I initially wrote this two years ago, today. I add the following as an update:
UPDATE:
No.
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Thoughts on minimum wage and tipping. When is enough, enough?
I have stopped tipping. Period. And I will never patronize any business requiring tipping as part of the bill.
Wait staff are already paid what amounts to an obscene amount of money for what they do. They spend, at most, 5 minutes tending to the customer: They hand you menus. They bring you water. They take your order, they refill your coffee cup. And that’s pretty much it.
And for that, there is an expectation that they ALSO get 15% of your ticket?
So, you take out a family of four, for example. You buy a $100 worth of food at a restaurant.
The wait staff, as I pointed out, expects, at minimum, a $15 tip for the 5 minutes they spent waiting on you, 5 minutes they’ve already been paid for?
How does that make any sense?
Think about it. Multiply that tip by 12. Add it to what they’re ALREADY paid.
12X15.00 = $180 (tips for that hour) + $16.28 (hourly wage) = $196.28
Does that mean all wait staff make that kind of money?
But how much SHOULD they make for what they do?
The reality of life is this: we are EXPECTED to tip in some segments, and ignore tipping in the rest.
If someone with higher education or training who saves your life isn’t eligible/worth tipping, then why is it that someone with zero job-related education is?
I don’t see it. I don’t get it. And I have stopped doing it.
