Deserving?

  I see all the big discussions about tipping. How much I should leave and all that. It is based upon how much I spend. I was thinking about that and wondered why it should be that way. What difference in service does it make it you bring me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a lobster dinner? I'm tipping you for the service rendered aren't I? That's what I'm told. I suppose if I order a four course meal in theory you have to make four trips, so I have to pay extra for that. A per trip charge? What about each time you stop by my table to ask if everything is alright, does that count as a trip? It is those trips that inspire me to give you a tip, that's the service I am willing to pay for, the gratuity means, I'm grateful. I just wonder who started all this percentage thing. I'm guessing it was a waiter or waitress believing they should get a cut of the action. Just doing there job wasn't enough, they deserve more. One of my favorite things these days, all the talk of what you deserve. 

 There is a big discussion going on now to make it a law that tipped employees be paid the federal minimum wage. That is being pushed by those that aren't receiving the tips they feel they deserve. The truth of the matter is the majority of tipped employees make far more than the minimum wage. Those employees don't want that to change. The law has changed  and now there is no tax on tips up to $25,000. That's a pretty good deduction in my book. And let's be honest here, how much of those tips are actually recorded when it is a cash deal? I'm talking about tips left in cash on the table. Now I guess that doesn't happen as frequently as it used to, people using credit cards and all that. But many places add the tip in automatically these days as well ensuring those servers get a tip. I heard complaints that they servers feel the owners are skimming off the top. I wouldn't know anything about that.

  For me I see the whole tipping thing as charity. It's a gift freely given in exchange, not for a service, but rather for an experience. I'm paying for the food and drink that I order, that was prepared at my request. The servers job is to deliver that food and drink to the customer. That is the minimum requirement for their position. Making the experience of eating out, and I'm old enough to see that as a luxury, something you wouldn't normally do, fun and exciting is something that server can do to earn a tip. Yes, as the server you have to please me, the customer in order to get the gift. It's not that difficult a thing to understand. The cost of the actual meal has little to do with that. With me you will get whatever I feel you deserve. And that's the thing about deserving isn't it? Everyone has a different opinion, a different yardstick for measuring that. I'm not using yours! Don't demand charity! You do that and my first thought will be, you don't deserve it.