<story><title>Observations from a Tipless Restaurant</title><url>http://jayporter.com/dispatches/observations-from-a-tipless-restaurant-part-2-money-and-the-law/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>300bps</author><text>&lt;i&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a terrible system&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I believe in pay for performance in all professions so I certainly would prefer such a system for a hospitality industry.  The minimum I&amp;#x27;ve ever given anyone for a tip is 15% and honestly the service has to be terrible for me to give that.  If the service is good I give 20% and if the service is remarkable I&amp;#x27;ll give more.&lt;p&gt;The way I think of it is that the cost of the meal is at least 15% to 20% higher than what is on the menu.  If I don&amp;#x27;t want to pay that, I eat at home.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t get wanting to pay 15% to 20% more on the menu and then having no ability to give an incentive for people to perform better.</text></item><item><author>po</author><text>Having lived in Japan for the past few years, I&amp;#x27;m so over the tipping culture it&amp;#x27;s pretty hard to stomach when I go back to the States. Besides the issues it causes for employers that this article covers, I really dislike the power dynamics that it causes for the customers: but maybe not in the way you would think.&lt;p&gt;While the customer may be financially powerful in the relationship, I feel that tipping culture gives power to the server to &lt;i&gt;withhold good service&lt;/i&gt; as a punishment or as an optimization strategy at their own discretion. It causes a server to judge you as soon as you walk through the door... will this person give a good tip? Should I ignore them and focus on this other table?&lt;p&gt;The worst part is that the tip happens at the end of the meal after all of the &amp;#x27;costs&amp;#x27; of providing good service are already done. If the patron stiffs the server, then the effort was &amp;#x27;wasted.&amp;#x27; It&amp;#x27;s far better to make an educated guess based on… what? the way they dress? their grammar? the car they pulled in with?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a terrible system.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>po</author><text>I tip well too but the server doesnt know that. Maybe in non-competitive markets it works, but in a place like NYC where I lived before moving to Tokyo, a table&amp;#x2F;seat and the servers attention might be in high demand and servers would make judgement calls.&lt;p&gt;Even if you could declare your tip up front, you&amp;#x27;re not incentivizing them to perform better, you&amp;#x27;re competing with other patrons. You&amp;#x27;re paying them to neglect others.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not that I don&amp;#x27;t want the ability to incentivize… It&amp;#x27;s that I want &lt;i&gt;only the owner&amp;#x2F;manager&lt;/i&gt; to have the ability to incentivize, not other patrons.</text></comment>
<story><title>Observations from a Tipless Restaurant</title><url>http://jayporter.com/dispatches/observations-from-a-tipless-restaurant-part-2-money-and-the-law/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>300bps</author><text>&lt;i&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a terrible system&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I believe in pay for performance in all professions so I certainly would prefer such a system for a hospitality industry.  The minimum I&amp;#x27;ve ever given anyone for a tip is 15% and honestly the service has to be terrible for me to give that.  If the service is good I give 20% and if the service is remarkable I&amp;#x27;ll give more.&lt;p&gt;The way I think of it is that the cost of the meal is at least 15% to 20% higher than what is on the menu.  If I don&amp;#x27;t want to pay that, I eat at home.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t get wanting to pay 15% to 20% more on the menu and then having no ability to give an incentive for people to perform better.</text></item><item><author>po</author><text>Having lived in Japan for the past few years, I&amp;#x27;m so over the tipping culture it&amp;#x27;s pretty hard to stomach when I go back to the States. Besides the issues it causes for employers that this article covers, I really dislike the power dynamics that it causes for the customers: but maybe not in the way you would think.&lt;p&gt;While the customer may be financially powerful in the relationship, I feel that tipping culture gives power to the server to &lt;i&gt;withhold good service&lt;/i&gt; as a punishment or as an optimization strategy at their own discretion. It causes a server to judge you as soon as you walk through the door... will this person give a good tip? Should I ignore them and focus on this other table?&lt;p&gt;The worst part is that the tip happens at the end of the meal after all of the &amp;#x27;costs&amp;#x27; of providing good service are already done. If the patron stiffs the server, then the effort was &amp;#x27;wasted.&amp;#x27; It&amp;#x27;s far better to make an educated guess based on… what? the way they dress? their grammar? the car they pulled in with?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a terrible system.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lisper</author><text>Pay for performance is a fine goal to strive for.  The problem with tipping is that, unless you return to the same place often, there&amp;#x27;s no disincentive for customers who defect and stiff the waiter.  The waiter can&amp;#x27;t reclaim the service he&amp;#x27;s already provided.  So actually providing pay for performance has to be done mostly out of altruism rather than as part of a fair exchange.  The result is that some people do defect, and those who don&amp;#x27;t literally end up picking up the tab for them.</text></comment>