The ingrained practice of tipping servers in restaurants and cafés has tipped those workplaces toward inequality and even hostility, according to new University of Guelph research.
“Tipping does create issues and inequalities,” said Bruce McAdams, a professor in the department of hospitality, food and tourism management, in an interview. “The wage inequality is one obvious issue.”
McAdams, and Michael von Massow, a professor in the department of food, agriculture and resource economics, are the co-authors of a new study that delves into the largely negative conditions that the North American tipping model has created.
An entrenched behaviour, tipping contributes to working environments that are inefficient, fraught with rivalries, and even plagued by poor service. And there is an undeniable wage disparity between servers and kitchen staff.
The current system must change, according to the U of G experts on the subject, and it probably won’t exist 10 years from now simply because it is not working.
The U of G study, published recently in the Journal of Foodservice Business Research, found that tipping creates work environments in which there is significant earning inequality between servers and kitchen staff.
That directly contributes to unfair work environments, hostile conditions, and a widespread problem filling kitchen staff vacancies. Why work in the back, when you can earn so much more up front?
Among restaurant staff, there appears to be a general recognition that the model is unfair. About three-quarters of servers are willing to share a portion of their tips with people in the kitchen.
“It’s a social norm,” said McAdams when asked why we feel the need to tip. Tipping has become standard practice, entrenched for more than 50 years, he added.
“It’s what we expect to do,” he said. “We’ve accepted it, and not only from the consumer point of view, but from the restaurant point of view, it’s become an industry norm, and a standard practice for compensation.”
The study involved interviews with about 100 restaurant managers and servers, along with 160 online surveys.
“There is not a lot of opportunity in the marketplace where we have some control over what we are paying,” McAdams added. “We feel good about that control and power.”
He cited an Angus Reid poll that found that 46 per cent of Canadians wants to keep the tipping model in place. But 40 per cent of Canadians supports the move to a no-tipping model.
Even servers, who make about twice as much as kitchen staff, want to see a more equitable distribution of the wealth.
The average server in the U of G study earns $18 per hour in tips. Together with a minimum wage that adds up to $28 per hour, a good salary, and much more than what kitchen staff earns on average. Servers will resist promotion to management to avoid earning less.
The unequal earning situation causes a lot of tension in restaurant workplaces. Where tips are not pooled 100 per cent, some servers will only focus on their own tables, and not lend a hand to prepare a fellow servers table, the study found. There are situations where servers will compete for guests that they assume are good tippers.
“There are also relationship issues between servers and hosts, depending on what section you get,” McAdams added. “It’s not unheard of to see a hostess crying because a server yelled at them because they haven’t sat business people in their section, just single families.”
Von Massow believes the practice of tipping will eventually disappear in Canada, as it has in jurisdictions throughout Europe. But changing the model will take time, and there will be much resistance.
The idea that customers tip in order to ensure better service is a misnomer. In general, we tip whether service is good or mediocre, almost out of habit.
“It is a huge social justice issue,” McAdams said. “Our food service workers in this country have been marginalized. In some segments in our kitchens, I would say they have been ghettoized.”
He said many food service workers in this country have to use food banks because they are not earning enough to make ends meet. Too much of the money is leaving restaurants in the pockets of servers.
“A huge percentage of servers are taking out an inequitable amount of the wage pie,” McAdams said. “And that is hurting other people.”
Consumers need to educate themselves on how the tipping system works and the effects it is having, the researchers say. Asking a manager or server how the tips are being distributed is a start towards changing the model.
- GuelphToday
