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I worked as a server in an American restaurant when I was in college (not long ago). my perspective as an employee: I definitely would remember which customers

I worked as a server in an American restaurant when I was in college (not long ago). my perspective as an employee: I definitely would remember which customers tipped well. anyone who walked into the restaurant would at least get the minimum treatment my boss expected, but I would often go above and beyond for people I knew tipped well. I usually averaged around $12-15/hr after tips, in a state where the minimum wage was $8.50 or so. this is just speculation of course, but I really doubt I would have made that much money if it had to come direct from the business (ie no tipping culture). my perspective as a customer: tipping allows me to decide whether I want to pay extra for good service. if I just go to some restaurant occasionally, I'll just tip 18% or whatever and they at least won't spit in my food. on the other hand, if I go to some place all the time, I can tip 25% or more and get great service every time I go. tipping allows people who care about good service to pay for it, and it allows servers to allocate more of their time/attention to their best customers. having experienced both sides of it, I'm really not sure what the problem is, unless you're just visiting and don't understand the system.

parthdesai 8y ago
See i get it in US why tipping exists. I'm from Canada and our minimum wage isn't that bad. Like i said, it would be much better if restaurants owners reflected this cost in the prices for the food and every server made decent minimum wage. And frankly things have been getting ridiculous where a lot of machines have tip preselected to 18%. If i go to a coffee shop and order a drip coffee to go, they expect me to tip. And i like how you conveniently ignored the last paragraph. Do you tip any of the people i mentioned? Because, frankly a garbage men's services are way more useful and needed than a servers. Why do servers deserve a tip and not people working at clothing store? Or people working at Walmart?
- leetcrew 8y ago
  I didn't have any ulterior motive behind not addressing your other points; mainly I just wanted to share my perspective on things that I actually have experience with. I'll take a stab at a response now. first of all, mandatory tipping at a coffee shop or takeout place is dumb. afaik, these are not legally considered tipped positions and the employer is not usually allowed to count tips toward minimum wage. that said, I certainly recommend you throw a little extra in their tip jar if they actually provide outstanding service. > Do you tip any of the people i mentioned? Because, frankly a garbage men's services are way more useful and needed than a servers. Why do servers deserve a tip and not people working at clothing store? Or people working at Walmart? I don't claim that the tipping system is inherently moral or immoral. my claim is that it is a practical way to align incentives in a particular set of situations. in a restaurant, the difference between acceptable and great service is quite large. if I'm handling several tables, I'm usually going to get to the tables that tip well first. I'm going to make sure they're not in the middle of a deep conversation when I go over to check if the food is okay. there are tons of subtle things that a skilled server can do to improve your dining experience if they are incentivized. garbage men, on the other hand, either pick up your trash or they don't. idk what the difference between a good and a great garbage collector is, maybe the great one takes the time to leave my can sitting upright? a cashier can ring you up fast or take their time, but can't really affect your experience other than that. I do actually agree that maybe some retail positions should be tipped. I find that usually Walmart employees don't give a shit whether I find everything I'm looking for. occasionally one of them is super helpful and saves me 30min or more of hunting around the store. in these situations I try to slip them a couple bills. if they refuse, I make sure to find their supervisor on the way out and explain that they made the store a lot more money by helping me find my things.
davidcbc 8y ago
In general none of this is really the case though. The people who tipped you well were probably just good tippers. Now maybe you do make objective judgments about the quality of service that you receive, but the general population doesn't. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tipping-doesnt-reward-good-behavior-1301325538049 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tipping-doesnt-reward-good... https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=articles https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?arti...
- leetcrew 8y ago
  I've read similar studies before. I certainly believe that customers aren't objective judges of service quality, but I simply can't believe there is no correlation between tips and service quality. everyone in the front of house knows who tips well and treats them at least a little differently. I suspect the causality is reversed. rather than good service being rewarded by good tips, people generally tip the same amount wherever they go, and after a while they start to get recognized and receive better service.

parthdesai 8y ago

See i get it in US why tipping exists. I'm from Canada and our minimum wage isn't that bad. Like i said, it would be much better if restaurants owners reflected this cost in the prices for the food and every server made decent minimum wage. And frankly things have been getting ridiculous where a lot of machines have tip preselected to 18%. If i go to a coffee shop and order a drip coffee to go, they expect me to tip. And i like how you conveniently ignored the last paragraph. Do you tip any of the people i mentioned? Because, frankly a garbage men's services are way more useful and needed than a servers. Why do servers deserve a tip and not people working at clothing store? Or people working at Walmart?

leetcrew 8y ago
I didn't have any ulterior motive behind not addressing your other points; mainly I just wanted to share my perspective on things that I actually have experience with. I'll take a stab at a response now. first of all, mandatory tipping at a coffee shop or takeout place is dumb. afaik, these are not legally considered tipped positions and the employer is not usually allowed to count tips toward minimum wage. that said, I certainly recommend you throw a little extra in their tip jar if they actually provide outstanding service. > Do you tip any of the people i mentioned? Because, frankly a garbage men's services are way more useful and needed than a servers. Why do servers deserve a tip and not people working at clothing store? Or people working at Walmart? I don't claim that the tipping system is inherently moral or immoral. my claim is that it is a practical way to align incentives in a particular set of situations. in a restaurant, the difference between acceptable and great service is quite large. if I'm handling several tables, I'm usually going to get to the tables that tip well first. I'm going to make sure they're not in the middle of a deep conversation when I go over to check if the food is okay. there are tons of subtle things that a skilled server can do to improve your dining experience if they are incentivized. garbage men, on the other hand, either pick up your trash or they don't. idk what the difference between a good and a great garbage collector is, maybe the great one takes the time to leave my can sitting upright? a cashier can ring you up fast or take their time, but can't really affect your experience other than that. I do actually agree that maybe some retail positions should be tipped. I find that usually Walmart employees don't give a shit whether I find everything I'm looking for. occasionally one of them is super helpful and saves me 30min or more of hunting around the store. in these situations I try to slip them a couple bills. if they refuse, I make sure to find their supervisor on the way out and explain that they made the store a lot more money by helping me find my things.

davidcbc 8y ago

In general none of this is really the case though. The people who tipped you well were probably just good tippers. Now maybe you do make objective judgments about the quality of service that you receive, but the general population doesn't. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tipping-doesnt-reward-good-behavior-1301325538049 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tipping-doesnt-reward-good... https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=articles https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?arti...

leetcrew 8y ago
I've read similar studies before. I certainly believe that customers aren't objective judges of service quality, but I simply can't believe there is no correlation between tips and service quality. everyone in the front of house knows who tips well and treats them at least a little differently. I suspect the causality is reversed. rather than good service being rewarded by good tips, people generally tip the same amount wherever they go, and after a while they start to get recognized and receive better service.