Tipping point

Today's post explains my views on something else that seems to have become an accepted fact of modern life, yet really shouldn't be so: the insidious practice of tipping staff in the catering and hospitality industry. When dining out, it is expected nowadays that you should pay a tip to the waiter or waitress who served you, and this is often added on to the bill automatically and in some cases is a compulsory charge, but why should that really be so and why should the service charge be an extra on top of the cost of the meal itself? Why is the hospitality industry so different from others in expecting tips from its customers for doing its job, and making its staff rely on these tips to supplement their wages?


I agree with the original concept of tipping as a reward for those individuals who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to make your experience more special, but what I think is wrong is its transformation into a 'service charge' and automatic addition to every bill just for the staff doing their job. The term 'service charge' is really a misnomer anyway as waited service is a compulsory part of the dining experience and you can't opt out of it by serving yourself - try to avoid it by going to the kitchen and helping yourself, and see what happens! An allowance for the service cost should really be built into the price of the meal, and it's the same misleading intent as the booking fees I have previously decried, just another extra charge to bump up the price that doesn't necessarily give something extra to the customer in return.

Compulsory or expected tipping completely loses the intent and renders the whole system rather pointless. If staff know they are almost certain to get tipped anyway then there is no real incentive to go above and beyond the basics, and with tips usually either shared equally between all staff or siphoned off by managers they are no longer a reward for high-performing individuals but just become another part of the restaurant's income to be doled out as the management see fit. Okay, the service charge is technically still discretionary and you can opt out, but the system of actively removing it from the bill is designed to make you feel as guilty as possible and a cheapskate for doing so.

I remember one particular occasion when the waitress's friendly demeanour immediately turned frosty when asked to remove the tip as the service was no more than average, and she became very blunt and would only do the bare minimum thereafter. From my point of view however, the lack of tip was entirely deserved as she had not done anything beyond what was required of her, so why should she receive an extra reward on top of her salary just for doing her job? I wouldn't have expected that in my industry, and her attitude perfectly sums up the problem: expecting a tip merely for doing your job properly is an excuse for doing it badly if you don't get one. So much for encouraging higher standards of service.

Of course, I realise working in catering and hospitality is a hard and often thankless task and I have great respect for anyone who chooses to work in this challenging area. The real issue is not the waiting staff themselves, but that the whole structure of the industry is rotten and the management are to blame for this tipping culture. Waiting staff have come to rely on tips to supplement their meagre wages and often can't afford to live without them, and managers see the expectation of receiving tips as an excuse to pay an inadequate basic wage.

Instead of compulsory service charges and expecting customers to leave a tip, the real solution would be to increase the wages of waiting staff, build the service charge into the cost of the food and eliminate their reliance on tips to top up their income. This would allow the tip to return to its original role and provide an incentive to go further if they want to earn extra money beyond the adequate basic salary, and the customer would no longer feel so guilty if they choose not to a leave a discretionary tip. A service charge should certainly not be added to the bill by default, and the tip money should go directly to those the customer chose to give it to, not be shared equally among everyone, even those who did nothing to contribute to the customer's desire to leave a tip.

The strange thing is that while tipping is practically compulsory in the hospitality industry, it is virtually unheard of elsewhere and in many industries is actually frowned upon as a form of bribery. No matter how well I do my IT job I don't expect to get a tip from my customer for it, and the customer would no doubt be strongly discouraged by my employer from giving me any kind of personal reward as that could be seen as a bribe. With luck, I may be rewarded by my employer with a bonus or a gift, but I have no expectation of receiving tips from my customers, nor would retail staff, healthcare staff or those in pretty much any other industry you care to mention. If we're expected to tip the waiters who serve our food, why not the shop assistants who sell us goods, the mechanics who fix our cars, the cleaners who keep our streets tidy, the bus drivers who transport us, the nurses who look after us, and so on? They're all providing a valuable public service as well so why should hospitality be so different from everything else? 

To sum up my views, I'm not completely anti-tipping as such, but I feel the system has moved too far from its original intent and is being unfairly abused by management in the hospitality industry. A tip should be a reward for exceptional service awarded in exceptional cases, not a routine means of topping up a salary just for doing what is expected of the job, and that is why my family and I are reluctant to leave tips as a matter of course. I suppose I should at least be thankful that we haven't gone as far as the screwed-up American system, where leaving a tip is in many cases a legal requirement - that has gone so far beyond the initial notion as to be completely ridiculous.

Here's my tip for the hospitality industry: a fair wage for a fair day's work, and tips as an extra reward for more than a fair day's work. That's how it works elsewhere.