$4 latte, $3 tip?

'If you've ever worked in food service, you'll be a good tipper for life.'

The above is one of the most-repeated mantras of our society. It's a bit baffling--all teachers are former students, yet we do not expect any particular kindness from them on that basis. Other, often-crummy, jobs one has when young are not expected to elicit any particular behavior later on in life. It's only food service where there's any expectation that past experience in the field, however long ago and however brief, produces a lifelong generosity.

This is the lead-up to my question: what, if anything, is one expected to tip in coffee bars, that is, in places where workers are paid at least minimum wage? This is not an issue in restaurants, where it's well-known* that in most cases workers get well below minimum wage, with an assumption that income will come from the customers' self-determined additions to the bill, and where, if you don't tip reasonably, you are indeed a Bad Person.

But in coffee shops with tip-cups, what's the rule? Clearly, if you ask someone who works in one, they'll tell you you're an ass if you don't throw in an extra dollar for each cup of tea. When I worked in such an establishment, I of course appreciated Park Slopers' immense liberal guilt, paying $4 for a latte and adding another $3 for good measure. But a part of me understood the customers who did not do this. After all, I'd worked other jobs at similar pay rates that did not include tips (ahem, book-shelving), so it seemed arbitrary that only one such job would require sympathy-payments, even from those needing a pick-me-up on their way to or from some just-as-low-paid work.

The above-and-beyond tip is, ultimately, about intentional redistribution of wealth, about the lawyer feeling bad for the 19-year-old who can barely make rent. For those who a) are so inclined, and b) have wealth to redistribute, handing a dollar to each panhandler holding open the door of the bank, and per drink to each barista, plus whatever the 'a minute for Greenpeace?' folks are asking, is just fine. But for those without the inclination, the spare income, or either, a choice must be made. That other mantra, 'If you can afford X, you can afford X plus $1' is simply false. Paying up each time someone urges you to do so could, depending on your income, put you solidly in debt. Being poorly-paid yourself is no excuse for not tipping in a restaurant, but in a coffee bar...

Coffee-bar tipping is, again, a different universe from restaurant-tipping. The coffee-bar customer feels guiltier than the restaurant patron, and often tips a much greater percentage of the cost of the item purchased. Why is this the case? For one, the frivolity inherent in saying, 'I'll have a skim cappuccino,' makes the customer self-conscious, ergo, tip. Ordering anything but black coffee is, let's face it, embarrassing. 'I'll have the pizza margherita' doesn't seem to have the same effect. You need to eat, and are more likely to resent a $17 personal pie (ahem) than a $3 latte.

The culture of the independent coffee shop is unlike that of other parts of the food-service industry. Whereas the waiter's dislike of the customer is tacitly understood, while he pretends to have kind feelings for each table, in coffee bars whatever resentment there is is played up. Baristas are thus expected to dress in hipster-or-homeless rags, and if they don't openly speak ill of the customers, the patron is meant to feel guilty for ordering that decaf latte with soy, for making the barista go out of his way, even though the coffee bar itself urges customers to specify the level of caffeine and type of milk. Again, even though the barista arguably has an easier job than the waiter and almost definitely gets paid around twice the waiter's hourly rate.**

* The problem of the tip is, of course, that the customer cannot always know what the employee earns per hour. In restaurants it's common knowledge that the employees depend on tips; in coffee bars, it's common knowledge that, technically, they don't. But in hotels (thus the Seinfeld "what do you tip a chambermaid" dilemma)? At salons (where I tend to overtip, I've been told)? Furniture movers? If you're super-wealthy, by all means everyone gets at least 20%, but if you're not, you must make a choice, tipping more to those who otherwise get paid less.

** Another consideration: independent coffee-bar employees tend to seem like they come from the same racial and social groups as their patrons. The customer thus may see the barista as a man like himself, albeit with a 'fight the system' attitude, and perhaps an artistic bent. The Saigon Grill deliveryman will not elicit this same thought process.