A large group of people dine at a restaurant. When they are presented the check, the head of the party — who describes herself as a pastor — sees an automatic 18 percent tip has been added to the bill.
She crosses out the automatic tip, puts a zero on the tip line and scribbles on the check, “I already give God 10%, why do you get 18?” and writes the title “pastor” next to her signature.
When a picture of the check hit Reddit, it quickly went viral and sparked debate about how waiters should be tipped.
What stuck out to me was I had seen a truck drive through campus a few days earlier with a bumper sticker of the same quote, so this sentiment of skipping out on the tip in the name of the Lord isn’t as isolated as I had hoped it was.
Any veteran waiter could tell you bad tippers are the worst, but I think the thing that caused this incident to go viral was the extra dose of indignation. Of course the retorts, “Because God doesn’t have to pay bills,” or, “Because God can’t mess with your cream of mushroom soup,” could get the appropriate response across, but I think there’s bigger idea here. If you’re so passive-aggressively resentful about giving your cash to the church that paying a $5 tip at an Applebee’s feels like the last straw, you probably aren’t very well-suited for either environment.
Personally, if the service is terrible, terrific or otherwise, I always tip at least the customary 15 percent when I eat out because I have learned people carry long memories when it comes to being treated badly.
One time when I was working as a cashier at Lowe’s, another cashier pulled me aside and pointed out a woman walking through the aisles.
“I absolutely hate that woman. She was a total b---- to me when I was working at customer service two years ago. Be careful when you talk to her.”
He hated that woman so much he remembered her face after two whole years.
Forget about feelings of compassion and goodwill for my fellow man. The fear that I will inspire that sort of ill will in anyone who has met me only once is the reason I’m such a consistent tipper.
Apart from fear, though, people should remember that many waiters are relying on their tips to make the bulk of their income. Here in Florida, the minimum wage for waiters is only $4.77 because they are expected to make the difference in tips.
Should restaurants drop tipping altogether and instead pay their waiters standard minimum wage?
I don’t think so. From what I have heard, if you work in a decent restaurant during profitable shifts, your average hourly rate will be significantly higher than minimum wage. Not like, “Pick any BMW from the lot, sir” higher, but compare $12 an hour to $8 an hour, and I bet a few low-level cubicle lackeys would gladly cross over.
Regardless of the few bitter people who skip on the tip, waiters and waitresses are still probably better off sticking to the system.
Overall, that pastor should take some advice from Proverbs 3:27, which reads, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.”
Or, at the very least, she should have taken advice from Dave Barry, a Miami Herald humor columnist who once said, “A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.”
Lauren Flannery is a business administration sophomore at UF. Her column runs on Tuesdays. You can contact her via opinions@alligator.org.
