WaPo: 20% Tip Is Mandatory

Merriam-Webster defines “gratuity” as “something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service.” The idea is to motivate good service. But there is nothing voluntary about it according to the Washington Post, which informs us of the right way to think and act in all matters great and small. A 20% tip is an obligation, regardless of the quality of service.

Instructs WaPo food reporter and columnist Tim Carman:

Diners have been led to believe that tipping should be based on the quality of the service. But this is not the reason we tip. We tip because restaurateurs in America have shifted the burden of paying for some of their labor costs to diners.

Capitalist scoundrels. But what if you get lousy service?

I think diners need to ask themselves a basic question: Do you get paid when you’re having an off day? When you’re not at your best? When you’re in a bad mood?

In utopia, there will be no standards of excellence, just endless self-indulgence.

Carman suggests telling the server what to do differently, rather than leave a lower tip.

But if the service doesn’t get better, I would ask the manager to switch out servers.

Don’t leave a low tip; that would be mean. Get the waiter fired instead.

On a tip from Henry B.

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