Letters
Ticked Off about Tipping Editors: For Professor Daniele Archibugi: I just read your article on tipping in the online version of Dissent magazine ("The Tipping Question," Spring 2004). You...
...I would be surprised...
...I think that this is to the advantage of the workers in the service industry: at least they will get the same wage whether or not they smile, whether or not they are beautiful, and whether or not they are nice to customers...
...On the contrary, I wanted to transfer a part of the wage that is at the discretion of the customers into a standard component of the salary...
...DISSENT / Fall 2004 n 111...
...While your article may or may not be influential to readers in this country, if just one reader avoids tipping the waitress tonight at Denny's because of your article, it would be a terrible shame...
...Letters will not be returned to senders unless they are accompanied by stamped, selfaddressed envelopes...
...Letters must be no more than 500 words, typed, double-spaced, and carry the full address and name of the sender...
...This is the standard Italian salary for a full professor...
...You managed to write an entire article without even mentioning that in the United States various positions in the service industry are exempt from the minimum wage law...
...We are unable to acknowledge letters...
...Let me add that I was a waiter on many different occasions in my youth, and that the most humiliating part of my job was to expect a tip from other citizens...
...I have also been very grateful for the fact that my salary is not made of tips left on the desks by students at the end of my lectures...
...To Letter Writers • We welcome succinct letters from our readers...
...How much do YOU make a year...
...We accept e-mail submissions to editors@dissentmagazine.org , but request that you provide a street address and phone number...
...TONY WINEFIELD Tulsa, Oklahoma Daniele Archibugi Replies I tried to make it clear that I do not want in the least to reduce the real wage of workers...
...It is legal to pay waiters and waitresses, delivery drivers, and others less than minimum wage because they do receive tips...
...We reserve the right to edit letters down to fit our space and to choose which shall be printed...
...But because we have a long lead time for each issue, you have to send us your letter within three weeks of getting an issue of Dissent in order to get it into the next issue...
...Have you ever visited with pizza delivery drivers making $3 an hour using their own vehicles and paying the cost of their own car insurance...
...In no way should tipping be considered a satisfactory compensation for the lack of minimum wage...
...Concerning my own earnings, I earn about 2,600 Euros a month (net of taxes...
...I doubt it...
...Have you ever talked to a waitress in a coffee shop making $3 an hour...
...Your article was very disappointing and a disservice to service workers in the United States...
...In other words, the non-tip price of services should be increased in order to abolish tips, and the official, legal, taxed component of the wage should be increased correspondingly...
Vol. 51 • September 2004 • No. 4
