Editor’s Note

Bret Bradigan

TIPPING POINT

“It’s so convenient a thing to be a reasonable creature, since it enables us to find or make a reason for everything we have a mind to do.” — Ben Franklin

Tipping culture — which thankfully hasn’t spread much beyond the U.S. and Canada — began back in the 1870s. The Pullman Company figured out how to avoid having to pay their porters, who were mostly freed slaves, by shifting that burden on to their railroad customers. It spread far and fast.

A large part of our Ojai economy is based on restaurants and other service and hospitality industry jobs of whose workers largely depend on tips for their living. I’ve worked a few of those jobs myself, and I can state confidently that the best and most reliable tippers are those who once depended on tips themselves. That’s not to say I like it. In fact, it reinforces unhealthy inequality and subservient, soulcrushing behavior on the part of wait staff.

It’s a dilemma; restaurant owners are working with narrow margins, feeding us more out of a sense of hospitality and kindness than any wish to get rich, and if they paid a living wage to their help so that those workers didn’t need tips, their competitors would crush them on price. It would be unilateral disarmament.

According to an article in Inc. magazine, “There are much bigger problems with our current tipping practice. For one thing, research shows that tipped workers, such as servers, are much more vulnerable to sexual harassment from customers than their non-tipped co-workers. It’s easy to see why. If a drunken diner is making unwanted sexual advances, telling him to stop or complaining to the manager may mean losing that customer’s tip, which is part of your livelihood. It’s much safer to just put up with it.”

In Robert Cialdini’s seminal “Influence,” he showed how the best waiters make twice of their peers’ average through gentle nudges and suggestions, building credibility and instant connection. It’s a fascinating section in a fascinating book. Yet still, it reinforces the unequal power dynamic.

“There is ample evidence that servers can increase their take by doing things like writing thank-yous and smiley faces on checks, kneeling next to tables while taking orders, and touching patrons gently on the shoulder-all of which emphasized their lower status and the extent to which their livelihoods depend on pleasing others,” according to the Inc. article.

It’s ironic that tipping culture in America — land of self-reliant king slayers — is so deeply ingrained. It seems like a relic from an age of monarchs and noblesse oblige, antithetical to our notions of “every man’s his own master.”

Danny Meyer, the billionaire Shake Shack founder, and David Chang, the celebrity restaurateur who founded the Momufuku chain, are ardent anti-tippers, paying their staff a living wage, but their practices have not, yet at least, caught on.

In Ojai, we have seen quite a few new counter-service restaurants opening, which is a partial solution. But the experience of dining out is greatly enhanced by competent, caring service. In fact, there is no substitute for excellent service — it turns what’s in essence mere sustenance into a coveted experience. I just wish they didn’t depend on the fickleness of diners to make their living.

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