Keep the change

Yesterday's New York Times contained an article discussing the relationship -- it wouldn't have occurred to me -- between the present requirement for masking inside restaurants and the practice of tipping.  Apparently, unruly customers have been demanding that female waitpersons pull down their mask and reveal their "pretty" faces -- demands made sometimes humorously, but often made in an angry and domineering manner.

Restaurant workers depend on tips for the majority of their income.  They are at the mercy of their customers.  Masking is required by their employers, and usually by the state or city as well.  Besides the humiliation of being asked, in essence, to partially undress, they are caught up in a struggle between the wishes of their employer who pays some of their wages and those of their customer who pays more of their wages through his or her tip.  

The stress of the pandemic and the limitations it puts on us all apparently has driven many restaurant customers a bit crazy.  Or has given them an excuse to release their inherent craziness.  The Times article tells the stories recounted by a number of restaurant employees:  

Once she asked a customer to put on his mask before walking inside to use the bathroom and he grabbed all the items on his table — cups, silverware and a hot dog — and threw them on the ground, then yelled at her to clean it up.

The story was entitled, "Is This the End of Tipping," but the article didn't really address that general question in as much detail as I would have liked.

I've never liked the concept of tipping, at least as it's practiced in America's restaurant industry.  I can see giving an employee a gratuity for giving a service beyond what I'd expect from the nature of his or her job.  Maybe finding my wallet under the table and chasing down the street to return it to me.  But instead, we are essentially required to pay the staff's salary.  And our payment is arbitrary.  I consider twenty percent to be a reasonable tip, but some would never pay more than ten percent and others routinely give 25 percent or more.  Which sort of customer the wait staff gets on any given evening is unpredictable, and yet the income he or she lives on depends on the percentage received.

European restaurants generally add a fixed percentage to the tab as a service fee.  Polite customers add a slight bit more, rounding up, maybe, to the nearest euro.  This removes much of the unpredictability, but income based on a percentage of the checks still depends on how many tables he or she serves, and how much each table orders -- factors beyond the staff's control. 

What about the claim that high tips reward excellent service?  I doubt it, at least not to a large extent.  Most customers tip whatever they consider their standard percentage, regardless of satisfaction.  Unless there's been a major problem, of course.

How did we get to this point?  And it's not just restaurants.  More and more businesses present you with a "tip jar," letting you know that a tip would be "appreciated."  Why don't restaurants, and other businesses, pay whatever they consider to be a decent salary, making customer satisfaction one of the conditions of continued employment?

As one restaurant owner with a no-tip policy notes, tipping gives customers too much power over their servers' lives:  “You’re forcing your workers to depend on the customers to be the human resources department.”  And you're forcing your customer into the position of a master destributing largesse to his humble servants.

The article suggests, unconvincingly, that the problems servers are having with customers during the present Covid-19 crisis may end the practice of tipping.  Maybe for a few restaurants whose owners are willing to take a firm stand.  But tipping seems to be increasingly entrenched, and is spreading to all sorts of businesses.

Several members of my family have been, or are now, in the "hospitality industry."  As employers, they seem to be quite satisfied with tipping -- let the customers pay most of the staff's salaries.  As former employees themselves, their reaction to my arguments is to counter with the proposal that I give larger tips in the future.  

I hate to feel cheap.  Because I'm not.  I just want a system that seems more rational, that gives the staff a more predictable income, and doesn't put the customer (me) in the position of evaluating employee performance and rewarding or punishing -- which I don't do in any event, because I virtually always automatically give the same tip.