Click here for info on the Print Journal (and to purchase your copy)!

Mr. Pink Had a Point

By Mark Grueter

---------------------------------------

The Wentworth By the Sea Hotel and Resort opened in 1874 on the peninsula (and in the town) of New Castle, New Hampshire. It was designed to attract social, business and political leaders from around the world, and that is what it does to this day. The Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, was signed at this resort. For his role in ending the war, together with Russian and Japanese leaders at the Wentworth, Theodore Roosevelt was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize that same year.

Aristocrats from across the country and the world would flock to the New Hampshire and Maine coasts solely to breathe the air and convalesce. Today, Portsmouth, New Hampshire - its busy and trendy downtown area located only two miles from the Wentworth - is consistently ranked as one of the top five places to live in America by magazines ranging from Money to Cosmopolitan.

For the last 21 years, however, the Wentworth Resort was closed down and nearly demolished on several occasions because of its dilapidated appearance. But it remained a fixture and a curiosity. Several Hollywood productions shot key scenes at the Wentworth Hotel during this time, including The Last Detail starring Jack Nicholson in 1973 and In Dreams with Robert Downey Jr. and Annette Benning in 1997.

Spurred by a $25 million investment from Ocean Properties, an affiliate of the Marriott chain, the Wentworth Resort reopened in May 2003, preserving its Victorian design and grand tradition. It’s an impressive site situated in a beautiful spot. Since the opening the weather has been an absolute paragon - sunny and warm but not too humid with a steady sea breeze. I know because I’ve been working there this summer.

I’ve worked various jobs over the years, but not until this summer have I ever worked for tips. The experience has, among other things, re-energized an old belief of mine. Generally, workers who make tips earn a wage that is around or below the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. In fact, the federal minimum wage does not apply to workers who make tips, so businesses pay these workers whatever they please if it can be reasonably assumed that tips plus wages will amount to $5.15 or higher per hour.

Every time I order a drink at a bar I pay the listed price, plus I throw in at least an additional dollar. Every time I get my haircut, I’m compelled to throw in at least an additional two dollars. Same goes for getting food delivered. And at restaurants, we all add at least 15% to the bill for the service. Everyone is aware of this custom; it’s generally accepted and in this country almost universally practiced.

As a consumer, I always had a difficult time understanding this tradition. For awhile I refused to participate in it, even before Mr. Pink - played by Steve Buscemi in Reservoir Dogs - offended and amused his colleagues by announcing that he didn’t “believe in” tipping. Pink’s best argument came when he pointed out the hypocrisy of a society that arbitrarily determines which workers are owed tips and which are not. “It’s bullshit,” he summed up neatly.

At 16 I worked for $4.25 per hour “shagging” shopping carts for a supermarket chain in my hometown. I also wheeled people’s carts out for them and put the bags in their cars. We were specifically instructed not to accept tips. If caught pocketing tips we would immediately be terminated. Almost nobody ever offered me money anyhow because we’ve all been trained not to tip workers at grocery stores. So, Mr. Pink’s point resonated with me, especially because this job was just as - if not more - arduous than any job I've had since, including my current one.

It wasn’t long before I gave up my war against tipping; two incidents dissuaded me. In 1997 I visited my cousin in Florida - he was waiting tables at the time in West Palm Beach - and I made my views on the subject of tipping clear. He derided me and explained that it’s standard practice for waiters to spit in the food of misers like me, and that he once stuck a fork up his ass right before bringing it out for someone. I don’t know if this is actually true or if he just said so for the effect, but the news made me feel like I had been smitten on the back of the neck with a blunt instrument.

Around that same time, a few cheap associates and I left less than a 2-dollar tip after bloating and sating ourselves at an Applebee’s in, ironically, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Our waitress was physically unattractive - looks the only criteria for tipping considered by my shallow, callow and twisted associates. As we headed off to the car she chased us down. “Excuse me sir,” she interrupted me. “Yes,” I answered. “You forgot your change,” and she handed me a dollar and a few coins. There was a sudden sheep-like silence broken only by a bleat - we had been stumped, outwitted and outclassed by an obese, middle-aged rube. Wounded, I gradually converted to a fairly liberal tipper.

The logic that many Americans rely on generous tips to get by is easily demonstrated and far too powerful to deny. I still thought the whole notion of tipping was absurd but I went along with it and pretty much dropped the subject thereafter, until now. Here’s what I’ve learned since working for tips.

Tipping exists because it cuts costs for businesses. It’s also fast cash for restless employees. But how is it a good thing for workers to get so incensed with customers that it drives them to do messed-up shit like contaminate people’s food as a regular habit, or, in some extreme cases, murder the parsimonious among us?

Perhaps the worst aspect of tipping is how it divides workers and pits them against one another. Dividing the powerless makes them that much easier to conquer. It sets up an unseemly competition and brings out the worst within human nature. Anger and resentment should be directed at management and governors, not fellow workers. The culture of tips also encourages groveling and officious insincerity - again, is this healthy? For guests and customers the whole practice is awkward and intrusive, which is why many travel companies that arrange trips “take care of” gratuities ahead of time for their customers.

What real correlation is there between tip amounts and quality of service anyway? People end up tipping even if the service is mediocre. Likewise, some don’t tip even if the service is excellent. It’s based on luck and timing. If workers were simply treated with dignity and proper compensation then they’d provide good service. There’s a sinister notion out there that there’d be no incentive to work hard and service would go to hell if we did away with tipping.

The USA pioneers and fosters the tipping racket. Until recently, Australia was a tip-free society and British pubs discouraged the practice. It is actually illegal in Cuba. Tipping in Europe is not as automatic or as generous as it is in the US. The custom spread with the dissemination of American capitalism and tourism.

The obvious alternative to the tipping industry is to pay all workers livable, or decent, wages, so that we could say good-bye to the culture of anxiety, envy and unreliability that tipping creates. Employers should take care of their employees so that customers don’t have to, and employees don’t have to depend on the whims of customers for their livelihoods.

I think Cuba takes it too far; if someone really wants to give you money, for any reason, for any job, they should be able to give and you to accept. What we need to throw from the train is the obligatory nature involved with tipping. Raising wages for service employees may cause a relative hike in prices but since consumers would have been paying more in tips anyway, it would ostensibly all even out.

As one thought follows another, it seem that tipping may be tantamount to insanity. At the Wentworth, like at all other full-service hotels, guests are expected to tip doormen, valet parkers, bellboys, waitresses, bar tenders, busboys, room service, housekeeping, the Spa girls, and, have I left anyone out? The caterer? The shuttle driver? It would be too simple and make too much sense, I suppose, to merely add in all service charges and to make sure that all workers are indeed cared for via wages and benefits. No, let’s make everybody scramble for their wages instead, and then sit back and laugh as they do.

I’ve spent a considerable amount of time making this case to co-workers/supervisors at the Hotel. Maybe if a place like the Wentworth trashes the tipping game and adopts a more sensible policy their example will catch on and spread like a wildfire. Until then I’ll continue to oppose tipping in theory if not in practice.

---------------------------------------

Mark Grueter lives in New York City, where he is pursuing his master's in Liberal Studies at the New School University's Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science.  He can be contacted at [email protected].

© 2003 Me Three