This study of 105 dining parties at a casual chain restaurant found that a male server received significantly larger tips when he touched the shoulder of the person paying the bill than when he did not touch the customer. This touch effect on tips was essentially the same whether the touch was for two or four seconds, and whether the customer being touched was male or female. The age of the customer, however, did have a significant effect on the extent to which the touch increased the server's tips. Young customers responded more positively to the touch than did older diners. Nevertheless, the older diners who were touched did increase their tips compared to like-aged diners who weren't touched at all. Restaurant managers' personal objections to promoting touching seem to be misguided in light of these and other experimental data, and their fears of legal repercussions from touching customers are groundless.

[Excerpt] This study of 105 dining parties at a casual chain restaurant found that a male server received significantly larger tips when he touched the shoulder of the person paying the bill than when he did not touch the customer. This touch effect on tips was essentially the same whether the touch was for two or four seconds, and whether the customer being touched was male or female. The age of the customer, however, did have a significant effect on the extent to which the touch increased the server's tips. Young customers responded more positively to the touch than did older diners. Nevertheless, the older diners who were touched did increase their tips compared to like-aged diners who weren't touched at all. Restaurant managers' personal objections to promoting touching seem to be misguided in light of these and other experimental data, and their fears of legal repercussions from touching customers are groundless.

In the wake of new statutes and case law, issues relating to discrimination have expanded in the past twenty-five years to absorb a substantial amount of management time and attention. The basic law of discrimination is the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which created specific protect classes. That law was revised and expanded in 1991, and other causes of discrimination were added by such laws as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Supreme Court decisions have clarified and expanded certain aspects of the laws, notably the definition of sexual harassment. Perhaps the fastest-growing complaint involves retaliation, in which employees seek to claim that unwanted employer actions result from some aspect of a civil rights complaint. While considerable confusion remains over certain aspects of discrimination law, employers should make every effort to properly instruct their supervisors and follow court-outlined procedures.