Tipping, part II
For the first time in my 33 years as a journalist I had a governor call me to complain about something I wrote. To be more precise it was one of his top staffers who happens to be an old friend.
He called to tell me in a very polite way that I got something wrong. I recently wrote a column about the state wanting to eliminate tipping and that right there was the issue. He told me the state was not eliminating tipping, quite the opposite. He said the push by the governor was to get rid of the tip credit but not tipping. What they want to do, he explained, was raise the pay of anyone who is below minimum wage and gets tips to make up the difference. He said for me to say they want to get rid of tipping is “factually incorrect” and technically he’s 100 percent right. Change or no change you are still free to tip.
Then I asked a simple question. If you start paying the waitress at the diner the same amount you pay the lady who sat you, the bus boy who cleared the table or the kid washing dishes, why then would anyone tip the waitress for bringing you bacon and eggs? He said, quoting my previous column, “Because you get great service.”
I believe two things. I believe I was loose with my language in that column and should have been more clear. The state is not looking to “get rid of tipping” and you can tip whomever you want. Heck if you like the way the guy at the convenience store bags your milk and bread you are welcome to leave him a tip. There is no law stopping you from tipping anyone.
The second thing I know is my old friend is Pollyannaish if he thinks people will continue to tip 15 to 20 percent on a meal if they blow up the system as it is and start paying the wait staff more. As I said in my previous column I believe the governor’s intentions are virtuous, he wants people to make more money. The problem is many of the people he wants to help are not underpaid now and they don’t want the government messing with something that already works for them.
Within hours of that phone call I found myself having dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. The waitresses, and I mean ALL of them, stopped by my table to thank me for writing that column because they don’t want to make more money per hour at the expense of people tipping them less. They told me that’s exactly what happened since they went from $5 per hour to $7.50. One of them said,
“They forced the owner to raise my pay but after taxes come out I’m only making an extra $50 per week but it’s costing me far more in lost tips. The more we make the less people tip.”
Then the owner of the restaurant came by and told me his backroom staff is already up in arms and resentful of the wait staff getting more money and not sharing the tips they do get. He is fearful if that same wait staff starts making even more, before tips are factored in, he’ll be forced to pay the backroom staff more (which he can’t afford) or lose them. He added that he’ll also have no choice but to raise prices which hurts his customers and will cost him business.
Several states do this now, pay tipped employees the higher wages, and it has had mixed results. In Maine they tried this and shortly thereafter voted to go back to the old way. I asked my friend from the governor’s office about it and he told me they are studying that. I asked him how local businesses are going to pay for this increase in wages when they already operate on such thin margins and he told me they are studying that as well.
Before we hung up cordially I asked him, if this was such a good idea, why haven’t I met one waiter or waitress who likes the plan? He said there is a lot of false information out there and the wait staff just doesn’t understand how this will help them. Call me crazy but when I want to know how to install a fence correctly I trust the guy who digs post holes all day and puts up fencing. When so many workers who rely on tips are opposed to this change it gives me pause.
That restaurant owner told me some of them make $50 per hour when you factor in the tips. I guess if I made that much bringing out chicken parm. and fresh bread I wouldn’t want anyone fixing the system either.
My friend reminded me that they are having hearings to gather input and assured me that if they do get rid of the tip wage and raise pay it would be done slowly like they are doing with the minimum wage. After we hung up I couldn’t help but think of the live lobster who is placed in a pot on the stove. They raise the water temperature slowly so the lobster doesn’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late. “Gradual” seems merciful but not if you get cooked at the end of the story.
John Gray is a news anchor on WXXA-Fox TV 23 and ABC’S WTEN News Channel 10. His column is published every Wednesday. Email him at johngray@fox23news.com.