I always used to tip my hairdresser, restaurant waiter, taxi driver etc etc. Stopped doing this, however, a couple of years ago. I felt embarrassed initially but don't even give it a thought now. There were several reasons for my deciding to stop all tipping...a) worked out the alarming annual cost of this b)it had simply become an expected habit and had nothing to do with whether or not I'd recieved excellent service c) felt that if the service -givers salary was so poor, this should be addressed by the employer and not me d) learnt that the people I was tipping often had considerably higher salaries than my son who happened to be working incredibly long hours to support himself. Decided I'd do better to support him with a little extra (he was far more appreciative than many of those I used to tip and, more importantly, never took that little extra for granted)!
