James Shaw | Staff Writer
Tipping, or a gratuity, has become more pervasive in our society as globalisation blurs the lines between countries’ cultural differences. Popular in America for the last century, the practice actually has its roots in 17th-century Tudor England, but is now a part of contemporary Irish etiquette in settings such as barbers, taxis, restaurants and to a smaller extent in pubs. However, it’s also a divisive practice: opponents (often derided as parsimonious gits) point out that in a fair wage economy tipping shouldn’t be required, and that it acts as a subsidy for businesses preventing them from having to appropriately compensate their employees.
The counterpoint is that in certain industries associated with tipping, the minimum wage is as low as $2.13 per hour and as such, tipping makes up the majority of employees’ wages. Furthermore, many people who have worked in the services industry and who have been the recipients of such generosity attest to its importance in assuring them a living wage. This is all well and good, but these arguments are almost all premised off of American laws and culture. In Ireland we don’t have different rates of minimum wage dependent on the industry, and so I beg you to spare a thought for the cashier or retail worker who must survive on the minimum wage and nothing more.
In Ireland we don’t have different rates of minimum wage dependent on the industry, and so I beg you to spare a thought for the cashier or retail worker survives on the minimum wage and nothing more.
The American system itself, part of which we have adopted, is lauded for keeping prices down and incentivises good work. However, the onus to pay employees a living wage ought to be guaranteed by their employers and not subsidised by customers. Clearly the saving in wages isn’t entirely passed on through prices, since prices in American bars are broadly similar to ours, with our publicans having to pay much higher wages than $2.13 an hour. While it is true that tipping rewards hard work and good service, these ought to be expected as the norm.
I would rather my server be genuine and perhaps less ostensibly and artificially friendly. We Irish are famous for our warm, welcoming nature, typified by our famous ‘céad míle fáilte’ slogan. People working in the service and hospitality industries ought to exemplify this insofar as possible, without the reward of tips, in the same way you expect a cashier to be reasonably polite and obliging when you’re in a newsagent or supermarket. This is what they are paid to do, which they agree to when they join the industry, at a wage deemed fair, albeit questionably, by the Irish government.
While students are generally not as expected to tip given their lower disposable income, in certain settings such as a restaurant or a barber shop, many, including myself, feel obliged to contribute something. However, is this because of a societal pressure to follow conventions, or is it because we appreciated the exemplary level of service and wished to reward the provider thusly? While there are definitely cases of the latter, in general I think people reward even mediocrity lest they face social embarrassment.
We need to propagate a system that compensates all employees fairly without allowing employers to shift that responsibility onto overburdened consumers.
While this pressure has clear benefits for the workers involved, it adds to the prohibitive cost of socialising in Ireland. Let us consider the retail worker who has put in a 40+ hour week, earning €8.65 an hour, with city centre pints averaging over €5 and meals in restaurants around €15. The cost of tipping further limits their ability to enjoy leisure or socialising out of work, something which we accept as crucial to a work-life balance. Needless to say, this presents a difficulty for middle-income earners too, who are finally putting away some disposable income after six years of austerity, and who for the most part are the people reinvigorating the service industry. In a country that is supposed to guarantee a living wage, we need to propagate a system that compensates all employees fairly without allowing employers to shift that responsibility onto overburdened consumers.
Photo by Dyanna Condor
