Tip of the Iceberg

Yesterday, Jodi and I ate at Mexican Villa and we had a waitress that did a great job. She filled our chip basket without asking, took our order quickly and flawlessly, and made herself very available if we needed anything. We ate, paid, tipped well, and left. However, the tipping part stayed on my mind for a while. This is why. I left three dollars on the table as that was all the cash that I had on me. When I used my debit card to pay for the meal (at the checkout counter) I added another $2.54 tip to the slip I signed to bring the total amount of the debited amount to an even $30. I hadn't done the math in my head to find out the percentage of tip I left, so I turned to Jodi and kind of quickly told her what I left to see if she approved. She did and so I was okay with that. I did, however, see a look cross the guy's face who was running the register. I hadn't noticed that the guy was sort of scowling at the $2.54 tip I left on a $27.46 meal until his countenance changed ever so slightly upon my incedental unveiling of the fact that I also left $3 on the table bringing the total tip amount to $5.54. This amount was apparently acceptable to him and so he therefore replaced his almost imperceptible scowl with an equally difficult to notice "oh, I guess I had this guy pegged all wrong" look. I did the math later to find out that my tip worked out to just over 20% which according to society is a good tip, so I should feel good about it, right? How come I don't feel good about it?

I have a problem with the way that someone can open up a restaurant, charge a small fortune for food and drink, and then hire a bunch of people for $2.15 an hour. As if the restuarant can't afford to pay their employees, so the customer should have to. They're not the customer's employees are they? And yet the everage customer pays them more out of their pocket per hour than the employer does.

Tipping's understood rules are pretty difficult to understand when examined. The average tip that I received for pizza delivery was about $1.50. Most of these orders exceeded $20. But, in the pizza delivery business, $2 is a perfectly acceptable tip. Not great, but good. Why then should the waiter back at the pizza restaurant get tipped $4. What did he do? He showed them a table they could've found on their own, took their order, refilled their drinks, and asked them a couple times if he could get them anything else. The pizza delivery driver drives his own car all the way to the customer's house no matter what the weather is doing (note: people tend to order delivery more in bad weather since it's not as safe to drive for them; nevermind the delivery kid behind the wheel with their food in their passenger seat). The driver risks life and limb, risks wear and tear to his vehicle, and risks getting traffic tickets. All of these things ON TOP OF the fact that he got the order put together, made the drinks if there were any, and collected packs of condiments with the order. Doesn't make much sense does it?

Before writing this blog I looked at a suggested gratuity list online. This list and some others like it that I found suggested that even upon bad service one should still tip their waiter/waitress at least 10% and inform the manager of the bad service. The word gratuity means "gift of appreciation" so why would I want to give one to waiter/waitress that I didn't appreciate? I saw a list of hotel employees and what is expected of people to tip them. Let me tell you, if you go to a nice hotel, you'll be completely surrounded by people looking for a handout. It's like being harrassed by bums and panhandlers. And then they turn around and call their hotels upscale. It's no wonder why richer people feel separated from the rest of society and look down on lesser fortunate folks. They're tired of the bums prodding them for a buck at all the restaurants and hotels they go to.

I think that this whole tipping thing needs re-evaluation. I know I'm not the only one that has an opinion on this subject. What's yours?

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