George,

[In the article on your website about tipping] I disagree strongly with the comment "it's not about the money", at least in respect to servers, whose entire wages depend on tips.

Customers may come into restaurants, leave a poor 15% tip on the table, despite the fact that the server did his/her job in an outstanding manner, yet that ideal 17-20% percentage was not reached only because the server didn't do enough smooching and small talk with the customer. Are we in such a horrible era where we must pay others to talk to us? Or to make some fake personal connection with a human being you'll know for an hour at most? Most don't understand that servers depend on their wages and that when they're serving you, you're paying for their services. Being able to decide how much to pay or not to pay at all is outright theft. If anything, the restaurant pays the server for their presence and for side work, not to serve the customers. It is the customers duty to pay the servers to wait on them. Not to mention that there are those who order large checks and have a custom of tipping a standard say, 4 dollars regardless of their total meal price.

The European system of adding gratuity to all checks ensures that none of this "theft" occurs, and moreover, gives the restaurant better control over their wait staff.

Charlie Elko (electronic mail, August 20, 2006)