Cheat-free giving

I’m sure you heard about it over the holiday, the people who rushed out to KMart to pay off the layaway of poor families.  I admit, Gentle Penguin, I admire the people who think up wonderful ways of giving like that.  It’s so unexpected and delightful and sure to help those it’s truly intended to help.

The problem is, soon thereafter as news spread of others following suit and making it a phenomenon, news also began to spread of families rushing out to put things in layaway in hopes they’d get a free Christmas themselves.  And (SHOCKER!) some of the families weren’t in need.

It made me wonder if I could come up with a way of guaranteed cheat-free giving.  It only took me half an hour to determine that indeed I could.

What if, instead of giving a couple hundred dollars once a year to pay off a perfect stranger’s consumerism, you spent a few extra dollars on a weekly basis rewarding those who are working hard to make life easier for the rest of us?

I’m talking, of course, about waiters and waitresses, bartenders, taxicab drivers and other service professionals who get paid squat to deal with all that humankind has to offer.

One of my favorite pastimes is listening to stories of what these service professionals encounter.  Mostly it’s rude behavior, disregard, arrogance and disrespect.  For putting up with it, they receive a wage not livable (nationwide, the average hourly wage for waiters/waitresses is around $3.80 per hour, and the nationwide average hourly wage for taxicab drivers is around $10 per hour, but many have to pay for their own gas out of this pay.  This is, of course, without tips.)

In talking with my service professional friends and acquaintances, the average tip they receive is around 10-13 percent, rather than the 15-18 percent I assumed was the average.

I tell you, knowing this alone makes me want to shift my giving to these people.

Let’s take a restaurant example for a moment.  What if you began tipping 20 percent instead of 15 percent (I’m going to assume you’re a conscientious tipper) as a matter of course?  For a $15 meal, that would equate to a $3 tip instead of $2.25 for a difference of 75 cents.  Multiply this by 52 weeks (assuming you went out to eat and paid for a meal once a week)…$39 would be the incremental cost you incurred by increasing your tip for the ENTIRE year.

I’m  fairly confident this is far less than you would have spent paying off toys and electronics for a family of four at KMart once a year.

On top of that, what if you tried, just as an experiment, to remember that these service professionals are people with stories and histories and feelings and dreams and interests and lives.   You don’t have to be their friend, but maybe remembering their name, smiling, talking to them with respect and offering your best manners with “please” and “thank you’s” would be nice too.  That, my readers, is free.  But, boy oh boy, does it go a long way.

Now, I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t still find unique ways of giving to our fellow community members who are struggling (as did the person or persons who started the KMart layaway giving).  I’m merely suggesting that this is a sure-fire way to give (guaranteed cheat-free) to those who could use a little help…all year long… without a lot of extra cost.

I dare you to try it.

 

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