Bakshish Raj - The Service Charge Dilemma

Mumbai, India
When was it the last time you tipped your dentist or your accountant?? Of course they also offered service but you didn’t seem the need to. Why? Did you feel they are as rich as you or perhaps richer? Did you think they might take offence as they are ‘professionals’? So many questions playing on my mind, I am sure they are playing on yours too now.  To make things easy, when did you tip your waiter last?? If you did tip the waiter then why not tip an accountant?
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Tipping these days euphemistically called the service charge is my opinion the cause of certain unsaid divide or classification of the society based on profession.  Certain professions like in this case waiters or bartenders rely a lot on their tip for their day to day living; they yearn for those at the end of the day or month.  This tipping culture in India I feel strips the profession of the self-respect that each profession should carry.  Tipping is done more out of sympathy aka charity than it is out of delight considering tipping is applicable only in certain professions and those are not preferred work options for people.

Restaurants may argue about a mandatory service charge as they want their employees to get paid for service, of course I do not deny that  but isn’t it their job and aren’t they getting a salary to do it??? Why should a customer pay that extra 10% over host of other taxes?? If the organizations think their associates deserve more; then why not hike up the menu by 10% and distribute amongst staff as sales incentives. You wouldn’t want to leave them to the mercy of the customers, you would want to become that company that cares and respects their employees.
On the flipside, baksheesh raj also affects the levels of service; customers receive it based on their looks, the way they dress, the color of their skin and more and the hotel or restaurant associates are more likely to cling to those who are more likely to tip based on their naïve judgment and this is potentially harmful for the brand. So many restaurants where I feel foreigners get better treatment that their Indian counterparts purely based on an assumption of the former’s propensity to tip.

No job is menial and each job should be perceived with equal respect. Tipping or no there are enough divides and tipping just adds to getting a particular profession that ‘sympathetic’ angle. Pays in hospitality are low and given there is no self-respect too, not many people want to associate with it and if this persists the industry shall struggle to get skilled workforce to join then and this will take the standard of the entire industry down.

If you are an organization that wants to make a difference, then start sales incentives and have a no tipping policy. You will be the change!