I believe there are a few things to say about the economics of tipping. (For those who do not know, in US restaurants you must tip 15-20% as waiters have no fixed salary and live exclusively on tips. This practice has permeated all sorts of industries, from taxis to hairdressers. But not supermarkets or grocery stores, for some reason.)
Essentially, the restaurant manager delegates the task of managing their workforce to the customer. Now, when I go to the restaurant, it is either because I have no desire to cook and wash the dishes, or because I want to have fun with friends. The last thing I want to do is the manager's job, deciding to reward or punish the quality of service with the amount I tip.
The argument that the quality of service improves when the waiter is entirely dependent on tips, though not entirely unfounded, is overblown. It is extremely rare not to tip someone because of poor service. The real reason why restaurants rely on tipping and pay no fixed salary is that it is a very convenient way of unloading the risk of fluctuating income on the employees. If a restaurant does poorly one evening, then waiters go home with very little pay, and the bottom line of the restaurant is preserved.
Now, I heard restaurants operate in an extremely competitive environment, so there is a case to be made in favour of variable pay. However, the same cannot be said of other industries. Why is there a tip jar in Starbucks and not at the local supermarket? Is the service provided by the cashier less valuable when you buy groceries than when you buy coffee? I don't think so, as anyone who has waited in a long line because of a slow cashier can testify to.
A few years ago, Starbucks employees went on strike because Starbucks had decided they should share the tips with the store manager. The company argued that managers participate in the effort, and should be rewarded when things go well. The employees argued that Starbucks were using this ploy to keep their managers' wages down. I will let everyone take sides as they wish, but what I dislike is that the act of tipping somehow drags you into salary disputes (especially when you tend to think in economic terms).
The situation is even worse in other services, such as hairdressing or (so I heard) massage, spas, nail, wax etc. How much should you tip there? Employees put strong pressure on you to tip large amounts (20%), which defeats the purpose of many of these services, namely to relax while someone takes care of you. Again, all the arguments made for restaurants apply here. The service should be included in the price. How am I supposed to know the fair price to pay someone? I would have to know what their fixed salary is (if any), how many haircuts they can expect to do per day, how much they need to pay for their healthcare and into their pension, and so on. I don't want to do that. It's not my job.
I have to admit there may be a cultural aspect here. Not having grown up in a tip culture makes me unsure how much to tip, whereas knowing instinctively how much to tip for an array of services can take some of the effort off. Nonetheless, I feel strongly that this whole tipping institution is an easy way for management to avoid doing their job. It is left to customers and employees to work out the friction that all economic transactions entail. This friction should be resolved internally within the company, and the customer should be left to deal with a smiling facade. They could then enjoy what they came for, namely relax and forget about their own day-to-day work.
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2 weeks ago
I most disagree with your opinion.
ReplyDeleteI have never been in the US but I have been in plenty of restaurants in South America and in Europe and I most say that in those countries where there's no tipping culture, or where costumers usually tip very low or nothing, the service of waters and waitresses is much, much worse that in those countries where tipping is a usual signaling for a good service.
I think tipping works very well for signalling the quality of the service and is not really difficult to know how much you should tip, even if you are in a foreign country, just google it before going there and that's it, it doesn't take much effort and as I said I think it makes a huge difference in the service that costumers receive. For example in Spain the waiters give you a terrible service because they expect you to leave nothing or very little, while in Portugal that is just aside Spain you receive a very good service because they expect you to leave 10-12% of tip if they give you a good service.
I won't argue on your critique to tip a hairdresser since that is not in my culture and I have never done it, so I really don't know if that will work some how in getting a better hair cut or not.
I'm from Venezuela and over there most restaurants include 10-15% of service in the bill and in addition you are expected to give 10% of tip for an OK service, up to 20% for an exceptional service or nothing if you didn't like it. In addition some restaurants explicitly write in the bill no service included and in that case you are expected to give around 20% of tip, specially in those restaurants I have mostly receive exceptionally good services from waiters/waitresses, making me feel very happy to leave 20% or more in the table.