Paul Wachter wrote an interesting article for The New York Times on the curious customs of tipping: how it came to be and why we tip (even if the service is bad).
Economists have struggled to explain tipping. Why tip at all, since the bill is presented at the end of a meal and can’t retroactively improve service? And certainly there’s no reason to tip at a restaurant you will never revisit. “Using a rational and selfish agent to explain tipping, one reaches the conclusion that the agent should never tip if he does not intend to visit the establishment again,” Ofer Azar, the economist, writes. “Yet this prediction is sharply violated in practice: most people tip even when they do not intend to ever come back.”
The single most important factor in determining the amount of a tip is the size of the bill. Diners generally tip the same percentage no matter the quality of the service and no matter the setting. They do so, Lynn says, largely because it’s expected and diners fear social disapproval. “It is embarrassing to have another person wait on you,” the psychologist Ernest Dichter told a magazine reporter in 1960. “The need to pay, psychologically, for the guilt involved in the unequal relationship is so strong that very few are able to ignore it.” Ego needs also play a part, especially when it comes to overtipping, according to the Israeli social psychologist Boas Shamir.
Photo: Jeff Minton / The New York Times
Note: this is only here in the US, as far as I know. Most countries make their restaurants pay their employees fairly, which ups the cost of the bill.
Before anyone asks, no I'm not a waitress. My mother was when I was younger, so I was always taught the importance of tipping.
Having said that, I do not tip for bad service. If the person waiting my table isn't doing their job, they aren't going to get payed for it.
I used to do this thing where I knew about how much the cost of the meal would be. Then I'd figure out the tip, and put it at the end of the table. Anytime the waiter or waitress fucked up (that wasn't an accident) money was removed from the table. There were many times the waiter/waitress had noticed this. It often leads to better service.
People also tip because well, it's just good manners. And it rewards those doing a good job. Something that seems to be an American thing only? Who knows.
I've seen foreigners say "I don't believe in tipping" and don't tip.
But say it was the other way around. In Europe say, it was the way they did things. And a bunch of Americans came over and never tipped because we didn't do it. We would get BLASTED for being so insensitive to European culture and being cheap.
Funny how there are two sets of rules for the same happenstance.
Sure I'll tip if the service4 has been good and friendly, but that's all.
If they just put a plate infront of you and trudge off... well I could do that myself.
IN the UK they get paid a wage, as they do in Australia too, so don't rely on the tips as their actual income.
I'm with Mr Pink on this one
I've heard a lot of people say that they feel obliged to tip because of the lower wages of waitresses, but the issue here is that the entire reason that they have it set up like that (lower wages + tips instead of just a regular wage and no tips) is to encourage good service (i.e. do a good job and you'll make more money). By tipping bad service, you're letting your server know that they can do a bad job and still make the same amount. I do my job to get my salary, just like they should do theirs.
And yet... I tip. I would like to say it is because I want to help out my working class brethren who are paid an unfairly low wage, but at the end of the day it might just be social norms causing me to go for my wallet.
I can tell you one thing though, as I am living in France right now, tipping was pretty effectively eliminated here. It might take something like the mandatory service charge law to change the norm in America.
Either that, or mandatory tip pooling with non-managerial staff, which I am also a fan of.
Still though, it's like they say, you get what you pay for. Whether that is more attention from the wait staff or decreased efficiency from discouraging the kitchen staff, it still holds true.
Or AlisonCJ - I sometimes tip 80%. That's just way overcompensating for something - don't know what, but you must be eating really cheap food to do that.
Notice Kevin said "used" to do...perhaps he stopped that procedure the time he actually discovered the phlegm...
You leave a penny for a tip because of bad service and it gets their attention.
Do you get payed a week before you work? Of course not. That would be absurd. What if you call off 2 days during that time you got payed already?
"Still laughing at Kevin’s tipping method. That’s one way to guarantee they’ll spit in your food."
I did this before society went to that level. Besides, if someone is doing their job, no money gets removed. And very few times did I have to do such a thing. And most of the waiter/waitresses that did get it, fully knew why, and it wasn't just me being a dick.
Like for example if I asked for refills (you should never have to ask) And I don't get them, but see the person that is waiting on me, jib-jabbing for 5 minutes with someone before forgetting to get my refill, they will get a dollar removed. And rightfully so.
This works well still BTW at buffets. They aren't going to spit in everyone's food.
And to comment on this.
"And yet… I tip. I would like to say it is because I want to help out my working class brethren who are paid an unfairly low wage, but at the end of the day it might just be social norms causing me to go for my wallet."
Don't let "social norms" effect the way you do things. Do them because it's the right thing to do.
We need the right thing to do to start being the social norm.
Um, no it's not. I don't go out to eat and pay $150 to have to get my own drinks and bus my own table.
When I was living in the US I always appreciated the opportunity of rewarding the 'experience' with the right amount of $. It really felt like I was paying the right price. I was always a good tipper, but if the 'experience' was just average, the 15% did it. Only a couple of times I left only a 10% tip (for the cooks/busboys).
Mandatory tipping with bad service means you're getting ripped off. I want my voice to be heard.
Here is a example of what I mean by a bad service. I went to a restaurant once and the lady we got as our server had to be one of the worst of all time. She actually dropped a pitcher of tea on a guy at another table. She rarely ever showed up at the table so we went without the check and drinks pretty much the whole time. Our server did not bring out checks, drinks, food etc. The only time we got decent service is when another server took up her slack. The other server got a tip while the one we had got nothing. We paid the bill and bailed out.
She was only waiting on 3 tables. She hung out in the back when she was not spilling something on someone she is suppose to be waiting on.
Sorry, sounds like dick-like behaviour. And if they're willing to spit in one person's food, what's to stop them from spitting in an entire buffet? They take baths in the sink at Burger King.
Your description makes it sound like the ego-boost mentioned in the article. An insecure person would use the tip to gain power over another person and control their behaviour.
"Fly my monkeys, fly!"
What I have seen most often is that wait staff don't want to report their actual tips, so they won't have to pay taxes on them. And if they happen to fall below minimum wage, they are screwed because they can't suddenly report their employer without alerting the IRS to their own transgressions.
Well, gosh! Perhaps these economists should wake up and realize that their "selfish agent" doesn't account for compassion, an important motivation for most normal human beings. When you add compassion to the mix, it makes perfect sense that most people want to help the overworked and underpaid waiters and waitresses, even when the service is less than adequate.
My complaint is that since tipping is customarily based on a percentage of the ticket, I should tip the waitress at the waffle house a buck and a half for breakfast, but the waiter at dinner gets $8. Did I get 5 times more or better service from the waiter who brought me a plate and a drink compared to the waitress who brings me a plate and coffee? No.
Perhaps the question should be do I pay the waitress a 100% tip or the waiter a 3% tip? After all, who am I to decree that the waitress deserves less compensation or has fewer bills to pay than the waiter.
Then, if the server is horrible, there's no guilt-trip reason not to stiff them on the tip. If they're fabulous, they can still be tipped handsomely, as a tip ought to be something extra earned on top of the expected minimum.
Oh, and this? Diners generally tip the same percentage no matter the quality of the service and no matter the setting. Totally not surprising (and negates the argument that tips will steer the quality of service).
BUT, since it is stupidly the norm and doesn't look to be eliminated anytime soon, I tip, because the waitstaff is counting on that money as wages, and I don't want to be ignored or worse if I return to a restaurant.
Kevin's method - I'm sorry, but that's one of the dick-iest and dbag-iest thing to do ever. The last thing a person wants to have rubbed in their face is the ice-thin superiority role that customers have over employees, especially at low-paying jobs.
I doubt anybody read your highly cogent and persuasive arguments either for or against tipping. I assume it's against, because of the name you used.
Next time, pelase just provide us with the abridged version of your dissertation.
If you end up tipping 50%, it'll be worth it.