On Friday the Chicago Tribune reported on Manhattan restaurant Per Se, which is eliminating tipping in favor of a 20% service fee. The restaurant's rationale is that while waiters, waitresses, bartenders and bussers make a good hourly wage because of tips, those making the food are sweating it out in the kitchen at half the pay.
You could make the case that a 20% service fee is the same as forcing a 20% tip from the perspective of the diner. But I say "good for them."
From where I'm sitting — or riding, or being a guest at a hotel — tipping is a royal pain. It's difficult to keep up with the going rate, you don't know if you're overtipping or undertipping, and if you get lousy service, you still feel like you have to tip at least something.
Restaurants are actually easier than some other places. What do you tip the person who brings your bags to your hotel room? What does the cab driver deserve? Do you tip the doorman at the hotel just for giving you directions? How about the concierge who makes you a dinner reservation — do you tip and, if so, how much?
Why are we forced to keep up with all these tipping standards? I say, put a price on your service and stick with it. Tell me what the cab costs. Charge me a buck a bag at the hotel, or $5 for speaking with the concierge — whatever. Just don't make me guess at the ever-shifting tipping point, or have to consult some travel manual to figure it out.
I was once in a bar in Spain and attempted to tip a bartener. He scoffed and pushed the money back at me. I thought, "Oh, geez, it's bad enough I have to think about the tip all the time, now I have to force it on him."
But he really didn't want it. I pushed the money back at him, and he shook his head again, smiling but slightly offended, although understanding of the fact that we were crazy Americans.
Now that's sensible. Name your price and I'll decide if I'm willing to pay it. What's so hard about that?
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Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Do you tip a hooker?
2 - Brian Sorrell
You're right on about tipping. I spent my honeymoon in New Zealand, where food and beverage is slightly higher than you'd expect, but there is no tipping. It was fantastic! We always knew ahead of time exactly what everything cost.
It's a good idea and I hope that more services follow suit.
3 - John Bill
Restaurant's use tipping as a way to underpay their help. Most waiters make 90% of their pay from tips. Don't blame the little guy.
4 - Gary
Cut out tipping and the waitstaff will consist entirely of illegal immigrants who wont be able to speak enough english to tell you what the soup of the day is.
5 - Tan The Man
Good point... however, you could also say that it would be filled with ignorant young white males working an easy living while they sell their screenplay or get their band started.
6 - Eric Berlin
It's never quite made sense to me that a bartender will often get 20%-25% for opening a bottle of beer while a waiter might work his/her ass off to make 15%-20%.
If a restaurant will nearly guarantee fantastic service and a great eating environment, I like the 20% service charge idea. And if I didn't... I can always go elsewhere.
It would be brilliant to take the guess work and strange theatrics out of the tipping game.
7 - ProgressiveDepot
To Gary,
I don't blame the wait staff or anyone else. That's the way the system is set up - logically it seems crazy that our country even has different wage laws for restaurant workers that make them dependent on tips.
I don't believe people will stop working at restaurants if tips were done away with, because of course their wages would have to go up to make up for the tips. The restaurant would basically end up charging customers the same amount, it would just be a set amount versus whatever tip a patron leaves.
It might be good for the wait staff in some ways, too. They might have a little easier time figuring out how much they would make each week, both because of the higher minimum wage they would be guaranteed to receive and because they would never get stiffed on tips.
8 - Royal D. Bush
Hummmmm. TIP=To insure prompt service. Which, as a whole, no one does well all the time.
Most kitchen staff make much higher wages, while servers and bussers are paid a tipping wage set by our good ol USA.
I say, eliminate the "tipping wage" and level the playing field. I have no problem in paying for GREAT service. I do not tip for average or below average service.
Service sucks, in general, in most industries, and people STILL have their hands out. Well, it is time for consumers to put THEIR hands out and say NO! Unless you provide me wow, legendary, extra mile service, you earn what you are paid. Period.
Thanks,
Royal
9 - Mary Renee
I think the concept of tipping makes you uncomfortable because it forces you to be generous or miserly out-in-the-open when we live in a country that is so focused on self-interest. And trust me - no one in the service industry is going to be offended by a large tip unless you stick it in their pants.
Here's a tip... if you are sick of tipping maybe you should just stay home and make your own drinks.
If you want a Mai Tai, that will require you to buy a light rum, dark rum, creme de almond, pineapple juice, orange juice, and grenadine. You might also want to buy jiggers, so you can put the right amount of each ingredient in the drink. Do you even know what a jigger is?
Do you know how much goes in the drink? My bet is no. You could look it up online, but I garuntee you that you will spend more money trying to make your own drinks than you would going to a bar and paying the bartender to do it. You're not tipping me because you HAVE to. You're tipping me because I memorized all the recipes, and I go online to find new ones so that when you're stingyass comes in I can make you what you want. I practice my free pour so I pour exactly 1/2 oz, 1 oz, or 1 1/2 oz with out having to measure it every time. And I do it with a smile on my face even though I know you are incapable of puting yourself in my shoes. If you can afford an eight dollar drink...you can afford to tip the bartender at least a dollar.
Furthermore the comment about bartenders making more than waitresses... I've been both. Bartenders deserve more than waitresses. Have you ever been in a bar that's been three or four rows deep of people trying to order from one bartender. Their drinks get made (Or their beers get opened) by the bartender. The money transaction is done by the bartender. The clean-up when you spill you beer all over the bar is done by the bartender. Only through experience and persistance can you handle twenty five intoxicated people shouting drink orders at you.
Waitresses go to a table take the order and hand it to the cook. If something goes wrong they blame it on the cook. They don't have to stand by the table and listen to your lonely stories. The bartender is stuck behind the bar listening to every idiot who thinks his seventh or eighth drink turned him into einstein.
If you don't tip you're a stingy bastard and the bartender will ignore you. Why should I rush to get you a beer when you're just paying for the beer and I don't get a penny of that? I have other customers that will tip me. This guy that's going to give me a dollar will get his beer with a smile. You can wait until I'm tired of ignoring you.
It's really not that difficult to tip. As a bartender I depend on it as my income. My rent, my medical bills, my education comes from tips. This is how I LIVE and it's not easy. If you can throw money at a homeless bum on the street that does nothing, then you can tip a bartender that is working her ass off so you penny pinching drunken fools can have a good time. I know if I am faster, more accurate, and more friendly I will get better tips. If you are sick of tipping, maybe you should just stay home and not take cabs, or go to restauraunts, or go to bars. Go to a grocery store and buy your own stuff, make your own stuff, and serve your own stuff.
BY THE WAY - The going rate is easy to remember. 20% means the service was good. 15% means the service was acceptable. If you tip less than 15, something must have gone wrong. If you tip more than 20% you must have really appreciated something about your server.
I think tacking on a 20% service fee is a dumb idea because the service industry rest on the motivation that working for your tips provides. Why would the waitress try harder to please you if she knows half of her tips are going to the cook and it doesn't matter because it's the same ammount anyway. All you're going to have is more upselling and less sincerity.
I think everyone should spend a week working in the service industry. It would be a good lesson on how obnoxious pretentious customers who think they're so smart they write and article whining about how "it's too hard wah wah wah" to figure out how to tip. Come on. Is this the dumbing down of America or what?
10 - Chris
Raising the minimum wage and/or charging a service fee are ways to remove mandatory tipping. I understand tipping for above and beyond service, but mandatory? What a mindjob!
You earn a salary which should cover you for your qualifications and experience. You says you are a good bartender? Okay, tend demand more from your salary or quit! I can't believe these self-righteous who screams at the poor customer who wants a beer to relieve their hectic day, and have to wait at the bartender's mood for one. These 'service' organizations earn big bucks and can't afford to pay higher wages? C'mon! This is a fundamental problem in the great US of A when other 'less developed' countries like Australia, New Zealand and Europe have established ways to deal with 'mandatory' tipping. What a joke indeed.
You earn your keep, and it's about time the millionaires pay theirs out too. Maybe the big celeb or millionaire can afford to cough out 20% everu transaction, but the average Joe who worked off his ass and saved to go on a vacation to relax once in a blue moon also has to pay left and right for tipping?!
If the advice for non-tippers is to stay at home for the rest of their lives, then my advice for those who demand mandatory tips is either to get a better education and thus a better job, or get some balls and demand a higher salary from your rich boss if you believe you deserve one for all your great knowledge. But you know what? I think with their mindset and the culture, even with higher salaries incorporating service charges, these 'service' staff will still demand 'mandatory' tips. It's as laughable as the great CEOs who get ridiculous salaries and huge payouts/bonuses for crashing companies.
11 - Jet in Columbus
You couldn't be more wrong. Most pizza drivers are paid at or below minimum wage and have to make up the difference in tips-it's how an employer gets out of taxes that a driver doesn't report because he can't afford to.
It amazes me how my jerks think it's fine to tip a waitress 5-6 bucks to walk foot twenty feed from a kitchen, but belly ache about tipping a driver .5 for bringing your food an average of 3-7 MILES.
The driver DOES NOT get all the delivery charge either, of 1.75 at most he gets a dollar of it. ant that goes into the gas tank, for tires, oil, allignments and monthly oil changes because he's putting 3000 a month on his car... yes that's three thousand, I know, because I did it.
not to mention insanely high insurance if you're honest, and if you're not, you usually get dropped from the coverage after a year when they do a credit check and see your employer's name.
12 - Bob
Great post from Mary Renee. I'm actually pretty surprised by the attitude in this article towards tipping. I never knew so many people took issue with it.
I was employed as a bartender for a number of years while I went to school and a few more years in the evenings and weekends while I worked my way up at my day job.
I can honestly say that bartending for so many years gave me a better education than any class I ever completed in school. If you're a good bartender you will make excellent money. I learned early on never to pick and choose based on tipping. Bartending is just like selling. The guy that doesn't tip has a bunch of friends that tip and often invites them along when he finds a place where he is still treated well even without leaving a tip. Most sales are made from referrals. Bartending is sales. You are selling the experience. A bar is only as good as it's bartenders who are the ambassadors of the restaurant.
Something that most do not know about working as a bartender or waiter is that the IRS automatically calculates your income based on yearly sales at 8%. Meaning if you work a shift and your sales were $1,000 you are expected to pay taxes on that $80.00. If by chance you are audited you will be expected to pay at least 8% of all sales for that year. Most employers will allow you to register your tips when you clock out at the end of a shift and taxes for those tips come out of your paycheck. Most of the time the paycheck isn't even enough to buy dinner at mcdonalds.
I do understand that there is nothing worse than recieving terrible service and have a hand still out for a tip. Don't leave one. If someone gives crappy service they aren't going to change if the tips keep rolling in.
There is nothing I hate more than a 20% service charge. It gives the same tip the best and worst. The best get the same while the worst sit behind the building and have a smoke.
Commission, tips, call it what you want. You go to Ruth Chris for a $100 meal and tip. You go to Mcdonalds - the kid with zips all over his face wraps up your burger with dirty hands and tosses it in a bag.
13 - ms
...at the hair salon you have to tip the hair stylist, the girl that washes your hair, at the manicure/pedicure, cab drivers, delivery people...blah blah blah.
I agree with the post - just tell me what you want to earn and i will decide if i want to spend that much.
also, perhaps this tipping business stems from the fact that we don't in fact respect these professions enough, and therefore the employers don't pay the workers enough...like, waitressing wage used to be $5/hr, when all other minimum wages were $8/hr.
14 - lydia
I work as the hairwasher and i get £3 per hour for running around, sweeping my ass off. I think that tipping should be compulsory, tips make all the difference. Some people are very generous and tip £5 but others tip nothing, after I have massaged their head for 10 minutes, bought them drinks. I work in an expensive salon so people do not think they should tip but I only make a measly three pounds per hour and often don't have my lunch til 4pm because we are so busy.
TIP THE GODDAM WASHER.