a little something polarizing

I stumbled across a blog this morning that is dedicated to kvetching about tips in the food service industry.  I'm actually not sure what its name is, but we'll just call it 15 Percent.  The author appears to be a delivery guy in New York City.

Personally, I think people in the food service industry place too much importance on the tip as a right and not as an incentive.  (And before you get all upset because I don't know what I'm talking about, I worked at a restaurant for a number of months in college.)

When I go out to a restaurant, I always assume that I'm going to tip 20%.  I always start at 20% as a base, and base that 20% off the total amount, including tax.  I like to think that this is pretty generous.  So starting at 20%, I then dock some tip if the service is bad - and it has to be actual bad service, not just a kitchen mess-up or a busy night.

In general, I try not to tip less than 20%.  Sometimes I'll tip 15% if the service is not very good, and I have on occasion had such bad service that I've left no tip.  I have not, however, ever left the worst tip (at least according to my Nana), which is 1 penny (this shows the server that you didn't forget to leave a tip, but are leaving them the least amount possible).

My issue with servers, and blogs like this, is that tips are designed to be incentives for good service.  To be a good, attentive server.  Food servers like to complain about how little money they make, but in a lot of places, it's the law that your employer is supposed to make up the difference between your hourly wage and the minimum wage if you don't make that in tips.  It's not my issue if you a) don't know this and b) your employer doesn't follow it.

Secondly, not all food servers are poor.  I used to work at a restaurant where working on the weekends was extremely competitive because busboys alone could bring home $200 on a Saturday night shift.  Even working a 10-hour shift, that's $20/hour, well above minimum wage.  And like I said - those were just busboys, whose $200 for a Saturday night represented a percentage of the servers' total tips, so imagine what they were bringing home.

Thirdly, when we start establishing 20% as the "base minimum" for a tip (as 15 Percent wants us to do), then where does it stop?  Does that mean I start tipping 25% for good service and 30% for great service?  Sure, I've been known to tip up to 30% for really great service (and really big parties, regardless of service), but the "standard" used to be around 15%, with 20% for good service.

Fourthly, blogs like 15 Percent increase the blame on the customer.  Maybe it's not that the customer is horrible and cheap - maybe it's because you provided horrible service!  But in a culture where we're constantly shifting blame, this isn't surprising.

Lastly, and probably Marek's favorite point, is that a lot of people in the food service have no concept of what tips as percentages actually look like.  Let's say I buy a coffee at Starbucks for $2.25.  A lot of people think I should just dump my 75 cents in the tip cup, but why should I?  Besides the fact that workers at Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) make minimum wage, that's a 33% tip.  For what?  Pouring me a cup of coffee, putting a lid on it, and sliding it across the counter?  (And, if you're at Starbucks, being a pretentious douche while you're at it.)