Especially when tips are shared, they provide little incentive to the server. At best, tipping serves as a measure of the customer’s largesse. At worst, it distorts free-market dynamics, and generous customers end up subsidizing the less so.
Also, tipping introduces a gratuitous power dynamic, and human dignity is compromised when one’s livelihood depends on the generosity of others. We all know of cases in which servers must gladly suffer the demeaning behavior of obnoxious customers because they need the tip.
If tips are shared among servers or, in some cases, with the kitchen staff, why not just raise salaries and prices and skip the awkwardness and angst that comes with the performative ritual of tipping?
Francisco Javier González, Bethesda
Thanks to Tracy Moore on calling for an end to the tipping madness and pointing out that we are often asked to tip before service. There’s nothing like getting home with the takeout only to find the order is short and I have to go back to the restaurant, tempted to ask for my tip to be refunded.
I would also like some disclosure so I know if I am tipping a lower-paid, tipped employee or a higher-paid, non-tipped employee.
At a market, I ordered two pounds of already-prepared wings. The employee put them in a bag in less than one minute. I was prompted to tip 15 percent, 20 percent or 25 percent (somewhere between $3 to $6 on top of their current wage). No tip.
Brad Chattillion, Germantown
