The lead article in this week's Times food section is by Julia Moskin and reports on adjustments made by restaurants that have stopped tipping and have instead included the full cost of service in the prices listed on the menu. The article includes this paragraph:
Instead of expecting customers to tip the people who wait on them, tip-free restaurants pay all employees wages that reflect their skill and seniority. The customer pays a fixed amount, stated in writing (in menu prices), as in virtually every other kind of consumer business, from Nordstrom to Netflix to The New York Times.
It stopped me in my tracks, because, as a paying home-delivery subscriber to the New York Times, about every four weeks my newspaper is accompanied by a plea for tips, along with an envelope, from my home-delivery service provider. Does Ms. Moskin subscribe to the Times? Does her editor? Do they tip the person who delivers the newspaper to them?
I understand that the home delivery service is ostensibly provided by an independent subcontractor, but even so, it seems to me that if the Times is going to use itself as an example of a consumer product delivered at a fixed price, the article should at least accurately reflect the reality on the ground, which is that the people who deliver the paper receive some substantial portion of their income in tips and manage to find ways to convey that expectation to the customers.