To tip or not to tip, that isn’t the question – Stuff.co.nz

Last updated11:26, May 24 2017

Seven Sharp

You can't escape it in the US, but Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett is keen on it becoming more common here.

OPINION: Deputy PM Paula Bennet has called for Kiwis to tip hospitality staff more often, to improve the quality of service, and the 'hospitality industry' apparently agrees.

The problem is that a culture of tipping creates a different, and entirely inequitable economy; it's not the answer on any level, it's not even the right question.

I've been in almost every imaginable role in hospitality for over 20 years, even waiter of the year and industry judge that specialised in service, and the co-founder of a fine-dining waiter school millennia ago. I've been an owner, a lecturer, a COO and a dishy; not in that order, and I deeply disagree with a tipping culture.

HANNAH PETERS/GETTY

Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett is calling for Kiwis to tip hospitality staff more often, in an effort to increase the quality of service (file photo).

As a young buck, during a study trip on international service standards in Europe and America, I had a sort of epiphany.

READ MORE: *Deputy PM Paula Bennett calls for more tipping *American in New Zealand weighs in on tipping

DEAN KOZANIC/FAIRFAX NZ

Hospitality industry veteran James O'Connell says a culture of tipping creates a different, and entirely inequitable economy (file photo).

When a hospitality business is run well, and the team is put first, all parties win; and I mean all parties, customers, suppliers, leaders and owners. I deliberately call employees 'the team' because that is how they should be treated. It must always be the business owners who have the responsibility for their team, and they need to love and appreciate them a great deal. This is no less true for hospitality as it is for all business, but in hospitality the way we do business is written on our sleeve.

Happy employees mean happy customers, and unfortunately 'tipping' doesn't solve problems of systematic failure, inequity, sexual harassment, employment liability issues, and it doesn't do much for the bottom line of the business either. A tipping culture heightens conflict within a team and creates a need that shouldn't be there in the first place.

Put simply, a tipping culture doesn't significantly solve the 'quality of service' problem, and it creates a whole set of new problems because it is inherently inequitable. A restaurant is run by a team in the back of house, as well as the front of house, and the owner will always be responsible for ensuring that all is fair. Fairness within a tipping culture is a hornet's nest.

My wife spent last month in New York studying this very issue. The tipping culture has been shaken in recent years due to subminimum wage increases. Her report is detailed and practical. The Deputy PM is an open-minded person so we'd like her to read our report; or at least let us put her in touch with some knowledgeable people in the U.S who have a different point of view.

The United States does not have a comfortable tipping culture, it never has. The level of service is varied, with more of the extremes at both ends in comparison to New Zealand. In fact, the tipping culture is debated widely. Many grass-roots labour organisations are horrified by the practice and rightly remind everyone of its roots in slavery. There is no denying the history, it is a practice deeply rooted in slavery and the underpaid, and often, abused servants of Europe.

Tipping has held back minimum wage reform, and for no good reason.

It worries me that hearts are not always in the right place when some in the industry vocally support liberalising immigration law. I hope it's genuine compassion that is the motivation.

I'm sure it mostly is, but I don't believe a steady stream of workers who are prepared to work for minimum wage is the answer for the hospitality industry. Tips or no tips.

Incidentally, there is a lot of angst in the United States because it's the 'white men and women' who gain the most in a tipping culture, not the immigrants who are forced to work for a restaurant economy that has learnt to rely on tips, and live in a subminimum wage state.

A tipping culture is a false economy and it doesn't do anyone any favours. We are New Zealanders, we are privileged to have dodged some of the complexities that burden the United States and Europe. Let's learn from their mistakes, by at least debating the tipping issue with all its warts. I, for one, am horrified that we appear to be heading in a tipping direction. We should be talking about business leadership, the living wage, performance share and work-place culture.

The debate in the States is lively and many of the most successful, and ethical, restaurants are moving away from tipping, and that's not easy to do once entrenched, almost impossible once used by law as an escape route.

Once the economy of a restaurant, and a nation, relies on a tipping culture, it's like having to re-build the economy; like a micro version of the British Empire after the abolition of slavery.

I beg each restaurant owner, no matter how hard-working, to stop and consider automatic tipping, before it becomes too hard to change. Every restaurant counts because increasing numbers create a cultural shift.

When restaurants like recently named number one in the world, Eleven Madison Park eliminate tipping and great restaurateurs like Danny Meyer of Union Square Cafe,

Gramercy Tavern and Shake Shack call tipping, "one of the biggest hoaxes ever pulled on an entire culture" then we should at least take notice.

Issues of fairness aside, I have another concern which is for the restaurant owners themselves.

If restaurant owners do not ask the right questions they are unlikely to get the right answers for their business. I believe the answers have more to do with understanding how to create a restaurant economy that puts your team first, that creates a work-place culture that deeply values genuine hospitality and service.

Tipping doesn't make the world a better place; but great businesses who value their team and focus on great hospitality and service together changes a great deal including the bottom line. Customers adore businesses who make them feel important; it takes a whole team who look after one-another to achieve that, and it's not as hard as you think.

Not everyone in the hospitality industry agrees with a tipping culture; many take their responsibilities extremely seriously and fully understand how important it is that they create an ethical economy in their business.

James O'Connell is a Hospitality Business Educator and Coach and can be contacted at http://www.thehospitalitycompany.co.nz.

-Stuff

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To tip or not to tip, that isn't the question - Stuff.co.nz