tipping the balance

In all my years in some sort of employment, I've never had to think much about my pay. I knew what my wage was and come a certain day of the week, I would get it.
Working as a server in Canada is a different story.
Most hospitality staff get minimum wage, which is less than $9 an hour, although it's going up in November. Some quick math: 38 hours x $9 = $342. Before tax. So how do thousands of hospitality staff survive in a city that isn't all that cheap to live in? Enter the North American custom of tipping.

In Australia, tipping is uncommon. If you get excellent service you might go out of your way to tip, but usually the only time we leave extra money is when we're too lazy to deal with the change: "Oh you can round that up to $20", one might say over a $18.75 bill. In both the US and Canada, tipping in bars and restaurants is expected. God help what your server will say about you if you don't. I know this because I know what I think about customers who don't tip. I like to give them the benefit of the doubt and think they either forgot or thought their friend was leaving one etc, which is most likely true, but it doesn't take away from the fact THEY DID NOT TIP!

When I arrived in New York I had to remind myself to tip and agonised over who and how much to tip. Common advice was 15%. 20% or more if it was good. So I would sit with my bill in a New York cafe and do the math, hoping that when I left, my server wouldn't make a mental note to spit in my drink if I ever came back. After all, minimum wage in parts of the US can be as low as $2 an hour. Or sometimes nothing.

Now that I rely on tips, I have a new perspective on the process. Tipping isn't just something you should do, or an amount or percentage pulled out of thin air. It's something that should be considered. Did you get good service? Did you get above average service? Did your server go out of his/her way to accommodate requests? Did you demand more of a server's time than the average customer. If so, consider that when leaving a tip. Most people I speak to say they leave 15%, but in practise I find the average to be more like 10%.

I went to a cafe the other day and ordered at the counter. The waitress gave me my drink there and brought my meal to my table. I never saw her again. She gave me about 30 seconds of her time. But that was fine, I didn't need any more. But I also factored that in when it came time to tip.

At a restaurant a few days later, the server greeted me when I joined my group, brought me a menu, took a drink order, brought my drink over, took my food order, updated me when the meal took a little longer than usual (without me asking about it), appeared regularly but not too frequently to see that everything at the table was OK and top us up with water. Because we were a large group, we paid a 17% automatic gratuity. She actually lost out with that because I would have left 20%. I kicked myself later for not doing so anyway.

As an employee, my wage depends on my performance. That applies to every customer I serve. So I can't slack off for a bit, because my wage suffers. It makes a change from getting paid for 8 hours work, even if I was late, enjoyed a prolonged morning tea and took a long lunch break - all in the one day. As a customer, I get better service because of tips. At home, my waitress might take her sweet time bringing out my drinks or checking on my meal because she's getting $18 an hour anyway. Here, my servers know that if they're not good at their job, they might not make rent this month. And that gets me my gin and tonic fast. Every time.