I hope our country is not turning into a society with a
patronizing upper class and a lower class.
Those promoting tipping everyone for everything might want to think
about where we will end up if the promoters get their way.
If I have my facts right, tipping started with an upper
class, a huge lower class, and a sparse middle class. The upper class began handing out tips to
indigent people sweeping a street crossing for them, holding their horses, or for
other small services of this nature. A
nobleman staying at another nobleman’s home as a guest tipped the servants for
performing duties for the guest that the guest’s servants performed for him in
his own home.
As an American through and through, I have no interest in
establishing a class of “noblemen” or keeping others as part of the “lower
class.” I want all people to have a
chance to be anything they want to be without regard to their roots.
For me, the problem with tipping is that it implies that one
person, the tipper, is above the other, the tippee. When my hair stylist put a jar on her counter
soliciting tips, I wondered why she didn’t raise her prices and forgo
begging. I have always considered my
hair stylist to be equal to me, but me giving her extra money implies that I am
her social superior and she is in the position of a “servant.” After all, I would never consider tipping my
dentist or my doctor.
I know, I know, my dentist and my doctor make a lot more
money. I am not looking at this situation
from a monetary perspective. I am
looking at social standing. I believe I
have equal social standing with my dentist and doctor. (They might think I have
inferior social standing to theirs.) I
always thought my hair stylist had equal social standing with me. But whenever I give her extra money for doing
her job, I feel more like a patron providing extra funds to a begging servant.
I don’t mind tipping a waitress or waiter, probably because that kind
of tipping is so long established. Also, I remember when I worked as a waitress
for a little while between my Freshman and Sophomore years of college. A new manager was hired. He lowered all our wages from minimum wage, $1.80/hr
to .90/hr. He informed us the wage cut
was perfectly legal as long as we made $.90/hr in tips. He advised us to tell him if we didn’t make
.$90/hr in tips and he would pay the difference. Who would admit that they were
such a lousy waitress that they didn’t make $.90/hr in tips? Now, I would check out his “legal” wage cut
with the Department of Labor.
Tipping has become ridiculous. A few weeks ago I picked up a takeout meal at a local
restaurant. My receipt advised me that a
10% tip was ____ amount, a 15% tip was _____ amount, and a 20% tip was ____
amount. I should tip the person at the
cash register for handing me my order and taking my payment? Think again.
It’s time to draw the line on tipping. I am going to respect others' social standing,
even if they have no respect for their own.
4 comments:
Hmmmm. I don't mine tipping. I think its a good way for people to give feedback for services received. The tip jar is tacky though and smacks of begging.
I agree about the tip jar, when I worked at the crepe booth this summer, I was surprised how many people actually out money in it though (for the record, its placement was not my idea), and I sure didn't mind the extra cash. Anyway, I never leave money in tip jars, and I only tip at restaurants and hair salons.
A very thought provoking read. I usually only tip at restaurants and the hair salon. I always looked at it as a way to be nice.
I could see how it might recreate some social inequality and some tipping is way out of hand. At the commissaries the baggers work for tips only. That drove me crazy at first, esp. since they were Filipino workers usually. It did seem to create some class division. I am enjoying living far from a commissary and shopping at a regular store where I get take out service without feeling obligated to tip and sometimes you just want to take your own bags out! When you did that you got dirty looks from the baggers, though!
I like Korea. They don't tip anybody :-)... And the service is still pretty darned good too.
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