Solving the Dilemma of the Digital Tip Jar
To tip or not to tip, that is the question – and the answer has gotten a lot more difficult in this age of digital tipping.
We’ve all been there. We order a latte, pay with a credit card, and the touch screen is spun around to face us. With the employee hovering right there watching, we have to decide whether to tip and how much. The screen helpfully suggests an amount (10 percent, 20 percent, no tip).
Meanwhile, the pressure mounts.
“Customers and workers today are confronted with a radically different tipping culture compared to just a few years ago — without any clear norms,” according to CNN Business. “The worker is directly across from you. Other customers are standing behind, waiting impatiently and looking over your shoulder to see how much you tip. And you must make a decision in seconds. Oh lord, the stress.”
Even tipping experts – like one Cornell University researcher quoted in the CNN Business piece – aren’t sure what to do.
The issue reached a tipping point (sorry) during the pandemic, when customers were motivated to tip generously to keep coffeeshops and retails stores open. Restaurant tips increased as much as 25 percent.
“The shift to digital payments accelerated during the pandemic, leading stores to replace old-fashioned cash tip jars with tablet touch screens,” says CNN Business. “Customers are overwhelmed by the number of places where they now have the option to tip and feel pressure about whether to add a gratuity and for how much. [S]creens and the procedures for digital tipping have proven more intrusive than a low-pressure cash tip jar with a few bucks in it.”
What do you say? How do you feel about digital tip screens? Do they incentivize you to tip more or less?
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NC Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5: Fees
(a) A lawyer shall not make an agreement for, charge, or collect an illegal or clearly excessive fee or charge or collect a clearly excessive amount for expenses. The factors to be considered in determining whether a fee is clearly excessive include the following:
(1) the time and labor required, the novelty and difficulty of the questions involved, and the skill requisite to perform the legal service properly;
(2) the likelihood, if apparent to the client, that the acceptance of the particular employment will preclude other employment by the lawyer;
(3) the fee customarily charged in the locality for similar legal services;
(4) the amount involved and the results obtained;
(5) the time limitations imposed by the client or by the circumstances;
(6) the nature and length of the professional relationship with the client;
(7) the experience, reputation, and ability of the lawyer or lawyers performing the services; and
(8) whether the fee is fixed or contingent.
(b) When the lawyer has not regularly represented the client, the scope of the representation and the basis or rate of the fee and expenses for which the client will be responsible shall be communicated to the client, preferably in writing, before or within a reasonable time after commencing the representation.
[Click here for the complete Rule 1.5, including comments.]
SOURCES: CNN Business and NC Rules of Professional Conduct
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