The Europeans have it right. You go to a restaurant and the service charge is included on the check. Simple and unstressful. In America people can’t even decide who should be tipped and who should not. In New York a 20% tip is expected, where I live it is 15 – 18%. Should you tip the staff at Starbucks? Or hotel bedroom staff? Can you put up with the stress of explaining to a rude waiter that he is lucky to get any tip at all?
Now taxis and restaurants are suggesting tip amounts electronically. Before you swipe your card you are given three or four options, significantly higher than traditionally given. You can click “no tip”, but it is embarrassing, even stressful. We are, in short, being asked to subsidize the business so that staff getting a minimum wage can actually live. Do the staff actually get the money? The business owner pockets the profit, but does he get the tip money too? Gone are the days when we tipped for good service alone. When will we see the backlash?
Epicureans believe in a fair wage for a fair day’s work. Workers shouldn’t have to rely on uncertain tips or hoodwinking customers. It is distasteful.
I long ago decided to tell it as it is. If the taxi driver chatters into his phone non- stop, with one hand on the wheel, I will tell him, ” I would give you a tip but I your job is to get customers to their destination safely. Be thankful I am not reporting you”. Interestingly, most drivers actually apologize.
That’s a helpful way to put it to a lousy taxi driver. Before speaking, though I’d be very sure to double check that I didn’t leave anything behind in the cab.