The word tip comes from the Latin tipinare, which means to give to drink and it is applied to a reward, generally economic, that is granted as thanks for a good service and for the consumed product.
In most opportunities the client decides whether to give it or not, as well as the amount of it, that is, it is a voluntary act, not imposed.
Although, in recent years it has become a mandatory payment, restaurants is the best example of this. In Cuba there are places, especially in private restaurants, where the collection is included, however there are dependents who forget this and if the clientele ignores it or forgets it, they accept it breaking the ethics of the establishment.
This supposed gratification, being obligatory, would cease to be a gratuity even if it were still called that. In many places, both in Cuba and abroad, restaurant employees work because the tip is good and this compensates for low salaries.
This method had its beginnings in gastronomy, today covers almost all sectors, although it is not called by that name.
Among those who receive the compensation are the taxi drivers, the collectors of electricity, water, in short, many other service providers.
There are examples that are worth a separate treatment. If I’m going to buy a Mayabe beer, its price is 18 pesos, why do not I get back the two pesos? If I am going to buy bread released and I ask for 10.00 pesos of bread of 0.80 cents, which really is 9.60 pesos, why do not you return the 40 cents? There are many examples of this type.
It is not idle to clarify that giving a tip is a voluntary gesture of the person who pays, because if the dependent keeps the change it stops being a theft without another qualifier.
Yesterday I was the protagonist of a gesture that has nothing to do with the misappropriation of surplus payment. I left my motorcycle in a parking lot in Jovellanos street, in front of the cathedral, in the yumurina city, where the price for car care is three pesos. I paid with two coins of 0.10 cents CUC, equivalent to four pesos. My intention was to give the coins without asking for change, but the driver took a weight and gave it to me, I said: -It is yours.
That normal gesture, but that has already become forgotten, shocked me and I told him that I had liked his attitude. The response of the employee was immediate: – The money is yours; if you leave it is something else. That’s tip.
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