Westover: This Ottawa resident has reached the tipping point over tipping

North America has always been an outlier on tipping. In Europe, waitstaff are paid a living wage and tipping is the exception, not the rule.

Published Sep 21, 2024  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

If you can afford high-end cookies or gourmet doughnuts, can't you afford the extra tipping too? Photo by Tony Caldwell /POSTMEDIA

A few weeks ago, my daughter and I waited in line for more than an hour to sample Ottawa’s hottest new cookie establishment. The sweet treats didn’t disappoint … but do you know what did?

Having the cashier flip the tablet towards me and intone, “Do you want to tip the bakers?”

Tip the bakers?

This place is open-concept. You can see the bakers hard at work creating delicious confections. They, in turn, can see the customers being asked to supplement their wage. This creates one of those nail-biting moments of social discomfort. Maybe I should tip the bakers?

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Guilt kicks in. I have the time to stand in a ridiculous line, and the funds to overspend on a salted chocolate chip cookie the size of my fist. Is it my moral obligation to follow the suggestions on the prompt, and hit 15 per cent, or 20, or 25?

But wait. Who benefits?

Credit card companies make these point of sale machines — complete with built-in “awkward social interaction function” — and charge merchants a hefty fee. A fee that is equal to a percentage of the overall transaction. Is it cynical to think they have a pretty strong motivation to up the bill by putting customers on the spot?

Same thing at the high end doughnut establishment. Pay around $30 for six donuts, and then tip … but who am I tipping? Sure, the person who put the doughnuts in the box was very pleasant. But isn’t that, you know, their job?

I always feel guilty hitting “custom tip” followed by “no tip.” It’s like an added step so you feel doubly awful. (Making me feel guilty for buying a frivolity might make me think twice about doing it again. Besides, Plan Canada is at the door, so let’s just do that instead.)

Tipping has been normalized to the point that we’re practically asked to tip at self-checkout … in which case, do I get the tip?

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North America has always been a pro-tip culture. Travel, and you realize we’re the outlier. In Europe, waitstaff are paid a living wage and tipping is the exception, not the rule.

Not only are we conditioned to tip generously for services (say, manicures and haircuts) as well as leave a token of appreciation for servers and baristas, we’re also expected to dip into our wallets and give direct payment to behind-the-scenes (or covertly on-display) employees.

It might behoove business owners to lobby credit card companies to stop making the tip function the default. It’s alienating to customers. And I suspect a lot of employees feel icky about it too. Having both customer and employee wish they could disappear into a black hole probably isn’t great for business.

Tipping is a wonderful way to express appreciation for exceptional service. It’s a way to say, “You went above and beyond, and made my (insert experience) really special.”

But when you have to tip everybody, pretty soon you don’t want to tip anybody. And that hurts the people who are counting on delivering excellent service and reaping the well-earned financial gain.

To everyone else, I tip my hat to you. Maybe that could be a new custom.

Suzanne Westover is an Ottawa writer.

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