Campaigners determined to outlaw tipping

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33448, 1 February 1974, Page 15

Campaigners determined to outlaw tipping

(By

JOANNE WILLS)

The meal in the suave restaurant off London’s Curzon Street had been long, excellent and expensive.

Now, as the moment of reckoning came, I piled the required number of banknotes on the proffered plate, took a deep breath ancl placed a small card on top.

It read: “Although I thank you for your service, I disapprove of tipping. You should receive an adequate wage without having to live on tips. Please pass this on to your employer or union.” The temperature in the restaurant instantly fell several degrees. “I see. Madam,” said the waiter icily, handing back the card and departing abruptly to the kitchen without the usual courtly farewells.

It was a nerve-racking experience and one which, the regular card-carriers—the several hundred members of the Anti-Tipping Campaign

—happily endure in their effort to prove that tipping is obnoxious, outmoded and unnecessary. And today, with prices rising almost by the hour, few of us can really afford it. In Britain, a Consumer Association survey recently showed that three in 10 people now refuse to tip on principle—it was only one in 10 three years ago—and the nation’s total of tips has dropped from an estimated 100 m in 1970 to less than £6om.

In America, tips in bars are now the exception rather titan the rule. Even the wealthy lady patrons of exclusive Elizabeth Arden beauty salons are regretting that they seem to have come out with only the exact amount of money to pay the bill. Bill against tipping Three M.P.s in Britain’s House of Commons are promoting a private members’ bill which would outlaw tipping and replace it with a standard service charge where justifiable. Appreciating that not

everyone has the nerve to resist leaving a tip, the AntiTipping Campaign organisers have now had an alternative card printed which reads: “I have left a tip although I disapprove of tipping. You should receive an adequate wage without having to rely on charity. Please communicate this message to your employer or trade union.”

In America, organisers of an anti-tipping organisation called The National Operation to Instil Pride are considering a similar alternative to their no-tipping card after an altercation with a waiter in a Washington restaurant which resulted in 300 of the capital’s waiters walking out in sympathy. “The problem with tipping,” I was told by a solicitor, Michael Ferris, founder last year of the Abolition of Tipping League, “is that whatever amount you tip you are always left with a sense of guilt. The whole business is so erratic, so inconsistent and can even vary from one town to the next. “It seems unfair to us that the customer or client should subsidise the meaness of employers who are not prepared to pay out a living wage.” Fair rate But if we are going to tip —and it seems that most of us will continue to do so, although we are getting more selective—what is a fair rate for the job? In jestaurants, a tip can be anything from 10 to 20 per cent, depending on how grand the place is and how well you’ve been looked after. Don’t tip in a pub unless you have a meal, or in a self-service establishment. Remember to check all bills before you tip to make sure that a percentage has not been added. If in doubt, ask. Add nothing if the percentage is on. You won’t be expected to.

Table waiter In a hotel, calculate 10 per cent of your bill and divide the amount between the chambermaid and the table waiter, giving 25 per cent to the maid and 75 per cent to the waiter. You may want to give

something to the man who carries your bags. Or if you prefer, you can ask that 10 per cent be added to your bill for the staff.

Many people tip taxidrivers, although in most cabs you are paying for all manner of extras on the meter. Not a service What about a garage? This is a tricky one, but the Abolition of Tipping League’s advice is: “Don’t tip for petrol only. You have paid for a commodity and putting it in the tank is no more a service than wTapping a parcel in a shop. “You can, if you wish, tip for checking oil, water and tyre pressure, but most attendants don’t expect it.” Anti-gratuity organisations point out that the basic unfairness of tipping means that some deserving souls get virtually nothing, while others who merely stand and look impressive in some huge hotel foyer might make a fortune. Michael Ferris’s dossier on the recipients of overgenerous tipping include the former head waiter at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York, who received £44,000 in tips in 10 years, the doorman of the Fountainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, who gets £12,000 a year in tips, and the bandleader of a hotel in Nice, who was once tipped £l5O for playing a single request tune. But an increasing number of organisations are bowing to moral pressure and introducing service charges. A spokesman for Britain’s Trust Houses hotel group says that under their service charge system, staff are told they should refuse a tip unless it is for some service beyond the normal call of duty — such as preparing a mid-night meal for some guest unable to sleep. “What we object to is that tipping has very little bearing on the true rate for the job,” Michael Ferris told me. “It’s said that the smokeroom steward on the Queen Elizabeth II liner does so well from tips that he earns more than the captain. “And all for doing nothing more arduous than emptying an ashtray.”