The other day my wife and I went with two other couples to a bar/restaurant to have a few beers, each on separate tickets. The amount on our bill for our beers and an pricey pretzel hor d'oeuvre was $35. Included was a mandatory "tip" of $7. Seriously, $7 on a $35 bar bill!
The explanation was that we were a group of "6 or more." Our server wasn't the worst, however wasn't the best - certainly not $7 worth. The decision to tip as a gratuity was taken away.
Back in 2013 I commented (reprinted below) why tipping has gotten out of hand, especially mandatory tipping. It hasn't changed since then.
TIPS ARE MANDATORY
I watched one of those reality shows on television the other evening where a bar owner paid no salary to his bartenders or servers. Instead, their “wages” consisted of whatever they got in tips. Incidentally, they were all female bartenders and servers. Consequently, in an effort to enhance their tips, they fawned all over the male patrons and essentially ignored female patrons or couples. I suppose you could consider them independent contractors and it sure was a sweet deal for the bar owner. No wages, no withholding, none of those pesky tax reports and no worries about any sort of job benefits. As far as I am concerned, he is a sleazy rat.
The premise of the reality show was how to make the bar more successful, but it got me thinking about tips and how tipping has evolved from being a gratuity or voluntary reward - a quid pro quo of sorts - to a mandatory requirement. My wife is convinced I dislike tipping because I am a curmudgeon. She is mostly right, but in this case I have a logical explanation for why I think the time has come to end tipping, or at least return it to being a genuine gratuity.
gra•tu•i•ty (gruh-too-i-tee) noun
1) a gift of money, over and above payment due for service, tip.
2) something given without claim or demand, something given voluntarily or beyond obligation, usually for some service, especially tip.
I don’t know where the practice of tipping based on a percentage of the bill originated, but at one time the figure of 10% seemed to be the norm. Now, apparently the norm has been upped to 20%. There is limited data - obviously because tips are not always accurately reported for tax purposes - however, a 1990 Iowa State University restaurant survey found that tips ranged from 13% to 16%. Essentially the same figures resulted from a study conducted in 2003 by Brigham Young University. In some instances, restaurants impose a compulsory gratuity on the customers bill, often 20%.
Using a percent of the bill to establish the tip is senseless. For example, if two customers are sitting at adjourning tables and one has a steak dinner for $30, while the other has a hamburger dinner for $10, using a 10% formula there is a disparity in the obligatory tip for the same service. Same order taking, same delivery and same cleanup.
No matter what the percent used to determine the tip, it seems to me that it is no longer based on the concept of gratuity and is, instead, compulsory without regard to the service provided. And it seems inequitable that if I buy a meal for ten bucks at Arby’s and pick it up at the counter there is no expectation of a tip. On the other hand, if I buy essentially the same meal at a restaurant, where my order is taken and the meal is served, there is an expectation (bordering on obligation) that I leave at least a buck or two as a tip. Just as unreasonable is the expectation that a tip should be left based on the service provided. Basically, we are setting the standard of service as “mediocre.” Leave 10% for mediocre and more for above mediocre.
It’s time to wipe the slate clean. It is time to return to the standard of tips being a true gratuity, given where service is beyond mediocre. It is time to end tipping based on a percentage of the bill. It is time to end the obligation of leaving a tip in every instance. Most of all, employers should pay a living wage so that employees don't have to rely on tips just to get by. At least from the perspective of a bonafide curmudgeon.
Just one day more...
