Tipping is a common practice in the service and hospitality industry, but some organizations aim to eradicate it. Tipping helps compensate for lower wages, but only certain employees are regularly tipped. Tipping is also seen as a way to reward good service and share wealth with underpaid workers.
In most countries, tipping remains more of a habit than a mandate. In fact, there are entire organizations dedicated to completely eradicating this practice, which is said to force the public to compensate for the low wages paid by greedy or avaricious employers. However, it has become a very common practice when dealing with those in the service or hospitality industry. There are a number of things to consider when dealing with a seemingly arbitrary practice. It helps compensate lower paid employees, but also rewards service people who go beyond the call of duty.
One of the reasons we tip some service employees such as waiters or bellboys is to help make up for a wage gap. Employers are legally permitted to pay less than the minimum wage to certain employees who are regularly tipped. This means that a waiter may only receive a few dollars an hour as a regular salary from the restaurant, so the difference must be made up in tips. A waiter may also be responsible for tipping other employees such as bussers and bartenders. Without regular tipping, waiters and waitresses may not even earn the legal minimum wage.
However, other employees of the same restaurant are rarely tipped. Cooks, hosts and dishwashers are generally paid at least the minimum hourly wage for their services. Their job responsibilities are the same regardless of business volume. Tipping a cook or dishwasher can seem counterintuitive to most diners, as there is little personal interaction and the kitchen staff seem to be adequately compensated already. Waiters and waitresses may have to compete for part-time hours, while cooks and kitchen staff are usually guaranteed full-time or even overtime work.
Tipping is also more likely to occur whenever the employee goes above and beyond the call of duty. A hotel receptionist only performs her duty during the check-in process, but a bellboy may carry several large suitcases directly into a customer’s room and offer to fill the ice bucket or demonstrate the services of the room. Many people equate tipping with rewarding good service. By tipping the bellboy or doorman well, the customer can receive even better treatment on a subsequent visit.
Sometimes the decision between tipping or not is a matter of perception. Some customers at a family-owned restaurant, for example, may not tip the owner of the establishment if he or she waits at their table, but will tip a hired waiter. The idea is that the restaurant owner is already well compensated by total sales, but the hired waiter is still dependent on tips to earn a living wage. A hair salon owner can earn a decent salary through the sale of specialized products and services, but individual stylists who rent booths may rely more on tips to earn a living wage.
Some experts speculate that tipping is also a form of social equalization, a means of sharing wealth with a hard-working but underpaid service worker. The practice used to be linked to the perceived quality of the services provided, but in modern times it has become almost ritualistic. Regardless of the actual quality of service, many customers find that service and hospitality workers work very hard for relatively low wages. One of the reasons we tip certain professions and not others is because of this perception. It just makes us feel better knowing that we can reward others for their service and attention.
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