Dozens of restaurants have experimented with alternatives to tipping, but many, citing lost business, have quietly returned to accepting gratuities.
Research conducted by Michael Lynn, at Cornell University, who is the foremost academic authority on tipping, has shown that people of color receive lower tipsthan their white colleagues, which arguably qualifies tipping as a discriminatory pay practice. The system perpetuates sexual misconduct, because service workers feel compelled to tolerate inappropriate behavior from customers who hold financial power over them. As restaurant prices have risen, gratuities—which are tied to sales, as a percentage—have too, so that there is now a substantial and hard-to-defend disparity between the pay of the kitchen workers who prepare food and the servers who deliver it. ...
In Lynn’s study of online customer ratings, mid-scale restaurants suffered more after instituting no-tipping policies than upscale ones, where, he hypothesizes, customers are less price-sensitive. This suggests that, for the time being, success with tip-free programs may be restricted to the very high end. But that won’t necessarily stop other restaurants from trying. Despite the ethical virtues associated with going tipless, restaurant owners’ primary motivation to do so is likely financial. Minimum wage is rising across the country. If the tipping system remains, restaurants will have no choice but to raise menu prices in order to pay their staff. Servers will then double-dip, so to speak: they will benefit from a higher base wage while their tips also increase as menu prices climb. In other words, the best way for restaurants to keep prices low is to eliminate tipping. The biggest thing holding them back is customers’ suspicion that doing so is a ripoff.
Professor Lynn's tipping research papers
Lynn, M. (forthcoming). The effects of tipping on consumers' satisfaction with restaurants. Journal of Consumer Affairs.Lynn, M. & Brewster, Z. (2018). A within-restaurant analysis of changes in customer satisfaction following the introduction of service inclusive pricing or automatic service charges. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 70, 9-15.
Lynn,M. (2018). Are published techniques for increasing service gratuities/tips effective? International Journal of Hospitality Management, 69, 65-74.
Lynn, M. (2017). Does tipping help to attract and retain better service workers? Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 20 (1), 82-89
Wang, S. & Lynn, M. (2017). The effects of service charges versus service-included pricing on deal perception. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 41(2), 246-254.
Lynn, M. (2017). Should U.S. restaurants abandon tipping? A review
of the issues and evidence. Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management, 5(1), 120-159.
Lynn, M. (2016). Motivations for tipping: How they differ across more and less frequently tipped services. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 65, 38-48.
Lynn, M., Giebelhausen, M. Garcia, S., Li, Y. & Patumanon, I. (2016). Clothing color and tipping: An attempted replication and extension. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 40(4), 516-524.
Lynn, M. (2016). Why are we more likely to tip some service occupations than others? Theory, evidence and implications. Journal of Economic Psychology, 54, 134-150.
Lynn, M. & Kwortnik, R.J. (2015). The effects of tipping policies on customer satisfaction: A test from the cruise industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 51, 15-18.
Lynn, M. & Starbuck, M. (2015). National differences in in tipping customs: The effects of national attitudes toward tipping and sensitivities to duty and social pressure. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 57, 158-166.
Brewster, Z., Brauer, J.R. & Lynn, M. (2015). Economic motivations and moral controls regulating discrimination against black and Hispanic diners. The Sociological Quarterly, 56 (3), 506-538.
Lynn, M. (2015). Negative perceptions of Christian tippers: How widespread are they? Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 18 (2), 163-170.
Lynn, M. (2015). Explanations for service gratuities and tipping: Evidence from individual differences in tipping motivations and tendencies. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 55, 65-71.
Lynn, M. (2015). Service gratuities and tipping: A motivational framework. Journal of Economic Psychology, 46, 74-88.
Lynn, M. & Brewster, Z. (2015). Racial and ethnic differences in tipping: The role of perceived descriptive and injunctive tipping norms. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 56 (1), 68-79.
Brewster, Z. & Lynn, M. (2014). Black-White earnings gap among restaurant servers: A replication, extension, and exploration of consumer racial discrimination in tipping.Sociological Inquiry, 84(4), 545-569.
Lynn, M. (2014). The contribution of norm familiarity to race differences in tipping: A replication and extension. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 38(3), 414-425.
Lynn, M. & Wang, S. (2013). The indirect effects of tipping policies on patronage intentions through perceived expensiveness, fairness and quality. Journal of Economic Psychology, 39, 62-71.
Lynn, M., Flynn, S.M. & Helion, C. (2013). Do consumers prefer round prices? Evidence from pay-what-you-want decisions and self-pumped gasoline purchases.Journal of Ecomic Psychology, 36, 96-102.
Lynn, M. & Katz, B. (2013). Are chrisitian/religious people poor tippers? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43, 928-935.
Lynn, M. (2013). A comparison of Asians', Hispanics' and Whites' restaurant tipping.Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43, 834-839.
Lynn, M., Pugh, C.C. & Williams, J. (2012). Black-White differences in tipping: Moderated by socio-economic status? Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 53 (4), 286-294..
Lynn, M. & Williams, J. (2012).Black-White differences in beliefs about the U.S. restaurant tipping norm: Moderated by socio-economic status? International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31, 1033-1035.
Lynn, M., Jabbour, P. & Kim, W.G. (2012). Who uses tips as a reward for service and when? An examination of potential moderators of the service-tipping relationship. Journal of Economic Psychology, 33, 90 - 103.
Lynn, M., Kwortnik, R. & Sturman, M. (2011). Voluntary tipping and the selective attraction and retention of service workers in the United States: An application of the ASA Model. International Journal of Human Resources Management, 22 (9), 1887-1901.
Lynn, M. (2011). Race differences in tipping: Testing the role of norm familiarity.Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 52 (1), 73-80.
Lynn, M. & Sturman, M.C. (2010). Tipping and service quality: A within-subjects analysis. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 34 (2), 269-275.
Saunders, S.G. & Lynn, M. (2010). Why tip? An empirical test of motivations for tipping car guards. Journal of Economic Psychology, 31 (1), 106-113.
Lynn, M. & McCall, M. (2009). Techniques for increasing tips: How generalizable are they? Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 50, 198-208.
Lynn, M. (2009). Individual differences in self-attributed motives for tipping: Antecedents, consequences, and implications. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28, 432-438.
Kwortnik, R.J., Lynn, M. & Ross, W.T. (2009). Buyer monitoring: A means to insure personalized service. Journal of Marketing Research, XLVI, 573-583.
Lynn, M. (2009). Determinants and consequences of female attractiveness and sexiness: Realistic tests with restaurant waitresses. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38, 737-745.
Lynn, M. & Withiam, G. (2008). Tipping and its alternatives: Business considerations and directions for research. Journal of Services Marketing, 22 (4), 328-336.
Lynn, M., et. al. (2008). Consumer racial discrimination in tipping: A replication and extension. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38, 1045-1060.
Lynn, M. (2008). Personality effects on tipping attitudes, self-reported behaviors and customs: A multi-level inquiry. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 989-999.
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