Interesting Links for 07-09-2013

[andrewducker]

• Europe drafts law to ban mobile roaming charges
  (tags: europe phones )
• NIH Studies Explore Promise of Sequencing Babies’ Genomes
  (tags: genetics children healthcare )
• Iran foreign minister Zarif tweets happy Jewish new year
  (tags: iran GoodNews jews )
• Pornography reinforces sexist attitudes (but only in some people)
  (tags: sexism pornography )

Comments

[rhythmaning]

Tipping really annoys me - particularly in the states where I find it baffling. You are even expected to tip the guy behind the bar in the equivalent to a UK pub, since they often don't get paid - much if not all of their income comes from tips.

I really like this post about running a restaurant without tipping. (It may well have come via you originall!)

[bart_calendar]

I like the tipping system because it's one of the few ways that you can still have a middle class lifestyle without connections, family wealth and a great college degree.

Here in Montpellier where people tip much less, the only people you see as waiters or barstaff are college kids/kids just out of college because they are the only people who can live on the 1,200 a month they make as wait staff.

Meanwhile in America you often have older, more experienced bar staff and waiters, because you can make $50,000 to $80,000 a year or more if you do your job well and get a job at a decent place in a metrolpolitan area.

(My brother bartended through law school and make more money per year doing that than he currently makes as a lawyer.)

If we got rid of tips we'd be pushing a huge part of the population out of the middle class and make it much harder for new people to enter the middle class.

[rhythmaning]

How does tipping allow middle class lifestyle?

I think my beef is that the employers should pay decent wages that don't require patrons to tip: if I am buying a service, that should include sufficient for a decent wages.

It used to worse in the UK where restaurant owners were allowed to pay below the minimum wages, on the assumption that their staff would make up the shortfall in tips. I think this has been (legally) stopped now.

There used to be a fiddle where restaurant owners would keep tips left on credit card payments, which lead me always to ask the waiting staff if they would receive tips left via a card or to only tip cash, but I think that has been made illegal, too.

[bart_calendar]

http://bart-calendar.livejournal.com/2613323.html

[rhythmaning]

There is also a cultural thing. In the UK, the theory used to be that you tipped for service better than ordinary - as a thank you to the waiting staff. The prevalence has moved to a more American approach.

Also, tipping in other situations - barbers, taxis and so on - is confusing. If my hair is cut by the owner of the barber shop, I don't tip; if it is cut by someone renting a chair, I do, as they won't be receiving the full value of any payment.

The economics of tipping must be fascinating...!