Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “Serves Us Right,” by Phoebe Damrosch (Op-Ed, Sept. 18):

The suggestion that diners in American restaurants pay a service charge instead of a tip to offset the cost of providing health insurance and retirement money for waiters puts responsibility for the welfare of waiters in the wrong hands.

Waiters need a strong union to negotiate with restaurant owners for a realistic pay scale and other benefits. Diners should not pay for them.

Eating in a quality restaurant costs four or five times as much as cooking at home. The food itself isn’t expensive. It costs more because it is cooked for us and served. The bill includes those costs. Therefore, a tip or a service charge is redundant, asking diners to pay a second time for service costs that are already included in the price of their meal.

Instead of changing the name from tip to service charge, the diner should not pay either.

Lynn Snyder
Berkeley, Calif., Sept. 18, 2009