Research shows that tipping in a restaurant has little to no effect on service. What tipping does do is enable restaurateurs to pay less than the federal minimum wage to servers and depend on customers to make up the difference between servers’ salaries and the minimum wage. The U.S. federal minimum wage for servers is $2.13 per hour. Although minimum wage varies from state to state, it is safe to say that customers are paying the lion’s share of servers’ salaries. This practice leads to resentment on the part of customers, and it devalues servers. It’s time to abolish tipping and pay employees a living wage. The result may well be happy servers who provide excellent service to grateful customers.
Which of the following is evidence the writer provides to support the main argument?
A.
Customers are grateful for excellent service.
B.
Servers do not provide good service because of their low pay.
C.
The minimum wage varies from state to state.
D.
Customers pay a large percentage of servers’ salaries
The Correct Answer and Explanation is :
The correct answer is D. Customers pay a large percentage of servers’ salaries.
Explanation:
The writer’s main argument is that tipping should be abolished and replaced with a living wage for servers. The writer contends that the current tipping system enables restaurant owners to pay servers less than the federal minimum wage, while customers are left to make up the difference. This system not only shifts the financial responsibility to customers but also leads to negative consequences like customer resentment and the devaluation of servers.
Let’s analyze each option:
- A. Customers are grateful for excellent service. While the passage mentions “grateful customers” in the conclusion, this statement is speculative and not presented as evidence to support the argument. It’s more of an assumption about what might happen if tipping were abolished, rather than a factual piece of evidence.
- B. Servers do not provide good service because of their low pay. This is not mentioned in the passage. The writer never claims that low pay directly leads to poor service. Instead, the passage is focused on the economic structure of tipping, not on how it impacts the quality of service.
- C. The minimum wage varies from state to state. Although the passage mentions this fact, it’s not used as evidence to support the argument about abolishing tipping. The variation in minimum wage is presented as background information, not a critical part of the writer’s reasoning.
- D. Customers pay a large percentage of servers’ salaries. This statement directly supports the writer’s argument. The writer claims that tipping forces customers to pay the majority of a server’s salary because the U.S. federal minimum wage for servers is only $2.13 per hour. The argument is built around the idea that customers are essentially subsidizing servers’ wages through tips, which is the core of the writer’s evidence for why the tipping system is flawed and should be replaced with a living wage.
This piece of evidence highlights the imbalance created by the tipping system, where the responsibility for a server’s livelihood falls disproportionately on customers rather than the employer. The writer argues that shifting to a model where servers are paid a living wage by their employers could lead to more positive outcomes, such as happier servers and better service. Therefore, D is the strongest piece of evidence supporting the argument.