Thought of this from the other thread, and thought it a cool (ahem) enough issue to warrant its own thread.
Have you guys ever seen Resevoir Dogs? I love Steve Buschemi's argument on why he doesn't tip. He claims that the institution of 'tipping' is totally lopsided and unfair.
I think the gist of his argument is why does a waitress get a tip, but the kid at McDonald's doesn't? Usually a tip is a reward for 'hard work' or 'good service', but if the guy at Moore's helped me with a suit, I don't tip him. If the parking attendant looked up from his book super-quick to help me out, I don't tip him.
So, why does only one, narrow section of the service industry involve tipping? Why the hell is the customer responsible to provide service workers with the cream of their salary? Don't get me wrong, waitresses should probably be making what they make now, including tip, as their base wage.
I think its because the Restaurant Industry has found the perfect way to keep salaries at minimum wage. They simply pass on a large portion of their employee-costs on to the customer. Is this reflected in cheaper menu prices? No.
I'd be a whole lot happier if they'd just hike every menu-item price in every restaraunt 15% one time, and eliminated tipping altogether. Service Industry people who rely on tipping should, instead, be able to rely on a steady, predictable cash flow. Hell, shift them over to commission, anything to get rid of this totally subjective institution.
Fire away :P
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