TIPS OR PERCENTAGE?

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 83, 24 April 1937, Page 13

TIPS OR PERCENTAGE?

Principal Points of Argument

Why do we tip? Is it because we like it or because we have to, because we want to show our appreciation of services rendered or because we know that the wages paid for these services would not amount to a reasonable figure without our supplementary gratituies? And do those who receive Our tips approve or disapprove of the system, or do they simply regard it as a necessary evil? On such questions as these says the ListenCr, the recent bioadcasi discussion, throws a certain' amount of iight, though- it does not, perhaps, "provide a complete answer to all the problems involVed. The principal point for argument was whether, in the hotel and catering tradea at all events, the present tipping system should be replaeed by the Contine'ntal method of adding 10 or 15 poi cent.. to the bill as a charge for service. One point that calle for consideration is whether this alteration would really abolish tipping. Experience shows that most British travellers on the Continent feel obliged to do a cer tain amount of tipping in addition to

paying the percentsige, and it is therefore fair to suppose that if the system were introduced in Britain, lt would not really do away with the problem oi when and whom to tip. In support of this view it should bo noted that, when higher wagee are given to membera of a trade or industry on the understanding that tipping will eease, it is generally found that tipping re-establishes itself in a very short timo. The true distinction is between two kinds of tip. If a tip is merely a subsidy to employers, to enable them to pay lower wages than a service really demands, it should be discouraged, and possibly replaeed by the percentage system as an agreed charge for service. The other kind of tip, whik is a gen-^ uine mark of appreciation for exceptionally good services, ie a different matter, and oue to. which no objection can be raised. If - any readjustment were made the difficulty would be to prevent this second kind from becoming a convention, and thus reopening the whole question. '