Servers not included

Another factor behind “The point of tipping” (January 15th) is successful lobbying by the hospitality industry to ensure that restaurants are not included in minimum-wage regulations. Restaurant workers’ pay is boosted by customers’ tips, lowering the owners’ costs. This wage subsidy, a free lunch for the proprietors, has no justification in a sophisticated labour market.

The remuneration of waiting staff is a cost of doing business. So the service should be included in the bill as part of the cost of the meal, which is the norm in most of Europe. Restaurant employees should become fully fledged members of the normal labour force, with minimum wages and benefits, including health care, unemployment insurance and so on. Waiting staff will adapt, as they will to the coming robotisation of restaurants, when diners will be able to choose low-cost meals with no service. Tasks that can be automated include digital menus, online payment and robots to perform chores such as removing dishes.

Call this structural change, without which living standards would stagnate.

IRA SOHN

Emeritus professor of economics and finance Montclair State University Upper Montclair, New Jersey

Many American states have lower minimum wages for restaurant servers, using the practice of tipping as a justification. That has led customers to tip more generously, which in turn is used by policymakers to justify the lower minimum wage, creating a never-ending low-wage cycle.

ROBERT CHECCHIO

Dunellen, New Jersey

In 2019 it was estimated that $300bn dollars was spent in full-service restaurants in the United States, which equated to $60bn for tipped employees. More than 13m people were employed in American restaurants, approximately 10% of all American workers. Many of these employees count on tips from customers for their lifestyles. I personally believe that everywhere in America these tips should be legally and morally divided among the entire staff for each service.

This was a well-researched, well-written and well-argued article, but it is obvious that the differences in tipping customs from Tokyo to Paris to New York cannot be compared in any way from the customer’s or the tipped employee’s point of view. It’s different strokes for different folks.

ALAN STILLMAN

Founder of Smith & Wollensky restaurants

New York

Brazil, Italy, Japan, South Korea and many other countries provide much better service than places where the tipping system applies. Actually, the higher the expected add-on, the worse the service is. America and the Netherlands top my tip list for abysmal service and food. “But you must tip!” is the common cry by the establishment. Really? Ditch tipping. You will have a less fictional, hypocritical server and a more relaxed customer.

DAVIDE CARDARELLI

Johannesburg

What an elaborate discussion on tipping. The most common reason for leaving a tip in my experience has been to compensate food servers who have universally been paid a cut-rate wage. During this pandemic the tips I give for even take-out food have been larger, since the job market has become more precarious. God forbid that I should tip a dental hygienist, car mechanic, or a vet, all of whom earn far more than food-service workers. Except in New York.

LELA HUGILL

Brush Prairie, Washington