Why You Should be More Like Mr Pink and Stop Tipping Waiting Staff
Tipping is nothing more than a subsidy that allows restaurants to pay low wages
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“I don’t tip because society says I have to.” So starts the “I don’t tip” scene of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, where a group of murderous gangsters have a philosophical debate about tipping over breakfast. The gangsters are outraged by Mr Pinks’s bold confession that he refuses to tip. Mr White argues waiting staff have a tough job, and tips make up an essential part of their livelihood. Mr Pink doesn’t budge, and when you think about it, he makes a great point. Tipping has become a social obligation, but when you tip a server, you merely subsidise a restaurant that is paying its staff low wages.
Because stripping away any social expectation, that’s why tipping has become so important. Waiting staff get paid low wages. The only way they can survive is if people tip them for service. So ingrained has this idea of tipping at restaurants become you would be viewed as some kind of social vagrant if you didn’t tip, but why? Who made the rule? It works out very nicely for restaurants that can justify paying waiting staff such low wages, but tipping does far more harm than good.
The minimum hourly wage for a full-time server is a paltry $7.25 in the US. No way near enough to cover rent and bills. People are aware of this and many countries, particularly America, take great pride in tipping excessively. And while tipping is well-intentioned, the reality is that it is a sign of social failure.
Tipping has become a social necessity because if people didn’t tip waiting staff, they wouldn’t earn enough money to survive, meaning many people would refuse to work in the occupation. Restaurants would be closing en masse, unable to provide the service they require.
Like every other business, the costs of running the business should be part of the price you pay for the service or product. Wages should be covered within the restaurant’s expenses, yet restaurants can get away with paying low wages due to the social expectation to tip waiting staff.
Is there the same expectation to tip a low paid delivery person for delivering your items on time? Or a shop assistant…
