Tips allow restaurant patrons to reward good service: Your Say

Some restaurant owners consider following the lead of a New York restaurateur who eliminated tips and increased hourly wages for his staff instead.

This is socialism making its way into the restaurant business. I will refuse to eat at one of these establishments. The tip is my way of rewarding the person for good service. If they take this away, just watch the service levels go down.

Rich Farrell

Most of what goes wrong goes wrong in the kitchen, and the server can’t do much about it except apologize. Servers also don’t make policy about whether customers get compensated for bad experiences. Giving the server a bad tip is punishing the messenger. I’ve been there. There are a few simple facts. First, this won’t work in cheaper restaurants. They’ll go out of business, because, second, they can only stay open by exploitation. There is also the naked fact of tax cheating. No server reports more than minimum wage. They pocket the rest.

Donna Richardson

The real winners would be the cooks and dishwashers who will probably make more money. I’ve worked as a cook and a dishwasher. I quit because I saw how much the servers made. Raising the minimum wage seems fair. The restaurants are trying to attract better kitchen workers (who also work harder). Servers are a dime a dozen.

Aaron Rabinowitz