Restaurants should hand all tips – and money accrued from service charges – to staff, the U.K Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills recently decided. Sajid Javid wants to prevent firms from taking any share of tips; and for restaurants to make it clearer to customers that service charges are optional. The proposals would initially be voluntary, but Javid said the Government would consider legislation “if necessary”. The Government was responding to complaints that restaurants were helping themselves to some of the service charge. Separately, it was reported that Le Pain Quotidien – which has for years been creaming off staff tips – and other chains are now cutting other staff perks to cover the cost of paying the National Living Wage. (The Week)

I absolutely agree. Tipping used to reflect the level of service. When I went to live in the United States the tipping percentage was 15%; now it’s close to the 20% expected in New York. Heaven help you if you walk out giving nothing. Tipping is regarded, not as an expression of pleasure at a good meal well served, but as an unavoidable cost. So why not simply put the prices up amd give the waiting staff a predictable income?

At least waiters converse with you (“My name is Joe and I will be your server tonite”), whereas taxi drivers mostly sit there grimly, expecting to be tipped for doing their job. If the driver drives too fast or talks incessantly on the phone during the trip I say to him, “I would give you a tip, but you drive far too fast and at times dangerously. You’re lucky I don’t report you”. “If you insist on chattering on the phone all the time you can’t expect a tip”. It’s surprising. They usually apologise. They know they are in the wrong, but few take them to task, so second nature is tipping in America. In any case, it’s illogical to tip taxi drivers and not policemen, mail deliverers, painters, plumbers and so on. Why taxi drivers?