Getting a grip on gratuities

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

UH travel industry management professor John Cox says it's OK for tips to reflect the service. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser How much Not sure how generous your gratuity should be? The Original Tipping Page (www.tipping.org) offers these general rules of thumb. Waiter or Waitress: 15 percent of bill; 20 percent for better restaurants or larger parties When you have a coupon or other discount, make sure you base your tip on the amount before the discount. Bartender: 10 to 15 percent of your bar bill Taxi driver: 15 percent of fare (not less than 25 cents) Pizza delivery: $1-2 for short distances; $2-3 for longer distances; $5 or more for large deliveries Furniture, appliance or other large delivery: $5-10 per person minimum. $20 per person if delivery is especially large, heavy or difficult, or requires assembly Bell hop/skycap: $1 or more per bag Exotic dancer: $3 per song minimum if sitting at the stage; $1 if seated at a nearby table

"I hate the whole tipping thing," she says. "I always end up giving more than I should just because I'm so conscious of what the waitress will think."

Calloway, herself a former waitress, said she gives good tips even when the service is bad.

"A lot of waitresses will sort of assume that if you're young, you're probably a bad tipper," she explained. "So if I leave a 10 percent tip, they don't get it that there was something wrong with their service. They just think I'm cheap. It's horrible."

But it's not just the young and self-conscious who are afflicted with tip trauma. Taking into account the myriad of cultural perspectives that can come into play in Hawai'i, arriving at a single understanding of what, when and how to tip can be a complicated undertaking.

But first things first: Just what is a tip, anyway?

According to legend, the practice of giving gratuities started out as a way of ensuring that spiteful servers didn't poison their customers.

These days, tips are seen as a customary monetary recognition of services rendered to some level of satisfaction. For legal and tax purposes, they're commonly defined as payments a customer makes without compulsion — that is, payments that are not subject to formal rules or negotiation.

But of course it's not that simple. In restaurants and other service businesses across the United States, tips are factored in to calculations of overall employee compensation.

"It's a fact that the industry uses it as a technique for payroll," said John Cox, a professor at the University of Hawai'i's School of Travel Industry Management. "It can be beneficial for both employer and employee. In an active environment, the income employees make from minimum wage plus tips can be greater than the position might call for. It's higher income for employees at a lower cost to employers."

In certain situations, servers can even be paid less than the minimum wage if their tips can be expected to cover the difference.

However, in any system that factors in tips as part of a server's pay, tips are more than an acknowledgement of service — they're an adjustable form of compensation.

"Forget what the law says about it," said Tim Hodges, a waiter for more than 20 years. "The reality is the restaurant pays half of your salary and the customers pay the other half. And if someone stiffs you, that's money you don't have for rent or utilities or car payments."

But not everyone is accustomed to the practice of tipping. Europeans often are criticized for being poor tippers, but this is largely because in many European countries, gratuities are included in the bill. Additional tips are only given for truly excellent service. In Singapore, tipping is prohibited in airports and certain other public areas. In New Caledonia, tipping is considered rude.

Cox said accepting a tip in Japan can get a server in trouble with management. Still, he said, as experienced travelers, many Japanese understand the practice, and will tip very well when they are away from home.

In a 2000 report "Ethnic Differences in Tipping: Evidence, Explanations and Implications," researchers Michael Lynn and Clorice Thomas-Haysbert found that ethnic minority customers may perceive discrimination in the service they receive, and this can affect their tipping patterns.

Some of the other findings probably apply to most customers. Lynn and Thomas-Haysbert reported that tipping is also affected by family size (not surprisingly, tips shrink as families grow larger) and household incomes (smaller incomes, smaller tips).

A 1993 study by Lynn, George Zinkhan and Judy Harris found that women tend to tip at a lower rate than men, possibly because servers tend to be women.

Cox said young people and seniors also are sometimes perceived as poor tippers.

"It's difficult to generalize, especially with older people," he said. "Some may not tip well, but others, especially those who are well traveled, may tip very generously.

"With younger people, it's often just a case of not knowing," he said. "They learn as they get older."

Many service industries in the United States still hold onto the principles of pioneering hotelier Elsworth Statler, founder of the Buffalo Statler Hotel, who said that good service should be offered to every customer regardless of the gratuity provided.

That doesn't necessarily apply to every situation.

"Some people, like cabbies, don't handle it the same way," Cox said. "Try not leaving a tip in New York or Las Vegas."

Cox said the best tippers tend to be people who work in the service industry. Still, he said, if the service is poor, it is appropriate to reflect that in the tip.

"I'd leave a nickel in a prominent place," he said. "That way the employee will know that you didn't forget."

At restaurants, it's important to know if and how tips will be divided. In some places, they are divided according to a formula among a team of servers who share tables.

In catering businesses, tips may be divided among all the employees, including managers.

"The problem with tipping is it's uncomfortable for the person tipping," Cox said. "They're not sure how much to tip." (See box)

"I hate it," said Robin Tang, 41. "There are restaurants where the help is just plain rude, but you might accept it as a cultural thing. The question is: What do you do for a tip? I don't want to leave a 15 percent tip for someone who slams the food on the table with the check and never comes back."

Luana Ortiz-Mays, 33, a waitress for 11 years, said in many cases, tips have nothing to do with what a server does or doesn't do.

"If a table is laughing and having a good time, chances are I'm going to get a good tip," she said. "If it's two people who are mad at each other and they spend all their time watching me, it probably won't be a good tip, no matter what I do."