Article

To tip or not to tip?

Chef Christopher Koetke discusses how the industry and customers feel about tipping.

June 22, 2016

By Chef Christopher Koetke, vice president of the Kendall College School of Culinary Arts

Is tipping a good system? Late last year, Danny Meyer, the man behind Union Square Hospitality Group, which includes restaurants Gramercy Tavern and Shake Shack, stated that he planned to abolish tipping at his restaurants over the period of a year. Other restaurants followed suit.

The rationale behind the decision is sound. It treats all staff equally. Waiters, chefs, dishwashers and hosts are treated the same, and everyone is paid a livable wage. How could this possibly fail?

A few factors are still in play. Although some customers say they’d prefer not to tip, it’s ingrained in American restaurant goers. It’s their way to say thank you and rate the service they received. Even when encouraged not to tip, customers still feel obliged to do so.

Is a dining experience only about service? When I was growing up in kitchens, chefs would come in early to prep and craft food. Wait staff would arrive hours later to set tables. They would do their thing while we’re sweating in the kitchen. And at the end of the night, they would report what they individually made, which far surpassed my pay. The concept of no tipping is also part of a movement to correct tip inequality, to ensure all staff are treated equally well. As a chef and past cook, this really appeals to me.

Let’s take a step back to examine what’s at work here. In tipping-based restaurants, wait staff have incredibly low hourly wages. The tips are understandably expected by servers. If tipping is no longer part of that equation, wait staff are free to focus on their core concern — their customers — with much less stress about their take-home pay. The hope is that customers would see the wisdom of this and that the restaurant is taking better care of employees.

Now, let’s view it from the consumer perspective. A tip is what you pay to show thanks for the service you receive. When tipping is removed from the equation, all customers see are higher menu prices, and the inability to reward their servers.

Questioning the role of tipping has caused a lot of discussion in our industry. When Meyer moved to the no-tipping model, I thought it may be a transformational moment, but we’re already seeing the response. Business for Joe’s Crab Shack dropped dramatically, so management lowered the prices again and put the tipping model back in place. The National Restaurant Association has come out against the practice. Even Meyer has slowed his progress.

Is it a trend? Based on my research, it’s not yet the direction of our industry. Customers aren’t rewarding restaurants that have switched to this model. At some point, the industry will change, but there’s much to be worked out. My advice to restaurateurs is to keep an eye on this ever-moving target because it will be back.