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Even where there’s most agreement around tipping – when it comes to waitrons at restaurants – there’s no real universal rule.
In the US an average tip is around 20%; in other countries, tipping anything at all may be unusual, unacceptable or offensive; here in SA, we’re somewhere in the middle of that.
When you go beyond restaurants, tipping is more of a minefield. Take drivers who bring our deliveries. In my (admittedly informal) research, about half the people I asked still applied the local 10% industry standard for waiters to drivers.
Which is generous, but illogical, since a waiter spends a couple of hours pandering to your needs, while a driver only spends a few minutes, and probably does a lot more deliveries in a shift than a waiter serves tables.
When it came to petrol attendants, people said they tip between nothing and R10. Nobody applied the 10% rule. Which is logical, but inconsistent.
Logical because 10% of a full tank of petrol is a lot of money, especially for a few minutes of help. Inconsistent because the petrol attendant does almost as much work for you as a delivery driver, or sometimes more.
Then there are moral considerations. For example, an attendant works a 10 or 12 hour shift, mostly on his or her feet, and gets paid as much in a week as it costs to fill up a car.
Whereas drivers probably work a 6 or 8 hour shift, mostly in their cars, listening to music. Are petrol attendants less deserving than delivery guys?
Do they need the money any less desperately? These questions seldom come into it, but why shouldn’t they?
Like I said. Mystifying.
What we need is less mystery and more method. The easy thing would be to simply research and publish tipping norms.
But (1) lots of people, including those at "Wait But Why", have already done that, and (2), are we really satisfied just to go with what people currently do?
Existing industry standards are nothing more than conventions. But what are they based on, if anything? And is it still relevant? The status quo of tipping is full of absurdities. So I’m less interested in what is than what could or should be.
The other thing to consider is that tipping is a personal thing and has an emotional element. That flexibility should be part of any good tipping guide. Which we don’t have. So here’s a stab at the beginnings of one.
First, we have to establish criteria that should influence how we tip. Example:
- The "industry standard" (if one exists) for this type of service.
- Quality of the service and attention you were given.
- How well this person is getting paid by his/her employer (if at all); i.e. how much he/she actually relies on tips.
Of course, there are other possible criteria: How much time did the person spend on me?* How many tips will she get in a day or shift?
Am I the sole focus of her attention (e.g. manicurist) or is her focus spread among several people (e.g. pole dancer)? Have I asked for this service or has it been more or less forced on me?
You should personalise yours so your priorities and concerns are taken into account, but for the sake of illustration here, let’s stick to the three.
(Even this is loaded.A petrol attendant who spent 10 minutes on you may have poured the petrol, checked your oil and water, cleaned your windows and put air in your tyres. Or he/she might have just been really slow.)
With these criteria, you have the basis for a simple tipping formula:
Tip = Industry standard + Quality of service + Reliance on tips
Industry standard: This is the base value for the formula. It may not be perfect, but hopefully the other criteria should help to balance out some flaws in the industry standard.
Quality of service: I propose that this is a sliding scale between -10 and +10.
Reliance on tips: Again, I propose a scale of between -10 (for people who are already getting properly paid for the service or by their employer) and +10 (for people earning peanuts). It stands to reason that if someone is reliant on tips, you would tip more.
Using these criteria and the formula:
- A "waiter who gave you slightly above average service" might score:
10% (industry standard) + 2% (slightly above average service) + 7% (very reliant on tips) = 20%.
- A "petrol attendant who was fairly awful" might score:
R5 (industry standard) – R6 (below average service) + R8 (very reliant on tips) = R7.
If you introduced other criteria, like "Did I really want this service?" (+10 if strong yes, -10 if strong no).
- A "car guard who intimidated you and then disappeared during the smashing of your passenger window and subsequent theft of the jacket you left on the seat" might score:
R5 (industry standard) – R10 (very poor service) + R10 (totally reliant on tips) – R8 (you didn’t want the service) = -R3 (car guard owes you money).
Tipping is not just a cold, calculated reward for services rendered; it humanises those transactions. It touches on how we relate to other people, and on how we think of ourselves.
Tipping can make us appear and feel extraordinarily kind or heartless. And we can experience both extremes within a few minutes of each other.
So maybe tipping better doesn’t mean tipping more, but rather tipping more mindfully.
Article by 22Seven.
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