Why do we Tip?

In North America, after dining or drinking out, you are expected to augment your bill by 15–20% to provide your server a ‘tip’. Wikipedia defines a tip as:

a voluntary extra payment made to certain service sector workers in addition to the advertised price of the transaction.

The key word there is ‘voluntary’. The modern tipping system is far from voluntary. It’s required. Frequently I meet people who admit to having tipped despite terrible service. Why does this happen? Because it’s become socially unacceptable not to tip. It’s understood that if you don’t tip, your server doesn’t make any money and that would, apparently, be your fault for not paying their wages. Excuse me?

Waiter/waitress is a perfectly acceptable occupation so why shouldn’t service workers be entitled to a respectable wage from their employer? I believe employers take advantage of this culture. They know that their staff will be the recipients of charity from an establishment’s patrons, so they accordingly pay them less. If servers don’t earn enough, it’s because they didn’t ‘earn’ enough tips, not because they’re only earning minimum wage.

I contest that this culture of tipping is wrong. If I feel that my service was exceptional or I/we ‘connected’ with our server in some way, I am more than happy to tip and tip well. The thing is, I want it to be MY decision whether I tip. I do not want to feel obligated to calculate some performance based gratuity. I just want to have a good time, without the guilt trip.

So next time you’re eating out, think about why you’re really tipping. Is it because you had great service or because you felt obliged to, even though your server did nothing particularly special?

Flame, flame away…