Ah, why indeed.
I just bet that fella had never been a waiter. And before passing judgement on
the poor woman (which is what he very clearly did), he should have listened to
the old adage to first walk a mile in a man’s shoes. If you’ve never been a
waitress before, don’t judge that she is unworthy of the 18% tip that the rest
of society has judged to be a fair compensation to her.
I was a waitress
while my husband was going to school fulltime. We would gather up the tips and
use it to buy food to last us until the next day when we would use those tips
to buy food for the following day. My wages went to pay for our rent, heat and electricity.
Most waitresses don’t have unions, pensions, sick days, benefits, or any of the
other job perks that many of us enjoy. A case in point, the waitress in the
above news story got fired for telling about the incident.
I read a very
good article about this in Christianity Today. One comment the writer made was
that we shouldn’t go out to eat if we can’t afford to tip. A very good point!
Ditto with getting your hair done or ordering a pizza or ordering room service.
If you don’t have the money to pay the tip, you don’t have the money to ask for
the service – period.
And whatever happened
to generosity? Why are we limiting ourselves to 18%? Do we pull out our
calculator and make sure that if our bill is $15.73, we give a tip of $2.36? Or
can we be gracious and loving as our Father commanded us to do and leave three
dollars or better yet, what used to be a common comment, “Keep the change!” So
our total expenditure is $20.00. What has that extra $4.27 cost us in terms of
a relationship, a witness for Christ, and just good common decency?
Can we just make
it a policy to give 20% (it’s easier to calculate) and round it up to the next
dollar? After all, that is how God treats us, richly lavishing blessings on us
each and every day until our cup literally overflows!
Dorene Meyer
Author of newly released Jessie's Secret
