Tipping is now legally protected – instead, it should be banned

Tipping can be embarrassing both for the customer and the wait staff on the receiving end – but if we simply paid our servers properly, that problem would go away, says James Moore

Servers’ tips are being legally protected under a new law (Getty/iStock)

On the day it becomes illegal for pubs, cafes and restaurants, hotels and taxi firms to get their grubby hands on the tips that customers intend to go to their service providers, would now be a good time to talk about getting rid of the outdated practice altogether?

No more controversy. No need for that embarrassed fumbling for coins you don’t have perhaps because, even with the new law, you worry that the waiter or waitress who’s looked after you all night won’t get the money if you use your card.

From today, service industry workers have the right to go to an employment tribunal if their employer stiffs them over gratuities. But that can be very expensive, especially if you’re working for minimum wage on a zero-hours contract.

So how about we just ditch tipping? Instead, you should be able to go out, pay what it says on the bill, and go home. And, for their part, serving staff should be paid properly.

Having worked in bars and restaurants when younger, I know how tipping can be embarrassing for both sides. You’re supposed to gush as if the person you’re looking after has delivered you a grant from the Bill Gates Foundation, rather than a lousy 8 per cent of the bill.

This is a custom that came about as a form of (ugh) noblesse oblige. The few coppers handed to servers were designed as much to put them in their place as to reward them. I’m the boss, you’re the peasant – and to help you remember that, here’s a little something. Now go away, quickly.

Tipping is also wildly inconsistent. Remember the famous scene from Reservoir Dogs where Steve Buscemi’s Mr Pink refuses to pay up?

“These people bust their ass,” Harvey Keitel’s Mr White admonishes him. “This is a hard job.”

The reply? “You don’t tip in McDonald’s.”

No, you don’t. In fact, the company positively frowns on the practice. “Tips are not accepted as McDonald’s restaurants have a team environment, which is not about rewarding individuals,” says the company website.

It is not alone. I’ve pushed supermarket trolleys for a dismal hourly rate at a place where we were told we were not allowed to accept gratuities under any circumstances during our induction.

As a school governor, I remember a fierce debate over whether teachers should be allowed to even keep modest Christmas gifts that children like to give (they were – I won that one). In some sensitive sectors, tipping is illegal because of the fear it could be construed as a bribe.

It’s when tips are used to make up a pay package that’s the real problem. Service industry workers wouldn’t need to rely on the semi-obligatory tips we pony up – and, for the record, I always pony up unless things have gone very badly – if the pay was better.

In countries like Denmark, tipping is much less of a thing because service workers are adequately compensated, often earning much higher wages than in other countries for the same role.

Paying service sector workers properly? What a radical idea.

Britain’s minimum wage – now rebranded as the national living wage – has risen in recent times, and is something I have long advocated for.

But at £11.44 an hour for those aged over 21, it is not a wage you can easily live on. Based on how much it costs to fund a basic standard of living, the Living Wage Campaign calculates the salary should be £12 an hour, £13.15 for those within the M25.

Needless to say, there aren’t many hospitality businesses that have achieved accreditation from this voluntary scheme – a mere 619 out of 15,401 employers. So I guess tipping is going to be necessary, and with us for the forseeable. But at least now the recipients can keep their money.