Tipping Comment “Extremely Naive”

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31235, 6 December 1966, Page 10

Tipping Comment “Extremely Naive”

A comment that the tourist enjoys tipping—which it claims was made by the New Zealand Restaurant Proprietors' Association—is considered "extremely naive” by the Consumers’ Institute. The December issue of “Consumer” criticises the practice as being “objectionable, embarrassing, and above all an insult to human dignity." Last year, “Consumer” published the Consumer Council’s views on tipping, “and until a more positive attitude develops against this form of petty extortion we intend to keep the subject squarely before the public,” it says. The article is critical of the Restaurant Proprietors’ statement that the tourist “enjoys tipping.” “This is an extremely naive statement,” it says, “particularly the assertion that tourists or anybody else—except a few ‘show offs'— enjoy tipping.” “Consumer” goes on to say: “There is a grave danger that if tips become ‘customary’ this will eventually affect the fixing of wage levels. We mentioned this last year and, at the risk of being repetitious, we again emphasise the point “One company that operates a hotel chain sympathises with the (consumer) council’s stand on the tipping issue,” states, the article, and it goes on to quote from a letter the council had received. “It is axiomatic in this country that any worker should receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, and a departure in the form of a gratuitous payment gives umbrage.” Still quoting from the letter, the article goes on: “We know that some hotel staff would strongly object to interference with what they regard as their due, even though their union is quick to ensure that the wages of the staff are equal to and, in some cases, better that those of other workers.

“Unless steps are taken to discourage tipping, there is a real danger that it will become so entrenched that the public will find itself compelled to pay again for something for which it has already paid. The effective method will be for everyone to resist the temptation to tip. “The tipper may be the first served, he may receive preferential treatment, but if everybody tips, then it will become a rat race to try to out-tip each other. More reasonably, if no-one tips, then discrimination would be ended. “Tipping in New Zealand is seen as an undignified ransom payment: A payment for services yet to be performed rather than a reward for spontaneous and ‘extra curricula’ services already undertaken.”