After I survive the morning rush to get the kids off to school in time, I sometimes run into Starbucks to grab a coffee and to work on my laptop for an hour. As I’m paying the guy $1.50 for a plain cup of coffee, I look over at the tip cup next to register. Do I dump the 50 change in the cup? Gotta help the minimum wage slaves. But am I just enabling Starbucks to keep underpaying their employees? And I already paid $1.50 for a stupid cup of coffee. Haven’t I helped out Starbucks enough? Besides should you tip people who just pushed a button for coffee? It’s not like a lot of effort went into that.

The cup is stuffed. Looks like they’ve gotten a good haul already. A girl who works there told me that each employee rakes in an extra 80 bucks a week from the tip jar.

Now, it’s way too early for a moral dilemma like this, and I get kinda grouchy for having to feel guilt so early in the morning. So, I turn to the guidance of the blogosphere. Tip or no tip.