I am used to leaving a tip at a restaurant or other service related establishments when customary. I tip based upon the quality of service received and usually tip generously, since I have known many people who work(ed) in the service industry and because it is usually a job I  wouldn’t want to fill.

Today as I treated myself to a Starbucks Frappucino on my way to work I couldn’t help but notice the tip box left on the drive-thru counter. I do leave a tip from time to time, but as I was paying for my $4 drink I wondered why I should be leaving a tip. (Yes, I am an idiot for paying $4 for a drink, but unfortunately it’s a craving I just have to fulfill from time to time)

Tipping was started to supplement the lowly wages paid to wait staff, since they work for much less than minimum wage. A friend of mine worked for Caribou Coffee and I know what her hourly wage was, which admittedly wasn’t extremely high, but was above minimum wage  and was considerably higher than the standard wait staff wage.

Wait staff has to claim tips on their income taxes, based upon a percentage of their sales totals. Employees of  Starbucks and other places like it do not…their tips are pure gravy since they are not paid on the wait staff pay scale.

So, I am rewarding a typical waiter/waitress for the quality of their service as well as adding to their measly hourly salary. At Starbucks, I am already paying $4 for a  coffee based beverage, which is a considerable amount of money. The staff is paid regular wages, not wait staff wages, yet am I expected to tip them purely because they were (hopefully) pleasant and got my order right?

How much does it cost to make a Frappucino or a cup of coffee? Isn’t there enough profit in pushing coffee beverages to pay the staff adequately? Why should customers buying overpriced coffee drinks also contribute to the hourly wages of the establishment’s employees?

I read that in 2005 Starbucks total revenue for the fiscal year totaled $6.4 billion….$6.4 billion!

With that kind of revenue why don’t they pay their employees enough so that they don’t have to beg for or rely on tips to make a decent living?! 

Just how much profit is enough for these corporations? Will big business ever be happy enough with their profits to actually give a fair share to the people actually doing the manual labor?

Oh  yeah, that could happen…