Tipping Ethics

[dogs4thewin]

I tried to tip my tour guide in Fukuoka and she wouldnt even take it. So much simpler for people to just get paid a wage thats rolled into the cost of the service. The downside is you do have to "suimasen" to get your servers or bartenders attention. But thats a small price to pay.

It may have been policy that they could not take it.

 

[iluvatar5150]

It hurts the top performers, but benefits the slackers.

Tip size doesn't correlate to performance and often disfavors minorities. (Citations towards the bottom). Even in a perfect world where that sort of discrimination didn't exist, much of the restaurant experience (including parts that involve the server) is outside the control of the server, so punishing them with lower tips doesn't even make sense.

Floor is understaffed that day?
Kitchen was backed up?
Bar was slow?
Table ordered a bunch of complicated salads that the server has to assemble?
Restaurant priced the steak at $20 instead of $40?
Diner opted for two glasses of water instead of two glasses of wine, or a cup of coffee instead of a 20yo single malt?

All of this impacts either the experience or the typical bill (and therefore, tip size) by quite a bit, but is outside the ability of the server to control. Good servers are good, but most of the experience is the result of management decisions.

 

[durangodawood]

It may have been policy that they could not take it.

After bike touring by myself all around Kyushu I learned that not tipping was very much a Japan thing generally. (Also almost all little restaurants only take cash - which is slightly off topic but interesting to me. I had to cash up at the 7-11 atms.)

 

[Fantine]

In S. Korea there is a Yugio button (I think that's how it's spelled) and you press it when you want your server to come. And, as in Japan, there is no tipping and employees are paid a regular wage. (I have been interested in taking the Busan-Fukuoka hydrofoil on my next trip--I have family in Busan.) A high speed ferry sounds like fun.

 

[Chesterton]

You're all crazy. Tipping is the greatest economic principle ever devised. Everyone should work for tips. Car mechanics, prospectors, software engineers, everyone. I wish my congressman worked for tips, because he'd be homeless and someone better would fill his position.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Everyone should work for tips.... prostitutes

 

[seeking.IAM]

I wish my congressman worked for tips

Call me a skeptic, but I suspect he or she already is.

 

[Chesterton]

View attachment 338748

You're right. I was looking for another word.

Call me a skeptic, but I suspect he or she already is.

Good one.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

My children have worked in restaurants when they were younger. In this Bible Belt state, no one wants to work on Sunday morning--because the churchgoers are legendary for tipping 10% or less, sometimes not tipping at all.

One mean couple left her a fake dollar bill that said, "Disappointed? You won't be if you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior." We made up memes about it. "How to turn youth into atheists..." Things like that. I was shocked (I never worked in a restaurant growing up--department stores and then office jobs.) The fake bill proclaimed that Christians were cheap. Christians were exploiting young people earning $2.63 an hour without tips.

But lately I have been getting tipping fatigue. I am happy to tip 20% at restaurants, but now every fast food eatery, coffee shop, drive through, etc. hands you a credit or debit receipt asking if you want to pay 15, 20, 22, or 25% And I think, "You're getting $11-15 an hour while the restaurant employees are getting $2.63. And you are handing me a cup of coffee through a window." But I think they expect something, so I'll put something like fifty cents.

What do you think about tipping ethics? I have heard DoorDash moonlighters trying to support their families saying sometimes they drive 10 miles and hardly get enough to cover their gas in a tip. I would be generous in tipping a delivery person.

I tip the people who cut my hair, do my nails, etc. usually 20%.

I would rather see everyone getting paid a living wage and just incorporate it into the price. So what is your tipping ethics?

I think employers should pay a livable wage, but if they’re not going to (such as in the case of people in restaurants, cafes, delivery drivers, coffee shops, etc), it’s my pleasure to tip. When in the states, anytime I have the option to tip, I tip.

 

[Kylie]

that is when the wait staff share tips either through use of a tip jar or sometimes by the rules of the business where if you have ay $1,000 in tips in a shift and ten wait staff each person would get $100 or sometimes some percentage based on their position head staff new guy whatever no matter how good their particular service was, so you could have someone who went to a table one time and took their order or you could have someone who kept a great eye on their tables and did a great job was nice ect and they would get a certain percentage of the tips. As opposed to your server being given your tip ether by handing the money directly to him/her, leaving it on the table or sometimes your receipt will have the name of your server and so the business knows via the copy they keep who waited on which tables and who gave which tips ( particularly when the tip is not added to the bill which is usually the case unless it is a large party

Yeah, I can see how that is unfair.

 

[zippy2006]

First we need to stop tipping non-service workers. After that real arguments can begin.