On a normal basis I think I am a very good tipper. I give bell hops $5 for two bags. I give hotel doormen $1 for getting me a cab, and I tip 20% on food service.
But for some reason I am always befuddled by how much to tip a taxi cab driver.
Now, this problem only arises when I am in a New York City taxi. When I travel abroad I tip ridiculous amounts because the value of that particular countries dollar is so much less than here in the States. For example, in China I'll give the taxi driver 10RMB which works out to about to about $1.40.
Keep in mind that when I take taxis in other countries the cost for the trip is twice as long as any trip I would take in NYC and half the price.
THE THINKER doesn't tip taxi cab drivers. He has figured that since the taxi is going that way already, he doesn't have to tip.
I have always been one to give the extra change plus a $1.
Now, thanks to the MASTER DEBATER, I have accepted a new form of tipping taxis. Any time the meter reads below $X.50, I'll let the driver keep the spare change. Above $X.50, i'll add a dollar. I think that's fair.
I found a great article on tipping which you will find below.
The way I see it: Taxi cab drivers are an anomaly when it comes to tipping. I guess a lot of the non-tipping sentiment arises from peoples general disdain for taxi cab drivers, but thats a story for another day.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Who should be given a tip -- and how much?
Trinity Jessen didn't even realize what she had done until asked about it later.
It wasn't much more than 50 cents, plunked into the jar next to the cash register as she accepted her change for two coffee milkshakes at a downtown Seattle Tully's.
A couple of quarters, a nickel maybe, a few pennies. ... She couldn't remember because she didn't grab the receipt. It was all so fuzzy, so quick, so automatic.
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 | Phil H. Webber / P-I | |
| Donald Vincent, a server at Romio's Pizza & Pasta in Greenwood, works Monday near a pitcher where customers are encouraged to tip the cooks. | ||
"Why would they put a jar there if they didn't expect to get a tip?" she asked. "Other people are tipping. I think you're supposed to tip them."
Her sister, Linda Jessen-Davis, emphatically disagreed.
"That's not a tip, it's a bribe," Jessen-Davis said. "It's like you're telling them, 'Here's 50 cents, please make my drink good.' They should make it good anyway. It costs five bucks."
For the next 10 minutes, the Jessen sisters engaged in the debate that stretches across America's social fabric: Who gets a tip, how much, and why?
A gratuity offered at the end of a restaurant meal, for carrying bags or taxiing someone across town has long been a way of saying "thanks."
But the tipping explosion, which has paralleled the equally explosive coffee shop proliferation during the past 20 years, now includes almost any industry offering a service.
Nearly every deli counter, even some fast food joints, in Seattle displays a jar or cup silently requesting customers to deposit a few coins.
Some cups are simply marked "TIPS." Some are cleverly labeled "employee education fund."
Then again, "Emily Post's Etiquette," the American standard for good manners, describes many tip jars as nothing but the "inanimate equivalent of an outstretched palm."
And there are places such as beauty salons, where customers feel obliged to tip, but aren't sure how to and how much.
"Some places have envelopes, some you're supposed to slip it in the person's pocket," said Colleen Stone, chief executive of Seattle-based inSpa, where tipping is not allowed. "You end up feeling awkward or stupid because you don't know the secret handshake."
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| Niki Desautels / P-I | |
| Jennifer Whittaker, who is visiting from London, gets a facial at inSpa in the University Village Shopping Center on Monday. InSpa does not allow its employees to accept tips. | ||
Stone, who runs the chain of day spas, said that worrying over the tip at the end of a facial or massage often negates the relaxation that the service is meant to bring.
In the six years that inSpa has been in business, Stone has found that tip anxiety affects women of all ages and economic levels and has nothing to do with the actual dollar amount of a gratuity. It's the expectation that makes people uncomfortable.
"Tipping is a huge part of our culture. Some people might feel uncomfortable about the expectation, but there is an expectation," said Gene Vosberg, president of the Washington Restaurant Association. "There is something very American about the way this has evolved."
In contrast, many people in East Asian countries, such as Japan, don't appreciate tips.
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While they would probably be too polite to say something, they would be insulted, said Lynn Staneff of Magellan's Travel Supplies, which offers people culture-based travel advice.
But the closer people get to cosmopolitan centers in the United States -- Los Angeles and New York in particular -- the more they will be expected to tip, Staneff said.
"However, I believe in the depths of my soul that tipping should be an individual choice," Staneff said.
To Americans, tipping serves many functions, Vosberg said.
It can be meant to grab extra attention, to relieve a sense of obligation, or out of sympathy.
To servers, it affirms that they are doing a good job and are being appreciated.
William McBee, who was visiting his grandchildren in Seattle last week, said he's become uncomfortable with seeing the proliferation of tip jars on counters, but he believes strongly in tipping at restaurants and hotels.
McBee, who lives in a small town outside of Austin, Texas, is usually a 15 percent tipper, always has been.
"That's a lot more than my mother gives," he said. "She's 83 and she doesn't give no more than 10 percent. And that's for good service."
When he goes out to eat with his mother, he usually pays. Every once in a while, she will want to treat him, like on Father's Day and his birthday, in which case McBee said he'll slip a few extra dollars onto the table when they get up to leave because he knows Mama's tipping hasn't evolved with the culture.
"I definitely feel obliged," McBee said. "My nephew was a waiter in college, and he didn't even make minimum wage."
That sense of obligation can shift, depending on where you are.
Some restaurants require their servers to pool tips, and then distribute them among the entire staff at the end of the night. Employees who receive tips are required to keep accurate records of their tips and pay state and federal income taxes on them.
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In most states, such as Texas, restaurant wait staff can be paid a lower wage, sometimes as low as $2.13 an hour, because most of their income will be gratuity.
Washington, along with Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada and Oregon, however, do not allow this. The lowest a server can be paid in these states is the minimum wage. In Washington, that's $7.35 an hour, the highest of any state.
The time has come that tipping should be an obligation and no longer strictly a gratuity, according to Jonathan Ben-Ammi, who worked as a waiter until recently moving into a different position for a Seattle restaurant.
"Most service that you're going to get isn't going to be so bad that you shouldn't leave any tip," Ben-Ammi said.
"If you don't tip, you're actually hurting that person," because the server could be waiting on someone who will tip, he said.
Ben-Ammi said he believes any employee giving sit-down service or delivery, such as pizza, should be tipped.
Vosberg would like to see sit-down restaurants start charging a service fee, like they do in many European countries, but he understands that competition in the restaurant industry might preclude that shift.
"People will disagree with me. They'll say, 'Vosberg, you're crazy. When I go to Europe, I get terrible service.' " To Vosberg, the principle is simple: If a restaurant charges for food, they should charge for service.
"I wish people would tip based on the quality of service. My sense is that people tip without really thinking about the serving," he said.
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