Joho the Blog
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Isn't not tipping a progressive gesture? Should employers pay their workers directly?

The Straight Dope sez:
"Tipping spread from England to colonial America, but after the revolution it was frowned upon (temporarily) as a hangover from the British class system. One only tipped one's social inferiors, which, lest we forget, did not exist in the brave new world."

In the early XXth century the labor movement was in favor of all workers receiving a decent wage and not depending on gratuities for their income. In other countries the elimination of tipping is seen as a positive change and a sign of a rising standard of living and social equality. Why is tipping service workers perceived as a desirable behaviour in the USA?

In the early XXth century the labor movement was in favor of all workers receiving a decent wage and not depending on gratuities for their income. In other countries the elimination of tipping is seen as a positive change and a sign of a rising standard of living and social equality. Why is tipping service workers perceived as a desirable behaviour in the USA?

I agree with the idea that workers should not have to depend on tips for their income. But I rank the possibilities like this:

1. Workers receive a decent tipless wage
2. Workers have their poor wage supplemented by tips, so they have decent takehome pay
3. Workers get no tips and don't get decent takehome pay

Right now customers don't get to choose between 1 and 2. They get to choose between 2 and 3. So tipping is the right thing to do, even if you see the tipping system as fundamentally flawed.

two things -

Dave Barry's #18 (of the 19 Things That It Took him 50 Years To Learn): A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

on desirability of tipping -
One very egalitarian local restaurant in my town used to pool the tips and divide them equally among the waiters. Result: the most lethargic waiting you've ever seen.

People owe tips to servers except in extreme circumstances. Being the president does not exempt you from tipping.

Although, there are many other more explicit examples of our president's poor character than his inability to tip a server.

Well, I couldn't agree more about not tipping exposing a character flaw. It's exactly what you would expect from a self-righteous, spoiled, rich kid.

If you have any lingering doubts about whether W thinks the rest of us are just the hired help, check out this video: http://www.bushflash.com/unb.html

I can't get sound to come on on the ad, but is there anything more to it than a waiter telling a story about Bush? Because I wouldn't place much epistemological weight on that, not knowing the guy who's telling it; I think it's in general good practice to take unverifiable unfavorable stories about widely hated people with a grain of salt. cf. the Swift Boat Veterans.

The one Dr. Laniac links is pretty amazing, though.

I don't really think it's worth pay attention just like I ignored and didn't blog on Kerry not tipping for a $250 meal a few months back.

Yeesh. Big deal over nothing. As there is no obligation to tip unless indicated beforehand, there's not guilt that can be reasonably brought to bear for opting out. It's part of the calculus that service staffers go through in making the cost-benefit analysis of the job, taking into account expected working conditions, hours, benefits, coworkers, duties, etc.

But if a waiter/waitress is pissed off, it's a free country - you can announce it in any way you like, calling the client a cheapskate to your heart's content - but that's just going to piss people off, I bet, since, as we know, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.