SOMETHING ABOUT THE TIPPING HABIT.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 894, 25 April 1907, Page 22

SOMETHING ABOUT THE TIPPING HABIT.

Mr Theodore Waters, in “Everybody’s Magazine,” lamenting the extent- to which tipping is spreading in America, following the example of Europe, shows that it is steadily bringing down wages, and causing the tipped to be preyed on. In a few instances waiters in New York have saved from to out of their tips, under advantageous circumstances, and hotel and restaurant employees exact large gratuities, but they are finding out, like certain species of shore birds, that they have competitors waiting to claim shares. . , “If the waiter does not share his harvest with his helper (writes Mr Walters), the ‘ ’bus-boy’ will complain to the head waiter, who will also demand a share. I was told by several New York waiters that their salaries are continually drawn upon by the head waiters. The method is as follows:—The head waiter borrows sums of money from the regular waiters, and if they demand repayment, they soon find themselves ou. of a job. A waiter working in a Chicago hotel told me that unless he tipped the chef constantly, he got the wrong end of the joint, thus lessening his chances of pleasing hi* customer. Still another waiter complained of having to contribute part of his earnings to the cashier on pain, in case of refusal, of having his ‘change’ banded to him in such denominations as make it inconvenient for the patron to give him a proper tip. ‘ \ “In one of the smartest hotels in Boston I was told that the ladies’ maids, far from receiving a salary, pay the management ten dollars weekly for board and room. In spite of this, one of the girls declared that her position was worth twenty dollars a week to her, clear of all expenses. The bell-boys in this hotel, also, do not receive wages, and are yet able to average ten dollars weekly over all expenses. “The wage-rate for waiters in hotels in large cities is usually one dollar a day, but some of the biggest hotels in New York pay but twenty-five dollars a month; and most of this, the waiters complain, ebbs back into the managerial till by reason of an elaborate system of fines, which covers everything that a waiter may. or may not do, from laying his tablecloth crooked to turning his toes

Inward. So that between the jiead waiters and the fining system; it would seem that ordinary waiters see but little of their salaries. “The apartment janitor was once a well-paid functionary, but as the habit of tipping has increased the janitor’s salary has decreased, until in many houses he now receives no wages at all. . Rents, on the other hand, have steadily risen. Naturally, the owner of the apartment-house is very well content with the tipping system. And what is true of the janitor is coming true all along the line. Wherever you come in public contact with someone who has a smirk to sell, there you must tip. But scan the want columns of the daily papers where such positions are offered. See the pittances that go with them, and, if you have time, inquire why. It is because the employer has learned to count upon the public to pay in tips what he would otherwise have to pay in wages. “The manicure is compelled to work for one dollar a day on the assumption that a millionaire’s son may happen along and, eliminating all questions of her selfrespect, tender her a 10-dollar note. The housemaid is given a small wage, and told to be happy in the prospect of what tips she may receive from her employers friends. “In one of the smartest hotels on Fifth avenue, where a tip is always expected, the waiters are paid twenty-five dollars a month. On the other hand, in one of the best-known beaneries on Park Row, where tips are unthought-of, the waiters receive sixty dollars a month. It may be put down as an axiom that salaries decrease directly as the size of the tip.”