Tipping

One of the things that I have gotten use to very quickly in China is that when you dine at the restaurant, the price you pay is the price on the menu. No extra tax nor extras for tip. Now the opinions that I will espouse will probably offend some people in the food service industry in America or the personal services in general - but why do we in America reward individuals for doing their jobs?

I hear the excuses all of the time from Americans - "oh the waiters depend on the tips for their income". How is it now my responsibility as a patron of the restaurant to pay them if their employers decided that they can get away with paying them below minimum wage? Why don't the restaurant owners just pay the waiters their fair share and price them into the meal instead of giving us the bait and switch?

Here in China if you were to try to tip waiters in restaurants or at the hair salon you will get a confused response. They have no idea what you are trying to do. They don't expect anything more for doing their jobs. Most of the time they will not accept the tip.

As I made my way through early adulthood in America, I was never struck at how ridiculous tipping was until I purchased my first co-op apartment. As Christmas time came, I get this Christmas card from the co-op. It gave the name of every employee my apartment complex from the doorman, to the main super to the assistant super to the porter to the landscaper, etc. All in total about 25 names on the card. Now I am suppose to figure out how much to tip these people when I had only come in contact with the doorman that year. So is the idea that this is a threat where if you don't take care of the others this year that if something goes wrong in the future you will get sub-par service?

To me tipping is an elitist idea, but the funny thing is that some in America actually think that tipping is a way to help out the working class. I have no doubt that the waiter or the doorman does not make much money, but why don't their employers just pay them their just pay and be done with it? Tipping only causes the working class to give preferential treatment to the the rich who can afford to tip more. So if you really think about that then you realize what tipping is all about. If everyone stopped tipping waiters, don't you think the laws of supply and demand will kick in? Without that tip less people will want to be waiters and the restaurants owners would have to raise the salaries to entice people to the job. With this extra cost, restaurants will charge extra for the meals and everything finds its equilibrium again.

Sometime things are so simple and yet we make them so complicated.