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By John Darling For the Daily Tidings October 15. 2014 5:47PM What's the right amount to tip? Dining al fresco along Ashland's Calle Guanajuato might just put one in good enough a mood to tip a little extra. Daily Tidings / Jamie Lusch Tipping’s long and spotty history History is fuzzy, but tipping seems to have started with the Renaissance in the 1500s, in Tudor England, with the expansion of travel, coffee, tobacco, public houses, lodging and such. Some think it stood for “to insure promptness,” but who knows?  In the U.S., tipping for servers, bartenders, taxi drivers etc. for decades was a flat, easy-to-calculate 10 percent, jumping to 15 percent in the flush '80s and near 20 percent in the near-depression 2000s. There was a time when owners paid servers less than minimum wage because, with tips added in, servers did get the minumum. Oregon, decades ago, was a pioneer in prohibiting this practice. Before Prohibition and the Depression, tipping was frowned on and owners saw it as bribery of servers to give large servings. It was even outlawed in some states. In hard times, tipping helped restaurants to survive, so bans on it were repealed. The IRS considers tips income but — no surprise — says some 40 percent of tips are not reported. Tipping today With the ’08 crash, the Occupy movement and now the push for a $10 to $15 minimum wage, tipping has taken on a political aura. Some think the tipping percent is escalating because business owners and corporations resist paying a living wage to workers, so the consumer is doing the owner’s job. Others say if owners pay a bountiful minimum wage, they will simply raise prices, so the consumer ends up paying it anyway. Others look at it all as a matter of compassion and generosity, so open that wallet and go for it.  According to guides on the Internet, servers now should get 17-20 percent, depending on service. Bartenders get $1 for beer, $2 for cocktails and 20 percent of large tabs. Baristas get loose change, with $1 being high. Delivery gets $2-3 average, $4 for high. Cabs get 10-18 percent. The nomial hair salon norm is 15-25 percent. If you think 20 percent tipping is a basic rule of life the world around, you’d be wrong. Amerca is tip nirvana. In Asia, it’s mostly not done — and in Japan is considered insulting. In most of Europe, you don’t tip; it’s worked into the bill and paid as wages. Sometimes, as a kind gesture for superb service, 5 to 10 percent is given, but in most of the continent, you “round up” the bill. South America is 10 percent. So is Australia. What’s likely for tipping No matter what the politics of it, everyone realizes servers of all sorts are struggling to pay for the basics of life. But so are we. We don’t want to be cheap and we still want to be frugal and sensible, right? But “tipping creep” is happening. If you instinctually tip a barista for handing you a cup of coffee, why not the fume-assaulted gas jockey (as suggested in a recent Oregonian story) or the tedium-challenged supermarket clerk or postman? (Note: it’s illegal to tip government workers, especially cops, and could be seen as bribery.) So where do you draw the line? How much do you tip? Whom should you tip? Why is tipping high in America? That’s what we asked people Monday in downtown Ashland. "If it’s poor service, I tip 10 percent. Average is 15, really excellent gets 20 or even 25 percent. I never tip in coffee houses. I tip $5 for hairdressers. I feel tipping is high in America because we enjoy customer service and being catered to. I was a waitress in Texas and Arizona and they allow a minimum wage of $2.45 and $3.45 (because, with tips, it would meet the federal minimum wage). I felt robbed. In California, I was used to the minimum wage plus tips." — Paula Rose "I tip 20 percent minimum because I’m aware they don’t make a living wage and I can help. It’s not enough (the tip) but it’s what I can do. For the barista, I put a buck in. Hairdressers get 25 percent. I do go through a mental process in tipping. I hate that I have to tip. I love Canada and Europe because its built into the bill. America is screwed up. It puts the servers in the position of having to be nice to you to get their living wage. They shouldn’t have to do that." — Julie Adams  "I’m a firm believer in a living wage. The wages in the food industry should cover what the meal costs (including servers). I tip 20 percent. It’s a lot. I’m only too aware it’s a lot. If I saw it on the menu (that meal prices include server wages), I would like that. I don’t know why it bothers me, tipping. It shouldn’t. It puts the onus on the customer instead of the restaurant owner, where it belongs. For baristas, I tip loose change. For haircut, it’s 20 percent." — Pat Moore "I typically tip 15 percent and will go higher if it’s great service and the person is really nice. I was a waiter in college and I know it’s hard work, so I don’t begrudge tipping. If service is bad, I will tip 10 or 12 percent. For me to not tip, servers have to be extremely rude and incompetent. Tipping gas station attendents or checkers, oh gosh, probably not, too complicated. It’s incumbent on the employer to pay a living wage."  — David Savage "I was a server many times so I understand being dependent on tips. I tip generously unless they’re really overtly rude. Even if it’s poor service, it could be the kitchen’s problem, so I always do 20 percent. If it’s special, with extreme kindness, I tip more. Tipping in America is high because we’ve become a poorer nation, for many, so to compensate for people with low salaries, tips have been pushed up. Tipping other professions, that’s a hard question and it goes back to the fact that the poor have become poorer. If there were a no-tipping restaurant (with higher pay and prices) I know they would be a happy crew. I would go there. Someone has to be brave enough to do it." — Jane Maynard http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20141015/NEWS/141019906 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->