My captured moments: December 2008

By Liz Pulliam Weston
I used to feel generous because I tipped 20% in restaurants. It was a shout-out, I thought, to my brothers and sisters on the wait staff: Been there, done that, so glad I don't have to anymore.

Tips are handled much more sensibly in other countries, but the prospects for reform here at home are pretty dim.
The ground rules seem to change frequently, so you never seem to feel as if you've tipped the right person or the right amount.
Some guidelines
Whom, how much and when to tip
Staff Appropriate tip
Waiter/waitress
15% to 20% of pretax bill
Bartender
$1 to $2 per round or 15% to 20% of tab
Wine steward
15% of bottle's cost (less as price rises), clearly earmarked on bill
Room service
15% to 20% of pretax bill (if not already included)
Valet parking
$2 to $3 when car is returned
Taxi driver
15% plus $1 to $2 per bag
Hotel doorman
$1 to $2 to hail cab; $1 to $2 per bag for help with luggage
Hotel bellhop
$1 to $2 per bag
Hotel maid
$2 per night, paid daily, clearly marked 'Housekeeping'
Skycap
$1 to $2 per bag, $2 minimum, in addition to any fee
Hairdresser
15% to 20%
Manicurist
15% to 20%
Spa services
15% to 20%
Food delivery
10% to 15% with $2 minimum
Golf caddy
$20 or 50% of the caddy fee, whichever is greater

But what if you get lousy service? Post says he caps his tip at 15%, then talks to the manager or maitre d' about the problem. "Not tipping doesn't correct bad service," Post said.
Stiffing is also a bad idea because:
The poor service you got may have been beyond the wait staff's control, such as problems in the kitchen or management's failure to have enough workers on the floor.
The federal minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 per hour, so wait staff depend on tips to earn a living wage.
Wait staff often must divide their tips with other workers, such as bussers, bartenders and head waiters, so stiffing a bad waitress can end up hurting innocent parties.
Like me, Post would like to see the U.S. adopt the European system of paying wait staff living wages so that tips return to their original intent: rewards for really good service.
Until then, though, we're stuck with what we've got.
(And by the way, if you don't want to tip because you consistently get poor service at restaurants, consider whether the problem might be you. I know I used to give friendly, polite folks a heck of a lot better service than grumpy, condescending or demanding ones.)

"Tip" is not an acronym for anything; it doesn't stand for "to improve performance" or "to insure promptness." The word tip, as currently defined, was in use by the mid-18th century, long before acronyms came into widespread use during the 1930s and 1940s. (Think of the classic World War II acronym SNAFU, for "situation normal -- all 'fouled' up.")
And even if "tip" were an acronym, "to insure promptness" is the wrong use of the word "insure"; to be correct, the word used would be "ensure."
There. End of lesson. No need to send me a tip.