How do you feel about tipping? Should it be done away with and living wages be paid?

[ToomuchStuff]

Never worked in an environment where it was low pay and tips. Two brothers I knew, owned a restaurant down the street and one wanted me to go to work for him. That night he had a stroke.
Worked in a restaurant, and learned to live off of hourly, because I was rarely tipped. (not the waiter type of service) Also, I was mistaken for a relative of the owners, frequently.

Now, as a single person, I rarely go to somewhere fancy. I normally go through a drive through, or something like a call in an order to pickup. Not really a tipping situation.

[NewGig]

I think tipping should be optional, if...

If there's a mandatory bigger minimum wage. Too many places have the laws set up so that the tipped workers are expected to get the bulk of their income from tips. That makes financial planning difficult, like paying your rent. Have a lousy winter and live on restaurant tips? Well, you may or may not take in enough to pay your rent. If you have a minimum wage you can do more than buy gum with, you might be able to pay your rent...

I heard a discussion about this on the radio not too long ago. If I can find it, I'll post a link here.

[Yppej]

For non sit down service I pay with bills and put the coins I get as change in the tip jar.

[happystuff]

I think tipping should be optional, if...

The whole idea of "tipping" WAS that it was optional! People would "tip" if they felt the food/service/whatever warranted their giving of ADDITIONAL money. Nowadays, it seems to be "help supplement my wage income".

[GeorgeParker]

The whole idea of "tipping" WAS that it was optional! People would "tip" if they felt the food/service/whatever warranted their giving of ADDITIONAL money. Nowadays, it seems to be "help supplement my wage income".

To be technically correct, TIPS originally stood for "To Insure Proper Service". You gave people a tip first, before they did anything for you, so they will treat you like a VIP. You give the maitre d’ a tip when he greets you so he will seat you promptly and give you a good table with a good waiter. You tip the waiter when he greets you so he will give you extra attention. And so on.

Our modern American practice of tipping after a service has been performed gives an advantage to tourists because the server hopes he'll be rewarded for good service, but the tourist knows they don't have to tip some random server that they'll never see again. (Contrarywise, many servers probably give customers they don't recognize mediocre service on the assumption they're probably just passing through and will therefore leave a cheap tip.)