I hope this is just another case of skyisfalling journalism and not actually a report on a real-life trend. From the KT:
However, the conventional understanding is slowly inching toward more Western, as more high-end service businesses are spreading the idea that a good tip follows good service.
From hotels, restaurants to beauty shops, tips are no longer a stranger to both service recipients and providers.
``It's now very much understood that our customers will leave a tip after a haircut,'' said Kim Hyang-mi, a senior stylist at Tony & Guy, a posh beauty salon in southern Seoul. ``The question is not `are they going to leave a tip?' but `how much will they give?'''
I absolutely hate the tipping system in the US, and it basically amounts to extortion. I don't have a problem with appreciating and rewarding good service, but I don't like that a tip is expected nowadays, with or without good service. Moreover, I don't like having to pay extra for something that falls within someone's basic job description. Tipping a dollar a drink at a local bar? Isn't pulling a beer from the cooler the bartender's job? Tipping the porter for wheeling a suitcase up to the room? Isn't wheeling suitcases the porter's job? Tipping a taxi driver for going from one place to another? Isn't driving a car his job? And tipping a waitress for pouring coffee and bringing plates? Isn't that her job? Some will argue that, because some in the service industry get paid less than minimum wage---what a ridiculous idea---that they rely on our tips to earn their living. So rather than going above and beyond basic job descriptions to earn tips, instead we are instead guilted into supporting some 21-year-old's three kids, and punished if we don't.
Customer service in Korea is pretty good---except for the cellphone store---and light years beyond what I've experienced back home, and I absolutely love not having to throw money around at people for some shit they supposed to do. The taxi drivers do their job
I don't frequent high-end businesses, so I've never felt obligated to tip in Korea. But it will be a sad day if that trend comes to pass and if tipping filters into other areas. Customer service will suffer, as it has in the US, and people won't be getting the service they deserve, they'll be getting the service they can afford.
* It also sounds elitest to ascribe negative stereotypes to some of the jobs I've mentioned, as if only the downtrodden work service jobs.
6 comments:
At the bottom of the tip culture in America is not necessarily service people being greedy for tips. Laws were set up (Bob Dole had a hand in this) so that hotels and restaurants could get away with paying people less than minimum wage.
So it's more a matter of cheap hotels and restaurants getting away with cheap labor. Tipping is just subsidizing their practices.
I think you're right the mark here Brian. I think about this every time I go home and I'd even say it's worse on the west coast, where servers are more likely to be insultingly fake (with a bigger comedown/revenge if they don't get their 20%) than on the east coast, where they can be pretty surly.
I've heard the "subsidization" argument plenty of times, and believed it at some points, but it's wearing off for me because the system is out of control. Like Brian says, a dollar per drink at a bar, 25% for delivery, 20% and up at all restaurants. The "reward for good service" aspect is completely gone and I refuse to buy into the idea that every service person is some down on their luck sadsack, cornered into accepting a criminally low paying job with tipping as their only ray of hope.
Thanks for your comments, ZenKimchi and Aaron. I'm going to have to look into this "subsidization" thing a little more, and the justification behind letting some industries pay less than minimum wage. I just don't get it, on a number of levels. I'd be willing to pay (a little) more at a restaurant if I knew the servers were getting at least minimum wage and weren't expecting tips just for doing their jobs. On the other hand, right now the savings certainly aren't getting passed on to the customer.
When everybody's automatically throwing an extra 15-20% on the table (or to the cab driver, porter, whomever), that neutralizes the "good service" part of the equation, and all that's happened is prices have gone up. Then, there's the guilty feeling that, when actually given good service, one must go above and beyond the 15% BONUS normally given. Just out of control, and I don't really get how some industries get away with this practice. Doesn't really seem to help anyone.
I have worked for minimum wage before at McDonald's and then worked for tips at restaurant later on. I even worked in a bar my senior year in college. So I know quite a bit about the service industry and I can say that people are more motivated to provide better service working for tips than working for a wage.
At McDonald's I was making $4.25 an hour and you would be amazed how bad McDonald's workers are treated by the public. To this day I treat fast food workers with respect because I remember how bad that job was. Later on when I was hired to wait on tables I would make $100-$150 in tips in eight hours.
This was a lot more money than working eight hours at McDonald's and my performance was directly related to how much money I made. Needless to say I was more motivated to do a better job.
If someone gives you bad service than do not give them a full tip which is what many people do because from my experience poor servers always made less money than the good ones. This will hopefully motivate them to do a better job.
Interesting, thanks for the comments. I was a McDonald's manager in high school and college, though luckily I broke in when minimum wage was $4.75, haha. Some of the best people I've ever had the privledge of knowing I met while working there. I, too, empathize with fast food workers . . . can't say I miss the work, though, and the few times I go into a McDonald's I'm always tempted to drop fries and check labor.
So forget about good service or bad service . . . what about "meh" service. Nobody's spilled your drink, or made you wait 40 minutes, or forgot to see if you needed anything . . . just very plain, unenthused service. Do you give 15% there? Or do you reserve 15% for good service, and pay out less accordingly?
That's the rub right there. 15% isn't enough and most service is "meh" service. If you don't leave 20% it's looked down upon, not only by servers, but by friends and family (at least in my case).
And as a result, as I said before, you often get this weird "HEM!" service.
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