The Tipping Point

I've been accused of being consistently inconsistent, and my tipping habits are no exception. Now, when I was a waitress, my feelings on the subject were clearly defined: if you don't want to tip at least fifteen percent, if you just can't part with that much more money, then you should eat at Burger King where you belong. I still believe that, when it comes to waiters, who earn only two something an hour (this may have gone up, but waiters earn a measley wage, based solely on the idea that the customers will subsidize it.)

I can also live with the fact that there are cheap people in the world. Stingy narrow people who don't follow social conventions tend to live in small worlds, where miserly concerns eat up the land and much of the air and water. There's not much benefit in being one of those people.

So what's the problem? My coffee addiction and our wonderful campus coffee shop which sports the trendy name, Perks, and offers up freshly roasted and ground fair trade beans. I'm there every day, sometimes twice, forced to look at the tip jar on the counter, brimming, most of the time, with dollars put in by generously paid state employees, students who drive nicer cars than I do, and other kind people who want to do everything they can for poor working students.

The tip jar annoys me. Perks is pricey, and while I can't do the kind of mathematical gymnastics that would allow me to figure out what the percentage of a dollar tip on a dollar-fifty total is, I know it's way more than 20%. Not only that, but I often have to wait forever for the student worker to make complicated blender drinks for the people in front of me in line. All I want is a plain old cup of coffee with room for cream. At the bagel-and-wrap place next to Perks in the food court, the staff take a great deal of time and care getting the orders just right, down to how much cream cheese, what kind of lettuce, any pickles? But most of these food service workers are not students. They probably earn a dollar or two more than minimum wage, with no benefits. There is no tip jar on their counter.

So in fairness, I think it's okay not to tip, but I can't. Sometimes I don't bring my purse (we have dining cards), sometimes I give change only. But I know how much people hate cheap tippers, so more often than not, I stick a dollar in the jar.