Tipping

Oh my, this has been on my brain for a while. I really hate tipping. I especially hate tipping based on the cost of food. That makes no sense to me. Just because one meal cost a lot more than another doesn't mean that the service is less adequate at the less expensive one.

I was on mentalfloss.com a few weeks ago and I found this article http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20091119_College_students
_arrested_for_not_paying_tip.html?viewAll=Y&text=#comments

I am sure that the pub is regretting pulling that stunt. No doubt, people are not going to want to patronize their pub anytime soon. And really, who could blame them? Calling the cops was a weak pussy move. Obviously, the manager was a dumbass and couldn't handle the situation. I think the cops were stupid too. Arrest over $16? Why don't you go find the real criminals here. I don't know what happened, if they had the charges dropped or not, but I hope they did.

Seriously? They were arrested for not paying a tip. By the sounds of the article, the people did not get decent service, so why should they have to pay a "mandatory" gratuity? What is a mandatory gratuity anyway? That's an oxymoron. It should be everyone's choice whether or not to tip. But even so, why are we tipping at all? So you have a party of 8 or more, they reason that they may not get a great tip from all those people. But in a lot of cases, those people may pay more if they aren't forced to pay that 18%. Anytime I am forced to pay that mandatory gratuity I never give any extra. And I also have been to places where the service was sub par. Some people may argue that I should go speak to the manager if the service was so bad. But see, my problem with that is, that I want to go for a nice meal out. I figure if I don't leave a good tip, they will get the picture. If not, I just won't go back to that place.

This is more of a North American thing than anywhere else. Could it be, because we are greedier than other countries? Or perhaps we don't want to properly compensate our employees and thus expect the public to do so instead? Whatever the reason, it has me mad. I know that in the US they have server wages which are around $2.15 an hour, which I think is total crap on its own merit. What if you had a slow week? No one in Canada or the US could live on those wages, unless they worked 24/7 and never stopped.

But, I suppose I have to be realistic here. Tipping is obviously here to stay. But no one is getting 20% of the check from my money unless they go above an beyond. Floss my teeth, cut my food, maybe even chew it a little. You get the picture.