Tips Appreciated

In June, Sushi Yasuda, a Japanese restaurant in New York City abandoned tipping and raised menu prices 15% to cover wait staff salaries.

More American restaurants are following the European example of no tipping. It’ll be better for employees if restaurants raise prices to give them a living wage with benefits along with vacation and paid sick days. My question is - what about the customer?

No tipping is better for customers who need a calculator to figure out the tip as they’ll be able to put it away.

I’m wondering if there’s no incentive of a tip if service drop off. I can’t help thinking that it will to some degree. Will a sit down meal in a family restaurant become equated with a fast-food meal… you’ll get your food quick. You’ll get your food hot. You just won’t get your food from a friendly, efficient server.

A no tipping policy is better for servers who work at a restaurant where the wait staff pools their tips, each getting the same amount. This practice is fair only if each server works equally hard; if not then it’s not fair. My husband and I go to this restaurant where one particular waitress is the best, hardest worker I’ve ever seen. If I was her I would be pissed pooling my hard earned tips with fellow coworkers who don’t have the drive and work as hard. Why should her coworkers profit from her hard work? With no incentive to work hard, the only thing slackers might do is slack harder.

I had a part-time job as a waitress during college. When I worked the morning shift I and the other servers were happy when a certain couple came in and sat at their station. Why? Because this couple ordered coffee and left a generous tip, doubling the price of the coffee. All they wanted was coffee and to be left alone to hold hands and gaze into each other’s eyes. We speculated they were having an affair. I mean how many married couples hold hands and are civil to one another at eight in the morning? Nobody I know. My husband and I have learned to decipher one another’s growls. I’ve always felt before 9a.m. language was highly overrated. I was never sure if the couple tipped well because they loved the coffee (which I seriously doubt,) paying for the privacy they requested or dishing out gobs of money to squelch feelings of guilt. I didn’t know or cared.  Just know I was glad I didn’t have to pool my tips with anyone.