This is not advice on how much or when to tip but a comment on how to tip. I do not claim to be any kind of expert but I’ve just learned something about tipping I thought I’d share.

As a teenager in high school, I worked for two years as a waitress and a carhop at a hamburger joint behind the bowling alley in our small town. I never made much in tips. My customers were mostly high-school kids like myself and tipping was not always in their budgets. I earned 65 cents an hour so whatever tips came my way were mana from heaven.

I did make good tips though the summer of 1964 when I was sixteen and working at a resort in the North Channel above Manitoulin Island. My customers at Harbour Island Yacht Club arrived in boats (yes, yachts), so $5.00 dinner tips (it was 1964) were incredibly generous and appreciated. The only downside was we dining room waitresses had to share our tips in a pool with the cabin girls so our net take was considerably watered down. And, we had to wait until the end of summer when the season’s tip pool was tallied and divided before we got paid at the end of August.

The issue of tipping arose a few weeks ago when hubby and I were having lunch with friends at a franchised restaurant. Somehow we learned from our waitress that adding a tip to our credit card bill often meant that she had to wait two weeks to collect it. Understandably, restaurants accepting credit cards are subject to a surcharge and their accounting practices can delay payment to staff for as long as two weeks. That was news to us and it’s a long wait for someone making minimum wage or slightly above.

I rather like the European system of paying wait staff a living wage that eliminates tipping. We found it took some getting used to when we were in France, but paying more for a meal with the assurance that the wait staff are properly compensated relieved our initial guilt. There’s definite merit in that system.

Because of my waitressing experience as a teenager, I have always been a lifelong generous tipper. Twenty percent is average. I rarely tip less and generally more. I have infinite respect for people in service jobs. After our conversation with the lunch waitress, we now tip separately in cash so that the staff receive the benefit immediately. We have made our friends aware of this issue as well.

The other day as I went through a Taco Bell drive-thru, I tipped the cashier two dollars. She stepped back and her jaw dropped. Are you sure? she asked. Yes. I appreciate what you do. I also tip the nice driver who carries my bins of online-ordered groceries out to my car, or, better still, all the way into my kitchen if I get them delivered. He or she deserves it.

The experience I gained as a waitress sixty years ago has served me well in so many ways throughout my lifetime and it’s still passing along lessons. It’s a small thing for me as a retired person, but to a minimum-wage employee in the service industry, it could make a big difference. I urge you to consider tipping in cash. I promise not to tell those nasty revenuers.