The simplistic view on tipping as it is expressed in North America is that it is an incentive. Service staff desire higher wages so they provide good service in exchange for better tips. Simply stated; "the better the service the better the tips". Is this reality? I googled "tipping incentive" and this is what was returned:
Tips are supposed to be an incentive/reward for good service. However, tipping is a complex behavior motivated by the desires to conform with social norms, compensate for poor service wages, display power/status, avoid the servers' envy and ill will, and express interpersonal attraction.
There is quite a lot to unpack here. This quip was returned directly from google and there was not references given for it. I tried to find out how these responses are generated but I was unable to find this out. Here is a image of the google search results:
I am assuming that this snippet of information is generated by some AI engine in response to my google search. It does have a date associated with it so it may be a canned response to my search criteria. Regardless of the source it does seem to accurately capture some of my questions regarding tipping and my recent travel experiences. Quickly addressing some of the thoughts from the google reply, I have to admit that some of my tipping behavior comes from a desire to conform to social norms. In short I do not want anyone to think that I am a cheapskate. However I have recently been more aware of the plight of service workers and their poor wages and have altered my tipping behavior accordingly.
The power/status issue is an interesting one. It does appeal to ones cynical nature. By holding a tip over a servers head it does give the patron a feeling of control over the server. The movie "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" has a young Richard Dreyfuss as the title character. There is a scene where Duddy is working at a resort and one of the guests rips a $100 dollar bill in half and gives one half to Duddy. The guest promises Duddy the other half of the bill at the end of their stay if the service is to their liking. This is an obvious power move by the guest to keep Duddy attentive to his needs. Also this article indicates that tipping was not universally popular when first introduced. Many people viewed it as an "aristocratic practice that amplified the inequalities in society".
This leaves the first comment regarding tips as an incentive or reward. This is the facet of this issue that I find the most interesting. My first thought on this is a very basic one. Wouldn't the wait staff need some knowledge of the guest to properly respond to any incentive? If you you think of 2 regular customers. One is known as a generous tipper and the other as a generally poor tipper. Would the wait staff not treat these 2 individuals differently. The treatment may be unconscious's but I could see the generous tipper being treated better due to their reputation. Also the service could be viewed differently by individuals. This time 2 random people at a restaurant. The bill is delivered immediately after the guest is finished their meal. One individual views this as prompt service (good service) while the second person feels that they are being "rushed" (poor service).
More interesting is the context within which the incentive is enacted. For this a little background information is needed. This post and my previous post are prompted by my trip to Europe and how tipping is viewed there. As part of understanding this I googled "tipping in France". I got another unreferenced quip from google.
In France, tipping isn't typically expected in restaurants, taxis, and hotels, as the country's hospitality sector includes service charges in its pricing. Unlike in other countries, servers receive a decent monthly wage, paid holidays, and additional benefits.
If we compare the environment that service workers experience in the US:
Federal minimum hourly wage for tipped employees $2.13 Different states have different minimums
Reported average salary (Bureau of Labor and Statistics) $29,010 pa / $13.95 per hour
Typically no other benefits such as health insurance / 401K etc. (Indeed.com) Link
Even with this basic information it is easy to see that wait staff in Europe and The US are working in very different environments. If the environment is different than it stands to reason that the context that any incentives are different as well. If the the context of the incentive is different than the response to the incentive would be different as well. A $10 tip in the US would elicit a different behavior than an equal amount in a European restaurant. In the US service industry workers depend on tips to survive. Many would argue that this would result in better service. However that is usually not the case. When a person is just surviving they tend to be very conservative. Not rocking the boat is the general attitude. When service staff is not dependent on tips for survival (as in Europe) the response to incentives can be very different.
I felt this difference is a couple of ways. First off I do acknowledge that dining out in Europe was affected by the fact that my wife and I were obviously tourists so differences in service would be influenced by this factor. However I did notice that local residents were not treated much differently than we were. So the first difference was the level of engagement by the service staff. I always felt a much tighter relationship with the service staff in Europe. One waiter would ask patrons where they live and he would reply stating the capital city of the state they were from. One waiter took time to explain differences in Cognac's to me. In North America service staff seems afraid to say the wrong thing, thus the level of engagement is very superficial. Kind of "just the facts"
A second difference and the one that really made dining out enjoyable is the time afforded to sit and enjoy your meal. We rarely had a diner that was less than 2 hours and lunches were almost always an hour. You usually had to ask for a menu and the bill was only delivered to your table when you asked for it. Time spent before the menu and bill was unrushed and thoroughly enjoyable. A couple of local people spent at least 90 minutes before even ordering. In the US you usually feel rushed in and out of the establishment. It almost feels as if they are trying to get you in and out before anything bad happens. Also since service staff are dependent on tips for survival the more people they can cycle through the more tips they can receive.
When I think of the dynamics here I am reminded of
Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. With service staff in the US just surviving on tips they are barely meeting the lower needs of Maslow's Hierarchy. A guest who can afford to dine out is not just surviving and has met the lower and middle needs. This leads to a power imbalance between service staff and guests. Recall the google search above. Most would not acknowledge or even recognize this imbalance. In Europe the wait staff is less dependent on tips and is not in "survival mode" and thus has a more balanced power relationship with guests. Again this power dynamic is rarely recognized. It may also explain the misconception that exists regarding service staff in Europe. There is often the false impression that service staff in Europe are rude. Nothing could be further from the truth. I think this misconception comes from Americans that are comfortable with having the imbalanced power relationship. These people are uncomfortable with the more balanced relationship that exists in Europe.
In short having service staff barely surviving leads to very careful and very conservative service, basically minimal comforts and efforts that avoid mistakes at all costs. Good service is defined by making the fewest mistakes. Where as when service staff are well paid they are much more engaging more eager to be at their best. In short they are less servants and more like hosts.
Comments
Post a Comment