Day 11: June 11, 2009 (everything you ever wanted to know, and some things you don't, about tipping)

A.M.

Position: Server

Number of Tables: 11

Total Sales: $232.46

Tips: $49

Hours: 3.38

Wages: $22.50 per hour

This morning's serving went so smoothly, I'm tempted to quote Sartre's Nausea again: "Tuesday: Nothing. Existed." But today is Thursday.

P.M.

Position: Driver

Number of Deliveries: 13

Sales: $420.76

Tips: $53

Hours: 4.23

Total Wage: $20.53 per hour

On this night, I wanted to write about how dumb it is when people aren't home or are preoccupied when you arrive, saying they thought they had the forty-five minutes to an hour we quote them over the phone. I got stuck at a woman's door for ten minutes until she drove up, saying this exact thing. I also wanted to tell you about the time my brother arrived at a door and no one answered for five to ten minutes, then a man showed up in his boxers, with a protrusion in the front, and said, "Thanks for being patient; I was just finishin' off my girl." And I wanted to tell you about the wonderful William Styron quote on NPR's Writer's Almanac tonight: "The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis."

But then I got stiffed on my third delivery of the night. 

Right there on the tip line, the woman drew a slash and handed back the credit card receipt. I didn't say thank you, and walked away. And later on, a teenage kid and his friends in the midst of puberty met me outside a massive mansion and handed me $40 for a $38.56 order. The main kid looked to his friends and said, "You guys got any money for a tip?" They all shrugged, then he said, "Sorry." I wanted to yell, "Maybe you shouldn't have ordered the $2.25 garlic bread in addition to two pizzas," but I assured him it was okay, instead.

And it got me thinking, How did the whole tipping thing get started? Through my half-asssed research, it doesn't seem like anyone knows, but the best paper I found, unfortunately titled, "The Case Against Tipping," by Yoram Margalioth, loosely points to 16th-century English coffee houses and pubs and later Tudor England's private homes where there was a servant class (5). According to Margalioth, the trend spread to Europe before making its way to the United States via "affluent travelers" who wanted to show "they were familiar with European customs" (5). Ironically, this custom was seen as undemocratic and un-American, with seven states even imposing "anti-tipping laws" up until the 1920s (Margalioth, 6). It's interesting that tipping is now considered an American phenomenon and in places such as Australia I've been told they take your tipping as an insult to their paid wages, though these attitudes are changing worldwide.

I've always assumed tipping served as a redistribution of wealth and a show of affluence, something like the potlatch ceremonies of Pacific Northwest Native American tribes. But as any contemporary pizza guy can tell you, tipping is capricious; you will sometimes receive a large tip from a guy in a trailer park and on the same run receive a small tip from a woman in a mansion. And then there's "Karmic" tipping by servers, who either tip well from mutual understanding and shared suffering or, more superstitiously, that a positive flow of tips will be returned to them by the universe.

Margalioth explains that "traditional economic analysis cannot explain tipping," because reasons such as "insured future service" or rewarding current service bear no empirical evidence to support them (he points out that people tip as well at out-of-town restaurants as at local ones) (7). He reasons it's more about social norms, and explains that "people tip because they're embarrassed not to" (8). He also makes an interesting argument that "tipping may be a case of negative externality imposed by wealthy people on the rest of society" (11). In other words, because wealthy people established the social norm of tipping, we all must tip, even if we can't afford to. I've seen this phenomenon in central Mexico, where wealthy Americans have caused higher prices for beer and other goods in a town they frequent––causing the locals to pay more––whereas you get the same goods in the next town for half the price. 

Margalioth, in arguing for "service charges" over tipping, explains that tipping not only creates the possibility of massive tax evasion but discrimination as well: studies of NYC taxi cabs show minority drivers are tipped less and minority patrons tip less, creating unfair wage differences in the first case and an unwillingness to give minorities rides in the latter (3). A flat "service charge" would eliminate those disparities, as well as provide a reliable and taxable income base. 

While reading my blog, my dad recently asked if I report all my tips, because I'm posting them in public. I've always seen my tips as a "gift," something private between me and the patron. But Margalioth counters this by saying that "a gift is given outside the context of a business transaction whereas a tip is given to a waitress in recognition of the service she provided to the customer as part of the business transaction of buying a meal" (25). He claims it's all part of the "service package," and should be seen as part of the restaurant's income, because "the waiter cannot provide services to the customer simultaneously as a paid employee and as a self-employed individual" (29).

The article makes me rethink my whole approach to claiming tips. On one hand, both I and the employer benefit by underreporting: I pay less federal and state taxes and they pay less FICA taxes (Social Security) plus a smaller wage than would be required if tips were absent. Margalioth counters that the employees are screwing themselves in the long-run, because they're going to receive less social security benefits in the future. But what's our moral obligation compared to the government's, who claims Social Security will be bankrupt by the time my generation's ready to claim theirs? But how can I complain about corporate bailouts and corporate welfare the way conservatives whine about social welfare when I'm not paying my fair share?

I come away from the article more ambiguous about how I should handle reporting my tips, or if I should be writing about them in public for fear of having a "negative externality" on my fellow employees and employer. 

But that lady really should have tipped.