Tips on Tipping
The changing landscape of tip culture in the industry.
LIKE SO MANY COOKS, I got my start in the food industry washing dishes at a fine-dining restaurant. I had always known I wanted to cook, but when I began working I was hooked. A few months into the job I worked my way up and started cooking on the line. It was 1994, and I was very young and hungry for knowledge, so I asked a ton of questions.
“Rodney, how much do you make waiting on tables?” was one of the first questions I asked of a veteran front-of-house employee.
“Way more than you,” he chuckled.
“How can that be? My job is so much harder.”
“You think so?” he challenged. “Come in tomorrow during lunch and see for yourself.”
Next day, I replaced my chef jacket with a white collared shirt and bow tie, and I was ready for the challenge. After a few hours of working on the two tables that were in my section, I quickly realized the amount of work it took in the front of the house. At the end of my five-hour lunch shift, I changed back into my chef jacket, quickly firing up the stove on the sauté station for dinner service with over $200 in my pocket from the tips earned in the brief lunch shift.
As I sautéed fish, cooked steaks, boiled pasta and plated dishes for that night’s service, quiet reflection began and I soon gained a deeper appreciation and respect for the front of the house. Many chefs’ kitchens where I have worked have had a competitive, almost divisive environment between the servers, bussers and bartenders out front and the cooks, chefs and dishwashers back in the kitchen. This experience early in my career taught me that both realms are critical for any operation to be successful. Both are challenging, and both are extremely important.
Flash forward to today and it’s hard to ignore the minimum wage conversations happening in the news. It is a complicated debate with both sides having valid reasons that this essay is not intended to address. The overwhelming common ingredient, in this dish, is hospitality workers want and need to be treated better by the industry.
It’s a complex discussion on employee happiness and well-being for every professional industry, but the bottom line is people are often motivated by the paycheck. In the hospitality industry, we have historically been underpaid. The movement for better working conditions, including higher wages, is making headway in today’s culture.
Some operations have eliminated tipping altogether. Some have instituted tip sharing in which every employee receives a portion of all the tips received during a shift. Many operations rely on the traditional method of hoping the customer will tip 20% for the front of the house. Are customers ready for higher menu prices to fairly support the worker and eliminate tips?
Will customer service and hospitality change if employees are paid a straight wage as opposed to working for tips? Personally, I believe the service culture in America would have to change, and owners and operators would have to create a working environment supportive of all employees. After extensive travels in Europe, it’s difficult for me as a chef dining out not to tip, but I vividly recall trying to tip a server in London and being refused no matter how hard I tried. They were not allowed to accept additional money from guests.
I’m not sure that our culture is ready for this, a server’s refusal to accept a tip. In speaking with some veteran front-of-the-house professionals, I learned they don’t want to eliminate tips. The idea of providing exceptional service and building a regular customer base is critical to their income. Working hard and providing exceptional service should be rewarded. If an operation builds a culture of shared excellence, sets the standard extremely high and provides equitable opportunities for all employees, maybe then tipping can be eliminated.
There are a few restaurants moving in the direction of tip sharing or the elimination of tips. It will be interesting to see if these concepts take off. The bottom line is to remember, when you dine out, that everyone in the food service operation—from the dishwasher and busser to the head chef and maître d'—plays an important part in making the experience enjoyable. Hospitality workers need the respect and fair treatment that any office employee would demand. Our industry has changed since the early 1990s, but we still have a long way to go. Supporting the industry through educational programs to enhance the knowledge set of emerging professionals is one way to help make a difference in the industry.
When new employees demand more and have the knowledge and skills to back up their worth, chefs and owners will be forced to change. For now, remember to support your local hospitality professionals!
“Sitting on a milk crate”
Restaurant workers are known to use milk crates located on loading docks and behind the building as an employee break room. This section in edibleWOW focuses on the hospitality industry with tips for chefs and operators that relate to the home cook and more. We embrace the conversations and thoughts happening as we sit on a milk crate.
