Home / General / Histories of Tipped Labor I: December 6, 1884

Histories of Tipped Labor I: December 6, 1884

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As I wrote recent my piece on tipped labor, I did a little historical research on tipping. For the sake of length, I had to cut the history out of the article. But I found a lot of cool things and I thought I’d share a few of them with you.

The first is from 1884 (PDF warning). This piece discussed the necessity of tipping for proper service, connecting ideas of working-class manhood with social status, as the waiter interviewed argues that only the right kind of service deserved a tip:

“Waiters, like a good many other men in high positions, such as lawyers and clergymen, must look for fees to help them out. No man can live and provide for his family as he should on wages of $25 a month when he must dress as neatly as is required of waiters…….No really good waiter will accept his tip in advance and in all our first-class restaurants guests well know that they will get every attention whether they tip the waiter or not. To be sure, a good many gentlemen waiters’ fees make up a round sum each month. But so do cocktails, cigars, and many other things.”

“You see,” the waiter said, “everyone knows his own pocket. If a man can afford to spend $1 or $2 for a meal he will not be ruined for another quarter given to the waiter who serves him rightly.”

It goes on from there to discuss the problems with the riff-raff who worked in restaurants and how restaurant owners would attract better clientele if they paid workers more since they could attract a higher class of man and provide better service.

Overall, I found this a fascinating window into a rapidly changing working-class New York, with older 19th century constructions of masculinity being challenged by the legions of immigrants entering the city and, at least for this waiter, trying to separate himself from the average working-class person by noting proper ways of service that only professionals can provide and that such service deserves a family wage plus tips to live a respectable life.

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