The Tipping Point

No, not the one that Malcolm Gladwell wrote about so memorably. (So memorably, in fact, that I haven't had to read it.) I'm talking about the increasing frequency with which we are confronted with subtle, or not so subtle, requests for tips.

There used to be pretty clear rules about this kind of thing: If you sat in a restaurant, you tipped. If you stood at the counter for service, no tip was expected. In a bar, you tipped whether you sat or stood. Now, you don't know where you stand--or whether to tip.

Does every Starbucks have a tip dish? Maybe. But one Dunkin Donuts that I patronize has a large cup seeking tips "for exceptional service," while another has signs in front of the registers reading, "No tips, please."

Tips used to be a reward for your server (back in the days when servers were waitresses and waiters). Increasingly, however, tips are pooled, so if you leave 25% on the table for a terrific waitress/waiter, it will just get thrown in the pot. And if you leave a nickel for that person who couldn't have cared less if you were there, that gets thrown in, too. Really, the incentive is only to avoid getting a dirty look as you depart or, if it's a place that you go to frequently, to be remembered when you sit down. (Or stand at the counter.)

Being as burdened with change as most Americans, and never having seen a rich server, I generally throw some money in the pot. But I also know what I'm doing: while I am adding to the income of the people working in the restaurant, coffee place or whatever, I am also reducing pressure on the owner to raise wages. Economists would tell us that by expanding the number of workers who expect tips, we are "externalizing" the cost of doing business. We customers pay wages either through the price of the food or through tips, but we don't think of tips as a rise in prices. Where my lunch used to cost, say, $5.50 (OK, I'm cheap) at the soup-and-salad place across from my office, it's now $5.75 to $6.00, because I throw in change to the tip bowl. I view the tip as "voluntary," although it is less and less so as the trend toward tipping increases. The owner of the business has effectively given his employees a raise--at my expense--while maintaining the image of low prices.