Whenever I actually THINK about the processing of tipping, I find it incredibly odd. Who we give tips to (and who we DON'T give tips to) often seems arbitrary. I regularly tip servers of food and beer what I would guess is a much higher than normal amount. But when I look at the actual work being done, some of these people are taking less time to fill and give me a beer than it takes to get a cheeseburger at McDonalds (a place where people generally don't tip).

At one point, it seemed that tips were done for "good service" and often given to front line people that were knowingly taking less pay up front in exchange for the possiblity of using tip money to make up the difference. Now, I'm not sure that is the case. There are plenty of horribly paying jobs where tips simply don't exist and other places where people are making more than the average salary and still get tipped well even though they may not be going above and beyond what their job requires.