pit!
Bribes are taxable income, too. I doubt if anyone reports them, though.
Just because a tip is put on a credit card does not necessarily mean it’s reported as income. In my experience, small restaurants generally don’t do this.
I do not know the true history of tipping in industrialized nations, but in third world countries (at least in Egypt, where I have visited) you tip just about anybody who does anything at all for you. So my hypothesis is that tipping is a carryover from an earlier preindustrialized time prior to so many formal employer/employee relationships. It has persisted in service industries where a service is provided to a specific patron (restuarants, barber shops/hair salons, hotels, taxis) probably because you are in a one-on-one relationship with the person providing the service, and they are identified to you. But we don’t tip store clerks, plumbers, or doctors.
I don’t buy the idea that it ensures efficiency or better service. Waiters get stiffed all the time but not until after they have busted their ass to give good service, just because that’s their job. Without tips, OTOH, bad service would result in either complaints to management or a dropoff in customers, just like any other business. So management has an interest in providing good service.
The only reason we tip these people is, like so many other things, just because “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”
When I visited France, Italy, and Spain, restuarants always noted that service was included. That is, you are not expect to leave a tip. It is common to leave a small tip anyway, spare change, but not 15-20% like in the US. So an alternative system can work.
You’ve got your chicken and egg mixed up here. We don’t tip because restaurants pay below the standard minimum wage, restaurants are allowed a lower minimum wage because tips represent such a large part of a server’s income.
I also find it interesting that rarely does an actual server complain about the minimum wage / tip issue. It’s usually some Mr Pink wannabe who thinks the restaurant owner is pulling a fast one and cheating the customers.
'Fraid not. Tips are taxable in the UK. You don’t expect HM Revenue and Customsto ignore a substanstial part of some people’s income did you? 
IANA tax expert in any shape or form but my understanding is that - normally - the tax people will adjust the Pay As You Earn code of a person working in job where tips are normally received - waiter, hairdresser, taxi driver etc. to assume a nominal income from those tips. It’s up to the individual to argue the adjustment is wrong if they don’t get that much and it doesn’t matter if the tips are taken directly by the individual or pooled and shared out.
Incidently I learned two new words from that HMRC web-page: “tronc” and “troncmaster”.
Ignorance fought!