To tip or not to tip
Waiters, Alfred Eisenstaedt
Tipping is confusing, and paradoxical. We tip some people who provide services but not others who work just as hard for just as little pay. It is insulting to leave any tip in Tokyo but offensive not to leave a large one in New York. It is assumed that the purpose of tipping is to encourage good service but we leave one only after the service has been given, when it is too late to change it, often to people who will never serve us again. Tipping challenges the sweeping generalisations of economists and anthropologists alike. To understand how and why we tip is to begin to understand just how complicated and fascinating we human beings are.
Read To Tip Or Not To Tip in Aeon.
Do you tip waiters? How much? In some places you have to leave a 15 percent tip or the staff will run after you. Some argue that since Manila restaurants already add a 10 percent service charge to your bill, you don’t have to tip. Others say that if you eat there regularly and don’t tip, hala ka. And what do you do about a really obtrusive waiter who interrupts your story as you’re getting to the punchline, to ask, “How is your food, sir?” Or a waiter who seems to be listening too closely to a very private conversation?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
April 9th, 2015 at 12:30
I tip waiters (even if there’s service charge) if the service is good. By good I mean fast, friendly and attentive. Tip ranges from 50 to 100, depending on the size of our order.
I tip barbers/hairstylists and their assistants who shampoo my hair, grocery baggers who bring the bags to the car, gas station attendants, security guards/parking attendants who guide me out of the parking, valet parkers, hotel bellboys. Tip ranges from loose change to 100.
The biggest tip though goes to my blind masseur. First, because he’s really good; second it’s a tough job massaging people the whole day; and third because if there’s anyone who deserves extra income, it’s people with disabilities. I tip him 200, which is almost the same as the cost of the massage. I
April 9th, 2015 at 16:51
My father worked as a cook. When I was a kid, I remember he would get extra money from service charge. Tips were divided among all employees equally and not among waiters only. I’m not sure if this practice applied to all restaurants in the Phils though.
There is an interesting Ted talk on tipping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOk2C4n4eMQ
April 10th, 2015 at 10:55
From the email:
Hmmm. Usually I leave around 10% of the bill as a tip — mostly because my math is so bad I can’t figure out what 15% would be. If there is a service charge, I still add a bit extra because I do not trust the restaurant to actually turn the amount over to the staff. This drives my best friend crazy since she believes you don’t have to tip if there is a service charge built into the bill.
This, of course, is not the case if the service was awful — if I have to wave my arm around like I was sending an urgent message by semaphore in order to catch a waiter’s attention when I want to follow up an order, get a refill, or get the bill, that waiter is lucky if there is a service charge built in to the bill because he is not getting anything extra from me. A way-too-friendly waiter will probably still get a tip if he is also quick with the follow-ups, water and bill. I might consider not returning to that restaurant though — unless the food is very good.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:17
I like the Japanese way of not accepting tip even if I insist. It’s fabuloush!
April 10th, 2015 at 11:33
JRWL: Esp if the waiter is Takeshi Kaneshiro.
April 10th, 2015 at 23:15
Art. 96. Service charges. All service charges collected by hotels, restaurants and similar establishments shall be distributed at the rate of eighty-five percent (85%) for all covered employees and fifteen percent (15%) for management. The share of the employees shall be equally distributed among them. In case the service charge is abolished, the share of the covered employees shall be considered integrated in their wages. (P.D. No. 442, as amended)
April 11th, 2015 at 16:30
Here’s an astoundingly comprehensive infographic I recently stumbled upon about tipping around the world:
http://cdn1.matadornetwork.com/blogs/1/2014/07/global-guide-to-tipping_53b41794dcdcc.jpg.jpg
April 12th, 2015 at 04:06
This issue is a bit more complicated here in the US because, unlike in Europe and affluent Asian countries, servers are typically paid wages that cannot be enough to sustain even the very modest living expenses for a single person. Jobs that include tips are allowed wages below the federal minimum of $7.25/hr to as low as $2/hr (as long as the hourly wage + tips total to at least the minimum), and indeed, some restaurants pay that low. So it is just morally incumbent upon us to leave a tip, if only so they’d be able to feed their kids.
One great advantage to this system is that it really does give them an incentive to serve the customers well and vice versa. Rarely do I ever find myself having to call them for every single thing. And if we do get bad service, they will see their comeuppance when they see little or no tip from us at all at the end of the meal. Of course, it is also easy to discern when it is not the server’s fault sometimes when the restaurant is short-staffed (sometimes intentionally so by management) and that’s when you’ll have to make the necessary adjustments.
On the other hand, when the server becomes overbearing and annoying and does not know when not to butt into conversations, he/she is not doing good service at all. That is when you can politely tell them that you would rather not be disturbed. Good service must employ good judgment, sensitivity and deep knowledge of the menu and a fine balance between enthusiasm, sense of humor, reticence and discretion.