Yep: "The American System of Tipping Makes No Sense."

In Europe, the birthplace of Western aristocracy, countries have moved away from a practice that once denoted class differences. Today, servers across that continent are paid living wages and don’t rely on crowdfunded generosity.

The United States, founded as a rebuke to the old world, has allowed a de facto aristocracy to bloom in our country, where low taxes on the rich, combined with meager welfare for the poor, lead to income inequality reminiscent of a feudal state. Tips are a tiny part of that big picture. But they’re a perfect representation of the philosophy that underlies it: Tipping survives because of the notion that industriousness must be coaxed from individuals through constant threat of their immiseration.

Here's the link.

The American System of Tipping Makes No Sense, by Derek Thompson (The Atlantic)

If you want to understand how meritocracy acts as a cover for inequality, look no further than our broken understanding of gratuity.

Here’s a simple question. It’s Sunday. You order coffee and a simple breakfast—eggs, bacon, toast—at a local diner. The service is efficient, but not memorable. The bill comes, and it’s $10. What’s the tip?

$1.50, according to typical online guides for foreign travelers in America
$2.00 at least, according to The Washington Post
$3.00 for sure, according to The New York Times
Whatever the hell you want, according to some guys on Twitter

I have no confidence that anything I write here will persuade readers to increase or decrease their average tip. To me, the range of answers raises a larger question: Why are we still crowdfunding worker salaries when tippers so clearly do not know what the hell they’re doing?

LIVE TO EAT: "Changes are afoot regarding tips and the way they are collected in U.S. restaurants."

Or, we might revamp the whole remuneration system from top to bottom, about which Ryan Rogers is passionate.

LIVE TO EAT: Rogers, McCabe, their new Bar Vetti and Danny Meyer's "no tipping" movement.

"With the new Italian restaurant Bar Vetti — opening Monday, Oct. 16 — McCabe and Rogers are testing a different way to compensate employees that they believe will allow workers to make good money and eliminate wage discrepancies between employees who work behind the scenes and those who work out front."

I'm curious if any other local owners (and employees) might like to offer a viewpoint. Let me know, if so. Meanwhile, this is a good overview of the arguments on both "sides."

The Pros and Cons of Tip Pooling (Tiger Chef)

Serving customers in a restaurant is a tough job. It can be considered one of only a handful of jobs where people’s pay depends on how personable and pleasant they are. Although tips are a significant part of what a waiter takes home at the end of the day, (which makes the job more attractive to those with outgoing personalities and a culture of good service) changes are afoot regarding tips and the way they are collected in U.S. restaurants.

And NPR's recent take.

White House Plan Giving Restaurant Owners More Control Over Tips Under Fire, by Scott Horsley (NPR)

It's last call for public comment on a Trump administration proposal that would give bar and restaurant owners more control over workers' tips.

The Labor Department has been asking for feedback, and already hundreds of thousands of people have weighed in.

Many say they say they're opposed to a rule that would allow restaurant owners to pocket tips for themselves.

"I think it's another example of corporate greed gone wrong," says Julie Holmes, a former waitress from Virginia. "It basically makes people feel as though they can't earn a living. Women especially. Single mothers and people who are really out here working as hard as they can to try to provide are affected by this" ...

LIVE TO EAT: Rogers, McCabe, their new Bar Vetti and Danny Meyer's "no tipping" movement.

For every action ...

Danny Meyer Has a Few ‘Tips’ of His Own, by Anna Lappé (The Nation)

An interview with the restaurateur behind Shake Shack on ending tips and educating diners.

Meyer is increasingly seen as a leader in bringing progressive values to a cutthroat industry. Case in point: In 2015, he announced that a number of his restaurants would eliminate what he’s called “one of the biggest hoaxes ever pulled on an entire culture”: tipping.

 ... there is an opposite and equal (and predictable) reaction.

Danny Meyer, David Chang, Others Sued Over No-Tipping ‘Conspiracy’, by Whitney Filloon (Eater)

A lawsuit claims restaurant owners are profiting from zero-gratuity policies at the expense of servers and diners

The no-tipping movement has widely been praised as a way to improve the lives of restaurant workers, but a new lawsuit claims restaurant owners are really the ones profiting from zero-gratuity policies.

A proposed class-action lawsuit filed in California federal court names several Bay Area and New York restaurants — including those owned by no-tipping pioneer Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group — as defendants, and claims that no-tipping policies are “part of a conspiracy to charge [diners] more for their food,” Law360 reports.

The suit argues that restaurant owners, including Meyer and Momofuku boss David Chang, colluded to establish no-tipping policies in “secret meetings,” and that the real aim of such policies was to line their own pockets by raising menu prices.

Across the river, two food and drink professionals who are quite well known to New Albanian eaters have embraced the no-tipping model.

As a reminder, in most of Europe the service and various taxes are included in the bill, and either indicated clearly on the check or posted in plain sight. The rule of thumb is rounding up; if you think your server did a good job, bump the total a Euro or two, up to 10% maximum. However, you're under no obligation to do so. 

In essence, what you see is what you get. I've always liked it that way.

Best of luck to Ryan and Andrew with Bar Vetti and their "no tipping" policy.

How HiCotton Hospitality plans to make pay equitable in its restaurants, by Caitlin Bowling (Insider Louisville)

Business partners Andrew McCabe and Ryan Rogers are tired of people looking down on restaurant work as an entry-level job, but they also recognize that making a good living wage in the industry can be tough.

“Before I opened my first restaurant, I was like any other restaurant employee in this city working as a line cook making an hourly wage and trying to figure out how to make ends meet,” Rogers said. “How do I pay my rent? How do I pay my car? How do I pay my insurance? And then: What am I left with?”

With the new Italian restaurant Bar Vetti — opening Monday, Oct. 16 — McCabe and Rogers are testing a different way to compensate employees that they believe will allow workers to make good money and eliminate wage discrepancies between employees who work behind the scenes and those who work out front.

“We want to change that [perception] and make it more of a career path,” said McCabe, who also is executive chef at Bar Vetti.

First, Bar Vetti has a “no tipping” policy, so servers and bartenders paychecks won’t suffer if business is slow. And second, Rogers said all workers would be paid “well above minimum wage.”

“It’s a big gamble for us. It’s an experiment,” said Rogers, founder of the restaurant group HiCotton Hospitality.

To tip or not to tip?

News item: Influential New York restaurateur announces an end to the practice of tipping.

Danny Meyer Restaurants to Eliminate Tipping, by Pete Wells (New York Times)

In a sweeping change to how most of its 1,800 employees are paid, the Union Square Hospitality Group will eliminate tipping at Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe and its 11 other restaurants by the end of next year, the company’s chief executive, Danny Meyer, said on Wednesday.

The move will affect New York City businesses that serve 40,000 to 50,000 meals a week and range from simple museum cafes to some of the most popular and acclaimed restaurants in the country. The first will be the Modern, inside the Museum of Modern Art, starting next month. The others will gradually follow ...

Personally, I've always favored the approach practiced in much of Europe, wherein a service charge is included, and one merely rounds up. Travel expert Rick Steves explains the way it works in Europe.

Restaurant tips are more modest in Europe than in America. At restaurants, check the menu to see if service is included; if it isn’t, a tip of 5–10 percent is normal. In most places, 10 percent is a big tip. If your bucks talk at home, muzzle them on your travels. As a matter of principle, if not economy, the local price should prevail. Please believe me — tipping 15 or 20 percent in Europe is unnecessary, if not culturally ignorant.

Here's the other side of the coin.

Eliminating tips won’t make things fairer for workers, by Daniel Levinson Wilk (Al Jazeera)

I’m a big fan of Danny Meyer’s. The CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group, the founder of Shake Shack and an all-around nice guy, he is a pioneer of some excellent trends in the restaurant industry, including the local sourcing of food, patronage of farmers’ markets, a strong commitment to revitalizing the surrounding community and the seamless melding of high and low culture in cuisine.

He’s also committed to treating staff well and prioritizing their needs above those of more powerful stakeholders such as investors, suppliers and customers. I have known several of his employees, and all speak of him in glowing terms. Every fall I take a contingent of students at the Fashion Institute of Technology to meet with a manager at the original Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. Most of my students will end up in the garment industry, which is notorious for condoning some of the worst working conditions in the world, and I hope that Meyer’s egalitarian business philosophy will rub off on them.

But his latest plan to replace tipping with a “hospitality included” policy at his restaurant empire is a false step. His motives are just — improving wages and wage security for waiters, decreasing the gap in wages between waiters and other restaurant employees such as cooks and dishwashers, creating fairer systems for recognizing and rewarding excellent work and eliminating the discomfort that some patrons feel with tipping. He is also motivated by some other factors that are self-interested but not selfish — a shortage of good chefs in the industry, the need to stay ahead of the coming wage hike for fast-food workers, perhaps the spate of tip-theft lawsuits that has exploded over the past decade. Other high-end restaurateurs such as Thomas Keller have also instituted no-tip policies in recent years, though Meyer’s plan to eliminate the tip line on credit card slips is more radical. But if he hopes to make restaurants better for workers and customers, his method is wrong ...

I can't imagine this issue being resolved in my lifetime, so I'll leave with this quote by actor (and mathematician) Danica McKellar.

If a guy is skilled at anything, that's attractive. There's something very primal about that and, sure, it can be as simple as figuring out the tip quickly. It's really cool when a guy tips 20 percent quickly and effortlessly so that when the check comes, he opens it and signs his name and done.

Tipping point.

Food for thought, first course ...

One more reason it's crap to be a waiter in America; The IRS is cracking down on tips – again. Why go after billionaires when you can squeeze more out of servers?, by Heather Long (Guardian)

 ... Yes, the IRS is worried that people who typically make about $20,000 a year aren't paying enough in taxes. Why go after millionaires and billionaires when you can squeeze more out of servers?

 ... and second.

Steve Coomes: Tipping in restaurants is outdated, outmoded and should be 86′ed, by Steve Coomes (Insider Louisville)

 ... Like I said, kill tipping, raise menu prices and pay the staff better hourly wages.