Just the Tip

What is a tip? A tip is partial compensation for a service provide with the wages paid to the server being the complement. Now that I have thrown a dry definition out there I can start rambling.

Current rule of thumb is that the tip is a percentage of the price of the food and drink order with a factor of service quality included. What is the connection between the price of goods delivered and the compensation of the related service?

Let's start out with a fresh sheet of paper, let's say we have developed a tipping system from the ground up. What factors to include? Well the two that come to mind right away is the amount of service provided and the quality of the service provided. You can even throw in a term for personality difficulties of people at the table. Since waiting is a physical job why not throw in a term for the weight of the food. Hold out a term for total distance traveled to provide the service?

In truth through, none of those things matter because a tip is not the price paid for services at all. Prices are known up front and the transaction occurs when both parties find the price agreeable. Imagine going to a gas station without knowing the price of gas until after you filled up or as a service example imagine taking a new job and not knowing what the pay would be until after you already worked two weeks.

For the tip to be a true price is must actually have only one factor involved and that's the quality of the service. As a corollary when a bare minimum service provided the tip must be zero.

So after all that, what is the tip really? Well it's a reflection of the quality of the service plus a price shift where the wages of the servers are not 100% paid out of restaurant's revenue.

As for me I never tip below %15 so the way I see it the actually bill has a hidden 15% surcharge for labor and the rest is a reflection of quality (well sometimes , especially at bars, I add some "combat pay"). So what's the implications of all this? I have no idea.