Tipping
may have begun in the late middle ages when a master gave his servant a few
coins as an expression of good will. The custom originated in Europe. It is commonly
traced back to 16th century England. Samuel
Johnson frequented a coffee shop which had a bowl labeled "To Insure
Promptitude," (the acronym TIP). Johnson and other guests would put a coin
into the bowl throughout the evening to receive better service.
Prior to 1840, Americans did not tip. But, after the Civil War, newly rich Americans visited Europe and brought the practice back home to show that they had been abroad and knew genteel rules. A New York Times editor grumbled that, once tipping got hold in the United States, it spread rapidly like "evil insects and weeds."
In 1904, the Anti-Tipping Society of America was created in Georgia, and its 100,000 members pledged to not tip anyone for a year. Anti-tipping laws started in 1909 when Washington became the first of six states to pass the new law. By 1926, every anti-tipping law was repealed.
Tipping again changed in the 1960s, when Congress agreed that workers could receive a lower minimum wage if a portion of their salary came from tips. The minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13, which has not changed in over 20 years. This is as long as a worker receives at least $7.25 in tips per hour. Below are four reasons why tipping should be banned:
1.
Good Service Doesn’t Require Tipping American
eaters are accustomed to giving a voluntary amount of 15-20 percent to get a
good service.
Does that mean that if you don’t tip you don’t deserve good service?
Isn’t it a waiter’s job to provide quality service regardless
if they get a tip? All employees are expected to do their jobs well with a
friendly attitude.
That’s why they
receive paychecks.
Some companies in other profession punish those with poor
performance by giving them warning or if consistent by firing them. Servers should give their best even if their customers are bad
tippers. Just so you know, many restaurants, particularly in other countries
like Japan, Italy, and South Korea, don’t have a tipping system. They don’t
expect tips at all. These restaurants have excellent
service much better than the restaurants here in the U.S.
2.
Tipping Punishes Good Workers Employees that work in
establishments that use a tip pooling system means that managers collect all
tips from employees and redistribute them among the group. Some of you might think
that this practice is just fair and reasonable because it gives everyone a fair
share.
But in reality, it’s
not.
Tip pooling encourages the lazy workers to get lazier. They
know that at the end of the day they will receive a bonus anyway, which is
unfair to the good workers.
3. Tipping Pushes Waiters into Poverty In most
states, restaurants are allowed to pay waiters far less than the minimum wage.
The federal rate for servers in the U.S. is just $2.13 an hour, and in
19 states, that’s what servers make. This is a great system for the restaurant
industry.
It
contributes to poverty among the waiters and waitresses who toil in diners and
other inexpensive restaurants across the country. (Servers in higher-end places
tend to earn a livable wage.) Tipped
workers and their families often depend on welfare programs to survive, and
they do so at significantly higher rates than non-tipped
workers.
4. When People Tip, They Discriminate Every waiter knows that tips are
unpredictable. Sometimes you’ll earn 10 or 15 percent just because your
customers don’t like the way you look. Waitresses with larger breasts, smaller body sizes and blond
hair tend to earn more tips than waitresses without such attributes. White
servers are tipped more than black servers for the same quality service and regardless
of the race of the customer.
There is a common belief that tipping motivates the restaurant
workers to do better. In reality, tipping allows the
servers to discriminate against their customers. There
are some evidences gathered showing how tipping becomes discriminatory. There’s
a widespread perception that black people tip less than white customers.
As a result, servers dislike waiting on tables of black
parties, resist being assigned to serve them, and worse, deliver poor service
to them.
There are even instances that
servers refuse to work in a restaurant with black patrons because they believe
that they are poor tippers
Other groups servers avoid include the elderly, women,
children, ethnic minority, and anyone carrying coupons.
If we eliminate tipping, we will encourage
servers to not engage in this negative behavior. We will even teach them the importance of treating people with
respect and giving them a decent service they deserve, no matter what their
skin color, age, or accent is even if they don’t give tips at all!
“The secret to
success is to treat all customers like your world revolves around them. Great
service makes the difference.” (Mobisol Kenya)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“9 Reasons We Should Abolish Tipping, Once And For All” by Hunter Stuart
·
“A Brief
History of Tipping” by Akila McConnell
·
“Danny Meyer's anti-tipping policy is nothing new — 6 states once
banned the practice” by Kathleen Elkins2
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