by Zach Bigalke

Created on: November 27, 2007

Gratuity is a great thing... a way to reward exceptional service. As any restaurant server can attest, there are evenings when the tips are coming in at a prodigious and healthy rate, supplementing the evening's wages and allowing some modicum of fiscal comfort in an industry not known for creating wealthy workers. But it is not merely servers who are dependent on gratuities - a lot of service industry employees are underpaid simply because employers have become complacent in allowing the paying customers to further do their job for them. Bellhops tour guides, valets, doormen... it is not merely the inglorious dishwasher and janitor and housekeeper positions which are underpaid.

I have grown up in the hospitality industry. My family lived as year-round employees on a resort in Grand Teton National Park. I have worked as, respectively, a dishwasher, a housekeeper, a dishwasher (again), a bellman, a concierge, a retail clerk, an activities clerk, a prep cook, line cook and sous chef. My father was the IT director; my mother worked as a convention and banquet attendant. My sister, when she came of age to start working, entered the workforce as a busser and advanced to serving customers in one of the hotel's restaurants. The simple reality on this and other resorts where I have been employed is this: most workers are paid similarly regardless of experience, ability or job title. But those jobs where a gratuity has been come to be "reasonably" expected - the servers, the bellmen, the valets - are held to a different standard, receiving an even-lower wage.

Tips are supposed to be a reward, an extra token of appreciation from a particularly pleased customer. Gratuity, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service". The key here is that a tip is VOLUNTARY... a customer purchasing, say, a ten-dollar meal and two pints of beer, can choose to leave a twenty-dollar bill and thus a 33% gratuity... or he can demand his change and leave a buck... or even nothing at all. There is inherent stress in this setup, with the server trying to go above and beyond his or her job expectation simply to elevate their combined salary to minimum wage. And while this motivation can certainly improve customer service, it will also severely decrease job retention. There is no mystery why the service and hospitality industries are notoriously transient.

A minimum wage is designated by the government as a benchmark for the essentials of survival. The problem is that the people voting on such legislation are often the same personal penny-pinchers who cannot help but hand out public funds like candy at a parade. These are the people leaving a single dollar of gratuity on a three-martini lunch. Americans depend on getting at least that minimum wage to keep eking out a subsistence life as the politicos allow the CEOs of the world to rape the monetary resources. A common employee should not have to sweat the amount of tips they have accumulated to know whether they will make their rent for the month or their medications or anything else... they deserve at least the bare minimum, as mandated by law.

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