Tips

I’ve never had a job where I worked for tips. All three of my kids have, but not me. All of the jobs that I’ve held over the years paid an hourly wage or a salary.

The first time that I ever heard about tips, and tipping, was about sixty years ago. Maybe more. My mom and dad bowled in a bowling league sponsored by our church, St. Dennis. It was a couple’s league that bowled once a week for several weeks. The bowlers competed for prize money that was based upon each team’s standing in the league. The higher your place in the standings, the more money your team earned. There was a “bowling banquet” at the end of the season where each team received its prize money.

My parent’s team had a “spare jar”. If one of the bowlers missed a spare, (That’s bowling lingo for you non-bowlers) they had to contribute twenty-five cents to the “spare jar”. The team combined their “spare jar” money and their bowling “prize money” and went out for dinner at the end of the season.

One year they had one hundred dollars in the combined pot. The four bowlers, Mom, Dad, Ruth and Al, decided to go to a supper club in Windsor for dinner and dancing. At the end of the evening the waiter presented my dad with a bill for $91.00. The customary tip in 1958 was ten percent. My dad left the $100.00 on the table with the bill. As they were putting on their coats the two couples were approached by the waiter in the restaurant lobby. The waiter spoke to my dad and said, “Excuse me sir, I think that you’ve made a mistake with your payment.”

My dad took the bill and the $100.00, examined them both, and said “Well, yes I have. Thanks for catching that.” Dad counted out exactly $91.00 and walked away. He figured that if the man wasn’t happy with a $9.00 tip, he deserved nothing at all.

I’m not sure that my dad made the correct decision in the matter, but I’m very sure that the waiter did not.

That story has stuck with me. It very definitely has two sides. The waiter felt short-changed and my dad thought that the waiter should be grateful for the tip he received.

Elizabeth and Sutton’s current jobs rely in large part on other’s generosity through the tips they earn. While some of Sutton’s singing gigs provide a predetermined wage, others do not. No matter what the payment arrangement is, Sutton hopes that grateful listeners will reward his performance with a tip.

Elizabeth is spending her four months in Florida working as a server and a bartender. Both occupations rely upon tips for the bulk of their wage.

I’ve never been a great tipper, but I think I’ve always been fair. I’m a fifteen to twenty percent guy, depending upon the experience that I’ve received. I expect that my kids fall in the twenty percent plus group, because they have lived on tips themselves.

I learned something new the other day. It’s something that I never considered before.  I usually pay my food service bill with a credit card. When I add a tip to my bill, I have a habit of rounding the change portion of the bill up to a whole dollar amount. For example, my tip on a bill for $47.19 would normally be $8.81 making the charge to my credit card a total of $56.00. (I like whole numbers.) I’ve never considered that the server pays taxes on the $8.81 which effectively reduces the amount of the tip. From now on I’m going to do my best to tip in cash, even if I charge the major portion of my bill to my card. My eight or nine dollar cash tip on the same bill means more money in my server’s pocket.

The moral of the story: Cash is king even if you only receive $9.00 on a $91.00 bill.