When we go out to eat, my husband always asks, “How much should I tip?” It seems as though this flexible figure stymies many patrons, especially when the service is above average or far less than stellar.
As a former waitress and hostess, I can honestly say that dealing with the hungry public can be challenging and exhausting, and that servers deserve far more than the reduced minimum wage plus tips the government says they’re worth. With more and more people seeking second jobs or temp work to boost their incomes, this issue is more important now than in previous years.
How do you determine how much to tip?
Here are a few basic guidelines to help you out:
Tipping Guide for Good and Bad Service
- The general rule of thumb (for me) is to round the bill up to the nearest $10, and leave 20%. This is easy to calculate, and it rewards servers for good service. I know many people claim 15% is adequate, but keep in mind that your server is making just over $2 an hour without tips to run him- or herself ragged. Go ahead and splurge for the 20%. You’ll make your server feel good, and you’ll get great service when you return to the restaurant.
- If you receive poor service, don’t leave without providing a tip. Believe me, a $1 tip will be noticed much more than no tip, since your server may think you just forgot. Before you leave a lower tip, however, try to take into consideration the staffing and patron level in the restaurant, and remember that your server may just be having a bad day. Leaving a pleasant note of encouragement, or a decent tip, may be enough to turn their day around.
- Include a kind word and a smile with every tip and try to clean up after yourself as much as possible. If my kids leave food on the floor or sticky messes on the table, I ask for a dustpan or a wet cloth to return the table to its condition prior to our arrival. You never know if your server will turn out to be your next door neighbor, a single mom, a volunteer firefighter, or your child’s teacher, so treating them with kindness and respect is a required part of every tip.
- If you receive truly awful service, talk to your server. If the service doesn’t improve after communicating your needs and failed expectations, then ask to speak to a manager. Never go straight to the boss with your complaints when there’s a possibility of rectifying the situation one-on-one.
- Don’t skimp on tips in order to save money! If you can’t afford to tip adequately, choose someplace less expensive or opt for an establishment where you’ll serve yourself.
- If your server only brings your drinks, or the food is served buffet-style, it’s appropriate to leave a lesser tip, but 10-15% still applies.
- If your chosen establishment includes a bartender, hostess, bus boy, or other additional serving staff, keep in mind that your server will probably have to share tips with these other members of the wait staff, as well. In this case, it’s best not to tip solely on the performance of one staff member.
While it’s important to live frugally and pinch pennies when possible, tipping is not an area in which you should be trimming your budget. If you’re going to eat out, an adequate tip is a standard part of the bill.
Do you agree? How do you determine what to tip for good or bad service? You may also want to hear other people’s opinions on tipping, as we’ve discussed this topic before both here and here.
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I feel like I should preface my comment with the fact I live in the United States; Houston, Texas to be exact. I also served in the Marine Corps for 10 years so I have also experienced the food industries in other countries as well. I also worked as a server. So have both of my sisters and my brother. They all paid for college through the service industry.
I understand the benefit to the consumer if the cost of service is predetermined and included in the bill. This eliminates any need of judging by the consumer to determine the level of service received. Since level of service is subjective, the judging of it can only be inconsistent. The bill will have the labor cost included (however it is added) and the consumer pays and walks out the door. I also want to evaluate, if I understand correctly, what would happen if either excellent or poor service was received.
Excellent service:
1. Repeat business – This would give the owner more business and more income. However, this does not increase the staff’s wages.
2. If allowed, tip – This increases the staff’s wages and provides incentive for future excellent service from this employee.
3. Compliment the server – Complementing has similar a similar effect as tipping, though not to the same level.
4. Notify owner/manager – Puts employee in high regard with the owner/manager. May lead to increased wages or preferential work schedule.
5. Comment/Reviews online – Same as repeat business, though can lead to an even larger increase in owner’s income. However, this does not increase the staff’s wages.
Poor service:
1. Less business – This would decrease the owner’s income. Luckily, this does not decrease the staff’s wages, but may lead to increased work load. The owner will reduce labor costs by staffing fewer people. This may lead to even poorer service.
2. Don’t tip – Does not decrease the staff’s wages. Does not let the server know the quality of service given. The staff makes the same since this does not show performance.
3. Notify server of bad service – Lets the server know they service provided is inadequate. Using this alone, does not provide incentive for the service to improve unless done in conjunction with other methods.
4. Notify owner/manager – Puts employ in low regard with the owner/manager. Job is at stake and can decrease the server’s wage assuming they are making more than minimum wage. If they are making minimum wage, then no change; though the likelihood of further employment has decreased.
5. Comment/Review online – Same as less business, and can lead to a larger decrease in owner’s income. Does not decrease the staff’s wages but can mean even less staffing and increased work per employee.
Receiving normal service would incur nothing special assuming the consumer does nothing other than eat, pay, and leave. This does not provide any feedback to the employee on service provided nor does it provide any feedback to the owner/manager on the performance of his/her staff.
In my eyes, having a set pay for a job, regardless of performance is counter to a capitalistic system. In a competitive market, the best employees should make the most money. They would then be the most desirable employees in the market. If an employee is lacking, he/she will be either let go due to performance, or will move on to another line of work in the hopes of higher pay due to lost hours or incentives. As long as the person continues working as a server, they are either accepting of the pay they are getting or the consumer is accepting of the level of service they are providing.
The system the US uses, where the base wage for servers is often less than the “minimum wage” as set by the government, allows the incentive to provide the best service possible. If a server is outstanding, the system allows that person to make more than the servers who do not perform as well. As the experience and performance increase, the server then feels they should in turn make more money since they are outperforming their wage (wage + whatever tips they receive). A server can then go to a different establishment that offers the chance to increase their wages. This can be by higher priced entrée items and/or alcohol sales. Owners/managers of these higher cost establishments know the service must match the product. All new employees will be scrutinized to ensure they owner/manager has the correct staff. If they do not perform well, they will be let go. If they do well, they will make more money.
After all of this, does this mean you HAVE TO TIP in the US? No. You don’t have to. (I feel that the term “tip” is misleading. Perhaps service compensation is better. Though that would insinuate a minimum is required and we are right back at the beginning.) If you feel your service is inadequate, then use one of the above methods to show your displeasure. Unfortunately, the US system does put some of the onus on the consumer to compensate the service industry in order to have a closer to adequate living wage. But if one understands this before going to an establishment, then one should not be put off by an assumed minimal level of compensation for the server. Is the system perfect? Probably not. But I would contend neither is a system where no financial incentive to perform well is either.
Ultimately, the consumer controls who is successful and who is not. Compensate those who do well more than those who do not by tipping more than expected (whatever that level is) or by frequenting certain establishments more. This is just like choosing a repair shop over another, even if more expensive, due to service and performance.
And to comment on the “tax-free” comment pertaining to tips. It is hard to determine exactly how much a server makes in tips. It is getting easier in today’s electronic age where carrying cash is becoming a rarity. Typical restaurants will assume the server made 15% in tips based on their total sales for the day. Assume you sold $1000 of product in 4 hours. The owner/manager assumes you made $150 in tips. The owner/manager must withhold taxes, Social Security, etc. based on this $150 plus the money earned in hourly wages. They only money the owner/manager can take this from are your hourly wage. Most servers walk out with their tip earnings. So, based on $2.25/hr, you made $159 dollars for the day. If this was all you made for the paying period, and you were taxed 25%, then the owner has to take out $39.75 from your hourly wages. But you only made $9. Your check from the owner/manager will be $0. This means at the end of the year, when the IRS comes calling, you will owe more money than what was taken out. The IRS sees you making $159 and you owe the additional $30.75.
So take it for what it is worth. Though I think the intent of the OP was only to vent. Perhaps they weren’t the best server and received no tips, thus the attitude of entitlement and the title of former server. But at the same time, in this system, many don’t realize that the “tip” is a part of their wage.
TIPS as commonly known is an acronym for “To Insure Prompt Service”.
It used to be paid upfront (sort of a bribe) to the wait staff . A higher tip usually meant the service was bad. As america became greedy, things changed.
there is an urban legend about Rockefeller and TIPS.
Rockefeller was provided an awful service by a waiter. He left a huge $100 tip. The next time Rockefeller went to the same restaurant, he was treated like a king by the same waiter. Rockefeller left a 1c tip.
When the puzzled waiter enquired why, Rockefeller replied ” 1c tip was for my previous visit, $100 tip was for this visit”
As Ms Simmerman correctly stated in her article:
“servers deserve far more than the reduced minimum wage plus tips the government says they are worth”
Following my previous posting I am heartened to see that many people posting comments agree that it is a legislation problem that needs to be addressed and that labor laws need to be changed in order to ensure people are paid a decent living wage.
Other issues that seem to be bubbling to the surface are that tips are generally considered to be tax free income and supposedly a reward for exceptional service although it appears that a tip is expected regardless of the quality of service.
Also the ethics of tipping, a number of people have said in their posts that they are not in an industry where tips are paid and do not expect a tip for simply doing their job (an honorable work ethic), they subsequently pay taxes on all of their declared income.
I have no problem paying my taxes because I know that my taxes equip and pay the wages of the military services that defend the nation including medical services and rehabilitation for injured veterans, pay the wages of the judiciary, law enforcement, park rangers and a whole multitude of other public servants that provide services to the population as well as income support and health care for the most vulnerable members of society.
If not paying tax free tips to servers means you are a cheapskate, then
Not paying your fair share of taxes means you are being a cheapskate to your country.
I work for a law enforcement agency and if I took undeclared income from members of the public who liked the way I did my job I would very quickly find myself unemployed and facing criminal charges for bribery and corruption, as would the driver tester at the vehicle licensing authority if they took “tips” after passing candidates for their drivers license, likewise if the examiners at universities took tips from students being tested on their subjects and having their grades awarded.
Did the rescue workers helping out in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy expect to be tipped for saving lives, or even more grotesquely leave people in the lurch if they didn’t pay up ? I don’t think so…..
An unexpected tip that is a “token of appreciation” for exceptional service brings smiles all round. However, “institutionalised tipping” is a cancer on society and such “palm greasing” only encourages bribery and corruption.
Possibly just another reason why the U.S. is in the state it is.
Become involved in your local political scene, join your political party of choice that you feel best represents your ideals, aspirations and ideology, lobby for change and use your vote to bring it about.
It’s called democracy peoples…..use it or lose it.
I truly do not get the math and I’m a math major. People say we couldn’t afford the food if servers were paid minimum wage. How can that be? Presuming that the below minimum wage+tip makes a livable wage then we the consumers MUST be paying enough for our food+tip already.
SO..let’s pay a livable wage, increase food prices and do the European style tipping (that is no tipping).
The waitstaff logic is not clear.
If 15% had to be paid always whatever the quality of service, why not add it as a service charge and the waitstaff gets paid from the employer – no minimum wage issues and set an expectation of basic service (which will not be that different from what is being considered as good service today by waitstaff). If service is exemplary, then a small amount or 5% tip which should be unexpected – this should thrill the waitstaff with a sense of a job well done.
What is obvious though is that the waitstaff would rather prefer the 15% as tips along with less than minimum wages instead of direct wages from employer as they will not report all their tips for taxes. All restaurant owners are not cheats who undercut wages (else, they will be losing staff regularly) but the waitstaff want the benefit of non-tax reporting.
I currently live in the UK, though have lived and travelled extensively all over the world and always found the tipping controversy interesting. Different countries have very different ways of doing this and as a consumer I know which ones I prefer.
In Japan it is considered insulting to give a tip as it is an indication you feel you have to bribe someone to do their job properly (though this is starting to change with American influence). However I found that a few words of appreciation goes a very long way.
In mainland Europe most places I have been add around a 10% service charge to all bills. It is standard and everyone knows what to expect. Though there are some differences. The UK is more like the US, though 10% is the norm for good service. In Italy many places have a flat rate cover charge (1-2 Euros per person) as a convention. In Germany you should give any tip (5-10%) in person to your waitstaff along with a “thank you” if there is no service charge, leaving it on the table is considered insulting. In places like Romania and Switzerland just round up the bill and say thank you.
The US I find scary, I permanently feel I am being slightly ripped off by the huge tips that seem to be expected by almost every profession you come into contact with. and the 20% expected by wait staff seems nothing short of extortion. I read with interest the list of things that @XPat lists as things a server does and it struck me that it was just a job description and I am not sure I want to be tipping a whole lot just to get someone to do their job.
Tipping should be a reflection of quality service where the person is exceeding the standard one would expect of a basic meeting of a job standard. I have had the priveledge to eat in some amazing places (and trust me price does not necessarily reflect that you will have a great experience, so really cheap mom and pop type places have given me some superlative service) which I have been dellighted to tip 30% plus, but sadly there are not that many and there are not even that many that hit 20% really.
It should not be the fault of the consumer that the US cannot get its act together with proper minimum wage legislation, forcing them to make up the difference. I go to restaurants to have good food in a nice ambience with reasonable service as a basic. Should I also have to pay a charge for nice decor, a charge for clean toilets, a charge to have a table or charge for the chef to cook the food?
Many low cost airlines are going down the route of a cheap headline fare that slapping on a whole heap of extras just before you pay in charges that are pretty much unavaoidable, booking fees, credit card fees, luggage fees, checkin fees, etc. It feels fraudlent and like I am being lied to. It feels like US restaurants are going the same way with service.
I know service comes at a cost, but by in large I prefer the basic standard of service to be included in the price of my meal so I know up front how much I am paying, then it is my discretion if I provide an additional reward for exceptional service.
With regards to the origional author. I have covered point 1 above and point 2 I adhere to already. Point 3, unless I (or my family) have made an unreasonable mess, and we are a pretty tidy bunch (called having manners) I consider it to be part of the job of the server to clean up. If I want to clean up after dinner I would stay home.
Point 4 is absolutely the right thing to do, but sometimes the attitude of a wait person is such that a direct discussion with the manager is required (for example I have a waiter add additional items to my bill we did not have – turned out he did that to everyone and was pocketing the extra). I have mixed feelings on point 5 it is fairly true, but I want to go somewhere I know what I am paying upfront and allowed to tip for exceptional service. Should I compromise my enjoyment of my hard earned money to pay someone to do their job?
Point 6 – you are kidding right? There is no way I would ever tip that much for someone to put a drink on my table while I do all the rest of the work, same way as I don’t tip in MacDonalds. Point 7, yes it is true it is a team and if part of that team is exceptional I will tip them directly. I shouldn’t have to subsidise the income of a whole team. How tips are dealt with is a subject of great interest here in the UK, some places pool them and split them amongst everyone (thus voiding the reward for service issue), some places take a cut before giving them to staff (also voiding the point of tipping) and some give them directly to staff. Many restaurant reviews include this as a point now and it is the reason I tip in cash directly to the person deserving of the reward.
I would expand on point 2 though. I work in healthcare I do not have the luxury of ever having a “bad” day. My days are long and often exhausting and unlike service in a restaurant if I screw it up it could result in someone dying. In fact if I screw up I will probably end up in court and have my livelihood taken away to pay for the harm done. I don’t get tips, I don’t often even get a thank you as many patients don’t even know who I am and I don’t get the stellar salary a surgeon gets. I just have to put aside how I feel or how dire the day is and make sure I deliver.
If you don’t like the job, the hours, the pay, the way you are treated or how tired you get or indeed any part of the job, get a different job or put some work into getting the conditions changed. Don’t whine about it and don’t make it my, as your consumer, problem. (This is not in anyway excusing those restaurant patrons who behave like complete asses and make it miserable for everyone).
Bravo !!
“The US I find scary, I permanently feel I am being slightly ripped off by the huge tips that seem to be expected by almost every profession you come into contact with.”
Yes. And one of the earlier posts in this thread even referred to being a waitress (erm… sorry … ‘server’ ) as a _profession_ ! Can you imagine?!? “Oh, it’s so UNFAIR! We go to graduate school for years and learn all these things and then we only get $2.00/hr!!!”
I agree with the view frequently and articulately expressed above that there should be no tipping. All workers should be paid a fair wage for what they do. I also agree with several posters who comment that if waiters and waitresses are unhappy with their working conditions, they should ORGANISE. The union will make them strong — and give the rest of us a break from this incessant whining.
Finally, I will contribute a tactic that I employ in America (where, I realise, stiffing the waitress is a pretty low-class thing to do). The kind of places where I eat, my bill will usually be about $40 – $50, all in (i.e., food, drink & tax). At the first contact with the waitress (e.g., when she brings the menu, or the water or just asks if I want a drink), I’ll unostentatiously give her a fiver and say ‘Do right by me and this will be only the first half of your tip’. Usually she is surprised / confused at first (obviously, not too many people do it this way) but if / when she catches on it often results in good service for that meal.
Here in New Brunswick (Eastern Canada), servers get paid minimum wage of $10 per hour. Kitchen staff can be between $12 and $20.
Employers cut back on the staff on hand to cut down on their costs. That increases the the number of customers that each server handles at once. This increases the servers’ tips, but reduces the quality of service each customer because their attention is spread out more. Then you see your server chatting it up with co-workers while your food gets cold sitting there waiting for them to pick it up.
People are comparing salaries but one thing they don’t take into consideration is income taxes. I pay almost 40% income tax on my ENTIRE salary. I haven’t met a server yet that claims 100% of their tips as income on their tax return. So that portion of their income is tax free. So their take home pay increases exponentially over mine. Then because of their lower base salary, they qualify for Government tax rebates and programs. This increases their disposable income even more.
I gave $0 tip just last night. Service was slow. I was told that I couldn’t get something that servers allowed me to get on previous visits. The server never once checked to ensure our meals were OK. The server completely mess up my order and I didn’t get what I ordered. Then I was left standing for 5 minutes waiting to pay, so I could leave. One of the worst experiences I have had.
I have a real hard time buying into this whole 15-20% tip. I have to get exceptional service for someone to earn that type of tip.
Some comment that ‘costs have gone up, so the % should increase”…but you forget that the increases in the base price account for this. A few years ago, a check may have been $50 = $7.50 @ 15%. Today, that check maybe $75, so 15% = $11.25 = 50% increase in their tip received.
I think it’s reasonable to range form 15 to 20%. “average” service earns 15% while great service is 20%++
Singapore, I’m with you, but, to hell with the service charge. Just include it all. I get my car fixed, there’s no service charge, the plumber comes, he doesn’t expect a further 20 % in cash, just be honest, the menu amount is what you pay.
Oh. And I’ve had some great meals in Singapore, without the waitstaff begging…
You want me to give you 20% AND to ask for a dust pan and to clean up the table too. Yeah….shall I shine your shoes while I’m at it and drive your mom to the Dr. GET a GRIP. 20% if you are OUTSTANDING, 15% if you are normal and pleasant and zero if you suck. Wait-staff has really lost a grip on reality.
20% tip, after rounding up. *eye roll* in your dreams. i don’t care if waitresses live off their tips or if the restaurant is busy when i’m ordering my food. i used to work as a waitress, a kitchen manager and a sous chef, and most people working in the service industry, deserve the wages they get. (:
There’s no question you should tip your server if the service is even adequate. However, if the service is not good, I don’t think a good tip is warranted. I always leave something for the server – I agree that leaving $1 on a $40 bill speaks a lot louder than leaving nothing.
Most of the time I go out to eat, the service is adequate. Sometimes it’s exceptional. Every now and then it sucks. I always tip between 15-20%, if the service is great, a little more, if the service is bad, a little less. Let me specify what I mean by bad service: If I’m sitting at my table for more than 5 minutes without a menu or an acknowledgement that I’m there; if the food takes too long to come to the table (more than 20 minutes after ordering); if my beverage isn’t topped off at least once; if I have to ask for something multiple times. If a server is able to avoid all those things, I’ll tip them the normal amount, even if they’re a little snarky or aloof. Just don’t make me wait and allow me to enjoy my dining experience and you’ve got a good tip. And I always tip off the after-tax total, which means I’m really tipping more than the above mentioned amounts, because no server should expect to get tipped on the tax too.
Customers should be sensetive to the fact that servers rely on tips, but servers should not have a sense of entitlement when they wait on you and should not expect 15-20% if they don’t give you the basic services that their job entails. Frankly, I don’t really care if a server is having a “bad day.” I just sat down. That’s not my problem.
If I’m a douchebag customer who is rude, demanding and doesn’t tip well, servers have every right to complain. Plus, those same douchebags are making my dining experience worse since they’ve pissed off my server before they waited on me.
You can’t go into a restaurant thinking that you don’t have to consider the wait staff when it comes time to leave a gratuity – but you also should be able to sit down in a restaurant without feeling obligated to leave a 20% tip no matter the quality of service. If everyone fulfilled their roles, there wouldn’t be an issue.
Okay, if I accept your argument that a tip should always be left no matter the service, then why not just include a 10-15% “service fee” to the bill? Every customer will pay this regardless of the level of service or what was ordered. The owner can then simply pay higher wages to the staff (that are taxed of course).
Wouldn’t this simplify the situation? Menu prices are kept where they are, and a service fee is added to the bill.
Having myself been in the service industry, I couldn’t agree more with the article on a myriad of different examples. I always worked in high class restaurants, because as someone commented, that’s where the money is at… BUT: that’s where you were guaranteed to serve some of the most self-righteous ostentatious people that have no respect for other human beings. It was a daily displeasure to have busted your butt, your table racking up a $600 bill between 4, and to receive 15% on that, and all too often 0%. It’s inconceivable! @Surly: You’re that pompous dog that has an ill concept of the definition of “tip” and “bonus.” Tip is the income, “bonus” is a reward so stuff your “hard earned money” where it belongs- oh and if you wanted your server to make you a hat to entertain you- go to Dick’s Last Resort. For most people, serving is a second job, and for some, it’s a career- a respectable one at that. You’re not any better than any of these people simply because you have a higher earning job. You would be livid if your pay was performance based and just because your boss wanted to save the company some money or keep more for himself that he skirt your wages. Servers are not servants. These are people: mothers, sisters, daughters, fathers, brothers, sons: Would you treat your own family member the same way? Tip accordingly, not because you want to save a few pennies. Oh, and learn a little human decency people!!!
Boo hoo hoo. A tip is not income your wage is. Your idea that tips and wages are the same thing is exactly the problem. Your industry puts the onus on the consumer to determine the “extra” amount of your salary due to you and when the consumer decides that you are worth 0% extra you bitch that yor are being cheated and resort to name calling? Ever think that people don’t tip you better because of you? I tip when it is warranted but not just because you bring the food to the table. That is the very least you could do and that is what the menu prices are for.
Go sell crazy elsewhere, we’re all full up here.
Wait…15% on a $600 bill is inconceivable?!? That’s $90 for that one table. 10 of those tables in a week ($900) and you just got an entry-level engineer’s salary in tips. Take 33% for the other service staff and – oh darn – you gotta serve 3 more tables to get back to that level.
I feel more for the low-price restaurant servers where $30 feeds a whole family, but even then 4 of those tables an hour at 15% is $18 an hour – not exactly chump-change.
It’s hard work, often thankless work, yes, but so are many other jobs that pay even less. No sympathy here.
Wow! I’ll have a little more bias and a dash of unrealistic approach with my nonsense please. Is this your job? Do you get paid? Can you find work elsewhere if you are dissatisfied with other staff, management or pay? The answers to these questions? All YES! 15% is the industry standard for good service. If you go well beyond the normal call, then we can think about it, but the rest of this is dooky. I am not going to convene a committee to make calculations on the tip. It’s a basic affair, and I’m not the employer. If you are a good waiter, and you aren’t pulling down some serious cash, you’re in the wrong place.
Exactly! If you don’t like it change it.
I so agree “If you can’t afford to tip adequately, choose someplace less expensive or opt for a serve yourself type establishment.” Also, if you have a discount or gift certificate, tip according to what you would have paid without the freebie.
I find it appalling that waiters get so little pay.
Get real! Here’s a tip for ya. Most businesses give their employees a bonus for exceptional performance and a tip is no different. If you want my hard earned money do something exceptional for me; not just bring out the food and refil the drinks. That is your job take so pride in it
So I go into a good restaurant one day and realize that my server is serving 4 tables. My bill came to $155 for 3 people. The other three tables being waited on by my server had 4 patrons each, so I imagine their bill was at least as high as mine. So by your calculations my tip should have been $31 (20%). We got there and left the restaurant within an hour of being served our drinks, as did 2 or the three other tables I was observing my server deliver service to. So if four tables paid out $31 dollars, my server made $2.00 per hour salary, and $124 dollars tips. That is low paid? I know so many waitresses and waiters who make $200 per day and more (usually double that on weekends) in tips that I think the popular culture has taken on the “servers are sooooo lowly paid – poor things” as a meme which has no basis in reality. I tip based on what I think the waiter is worth – and that is about $10/hr. The other three tables brought that up to |$40. If you think that is low pay then you need a good kick to the side of the head to wake you up. Quit lying and whining. If the job pays sooooo badly, wht are so many people doing it. Just more bullshit to justify a sick practice that has no roots in reality.
Geo… you’re not taking into account that the servers don’t walk away with the 20% (that one would hope to average with each table). At the end of the night, it typically comes to 30% of their daily income going to the following: bartenders, bussers, backwaiters. All of those people depend on the tips of the server. The server is the face of the restaurant and your experience is their responsibility- hence why it’s a tough, tough job.
I owned a chain of pharmacies. My staff were trained to give polite, efficient service. That was all included in the price. Restaurant food mark-ups are much higher than pharmacy retail merchandise of good purchased. 2$ for a cup of coffee that cost 25 cents ?? 3$ for a coke that costs 39 cents ??? It’s downright disgusting that restaurant owners expect the public to subsidize their staff overhead. Governments which allow these owners to lower the minimum wage should be voted out. A 10$ snack in Quebec costs $14.86 based on the author’s suggestion. I would suggest that servers get together and strike. It’s the only language the owners and the government understand. M.L.
I only tip hot looking waitresses with big hooters $20-50 if they provide excellent service and give their phone number to call in case of an emergency 🙂
We can’t afford to eat out much, but when we do we always tip a higher percentage than Romney pays in taxes.
T.I.P.S. – To Insure Prompt Service.
This is something that has been long forgotten in the food industry. A generous gratuity is expected these days and you are a miserable cheap bastard if you don’t leave one. I find the service provided has deteriorated over the years. Yet servers expect larger tips.
If I go out to eat, it is because I don’t want to cook myself and want to be served. That service should be courteous and prompt. I don’t expect the server to be waiting by my table for my next whim, but I do expect them to be attentive throughout my meal.
Restaurants came up with the idea of sharing tips across all staff to subsidize their labour cost. This allows the restaurant to pad their bottom line.
I tip good service 20 to 25% on average. I have tipped over 30% for exceptional service and have on a few occasions talked to the restaurant manager urging them to ‘promote’ an excellent server into a training position and explaining that they are not paying enough for the resource that this server is without even knowing their wage. I know of one incidence of the waitress I praised to management becoming the serving manager because of her exceptional skills being noticed after I brought this to the managers attention.
The waitress I despise is the ‘wannabe beauty queen’ that expects me to tip her looks while providing very poor service especially when the restaurant is slow. If the service is exceptionally bad I will write across the bill “your tip… provide service!” and pay the bill. Rest assured that gets noticed.
I also make the distinction between wait service and food quality as the waiter/waitress does not prepare the food. The funniest thing is watching a good waitress receive a good tip after telling her the food was barely fit for pet consumption and leaving a barely nibbled plate of food behind, along with the promise to never darken that restaurants doorway again.
One comment, unfortunately the tip you leave also goes to the kitchen staff who prepare the poor quality meal. So you are in essence leaving a good tip for the poor meal you received as well as the good service.
Rest assured the waitress will be having words with the kitchen staff about killing the goose that laid the golden egg. I have actually heard “Hey butt head!” coming from a waitresses mouth in the galley to get the attention of the cook. I didn’t stay to sample the ‘special sauce’ that I am sure would have been added to my ‘properly prepared’ meal.
If a restaurant serves garbage disguised as a meal, don’t give them a second chance. You will probably be getting some ‘free extras’.
Well, Jim, that sounds very interesting. So basically, if you throw extra money at people, they will treat you better? Not all of us want to be stuck in an extended conversation with our server. Especially if we know he/she is only humoring us because he/she wants a bigger tip. You ever think that with all the extra money you’ve thrown at servers that maybe you’re still behind the game despite the fact that you’ve gotten to sample the odd extra dish here & there?
Tipping is expected in North America. But the problem with this post is that its from an ex-server who’s telling folks to tip generously even for bad service. It’s ridiculous.
If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford the restaurant.
Tip generously. You’ll be remembered and it will pay off. I can’t tell you how many restaurants there are where I’m known, greeted by name, given a great table (even though I’m usually alone) and can have a real conversation with my server, if the conditions allow. I’ve been asked my opinion on new menu items and been asked to comment on wine selections, and I’ve even gotten to sample off-menu dishes just to get my opinion. It’s fun and really worth a few extra bucks. Try it!
If you can’t afford to tip don’t expect a personalized service but you should still expect civil respectable service from your server. You may not get the chit chat or to sample off the menu but they will still recommend dishes and wines as that it their job…
If they are unable to provide that level of service then they should go work in a place where you order by the number and even those place check to see if you want fries with that.
I having been on both ends of the foodservice buiness, Cook,waiter,Bartender,customer can see exactly where this waitress is comming from, I am in the customer service industry right now and I will tell you , I can see where most everyone has no common sense about what good customer service is , A waitresses job is defined by so many obsticles that is a miracle that
they ever make any money, if the bartender has a bad day , the waitress pays for it and so does the customer,same as the cook has a bad day the waitress and customer pay , the receptionist or hostess has a bad day the witress and customer pay for it , if you want a butler or a house maid hire one, But if you are out for a good meal good time and enjoyment , dont blame everything on the waitress, and by all means check your own customer service skills (As you know she is also your customer) you get what you sow remember that you show up at a nice place to eat and start barking orders at the waiter or waitress good luck, I feel the food service personel have long been the scape goats for pour manners for some time , Keep up the good work and to you who wrote this article I aplaude you and keep smiling .
REV JAGER
I thoroughly disagree with tipping – it allows an employer to legally underpay staff, and expect clients to make up the shortfall of an inadequate, exploitative minimal wage. Why should clients have to pay the wages of employees? Isn’t that the job of the employer? No wonder there is such a great divide between the haves and have nots.
I hate tipping. It began as a scam by the railroads to keep themselves from paying their porters. If a waiter touches me again to increase his/her tip, I’m going to poke them in the eye with asparagus. End all tipping. Companies must pay their workers themselves, not us. I don’t need the hassle of judging someone’s work every time I want to eat a pork chop.
Put the price on the bill and leave me out it.
Restaurants should price food according to a business model that allows them to pay staff a living wage without tips. The idea that you have to run a business depending on charity is absurd. You are all arguing and insulting each other because you have grown to accept absurdity as the norm. Why should you have to bribe a waiter to do their job? Nobody tips me if I do a good job which most of the time I do because like most people my work defines my self esteem. Food service hides behind a veil of pretense which, although it has been allowed to persist for a lifetime, contradicts practicality. If a lamb chop costs $10 charge $10 and stop pretending otherwise you are all fooling yourselves. And if healthcare costs 5oc add 50c like every other professional business has to in order to keep some order and fairness in a civilized society. If you pay less then the real pricein reality all you are doing is stealing. Greed is not good. It doesn’t work. Hunger is real.
WOW! I have to say, I don’t usually post comments on articles, but as I noted earlier, the issue of tipping in the US raises some interesting concerns. I’ve been following all of the comments, and I have to say I am pretty overwhelmed with the selfish, nasty, mean, and abusive nature of many of these posts.
Outside of California, servers get about $2-2.50. Now, you can say that’s not fair, not right, complain to your congressman, whatever, but at the end of the day tipping is not really about having someone take your order and bring your food. At most, that would be a 10 percent tip. Here are some of the things a good server does for you:
*Checks the plates to be sure they are clean
*Brings crackers, crayons, straws, plastic cups, etc. for your kid to play with so you can enjoy your experience
*Bring the child’s food out first, if appropriate, so you can enjoy your experience
*”Time” or “pace” your food. A good server will request food from the kitchen at such a pace that you don’t get courses stacked up on top of one another. If you are trying to catch a plane, s/he may ask the kitchen to speed up your order. If you are enjoying a conversation with old friends, having a drink with appetizers, s/he may slow it down a bit. Trying to read your needs from your body language, tone of voice, and experience are all part of the job.
*Ambience– a good server will notice if you are on a romantic date and how it is going. S/he will make recommendations about food and wine to support that date. A VERY good server will probably be able to assess about how much you want and are able to spend, and so will avoid putting you in a position of having to decline something you cannot afford— In other words, a GREAT server will make the leader of the table (whoever that is) look very good (whether that’s a business meeting or a date).
*A good server will ask you how your food tastes before you get to your third bite and will offer to fix anything you note is wrong. (This means getting your food re-ordered and fixed and disrupting the pacing for other servers and the cooks, who, my experience suggests, will swear, throw things, and possibly try to take it out on him or her on another dish.)
*A good server will make sure to offer to refresh your beverages or alcoholic drinks when you get down to about 5 sips left– about an inch and a half for soft drinks, a little less than a finger for alcoholic drinks.
Here are some other things servers do when you are not watching:
disinfect your tables
disinfect all of the condiment bottles
clean the bathrooms
clean the windows and the walls (remember this at about $2.25- 2.50, not tipping here)
Mop floors
Check for chipped glassess
Wash lemons (yeah the ones in your drink that were lying on the floor in the walk-in cooler)
ETC.
Most servers are required to come in about an hour before their shift starts, and if they work a closing shift at the restaurant, they stay for an hour, maybe even two after the restaurant closes to support your experience of a clean and enjoyable dining experience.
What I noted earlier is that, despite a history of being a very generous tipper (and actually continuing to be), I also think it is problematic that serving tables paid better than any of my “official” jobs for which I have used my 13+ years of college and beyond education. People on here have suggested waiters who do not like their jobs should find a new line of work, but isn’t that the point? A TON of these servers are paying for college are raising kids and plan to go back to college, are trying to get on top of a mortgage so they can get into a new line of work. –Maybe those of you pointing fingers, calling names, and implying that the people who clean your restaurants, bring your food, and carry those huge trays up and down the stairs are lazy can explain to me how, exactly, you can on one hand push the old “be hard working and ingenuous” line while clearly and obviously abhorring anyone who actually works. It’s really depressing.
I COULD go into a political argument here, but so far, most people seem to want to just name call and be mean. I imagine you are the ones who snap and whistle at your wait staff. Maybe that’s why you think servers do so little for you. In effect, they do. You are that people they talk about in the kitchen and argue over who has to serve you. When your food drops on the floor, we’re less likely to stop the kitchen line entirely to get it remade. We’ll just make it look as nice as can and send it out. The rest of the patrons in the restaurant –the kind and respectful ones, the working couples who just want a nice evening out, the first date couples, the parents who would do anything to have a conversation that doesn’t involve their 2-year old— they are getting a different experience, and it’s a better one.
@Xpat — By your rationale, then, you should also be tipping hospital nurses, as they do WAY MORE proactive, behind-the-scenes personal service for their patients than any wait staff ever did. And they get poor pay, poor working conditions, and lousy shift-work hours for their efforts. And they get to go to University in order to qualify for this “privilege”.
Nope — the real answer is for your restauranteurs to pay their staff a decent, living wage, and stop expecting their customers to make up the difference for the restauranteur’s cheapness and meanness.
So I agree with some of your points and disagree with others. Some of the items you point out of a servers duties are their duties (cleaning, serving, before and after shift duties, even cleaning the lemons…) and this is what their wages are for be it low or high. I don’t believe that they should be tipped for this. Now the other items such crayons, recommending food and wine, basically their personal contribution to your experience above and beyond the norm is wort of a tip that is up to the consumer to determine.
I don’t think anyone called the servers lazy but I think that it is unreasonable forthem to tell consumers that it is hard work that does not pay enough so you should tip me. It is a job that you can do with little or no education so what do should they really expect? Everyone has bills to pay and some struggle more than others to make ends meet. I guess that if you are a server you should do the job above a beyond the customers expectation in the USA to get a better tip.
I do have to admit that I prefer the service in the USA over other places. There has been discussions about NZ service and my experience there has not been exceptional. You get your food and the service is polite enough but nothing ever exceptional. I was in Houston with some coworkers form NZ and AUS and their we amazed by the service and the prices. Cheap prices and excellent service. Needless to say the tip was good that night…
I agree with about everything you said here. However, I have yet to see any server provide the experience you described above. Service is lacking at most establishments but the expectation from the servers is to receive the 20%+ gratuity. I refuse to leave such an amount for sub-par service.
Richard,
About this, I agree. I was trained by some of the best people in the industry, IMO, and I learned to actually enjoy it. I strived to make $18.00 my “salary” for hours worked. Obviously, in higher end restaurants, there is more side work and less “paid” work, and the tips are higher, etc. I often made more than my target. I often made less. We all have to work those lunch shifts and those Tuesday nights when the restaurant is empty. The goal is an overall average. I was fortunate, in that I 1. could choose my shifts. (It was often a supplemental job) and 2. I tended to get a reputation at the establishments where I worked (from customer praise) that gave me a great deal of freedom with work and respect from bosses.
Now that I have a child of my own, who we often take out, and now that true date nights have become rare, I find myself wishing I had me as a server. Immodest, maybe, but when that couple left a note on the table saying it was the first time they’d had a complete conversation in 2 years and then left me a 100% tip on the meal, I had only an inkling that what I thought of as mildly above-par service was really exceptional. Now, we find that some servers are so disappointed by having kids in their sections, they delay service. This does little to improve their perception of kids, I assure you… but I digress. We do dock the tips in these situations. We bring crackers and crayons. If you can’t get us a drink order before our rather restaurant-savvy and mostly patient toddler gets antsy, well, you’re not trying very hard.
However, Chieftain, there’s a gap in logic comparing waitstaff with nurses. First, nurses with higher certifications actually make a fair amount, and they are one of the only jobs that can travel well on work visa to many, many countries. There are, to be sure, lower level nurses, with less training, who make less. They make, as I understand it, around 11-13 dollars an hour. They work 8 hour shifts, and they often get health care coverage (which should be factored in to any conversation about wages) and sometimes vacation.
What is interesting— and it may seem O/T, but I think it applies– is that there is a proposal on the books in Michigan this coming election that calls for setting a minimum wage for nurse aids and home health care workers– not nurses, to be sure, but for those aids who do all the worst stuff. The proposal ties this minimum wage to specific training and preparation for their jobs, as well, ensuring they’ll be qualified to do their jobs. People are up in arms about it, and the same kind of language applies there as I have seen in comments here; people saying that they should pick another job if they don’t like the one they have / don’t get paid enough.
At some point, I think we have to recognize that there are less skilled workers and that they also have to pay rent and eat. Even if we suddenly produced the most educated HS graduates in the world and even if our culture began to appreciate critical thinking and book learning, there’s a pretty good chance SOMEBODY would have to wait tables and somebody would have to clean bed pans. Does that mean that the person doesn’t deserve respect? Waitresses routinely get snapped at (as in, snapping fingers) and demeaned by their public. In cases where the servers are well-respected by their bosses, there are opportunities to cut this behavior off at the pass, but not everyone is as lucky as I was. I know this.
Listen, if people think it’s the restaurant’s job to pay servers minimum wage rather than 2.25, then great– Get organized and get proposals on ballots to set that minimum wage and feel fine about leaving a shoddy tip. However, to not tip as a way of changing the system, because you think restaurant owners should be paying their servers more, well, that just doesn’t make sense. I can’t even think of what that is tantamount to . . . It’s simply not logical. No real change comes from that.
Tipping… it seems to me that we have forgotten.. is a voluntary action… please don’t tell me how I should volunteer my hard earned money on a service you have been hired to provide. I will decide when I will tip and for how much based on my experience… NOT your “guidelines”.
Nook! the USA was probably even better during the 200 years when slavery helped build the nation to what it is. You might want to look up the word sarcasm in the 15 minutes it probably took you to read these two sentences.
Dang. A single customer’s tip (at the rate recommended by the author) would pay the difference between the $2.13/hour minimum wage for waitstaff and the mandated minimum wage. Many people work for minimum wage. It seems like the author is just a whiny b* who wants her pound of fle$h from each customer.
And should one “mention” bad service to the waitstaff in the hopes of getting better service? No no no no! Maybe the author would never do it… but how about those many stories of waitstaff spitting in your food or doing other nonsanitary, covertly hostile actions against the customer?
No thanks. Your tip will tell you if I liked your service, or not. I’m not likely to say anything to your face; not even on the way out the door.
Nowadays, it seems the norm for waitstaff to interrupt the patron’s conversation (often from 10 feet away from the table; on approach) with an impinging tone. I’ve tried mentioning to the waitstaff that I don’t like being interrupted; I’ve tried giving them a dirty look; I’ve tried other tactics. Never have I had a waiter/waitress correct this extremely rude and non-service-oriented poor behavior.
If a particular waiter or waitress is doing it, they will continue. Their attitude is that I should eat, pay and get out!
Manners are on their way out these days. And so goes your tip.
I agree with the poster from New Zealand who said
“Having lived in places that promote tipping, and also in NZ where it is officially frowned upon, I know what I prefer as a consumer. I like businesses to pay their own staff fairly, and not expect me to play Lord Fauntleroy and shower their servants with my largesse. It’s degrading for the wait staff to be tipped, and its insulting to the customers to expect them to.”
I think the Americans fail to see that the problem radiates in the absurd wages paid to the people working in the service industry rather than the tipping.
I’ll take the European billing scheme where service and tax is always included. If some staff is outstanding the best you can do is congratulate the, or their boss. If the service was crappy, don’t go back to that place, complain and give detailed views in websites like yelp or tripa dvisor.
I believe its the choice of the patron to decide a tip is deserved or not, as well as the amount; as the choice of being a service worker or not. I don’t expect anything less or more other then the job to be performed and when done so the worker should be at their best at all times like anyone in any position of employment. Expectations of tips is gross, some folks actually live on strict budgets and its their discresion how it’s spent, not the service worker when its decided to eat out. The establishment itself speaks for itself with populated patronage or not.
What’s with the tip inflation? Lately I’m being barraged by recommended 18% tips, and now this post? Restaurant prices have gone up significantly in the past 10 years; increasing the tip amount is a geometric wage increase that isn’t occurring in any other sector of the economy save banking executives perhaps.
If I were to follow the instructions above, on my most recent trip to a midrange chain restaurant, I’d have tipped ($44 rounded up to $50 * 20%) $10 on a bill that was barely $40 pre-tax and tip, or 25% tip. Also, my waitress, who had a few tables, made a total of 4 visits to us in an hour. She is likely making over $150 in tips on a shift. Pretty good for low-skill labor.
I went to grad school and have to have a professional license (at my own expense) to do my difficult and stressful job of protective services work for seniors, and I don’t make $50+ an hour like my waiter does. So, considering the amount of education and responsibility required to wait tables, I believe it’s okay to pay the accepted standard of 15% on the pre-tax amount of the bill for average service, or in this case, $6.
I do pay more for exceptional service and for servers whom I encounter (positively) regularly. I always tip and I would not leave less than 15% unless the waiter already heard from my own mouth that their performance was unsatisfactory. But this tip inflation needs to end, because it’s greedy and it casts waiters in a negative light.
Tipping really is such a sticky issue. As an ex-server, my instinct is to tip 20%, minimum for good service, 15% if I get my food /the right food. As a waitress / bartender / server, variously, I made very good tips– often 20%, reliably 15%, and an occasional BIG day of 100% for exceptional service that, essentially, included child care. I know how hard serving is and I recognize the small touches when someone does it particularly well. I also recognize that getting paid $2.20 an hour during all those hours and days when a restaurant is not full is just devastating.
However, I am married to a man from Europe, and our many disagreements about tipping have brought me to some uncomfortable recognitions. He is, true to the stereotype, kind of a horrible tipper. Frankly, if I had noticed early in our dating he probably wouldn’t have gotten a second or third date (as that has been my policy for others). Still, I didn’t actually notice until later, and then we began having various debates. This is the argument he gives that trips me up: When I was a social worker, taking care of abused children, and when I was working as a lecturer at a university, teaching 4 college courses a semester, I made less– by about 20-25% annually– than I did as a waitress. I believe everyone deserves a decent wage, and the wear and tear of waitressing is also worth noting– one can’t lift those trays forever. At the same time, in my work as a social worker, I had to go to the hospital more than once from violent injuries. As a lecturer, there was less wear and tear on my body, but I spent easily 70 hours a week working by the time you count one-on-one student conferences, grading student drafts and portfolio projects. Is it really OK that I made about 30,000 in social work and 42,000 as a lecturer, when I made up to 25,000 in a 12-week summer waiting tables at a non-elite restaurant (think burgers and aluminum). Is it OK that a year part-time at a pub brought in 32,000 and the same year as a lecturer 42,000?
It seems that the more education I get, the more credentials I earn, the higher my student loans, the less I make. At this point, when I have my PhD, I’ll be fortunate to make the amount I was offered as salary to help manage a restaurant in a tourist town. Something about that seems off– and I’m an advocate for waitresses, just to put that in context. What should one make of this?
This is America, and in America we tip. Not so all over the world, you have to find out ahead of time, but if you’re an American living in America and you think you don’t have to tip you’re just a cheapskate. Word gets around fast, at least in my circles, and you’ll find yourself ostracized if you’re cheap. Rightly so.
Our dinners are either “wimp tax” (all share equally regardless of order) or “credit card roulette” (loser picks up the tab for all). Even with a multi-thousand dollar dinner tab if you lose at credit card roulette, you can bet nobody is stiffing the servers. That’s just unconscionable.
If you can’t pay for your meal X 1.2, why are you even eating out? Save your money for when you can afford it.
Good answer, so let’s perpetuate these ridiculou and unfair minimum wages , because this is America and that’s the way we do it.
and you people wonder why americans are perceived as idiotic morons all over the globe. Shssh!
You change the wage laws with legislation, and I agree the legislation should be changed. The laws are bad, but stiffing servers isn’t going to change them, it’s just stiffing working people. As for Americans being perceived as idiotic morons all over the globe, well I’ve been all over the globe, and people seem to like Americans pretty well. At least I haven’t ever had the least problem anywhere in Europe, Asia, or Africa.
Yep, most countries I have been to laugh at Americans. They are good for milking tips but they are so ridiculous, no-one takes them seriously.
$2.00? Was she being sarcastic? That should be illegal in the land of opportunity.
I came late to this convo, but for the folks still reading I’d like to add that if I’m being charged 300%+ markup over wholesale on a bottle of wine, I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay someone more than 10% (or $10, whichever is more) for pulling the cork for me. Conversely, I make it a point to frequent establishments that give fair value on their wine list or allow for a corkage fee on self-brought bottles, (and make sure I leave a note on the check clarifying that I’m only paying “$x” for the wine bill, not an $80/20% tip for a couple of trips to the table). If there’s a sommelier involved, maybe I’ll tack on another $5-10 depending on whether or not she knows her stuff and what good gossip she shares with us.
That said, I ALWAYS tip breakfast diner and greasy spoon wait staff 50%– if not more. Even if it’s just a cuppa Joe, it doesn’t hurt to leave your waitress a fiver for her troubles. Sheesh. She’s up at 6 AM serving you hash; show a little class.
If I AM leaving a lousy tip somewhere, I always leave a civil note explaining exactly why, and how it can be remedied for the next time. (Or if it’s something intentional and inexcusable, I’ll speak directly to the manager — in private.)
Finally, I leave the tip in CASH along with the credit card chit. And as you noted, always round up rather than down.
Thank you for your service!
As a server, I don’t mind not getting tipped on the bottle of wine, especially if it’s on the higher end. Although a few extra bucks just to cover the tip out for the bartender would be appreciated. A hundred dollar bottle of wine “costs” me $3 dollars in tip out. But if you’re spending that kind of money, you’re probably already tipping a large amount any way so I can stand to lose the $3.
But just so you know, most/many restaurants without buying power do not get wholesale prices. As a matter of fact, the one I work at pretty much pays retail for the liquor. Yes, there still is a huge mark up on it, but it’s to cover other costs throughout the restaurant. Mark up doesn’t mean profit. I mean, obviously there’s profit to be made, but it’s certainly no where close to 200 percent.
I think $2 an hour is shocking . and servers need tips to servive .. lucky for us tipping is not encouraged in New Zealand ,, And most New Zealanders wont tip .its the tourists who do which must please the the waiters/bar staff etc .. mimimin wage for workers in any indrusty is $13 an hour here ..
“I think $2 an hour is shocking”
I am a server. That two dollars an hour is a joke. I make 20+ an hour. 30/h on a good night. On a terrible night? I make 14 or 15 an hour in tips. I would work for an hourly wage of $0. I’ve never had an hourly job “with a respectable wage” that was anywhere near as lucrative as my serving job. As a matter of fact, I had a salaried job that didn’t even come close to the amount of money I make now.
I’ve worked in a lot of restaurants and met 20 times as many servers. The ones who don’t make money are the ones that aren’t trying to make money. Don’t feel bad for them or be shocked at $2 dollars an hour.
So you make $20 an hour, for serving. I have a masters degree and when I started working was making 15-17 per hour.
I don’t think it’s fair that service people expect to be tipped 20%.
@nook: Truly eloquent, Mr. Nook. You MUST run for office. At first, I mistook the prose for that of Ronald Firbank.
A question now: why are persons from Socialist plus Capitalist countries, such as those in Northern Europe, such bad tippers when they visit the US?
It is because in those countries waiters are paid well, have health coverage, and all the benefits of any other working person.
Why is it vital to tip in the US? Because the waiters here, mostly “working-poor” women, receive obscenely low wages, without vacation, health care, benefits, day care.
Wouldn’t it be nice, just and humane to stop treating these wait people so badly? That they feel anxiety over every tip? Are they dogs?
But we are not a pro-labor country. We are ex-slavers, and deny social programs and capitalism can co-exist in a nation. Even though it does very well in Northern Europe. Too bad for us, and for our wait people. Makes our country less happy, the people in more pain and sadder.
working poor? Get a life and get an education and do something REALLY important. Your term dogs– is that what YOU think of them!! I say tough titties!!! You are undoubtedly one of those “liberal idiots” who vote for JURKs like nobama who never had so much as drop of mustard on his shoes from having run ahotdog stand!!! And how did he become a millionaire since he came “president”!! so much for spreading the wealth!
Let´s get this straight, tipping as is common practice in the US is the bigest offense to common sense and still can´t belive people fall into this crap:
A manipulation of reality and passive agressive economics:
SO, the whole thing is based on this distorted fact “Waiters are underpaid, is fair to them”
And another funny one, tipping is OPTIONAL but you MUST to do it, (see, is not really optional)
The AMOUNT you leave is up to you, but NEVER under 15%, (funny, at the end is not really up to you)
Talk about passive agressive customer service and you can´t find a better example.
It gets weird from right from the start: for the first time in history , the customer and NOT THE EMPLOYER is now responsible of the paying fairly wages on a business that you do not own, what a brilliant neo conservative invention!!!!!
Do you ever wonder who really profits from it? Is the waitress or is it the restaurant owner? I say the second is the one getting the big chunk at your cost and by tipping we are just enabling a bad practice in the the first place wich is not paying your employees fairly. When you tip, you probably see the face of a hard worker and underpaid employee doing a good job that deserves more, i do too i´m not that cynical, the problem is that i also see restaurant owners making a huge chunk and getting away with paying close to nothing to their workers, that is the key question. They are exploiting their workers and want their customers to pay for this mess, absurd and offensive.
Ok, so that glass of wine on the table net cost for the restaurant is 50 cent/1 dollar, your are being charged 8 $ for it, is a huge margin for any business if you ask me and STILL the owner of the restaurant can´t find a way to fairly pay their employees, are you kidding me????
So you, the possibly underpaid, tired average worker, should contribute with an extra 20% of your money to support a system were the owner makes huge margins and still wants you to pay their workers, as if somebody actually doing their job, needed an extra reward for it, is pretty weird don´t you think?
Well i do, if you don´t, you can always follow up leave a 20% on the growing list of underpaid jobs in retail, because i´m sure the writer will ok on leaving a 20% tip every time you buy a pair of shoes.
“Ok, so that glass of wine on the table net cost for the restaurant is 50 cent/1 dollar, your are being charged 8 $ for it.”
You seem to have profit and revenue confused. Not to mention, it costs the restaurant about 3-4 dollars for a glass of wine that they are selling for 8 dollars. Your 50 cents to a 1 dollar is not even close. 3-4 dollars just for the wine itself. Do you know how much the glass it comes in costs? Do you have any idea how often they break? But forget about that for now – those are reusable so long as they’re not broke.
The wine has to get to the restaurant somehow. Guess what? There’s a delivery fee or gas surcharge. Once the wine is in the restaurant you have to have a manager check it in and sign off for it, do the invoices at the end of the week and cut a check for the bills. And now that the wine is in the restaurant, it has to be chilled in a cooler that’s running on electricity 24 hours a day. And since it’s running all the time, it needs to be fixed all the time. There we go paying an HVAC guy to come fix it. It needs a new motor. Do yo know how much industrial HVAC equipment costs? These things break CONSTANTLY. And if they’re not broken, they’re not working well enough to adhere to the health code standards.
Ok, so the bartender rings in the glass of wine on his POS terminal that some IT guy just got done updating. He pours the rest of the bottle into a glass and tosses the bottle in a trash bag. A trash bag which will end up in the dumpster that will need to be emptied every few days – that costs money. The guest swiftly finishes his wine and hands the glass back. Now the bartender has to wash it. So he’s water…hot water. And then some soap.oh yeah, and don’t forget the sanitizer. Now he has to polish it with a towel that was delivered by a linen cleaning company. Then the bartender hands the guest his check which is printed on paper, but not just any paper. Thermal paper. And where it says tax, in many states the tax shown on the check will be $0.00 because it must be listed in the menu price …and don’t forget about 15,000 dollars a month in rent for the restaurant. And I’ve seen higher.
Starting to sound a little less profitable, right? I didn’t even mention the two biggest costs in a resturant. Food Cost and Labor. This is about 55-70 percent of the costs. And 55 percent is a highly efficient restaurant. And then still, efficiency doesn’t take into account regional cost of food or the investment in training highly productive employees or a number of other factors.
And guess what? There’s still MORE costs that go into running a restaurant. If you think they make 7 dollars on an 8 dollar glass of wine then you have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about.
And on a side note. No server is going to go into work for 3 hours a night to make 10 dollars an hour. I get 10 dollars a table from 5pm to 8pm. Then I get cut because there’s no longer a need to have so many servers. I could make 30 dollars doing ANYTHING.
And the best part about this conversation is I make more money now serving than I did as a salaried kitchen manager.
I am well aware of all the costs of running a restaurant, as I have a business myself with 7 employes. I deal with similar costs every single month thanks for taking the time to explain anyway.
I also live in Europe (Sorry folks, I’m one of those jerks), we pay a 21% sales tax and still restaurants make a living, and still pay wages, and still provide social security for their workers. I just wonder why the US just can’t do the same.
Well said Daniel
Why should I bus my own table or keep my table clean? Should I go back and cook my own food also? After all, the poor chef may be having a bad day.
I hate that the ‘gratuity’ is mandatory. When I write letters for people for $8 hr that take a lot of thought, no one gives me any extra money, yet I have to deal with the public and hold their hands and listen to whatever problem they need cured and read lots and lots of documents.
I remember once at The Spice Market buffet in Vegas I pre-paid a $5 tip for lunch for 2. The server looked at it and made a sour face. This was at a self serve buffet, all she does is bring drinks which I would prefer to get myself anyway. I learned that day to never pre-pay a tip.
Here’s a tip, forget eating at restuarants and eat at home…at least your know what is in your food and how it was prepared.
My wife and I tip 20% and round it to the dollar. We generally stack things to make picking up easier. We throw the salad dressing paper cup onto the empty salad plate, or put our silverware and glasses onto anm empty plate. When traveling, if we get exceptional service, we note the server’s name, and we send an email to the corporate office.
I’ve travelled around the world and it’s amazing that the US is the only country putting the onus of paying salaries onto the customers. I use to pay 20% at least across the board regardless of service. No longer- I’m sick of paying for sub-par service! Service levels continue to decline, even in expensive restaurants. I pay for what I get and moved to 15% unless service is good. If you don’t like the tips you’re getting, maybe it’s time for a new job.
Not tipping because you are cheap = Evil and selfish.
Not tipping because the service was terrible = A noble act.
No one should tip if the service is bad. Everyone should tip if the service is good.
So long as you’re in the mood to lecture and moralize, try this on for size:
It’s high time you Yanks forced your restauranteurs to take responsibility for paying their staff a decent, living wage. Because NOT paying employees properly is Evil and Selfish. And people like you are complicit, because by paying tips you prop up this unfair system which allows employers to exploit their wait staff. And that, t00, is Evil and Selfish.
Tipping is immoral. It ought to be illegal. I don’t know how you manage to sleep at night.
What is immoral is you judging our morality and culture based on how our society has decided to compensate our servers. What is your moral framework that allows you to cast these universal moral paradigms based on your narrow enculturated Kiwi sense of fairness?
There is nothing immoral per se about either allowing or disallowing tipping. American waiters can make a lot more than New Zealand waiters if they do their jobs well. It can be argued that your system is the is the immoral one because it disincentivizes excellence. I go to a restaurant for excellent service, not for normal service or bad service. If I get that excellence service I tip very well and the waiter or waitress will make some good money. If I don’t get excellent service, then they don’t get paid for the excellence service that they didn’t provide. There is nothing immoral per se about this. Do your job and get paid.
I’ll toss that one back at ya, Cynthia: what is your moral framework that allows you to cast universal moral paradigms like: “No tipping because you are cheap = Evil and selfish”? And what gives you the right to pontificate on whether our New Zealand tipping practises are “narrow”? I’d say our NO TIPPING policy is Enlightened — as do most tourists when they visit here and receive excellent service, without needing to bribe the wait staff.
Why should you be allowed to judge people for being thrifty? And if an entire Nation (such as New Zealand) is thrifty, surely that is a Virtue and not something to be roundly condemned by somebody from a spendthrift Nation like the USA.
Perhaps there is an excellent reason why your country is TRILLIONS of dollars in debt: attitudes like yours certainly can’t help much!
Tipping in the US is so conflictual it should be abolished. It used to be only confusing. The recent publicized desired tip of 20% is the result. This is a free floating amount that will only accelerate because wages in the US are decreasing not increasing and the cost of consumer goods and services is rising.
I’ve traveled around the world and it’s amazing that the US is the only country putting the onus of paying salaries onto the customers. I use to pay 20% at least across the board regardless of service. No longer. I’m sick of paying for sub-par service! Service levels continue to decline, even in expensive restaurants. I pay for what I get and moved to 15% unless service is good. If you don’t like the tips you’re getting, maybe it’s time for a new job.
Hear Hear, Surly!
Why the guilt? Why can’t there just be a price? In every other business, if an employee does well, the MANAGER rewards him/her. Why do I have to sit around determining how much I should add to my own bill?
These articles are so focused on the server, and the theme is always that they don’t make enough, aren’t thanked enough or treated well enough and that we should feel sorry for them and pay them more.
There are very few life sacrifices required to prepare oneself to be a food server, unlike most other jobs (teacher, lawyer, nurse, etc). You can basically wake up one day and get a job serving food. For the up-front sacrifice and work required, the money is often just fine. Never great. But just fine for a basic life.
Isn’t anyone happy with an opportunity to work any more?
Going out should be a time where I don’t have to bus my table, clean up anything, and not feel guilty about it either.
I worked as a waitress years ago as a teenager and still remember the customers that left me a “good” tip. That translated into future good service and goodwill.
I live in a small town and will frequently have the same wait staff on subsequent visits to a restaurant and would much rather be remembered as “the nice lady that gave me a good tip” rather than “that cheap SOB…”! No one is forcing you to leave a tip and if you are in that category where you leave 5-1o% or have such a huge chip on your shoulder about leaving a tip, then do everyone a favor and order fast food; preferably at a drive through so you can go home to eat it and not create a mess for someone else to clean up or an attitude that leaves a lasting impression.
I really don’t care what the custom is in NZ or elsewhere, if I’m not dining there…If you happen to be dining where tipping is customary for decent service, then do so! It’s your responsibility to acquaint yourself with local customs when you travel.
If you can’t afford the tip, then you can’t afford to be waited on.
What a piss-poor attitude for any employee and exactly the problem with the service industry in some places!
“If you happen to be dining where tipping is customary for decent service…”
This translates in to “I have a job that I am paid to do but if you give me extra, I won’t spit in your food next time you come around..”
Lets face it there are few people out there that would choose to be waitstaff if they had other options. Not many lottery winners out there that say ” I ‘m tired of dull day-to-day millionaire lifestyle; I think I’ll work as a server for less than minimum wage + tips…” People work in this industry mainly because they have limited options and this is one industry where you can get a job with minimum education.
You slag the NZ folk for their comments but they are on point with the attitude that they accepted this job and will give it 100% regardless of tips.
I also disagree with the comment “If you can’t afford the tip, then you can’t afford to be waited on.” The establishment sets the price for the the service why should I pay extra. If I had carpet installed in my house and the crew did a poor job would you blame me for not tipping the crew enough to ensure good service or was there an expectation that good service was a part of the deal?
I would tun this around and say that if you cannot afford to be a waitress making a wage + tips (because of your attitude) then you should find a different line of work.
I’ll eat out if I want to and I’ll tip if I want to – not my problem if you choose to work somewhere where they don’t pay you enough.
“keep in mind your server is making just over $2 an hour without tips”
Not my problem. This is a something that needs to be fixed at the legislative level. Why am I subsidizing a business? Where I live, waitstaff earn minimum wage, which is $10 per hour (after the minimum wage was reduced from $11)
And yes, I have worked as a waitress.
NB: The last government here got voted out of office because of their platform of workplace and industrial relations reform that would have stripped away workers wages, conditions, benefits and job security.
Missing the point peoples…..
Ms Simmerman very accurately states in her article that “servers deserve far more than the reduced minimum wage plus tips the government says they are worth.”
Solution:
Become Political, join your political party of choice that you feel best represents your values, aspirations and ideology.
Lobby your chosen political party’s federal or state representative at your local branch or committee meetings for decent wages and make motions / resolutions for your elected representative to take to the legislature or congress re decent wages.
If this happens all across the nation the lawmakers are going to have to take notice and if they don’t, vote them out of office.
That’s right people, exercise your democratic right and vote, stop being the silent majority that keeps getting shafted by the vocal minority with vested interests and big bucks who influence your lawmakers with their tax deductible donations that they can write off from the mega bucks they rake in from charging big bucks for their products / services whilst paying the workers who create their wealth the lowest most miserly wages they can get away with.
They may be able to influence the lawmakers with their money and it is a powerful tool but they only have one vote, just like you.
So use it or you’ll find yourself forever being one of those 47% that a certain political leader says he’s not interested in representing with the logical consequence of finding yourself stuck with 3rd world wages and employment conditions.
Its called democracy people.
Strangely, here in Australia it’s actually compulsory to vote but then I suppose thats why the government here has no choice other than to listen to the people.
Good on you Crabby, that’s exactly right. In any capitalist society, the ruling class will use all legal means at their disposal (and often illegal and unethical means) to drive wages down and keep workers disempowered, because this enables them to reap a larger share of the profits – the lower their payroll costs, the more money they can keep for themselves. I’m not targeting restaurant/cafe owners here, I’m referring to large organisations like banks, telecommunications, utility companies – their primary goal is not to keep our money safe, provide fast broadband, or hot water for our showers – their sole reason for existence is to generate good returns for their shareholders. The only way to fight back is for workers to become informed, mobilise, and use their vote as the powerful weapon it is. A strong union can ensure its members are paid a decent living wage, that’s why it’s important to keep the “47 percent” on low wages – people struggling to survive rarely have the time or energy to fight the system.
Thank you for your reply Jo.
You have nicely encapsulated the gist of my argument into into the proverbial blunt object that may be required to beat some sense into our American cousins.
The U.S. may have the best market economy with the best corporate structures that money can buy and the best health care system that money can buy, the best legal system that money can buy, and given the staggering amounts of cash that went into the recent election, apparently best politicians that money can buy.
However, this doesn’t help the average person down on Struggle Street who doesn’t have money because they are being shafted by their employer and put on casual minimum wages with no health cover, that’s if they can find a job and woe betide them if they actually get ill.
Their health care choice is pay up and bankrupt yourself or die, notwithstanding the minimum health care provided by medicare/medicaid, or maybe after you have been bankrupted and lost your house and the nest egg you have put away for your retirement or the college education for your children you may then qualify for medicare/medicaid…still, its a pretty scary prospect.
Those who pontificate about the “Entitlement Generation” should have a good look at their own situation, if they find themselves unemployed, and without health cover and then get sick, I wonder if they will still be so scathing when they are faced with the choice with pay up or die.
The way I see it is that there is still too much of the “Up you Jack, I’m alright” or the “Sue or Screw mentality” to get ahead that appears to be endemic in the American attitude.
Whatever happened to compassion in the greatest country in the world ?
It could all be so much better….
Pay your Taxes, Support the system that supports you, Become Political, join your political party of choice that best reflects your values aspirations and ideology, lobby for change and use your vote to bring the changes you want.
Leave 20% and round up ….. your high , tipping is only for those who go above and beyond their normal job title….
Correct tipping is 15-18% for excellent service 12-15% for avg service and only tip 10% for wine etc….
An article written about tipping from a ‘server’ or waitstaff is like asking a car dealer “so what should I pay you for this car?”
I agree that the establishment should pay a living wage to its staff and include that cost of doing business in the menu prices.
Until that happens, I have my own method of calculating tips.
I add 25% for tip AND TAX. So if tax is 10% they get a 15% tip. If tax is 5% they get a 20% tip. I just look at the pre-tax subtotal and round it to the next dollar and tip 25 cents per dollar.
I do capitulate to the idea of tipping as a percentage, but I don’t really get it. Why give the waitress less for bringing me a $4 salad than for bringing me a $19 steak? It’s just as much work to bring the salad. Why not just tip a flat amount like $5 per customer for good service regardless of how much the meal cost? Sure, it can be less if you barely saw them and more if they gave you special service or went out of the way for you, but I don’t see why the price tag should impact the gratuity. If anything, they should be inversely proportional … if I spend less on the food, I have more to tip you with and vice-versa!
Maybe ‘former servers’ shouldn’t be the ones providing advice on how much to tip. Round the bill up to the nearest $10 and then leave 20%? Give them a great tip for rude service cause it might turn THEIR day around? Ask for a dustpan so I can return the table to the same state it was before I sat down?
What planet is the author of this post from?
Absolutely agree!!
Agree! This article is a joke!
Making a waitress write tipping advice is not right. A real estate agent will say it is always a good time to buy real estate. A politician will say more government is good for you. A car salesman will say it is the best car ever. A person getting commission will say this is the best one for you (which gives him/her the most commission).
It is conflict of interest. You get the point!
Hey,
I usually tip like 50% but that’s because I’m rich.
Thanx 🙂
“If your server only brings your drinks, or the food is served buffet style, it is appropriate to leave a lesser tip, but 10-15% still applies.”
This kid is out of her mind. Yeah, I’ll leave 15%, on the cost of the soda, and tip myself the rest for getting my own food and serving myself. Or better yet, stop bothering me and have your cheapskate boss pay you a living wage!
I work at a gas station. I get more pissed off customers everyday then any server (due to the mandatory prepay for fuel, it’s the law btw). I get paid the same wage, but you don’t hear anything about a 15% tip (ACTAULLY many places will tell you to keep any tips you do get in the till, So don’t tip, or ask first. ’cause that $0.45, $2.00, etc ain’t going in my pocket).
I tip about 5 dollars a meal (which works out to +10%, for one or two people). but if the server is bad (like takes 20 min to check the table and ask if I want a refill), or horrible (I had a waitress assume I only wanted a drink at a restaurant I was a regular at, because I didn’t want the menu, as I already knew what I wanted. So) the tip is lower or absent.
Seriously? Dustpan?
Yea I thought that was a stretch, a simple Im sorry my kid is a mess and do what you can short of getting a dustpan.
Didn’t you know that apparently it’s your job as a customer to also clean the place for the next one yourself? We should all volunteer to wash our own dishes while we’re at it!
The server is suppose to make my experience pleasant, that is why they are paid and I am paying. I’m not interested in their bad day if it means I’m getting less than I paid for. I’ve left 5 cent tips for truly crap service, and I hope it hurt. It was meant to.
If you actually clean-up if your kids make a mess and pay 20% on top, you’re a really great human being.
However, as a waiter I would probably be weirded out if a customer cleaned-up after themselves. And as a restaurant owner, I’d not be happy to see a customer cleaning a table – terrible PR and how dare the wait staff abdicate thier job to a paying customer.
As a customer in that situation, I might use a table tissue to localize any spills and maybe tip a couple of dollars extra for the mess (assuming I’ve had at least “average” service). After all, I’ve stepped out to take a break from having to clean up after my kids.
A lot of places I visit tend to add a “service charge” – 12% to 15%; in those cases I really don’t tip unless service was great.
20% is a huge tip anywhere in the world, other than the US of A. I do think wait-staff need to get organized and lobby for better wages rather than rely on customers to overpay and grief on them if they don’t. It would be better world for both customers and employees.
I agree on the customer cleaning part. I have kids and yes they make a mess, but you have employees who’s job it is to clean. If it’s a bigger mess then normal, such as a lot of food that’s fallen under the table and the service has been good then I’ll usually tip closer to 20% because cleaning up will take longer then usual and prevent another customer from using that table a little longer. But I’m not going to ask for a dust pan and crawl around under the table myself. And tables are supposed to be wiped down between customers anyways so unless there has been a massive spill I’m not going to ask for something to do that either.
I agree with the idea of tipping for good service but not for all service regardless of quality. I work in a service industry, although not food service, and my experience has been that good service will differentiate yourself from your competitors. This will lead to repeat business, increased revenues and those responsible for this repeat business will be rewarded. Good cooks, bartenders, servers, hosts/hostesses are hard to come by and the good ones will be rewarded by the employer better if the employer is smart.
If there were a way to remove the social pressures of tipping from the public but still have some system to reward/motivate the staff to perform well I think one could create a unique restaurant that people would enjoy. I actually would like to see a restaurant where there was no tipping allowed but the prices were adjusted (20%) to reflect the expected level of service that a customer would want when they go out. Lets face it most people check out the prices on a menu before they head out these days so there will be no surprises and we go out so that we do not have to cook or clean up after ourselves.. The service part of the bill would be to reward the staff with a monthly bonus. Good staff will work hard to get their monthly bonus and the poor ones will leave or be let go. Issuing the bonus monthly will also make sure that the wages are taxed with is also fair to everyone – Staff, owners, patrons.
Life is tough and I know that some people have had it easier than others but asking people to reward those who provide poor service in a service industry is not right. All it really does in minimise the efforts of those who provide really good service and infuriate the public who is expected to support these poor performers through social pressures.
New rules for tipping:
1) Make laws that force employers to pay wait staff wages.
2) Universal healthcare, so wait staff aren’t constantly worried about losing their coverage.
3) Abolish tipping.
4) Hire accountants to manage payroll – maitre d’s and customers have to manage your tips and therefore are responsible for your pay – no, let’s hire real accountants to do payroll instead.
5) Stop writing bullshit articles like this about how it’s the customers’ responsibility to think of the wait staff. No, when I go to a restaurant, it’s my responsibility to eat in peace and enjoy my meal. Look, I’m sorry if your kid is sick and you’re having trouble paying your bills – that’s not MY problem. That’s something that your BOSS needs to deal with. We need compassionate bosses. The customer is there to enjoy your services, not pay for your college fund.
Seriously – the entire tipping system is disgusting. Worst of all, it pits worker against worker in a constant battle to beg for money. I seated tables at a shitty restaurant for a summer, and you know what? The wait staff constantly came to ME when their tips were low. “Why didn’t you give me tables?” Do you have any idea how fucking hard it is to manage every table at a restaurant so each waiter gets a fair share of the tips? You know something? I was not trained to do payroll. I was taught to seat tables.
Set a livable minimum wage. Establish universal healthcare. Abolish tipping. Let customers eat in peace. Hire accountants, not maitre d’s, to handle your payroll.
I agree, all those points at the end of your post would be great. But we live in the world Today, not how it (hopefully) might be someday. Jacking servers because it rubs one’s ego wrong to participate in the system that exists NOW is just mean. As has been said before, you don’t HAVE to go to any restaurant. If you don’t want to/can’t afford to pay the price of the meal AND service, then don’t go there. But don’t walk into a swimming pool then complain to everyone that you’re getting soaked.
Even if you must pay a fee to enter a swimming pool you are not paying an extra perccentage for the lifeguard’s level of attention. If it were so, there would be many drowned men, women and kids. Also local authorities would be looking into it. Today’s world still has safeguards that we can use. Try to change this bizzare food service worker system legally.
I had a restaurant in the valley and my service staff weren’t worth shit for beans. Most of the customers left tips, but only because they were morons. It does not help improve service, the staff make too much money, and the customers don’t come back. As soon as I put up a sign saying ‘no tipping’, everything changed. The staff left, I got better replacements, many of whom worked for food, and the customers stopped complaining about the shit we served.
The concept of tipping a certain percent of the order makes no sense. For example, when I order a bottle of wine, the waiter does the same work of bringing and opening it, regardless if it’s $20 or $100 wine… There is no logic or any substance behind it, it’s just a stupid tradition. I hate the system, but I don’t want to punish individuals, who just happened to be a part of this flawed system, so I follow the tradition and tip. I consider it a form of tax, it has little to do with the quality of service. I’m not a demanding customer and pleased easily. I usually leave a little more, if the waitress is pretty. I know it’s unfair, but the whole system makes no sense.
It’s a tax you don’t have to pay, though. Don’t be obtuse.
Don’t have to pay, unless you would prefer not to have the waitstaff spit in your food.
If you Yanks tolerate your wait staff spitting in your food, then you are bigger fools than I thought. Spitting in the food would be as good a reason to call the Police as any I can think of (it’s an assault) and, failing that, the health authorities to have the restaurant shut down (it’s a biohazard).
It would only take one, maybe two, well-publicized prosecutions to have *that* practise stopped dead in its tracks.
So, if you’re being cowed into paying 20% extra, just to avoid the stand-over tactic of having your food spat in, that’s pretty pathetic and meek. I thought you Yanks were made of sterner stuff than that!
Perhaps you should, instead, insist on your restaurants treating their wait staff fairly and paying the a decent living wage, just like everyone else gets. And if you need to pass whatever laws are necessary to achieve that, well perhaps that needs to be done, too.
But spitting in food? THAT is a threat that needs to be stopped: no doubt about it.
So, if somebody does not tip, the waitstaff will spit in the food.
If the guy who does not tip is considered a jerk/cheapskate, then what will spitting make of the waitstaff – worse than a jerk! Sad, very sad. You deserve the $2 pay with no tip!
Go ahead: spit in my food. If I find out you’ve done that, I will call the cops, and I will press charges AND sue. Starting with assault-with-intent, and ending with whatever applicable civil liabilities that will guarantee your restaurant being shut down permanently, with all wait staff fired, and the owners bankrupted. It will not worry me in the slightest.
In New Zealand there is NO TIPPING. The price is the price is the price, including all taxes. Workers get a minimum wage, and while it isn’t a fortune it is enough to live off, if you live frugally. Service is usually pretty good.
I don’t understand this “tipping” concept: why should customers be required to pay for a restaurant/bar’s staff? Shouldn’t that be their employer’s responsibility? Why should an employee be made to slave away for a pittance, in the hopes that some stranger will take pity on them and gift them some extra money?
So what is this “tipping” thing, anyway? Is it some weird “Upstairs/Downstairs” throwback you Yanks indulge yourselves in? Do you fantasize about being Royalty and having servants? It’s gotta be something like that, because it makes no sense otherwise.
In order to run a busy restaurant, one must have at least one server for every 4 tables or 6 tables if you want to push it. As you may be aware, depending on the restaurant, there could be 10-20 servers on the floor at a time in addition to bus staff, bartenders, and cooks. The fact is that the margin of profit in a restaurant is minimal compared to other industries and labor takes a HUGE chunk of the overhead.
So as a restaurant manager, you run into the dilemma of needing to provide the best possible service promptly WHILE staying within a very tight budget for labor. By restaurants paying a lower minimum wage rate, it allows the restaurant to employ 2.5 servers for the cost of one if the federal minimum wage were the industry standard. Is it entirely fair to the customer? That depends. If the restaurant had to pay every employee the federal minimum wage, menu prices would most likely be inaccessibly high. One would hope that the restaurant takes the ‘reduced’ labor cost into consideration and prices the menu accordingly. This isn’t always the case, but then again, if you don’t like the prices or service, one can always choose to spend their money elsewhere.
One more thing to add to your comments, we ‘Yanks’ are not accustomed to having servants, on the contrary. Our Latin American counterparts; however, are. The fact is that when you dine in Latin America, hospitality workers, including the chef and cooks, are often treated like servants and is not a profession most people aspire to be employed in. In the United States, we don’t tip to be politically correct, we tip to show our appreciation for your efforts. Tipping isn’t customary for every service, but it’s common when you’ve been given some kind of personalized service such as a hair cut, manicure, massage, hospitality, tour guides, etc..
The bottom line is that if you don’t want to tip, then don’t do it. Maybe things are different in New Zealand, but in the USA, we don’t typically have excessive debates about voluntarily GIVING a few extra bucks to our waitstaff if they’ve done a good job. Most waiters can make a pretty decent living serving tables and if an extra couple bucks out of my pocket at an establishment I enjoy can help them achieve that, then I am ok with that.
Karina,
There is nothing “voluntary” about the tipping process described in this article: it discusses a MINIMUM rate, and even suggests that this rate ought to apply before any discounts take place. In effect, it makes your customer responsible for paying your restaurant staff adequately.
As to tight margins — gimme a break! Business is tough for everybody these days, and I know of no businesses who are NOT running very lean, with little-or-no margin to spare.
You have said that if you had to pay your staff appropriately (rather than relying on the customer to pay them) this would be reflected in high prices being shown in the menus. Perhaps, in the interest of transparency, this is what should happen — because the cold reality is that the price on the menu will need to be adjusted by the customer by 10% to 20% or more, anyway, by way of the Tip he is expected to pay! So the price on the menu is a fiction to begin with!
The more I read these comments, the more convinced I become that you Yanks have some sort of Upstairs/Downstairs servant fantasy going on, where you’d like nothing more than to be waited on hand-and-foot, and to have the power to decide whether another human being gets to make a decent living or not. What a twisted concept? Why not just pay your wait staff fairly, in the first place, and be done with it??
Karina, you yanks really need to get out more, tipping? it is not the tourists or the regular customers fault that their employers pay bad wages. I have travelled extensively across America and have only once ever tipped and that was to an amazing young porter in San Francisco.
Tipping in western countries is for service, it is not because some minimum wage in the good ol us of a is so poor.
No disrespect to service staff in America but it is your own governments responsibilty to provide you with a decent minimum wage.
To Mac: Not only have I traveled extensively, but I lived in Latin America for half my life, so please don’t lecture me about how things are done elsewhere. As I said in a previous post, I pay my waitstaff the federal minimum wage because I personally don’t like the idea of paying waitstaff a reduced minimum wage. However; our cultural norm is to tip, therefore I don’t intend to be the jerk who decides to revolutionize American society by shafting the servers at my favorite restaurants just to make a statement. This is a battle I’m not interested in fighting.
As for you, Chieftan, I’m glad you feel you know more about the restaurant industry than those who are professionals in the industry. Of course almost every industry is in dire straits right now, but all food service industries have something in common that many other businesses don’t contend with and that is perishable items. In a food service establishment, you always have to have your kitchen stocked to serve your menu, whether an item is selling or not. Sure, you can make adjustments to your inventory and the menu occasionally and offer specials daily, but if nobody walks in, you’re S.O.L. Restaurants can be profitable, but the fact is that many of them are just breaking even. This isn’t my opinion, it’s a reality. Furthermore, you insist on this idea that Americans love to have some servant class of some sort. Who knows what gives you that idea when having servants in the USA is exceptionally rare and reserved for the wealthiest residents. Hey, we’re not the ones with the Queen’s face plastered on our $20 bill, so why don’t you get off your royalty rant and save it for someone who cares?
I’d also like to add that although I’ve never been to New Zealand, I have traveled a few times to Europe and hundreds of times to Latin America and have been less than impressed with the quality of service in comparison to the USA. Customer service is not a priority the way it is here. Everyone kind of drag their asses to get things done and if you attempt to demand service in any way, be prepared for the attitude. There is always room for improvement, but overall, I’ll take what we have here over Europe and Latin America any day. Perhaps NZ is nothing like this, but I’ll be sure to make a big stink about it on this forum in your honor if turns out that it is.
The bottom line is that if you don’t want to tip, no restaurant can force you to tip. If the service is bad, tip accordingly or not at all. If you enjoyed the service and want to tip, go for it. In the United States as well as most Latin American countries, tipping is customary, although the average tip is typically 10% in Latin America.
As for anyone reading this who is in the service industry, you should offer the best possible service whether you’re serving New Zealander cheapskates or generous American patrons because that’s your job, period. So the next time you have the pleasure of serving anyone from New Zealand or from anywhere else, for that matter, kill ’em with kindness because clearly, some of these folks have been deprived from the warm fuzzies in their lives and maybe YOU could be instrumental in turning that frown upside down! 😀
Using your logic, then, Karina — we should tip the supermarket staff because their business, too, has perishable items. Spare me!
If you overstock on your perishable items, you must be daft. Here in NZ, the restaurants take their very best guess at what they need, and if they run out — too bad: that item is no longer on the menu for that nite. Cafes do it too: they order as much food as they think they need, and if they have an exceptionally busy day, they run out and the customer is simply out of luck. It happens once in a while, and it teaches the customer “snooze-you-lose”.
I can’t see why you feel your customers and staff ought to be carrying your business risk for you, beyond what the price on the menu ought to be covering: perishable goods has nothing to do with what you pay your wait staff. You ought to be paying your wait staff a decent wage, and stop being so cheap and mean. Then all this tipping nonsense would be utterly unnecessary.
The more I read of this thread, the more convinced I become that you Yanks have some sort of “Upstairs/Downstairs” fantasy going. Nothing else can explain this fetish you’ve got for tipping your servants.
Perhaps you miss having Royalty around, dunno.
Karina your lecturing is hypocritical. you admit in your post that you offer daily specials to get rid of old food. How about ‘tipping’ your customers with fresh quality food?
This is why people should not eat at tradition restaurants – the food is old, the service staff can’t wait to spit in your food or send hateful thoughts your way. Apparently, unless they are having a good day or think you aren’t stupid enough to leave them a good tip.
I livedin the US, Latinamerica Europe and now in the expensive Singapore.
I also find the american tipping scheme absurd and have to disagree with Karina about her statement that the us service is superior. Sue I had the pleasure of being served by the rude waiter in France who doesn’t give a damn about the customer and in Spain many times when I said Gracias the waiter stare at me as if I was cursing them one even barked at me why do you thank me this is my job. But in general I have to say that the service is very similar no matter where if you are in upscale restaurants, even in Latinamerica. I wonder wherre did Karina eat, i have nothing but praise for many restaurants I visited in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Lima.
In Europe somehow they pay a decent wage to the waitstaff and the price in the menus includes tax and service without making the restaurants super expensive, so I believe it can be done in the US.
Tipping is not customary in most Latin american countries, only the dumb gringos do this.
Yikes!! Issues……
I’m a european. Just like the Kiwis, we expect our barstaff and waitstaff to be paid a proper wage, and not have to rely on begging and extortion.
We expect your menu to tell us the true price of our meal. The restaurant employs the staff to make and deliver the meal to the table, and to clear away. That’s pretty simple, isn’t it? If I buy an air ticket, the airline doesn’t expect its pilots to roam around the cabin holding out a begging cap. Why does the U.S. food and drink industry cling on to such an outmoded and demeaning system?
Kiwis aren’t being cheapskates by not tipping, they’re simply running a fairer country than you’re used to.
To tip for poor service is to perpetuate poor service.
Do not agree that menu prices will be inaccessibly high.
A restaurant owner, based on their estimates of number of tickets and sales, will price a dish knowing well how much in wages they will pay and how much in tips the waiters are expected to get. If there was no tipping and direct wages are paid, the restaurant owner will price the dish accordingly.
If there were no tipping or with tipping, the prices will even out eventually and the dish will cost the same. It happens the world over. There are more countries without tipping and some have a fixed service charge. As an example, the $20 dish roughly will end up costing $20 in all scenarios.
And making a waitress write tipping advice is not right. A real estate agent will say it is always a good time to buy. A politician will say more government is good for you. A car salesman will say it is the best car ever. A person getting commission will say this is the best one for you (which gives him/her the most commission). It is conflict of interest. You get the point!
To add, the supposed customer service from wait staff is average in US. It is very scripted from almost every wait staff (unless you are a regular and tend to remember faces). Flash a fake smile, ask a routine is everything good question, ask a scripted let me know if you need anything – just a regular job routine with some scripted tasks. There are extraordinarily few wait staff in the US (maybe 1 in 1000) who sound genuinely warm and pleasant when they provide the service. The rest are just monotonously routine and want you out so they can get the next customer (more tips) – same as the fake bye/thank you one gets when you disembark a flight.
The miserable thing is to say that they are having a bad day when the customer may be having a normal or good day and have their moment/thoughts spoiled.
HEAR, HEAR! Well said, TM. Exactly!
Tipping is a SCAM. It’s a SCAM for restauranteurs and bar owners, because it lets them under-pay their staff. And it is a SCAM for wait staff, who probably do not declare all their income for tax purposes. It’s a SCAM, and we should not be extorted into supporting this corrupt practise by guilt-ridden articles like this one!
WHY should the customer be guilt-tripped into paying the restaurant/bar’s staff a living wage? Surely, that’s their employer’s responsibility! If the employer can’t/won’t afford to pay their staff a decent living wage, they do not deserve to be in business. Full stop!
As a customer, it is not/should not be my problem to pay wait staff. So I never tip. Not even 1%. The price is the price is the price. And if more people did this, restaurants and bars would finally figure it out: pay their staff fairly, or go out of business.
Their choice.
I have a small restaurant and have chosen to pay my server and delivery driver / busser minimum wage plus they get to keep all their tips. We also do a lot of catering, so whenever any of my staff members work the event or deliver the food on their own, they get to keep the full tip. In the event I work the event with them, then we split it.
As a business owner, I want my staff to be happy and satisfied with their jobs, but what’s most important to me is that people want to continue giving me their business. Tips are just the icing on the cake…. and we all know cake is good, but it’s MUCH better with a few layers of icing on it. One thing I’d like to point out is that tipping is customary even when you have a gift certificate or some kind of free service voucher. For the record, the tip is traditionally based on the actual cost of the service, not on the discounted price you got it for.
At the end of the day, tips should be based SOLELY on the quality of the service received. However, if you’re offered good service and you can afford to do so, a reasonable tip is greatly appreciated.
Round it off to $10 then add 20% tip to it? Are you kidding me?
I usually tip 5%. That’s it. I don’t care what anyone thinks. But I’m uniform, good or bad service, you get 5%. I give 5% even at the McDonalds counter. It’s a uniform rule. It’s called Bob’s 5% standard.
I live in latinamerica and we only tip 10% with good service included, and minimum wage here is US$6/day!!! I also tip 10-15% when I go to the U.S. I do not go to a restaurant to support employees salary, nor do I go to any store to support their employees. I simply go there because they provide me a service and I pay my bill. Nobody tips me for working in an office. I feel paying well to their employees is the responsibility of the Employer. When I feel hungry and enter a restaurant but my pocket is short on cash, I do not hesitate to go in, order and eat, and have no remorse if I cannot give a tip!!!
Well, as has been said several times here, Employers don’t pay even the minimum wage in the U.S. because it’s understood servers will be tipped on the value of the food. This is how the industry works here. Perhaps someday everyone will make $13/hr minimum like in New Zealand or England (then our economy will really be rolling like theirs :o), but until then this is the system we have. If I receive a service from your office and say “sorry my pocket’s a little short on cash”, you think that’s OK?
With the prices of food in restaurants these days I expect good service. I am not going to leave a good tip when the service is poor. The only valid excuse for slow or inattentive service is staffing, which is not a servers fault. Keep that in mind when you tip. Is your server covering a ton of tables & doing their best or does it appear they just have a few tables and don’t care?
Normally, I double 10% and round down to the nearest buck. For bad service, they are on my XXXX Do NOt Go There for at least 2 years and I let everyone know about this. I also Tweet it. There are less than 10 on my list. from lowly Hot Dog Stands to some of the Nations best.
On one occasion, there was no flatware in my position on the table. In the next 15 minutes, I asked for flatware 3 times. When my meal came, the waiter was just beginning to take orders on a 7 person table and still no flatware. I just knew how cold my meal would be if I continued to wait. I got up, went to another table and snatched the flatware.
When the bill came – I most always pay by credit card – where there was a place to enter a tip, I wrote ‘NO SERVICE – NO TIP’.
In most establishments, Management (Not the servers) distribute the tips and divvy up between bartenders, buss boys and (YES) even the dishwashers. This had to be noticed.
Oh, you’re giving the waitress a well-deserved ‘fat’ tip? (Industry definition – anything over 18%) Unfortunately, (s)he will be lucky to see the half of it.
I have never understood why tip should be split with buss boys and dishwashers. If I order a drink from the bar then definitely tip the bartender. But the other two should be paid by management, not me. It’s their job to keep the place clean and sanitary, and they should be paid to do their job, not “tipped”.
I also don’t understand why the sharing of the tip
Waitresses and waiters should also be paid(by their employers) to do their job. It’s their job to take our orders and bring our food.
It is ridiculous to leave it to North American waiters/waitresses to think that a tip is required regardless of service. If that were the case, they should just include the minimal tip amount into the price instead of making it my own choice to tip. A tip is earned, its not an entitlement.
Leave an encouraging note?!?! If I do bad work at my job I don’t get a “cheer up” from my coworkers, we lose money in our business. And that’s that way it should be. If you are not “having a good day”, then let me know that before I start dining so that I can request another waiter/waitress instead. I didn’t sign up for your bad day and I’m paying for my food/service. That being said, good service definitely deserves a 15-20% tip, but it really does have to be good service.
This, a thousand times this.
We are customers, not your personal counselors. You’re having a bad day? Tough shit. I’m on my lunch break from MY job. I want to eat and go back to MY daily grind. Why should I give a damn about your problems?
I mean, on a basic, human level – yes, ok. I have sympathy. I get it. I’m sorry. Your day is bad. Jesus, your kid is sick, that’s horrible.
But guess what: a restaurant is neither the time nor place for that. If you let your bad mood slip over into your work, guess what? You suck at your job. Sorry. That’s how it is. When my wife and I have a fight, I still go to work and do my job as best I can. Am I distracted? Sure. But I don’t expect my customers to pat me on the back and say, “Don’t worry. Next week you’ll give me better service. I’m sure of it!”
I get that waiting tables is perhaps one of the lowest rungs on the totem pole. I get that. I sympathize, I do. And I’m going to treat you with as much human dignity and respect as I can, ok? But write you an encouraging note?
Are you out of your mind?
Good on you Franklin. You gave me the biggest laugh of my day with your “fee-fees”! LOL.
20% -25 % percent for a tip! You have to be joking. You do your job you receive your wage. If you expect me to subsidize your wage you are out of luck. If you wage is not enough to live on, get a different job. If you are unhappy that the Law allows your employer to pay you below minimum wage change the law.
Concur 2000%
Couldn’t agree more. If you don’t like your situation change it, just don’t b!tch to me about it when I am trying to enjoy my meal.
I prefer the Singapore system where there is 10% service charge added to the bill and no tip is expected. To me this means that I am not responsible for the employee, the boss is. Having a discretionary tip put the pressure on the customer to reward the server; this is the employers job full stop!
Singapore is a country without minimum wages, low tax rates, yet basic medical is affordable to all, the children rank number 1&2 in maths and sciences in the world and everyone is happy to have a job of some sort.
I can assure you that the average person here makes far less than in the US but the government makes sure that the basic needs are taken care of and it is not cheap. The public housing starts at about USD $300k. Cars start at about USD $100k (honda civic like car) but taxi’s are affordable and the public transport is excellent.
There are social classes here and you can jump from one class to another but there is no illusion that coffee shop server is going to live like a doctor or like PM Lee (the Prime Minister is the worlds highest paid Gov. leader)
It’s all about attitude
I await the onslaught of unhappy servers poised to attack me for having a “poor” attitude 😉
Hong Kong also has the added 10% scheme. It is merely is a way of passing labor costs directly to the end user. I’m not sure much gets to the servers.
Tipping is a way to allow service management to be shared between the owner and the end user and basically is a good system. I remember my first visit to mainland China in the 8o’s. I ate for several days in a small restaurant, state owned, that had a service fee and no tipping allowed.
First day, rude service after waiting 5 minutes while servers finished their conversation. However, I put one yuan (actually a FEC than) under a plate.
Second day, waitress flipped the dirty (always orange) table cloth to the clean side, less rude, two yuan under a plate.
Third day we got the table under the fan, new table cloth and two waitress politely serving us. Definitely four yuan service!
Suddenly the customers were recognized as part of the server’s reward system. Better service for all and better income for the servers.
Once, I waited for almost thirty minutes before even getting a menu. When the waitress finally came to our table the first thing out of her mouth was “I’m having a bad day but don’t let that affect my tip.” I said not to worry, “it won’t.” She got nothing.
My rule is simple, I start at $0. Earn something, you get something. But don’t automatically expect something.
My points exactly. People should be paid at least a minimum living wage. Any tips should be a bonus, and only for *exceptional* service.
And the worst thing is they think it’s OK to tell the customer that.
Once I had such a crappy service at a deli, I left no tip. When I was walking to my car in the parking lot the waiter came running. I thought I left something but no, she cornered me and aggressively demanded to know why I didn’t leave a tip. I explained but she went on going about the minimum wage, sharing the tips blah blah. So unbelievable.
It didn’t surprise me when they closed that place a couple of weeks later.
@Mimi — it’s insane for customers to tip wait staff. Their employment contract is between their employers and themselves. They have no contract — expressed or implied — with their employer’s customer. They therefore have no reasonable expectation of the customer paying any part of their wages: that’s their employer’s job.
The restaurant itself has a contract with the customer: they provide food and ambience to the customer in exchange for payment. How they provide the food to the customer is entirely up to them: they can use wait staff, or trained monkeys, or robots, or conveyer belts, or they can make the customer collect their own food, buffet-style: that’s the restaurant’s problem to figure out, not the customer’s. And the restauraunt *should* adjust their prices accordingly.
Any paying customer who feels some sort of “moral obligation” to pay the restaurant staff’s wages by way of a tip — and also take responsibility for supervising and disciplining poor staff performance for their employer by withholding the tip — has rocks for brains: why have a dog and bark yourself?
Tipping is a bad habit, but like all bad habits it can be un-learned.
I really disagree with this idea that we should still tip when given terrible service at a bar/restaurant. Being in the customer service industry, I do not believe that “the customer is always right”, but at the same time I do not believe that giving a tip is compulsory. I have given tips that were over 100% of the bill for exceptional service, but if you ignored me or were rude, I’m not giving you anything and will in fact write on the bill “BAD SERVICE” just so that we’re clear that I did not just forget to tip. So seeing articles like this that state that even bad service still warrants a small tip just rubs me the wrong way. Don’t reward bad behavior, people!
Well that is spot on. Rewarding bad behaviour, that’s ridiculous.
If u do not have money to tip, never goto a restaurant period. Want a better service? Tip because waiters n waitress may be a job title for one among your family. Ask him or her now or later how they feel when they get no tips for excellent service. Need a drink in no time or meal in no time goto fast food. Restaurants aren’t for you if you think about speed n tip I your head.
You’re talking about waiting tables as if it is some kind of social injustice, some kind of disease. “Tip because waiters n waitress may be a job title for one among your family.” Yes, and just for pennies a day, you too can sponsor one of these poor, underprivileged wait staff.
If you honestly felt that waiters were some kind of downtrodden, oppressed mass of people, you would go out and protest minimum wage laws instead of wanking on and on about tipping them.
Hey, how about this: how about the WAITER asks ME how I feel when I don’t get a tip at work. I have fee-fees too.
Grow up!
No, I know communication is important, but I am not the waiting staff’s boss, I am their customer. I know they can have bad days, so can I. It isn’t my job to instruct them, or to manage them, or train them. It is my job to be their customer and provide for their restaurant patronage so they have a place to work at without regard to their emotional state, or mine. I don’t modify my tips based to food cooked, I don’t modify my tips based on atmosphere, I do it based on the job performed. I have been a cook and wait staff, I expect better, I am sorry if that isn’t pleasant. A tip is to show appreciation for work performed, it is the judge. The tip is the encouragement to have bad days not show up at work. A tip is to ensure that even if your boss doesn’t train you well, YOU SEEK the training.
No ma’am, I disagree entirely.
Tipping is a disease in the USA; if it moves its got to be tipped.
Play better wages, treat workers fairly and with dignity, but then again, that’s not the American way.
The rest of the World lives with just 10% and that it’s not mandatory.
Seriously, you and every other waiter/waitress who wants to make 20 percent the new norm…forget it.
It’s 15%. You want more, do a great job, or get a new job.
And tipping at a BUFFET? You must be kidding.
You’re putting waitstaff at just one level above beggars on the street. Professional, experienced servers know how to EARN consistently high tips through good service because it’s OUR JOB. I get good tips because I work my ass off in a job that anyone off the street is technically qualified to do, but I DO IT BETTER, AND PEOPLE NOTICE.
Blog posts like this demean the profession.
Some restaurants have a Sunday Buffet that servers are required to work. Their hourly rate is not increased for this. The still make the same low hourly wage, so if you don’t tip, it is basically forced volunteer work.
Not my fault, not my problem. If their boss is getting away with forcing them to do unpaid overtime, or forced volunteering, or slave labor – that needs to be taken up with the police. That needs to be taken to court or taken to the authorities. If I go to a sunday buffet for a pleasant meal with my family, there is NO WAY for me to know if I have just walked into a reputable establishment or a den of slave labor. I just can’t. I mean, if I walk into an underground dog fight – yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s illegal. If I walk into a meth lab, yeah, I’ve got some idea that I’ve made a mistake.
But if I walk into a sunday brunch where the staff aren’t being paid? How on earth am I going to know unless the staff pass me a note saying, “Please send help. Being forced to work against will. Please call the police!”
Holy shit, if someone handed me a note saying that, I’d leave immediately and call the police. “Hello? This inconspicuous sunday brunch is being staffed by SLAVES! Get the SWAT TEAM!”
“If you don’t tip, it is basically forced volunteer work.” What a load of horse shit.
Franklin I think you misunderstood. They didn’t say the wait staff doesn’t get paid at all on those sunday buffets, simply that they are still paid whatever their normal below minimum wage rate is. Meaning that to a point it’s barely worth it to them to even bother coming in to work that day if no one tips them at all. Which with gas prices these days I would probably agree.
That being said I usually do leave a small tip for buffet service, but not usually more then $5. And again, that’s only if the staff is attentive. Does the waitress clear the empty dishes quickly? Or are they still sitting when I come back to the table with another serving? Are drinks refilled promptly or do we have to try and flag someone down?
I have been to some buffets where you quite literally had to fend for yourself. The waitress took note of how many people were at the table and handed out cups and that was it till she dropped off the bill. You got your own drinks and were even expected to bus your own table. They had a bin on the side for the dishes with a sign saying to make sure you scraped the left overs into the trash beside it before putting them in the bin. Most of those are happily few and far between and if I ever do happen to stumble into one I never go back to it again. A school cafeteria I can understand that but as a model for a restaurant? No way.
thats funny as hell!
Find another job. I’ve been in the situation of not getting paid enough. A few years ago, I got a promotion with a lot more responsibilies. They did not however, give me a raise for all that. I found a better job. Better pay, great benefits,and 3 miles from my home. I can not feel sorry for a waitress who doesn’t get enough tips to live on. You know the risk when you take the job. Waitressing is a nice second job,for extra money.But not a good job to try to pay your bills and support your family.
Round up to the nearest $10, *then* add 20%??? You’re delusional.
I routinely leave 20%, but that number drops if the service is poor. I don’t care what kind of a day you’re having, I don’t care if you only make $2/hour, I don’t care if you think I’m rude — your job is to take my order, serve my food and drinks, and do it quickly and professionally. If you can’t do that, then you get a shitty tip, and if you think that’s wrong then get a different job.
I’ve worked as a busser in restaurants for years and I recently worked at a restaurant where the waitresses made the same houry wage as me, and then tips on top of it. So don’t believe the 2$ bullshit all the time. These women are making ins of money and I averaged $20 in tips a night while I did all of the running/bussing. They literally only took the orders and I did rest, yet they only give me 5% of their tips despite the same hourly wage. They always complained about not making good tips too (This is in the heart of Hollywood, I can assure the amount of money they made in tips was not low).
Funny that these “how much should you tip” stories are always written by waitresses. If you asked me what I should be compensated, I’m sure I’d up that figure quite a bit.
Tipping is a horrible and inequitable practice. Why should it be based on a percentage of the bill? Does the waitress have to work harder to bring me a $50 dish than a $10 dish? Are they really providing me value in assigning an employee to dispense pepper instead of just putting it on the table? On takeout orders, is it really such a service to put my food in a box instead of on a plate? It’s nothing more than a culturally sanctioned excuse for management to save money. Furthermore, every restaurant has a different practice – unless you keep up with it, you never know how much of a tip is actually going to said waitress.
I come to a restaurant to eat, not to be entertained or conversationalized by the staff. Nothing infuriates me more than a server interrupting a conversation to “tell me today’s specials”. Frankly, in most places the wait staff is horribly inefficient – I’d much rather pick my own order up from the kitchen if it were allowed.
The only reason I tip whatsoever is that I know that many people are stuck in these positions and need the money. I give just as I give to charity. If the staff is a detriment to the meal, I don’t tip at all.
WOW ! I am happy that you have never come into my establishment you ungrateful prick !! you are probably one of the :guests: that expects everything for nothing !
In some of the chain restaurants ie: Chili’s, Applebee’s etc the service staff is REQUIRED to go through a scripted table side service announcement or they can be terminated !
As some one who has been in this industry for 35 year and takes pride in what they do I can only hope you go to a sub par establishment and get raw chicken !
My wife and I play a kind of game when going out to restaurants, we start at $20 (if the average meal is under $80) for every (in are opinion) mistake our server makes we take $1 out, what ever is left over by the end of the meal is the tip.
What a fun game. Ugh.
I’m sorry. I understand that everyone’s human and that everyone is going to have a bad day once in a while. Fine. But I don’t think that I should have to reward them for their bad service because they’re USUALLY a good server. I consider myself a relatively generous tipper for well-deserving service. But act like an I owe you a tip before I even sit down and you will be receiving the linty spare change from my pocket as tip.
If I get good service, I tip — and take the time to tell the manager that the server did well. If the server is snarky or incompetent, I don’t tip at all. If someone simply adds a tip to my bill, they’re told to remove it: I’ll make up my own mind about the quality of the service and I’ll decide how much I’m going to tip.
As to leaving a smaller tip to get the message across that the service could have been better: hogwash. Any sane person knows very well when they’ve been rude and if they’ve had proper training, they know when they’ve failed to get their job done. I’m not rewarded for poor performance at my job: I see no reason to reward anyone for poor performance at theirs.
If servers spent half the time lobbying for a decent minimum wage law that they do trying to convince customers to tip for poor service, you could have one passed in a fortnight.
Judging by your attitude Connor, I imagine that you do get paid for poor performance at your job from time to time. No one is perfect, not even you. And seeing as your comment was “snarky”, I SINCERELY hope you do not have a job where you come in contact with the general public on a regular basis.
And since you have such a wonderful job, why don’t YOU spend time lobbying for a decent minimum wage for ALL. Most servers are busy trying to keep a roof over their heads and food in their refrigerators.
I have a feeling that you are one of the exact customers that I was referring to when I said servers don’t want to spend time at tables with rude customers. I can tell by your very brief comments that you are not someone that I would want to dine with.
I didn’t find his comment snarky or rude at all. He’s right! If servers spent time organizing and electing decent politicians that look out for the working person then this discussion might not be happening at all. With your logic, I should be subsidizing the wages of everyone from Walmart workers to McDonalds cashiers. I respect servers and tip them decently. I’d certainly hate to be one. But WAKE UP, stop complaining on sites like this one and point the finger where it should be pointed. The unenlightened slave does not wish to be free, but to have a slave of their own. Someone smarter then me said that.
This is the bottom line and I absolutely agree. If the service is poor, then they’re not doing their job and I won’t suppliment their wages. I also tell write why on the bill…..
I think it is disgusting that restaurants are even allowed to practically force their servers to have to make a living off tips.
A tip is supposed to be for good service so this whole article saying we should tip even when the service is poor is absolutely bonkers.
When I go out to a restaurant the final price I pay includes the “table charge” (whatever that is anyway), the food and the service all in one. Looking at it any other way is just stupid and if that means the majority of Americans are stupid then so be it.
Going by that logic, you can see that a tip is actually something EXTRA that the server MIGHT receive if they are providing an extremely good service.
Many servers do provide an excellent service every single time and they probably do make good money on their tips but here in the UK the wages are such that people who don’t end up getting tips can still survive.
Are we, the customers, responsible for paying the wages of the servers? No. We are responsible for sitting down, being quiet, ordering our food (even without eating it as long as we pay) and then pay the bill at the end. Anything outside of that simple transaction is a bonus.
Even writing this article is just keeping this bloodsucking practice alive but I think it should be killed and the minimum rage raised.
I agree with everything that KiwiKid said and, not surprisingly, I’m from the UK.
You should come to the UK where the minimum wage is much higher AND you have a decent chance of getting tips if you provide a good service.
What more needs to be said?
Seb, you might add how people on low wages can thrive. Tell them about the NHS. The NHS exists in the UK. It’s an admirable system, universal healthcare, and a telling factor.
An illness – even a visit to a doctor can put anyone below the poverty line in North America. Also, even healthy people depend on good dental care if their income depends on smiling and goodwill. I hate to think what those costs are in North America.
For an article such as this, which is distributed to the far corners of the nation (not to even mention this world), the information is surprisingly inaccurate and wrong-headed. If all that is mentioned is that several states have minimum wage requirements that make entry-level pay equivalent among industries, then the article is quite disingenuous.
In the case of very poor service, we speak to the server and express our concerns. If the service is the fault of the kitchen, we mention it to the server, but always request the manager meet us, immediately (in such cases, we realize the pressure felt by servers and always assure him/her that we know the difference between failings of the kitchen and poor service by a server).
If the problem is not the server, we assure the manager that we will post a negative review. If the problem is related to the server, we always leave a tip of approximately 25% of what we would ordinarily give (20-25% of pretax charges). Such a small amount is calculated to force the server to acknowledge–and correct–her/his attitude or efforts.
So what do you do when the service friendly but it takes 30 minutes to get your drinks and 45 more to get your meal and 30 minutes to get your check…but the waitress was friendly, warm and professional?
This is a fair point, and if it isn’t obvious that the restaurant is unusually busy, I feel that you’re owed a truthful explanation. Server forgot to put your order in? First try got burnt by the kitchen? The management should discount your check. Ask your server what is going on, and if you don’t feel the explanation is justifiable, talk to the manager. But always speak to the server first. Especially after the first wait, conveying that you need more prompt attention should solve the problem. Slowness may be a matter of the restaurant’s preferred pacing of tables and while the server can fix it, slower may the default of management.
If I’m just in a hurry, or I am concerned with what I think the speed of service will be, I tell them that I am in a rush. I always appreciated folks letting me know they were short on time. That shaped my priorities for that table. I knew they probably wouldn’t want a second drink or dessert, but might need their leftovers wrapped.
These are awesome. I was a waitress and this examples are right on. Many people don’t’ understand the pay they get and how badly some people treat them.
Another point that could be added is that customers do a great deal to affect the kind of service they receive. Servers don’t want to spend time at tables where the customers are rude to them. So if you feel that you receive poor service often and therefore tip less because of it, then consider that you maybe a factor in this. And if you realize that you are a difficult customer, then you could probably be tipping more. I have found that often the easiest customers to take care of are the ones that tip the most.
QBJ, yes the restaurant owner would be thrilled with the business. The servers, not so much. If you were making a majority of your living based off of tips, then you wouldn’t want someone coming in who couldn’t afford to tip.
It would be wonderful if restaurants made enough money to pay servers a salary (and some do) and make tipping unnecessary.
Any restaurant that doesn’t make enough money to pay their staff a living wage shouldn’t be in business. EOS! But while they can get away with paying a totally unrealistic minimum wage, and encourage tipping, which in some cases even gets skimmed off by the employer/owner, well nothing will change.
While there are a lot of things good about the US, there are also a lot of things that are just plain butt ugly. Labor practices being a glaring example.
It is their JOB to provide their best service to each and every customer. The customer is always right. If I’m having a bad day and not feeling very friendly, as the customer, that’s my prerogative. If you’re having a bad day, as the worker in a service industry job, it’s your JOB to put that B.S. behind you and give me the service I’ve entered your establishment to receive.
It’s the worker who gives awesome service to the mean customers who deserves the biggest tips!
This idea that “the customer is always right” is entitled bullshit and is usually used to bully servers/customer service people into giving something to someone that they are not entitled to get. Just because you’re the customer doesn’t mean you have free reign to be a jerk to the people working at the company that you are patronizing.
The customer is sometimes right.
I agree
If I worked at the DMV and had to deal with rude customers, I wouldn’t be able to just, you know, ignore the ones I don’t like. What unprofessional horse shit! “You’re annoying so I won’t bother serving you to the best of my ability.” Again, why is this the customer’s fault? If you’re being a prissy jerk back in the kitchen while I wait to have my water refilled, whose fault is it when you get a shitty tip?
What self-righteous crap I always, always hear from wait staff. I tell you what: you know who deals with difficult customers? TEACHERS. A teacher doesn’t just get to walk away from the difficult students, and you know what? They don’t get tips.
Here’s my ultimatum: the day I see people giving teachers 20% tips is the day I will GLADLY hand over a 5% tip to my waitress. Maybe. Seriously – what a disgusting, fucked up system where a waiter is believed to deserve 20% in tips yet a teacher has to walk around buying his own classroom supplies because his school is underfunded?
This entire conversation is such pointless horse shit because wait staff are perhaps the single least important workers on the planet. Garbage men? Teachers? Plumbers? There is a vast list of underpaid laborers who matter at least ten thousand times more than a damned waiter and I never, ever see anyone clambering to tip their garbage man.
Seriously, the more I read these comments the more upset I’m getting. It’s the customer’s fault if he gets bad service? AND you want a 20% tip? Fuck you. Tip your garbageman. Protest for higher teachers’ wages. Then and only then would you have even the tiniest moral right to anything like a 20% tip.
I mean, look: I can get up and get my food from the kitchen any time I want to. I have no idea where the city dump is in my town. I NEED garbagemen. I don’t need you. I’d rather tip my garbageman.
(GRIN!) @Franklin — My Dad tips the garbage-men in his neighborhood, tho’ not with cash. Every garbage-day, without fail, Dad is at the curbside when the garbage is collected. A cool soda on a hot day, hot cocoa on a cold day. Do you think they ever forget to pick up his garbage? Same with the snowplow: hot cocoa or coffee, and guess whose steep and winding street always gets properly plowed, on time?
There’s a big difference between what Dad does, and what this waitress who wrote the article thinks she’s entitled to. What Dad does is decent, neighborly behavior — and that’s just Dad, he’s like that. Not everybody does it, and not everyone needs to. It’s not “tipping”, and it certainly isn’t something the garbagemen / snowplow guys expect.
And they wouldn’t get snarky if, for some reason, one day Dad wasn’t there: they’d still tip out his garbage or plow his street. And they don’t rely on sodas and cocoa in order to do their jobs properly: the city pays them a decent, living wage.
I think this whole tipping thing you Yanks do is bizarre. It truly is.
It is a bizarre system favoring no one but the restaurant owner. Why should the servers and the customers be at logger heads with each other when the owners could pay a decent wage that would allow a person to exist with dignity. If the owners can’t make enough profit to pay a server a descent wage they should make a better business plan. People have to eat but they don’t need to be cooked for and served enough to perpetuate this system.
EXACTLY!
I mean where does tipping end, really?
In my experience, in my travels, locations with poor labour laws does one invariably see a plethora of tip jars everywhere you go…coffee shops, etc. and tipping is just expected. As someone previous said, why should the customer and server be at loggerheads while the restaurant owner is pocketing all that extra cash he or she is saving from not paying their server a fair wage, then driving off in a porsche? Should we just do away with fair minimum wages for everyone and depend on the good graces of customers to make up the difference? Just add 20% on top everything you buy the minute you walk out the door of your house? Tip the guy at the gas station? Tip the underpaid worker at Walmart everytime you go in there to buy your socks made in Vietnam, or wherever the hell they are made?
And let me add, that I do tip restaurant servers, because it is the norm. However, I would rather tip the 16 year old at a fast food chain, or the person at Walmart, that is working his or her ass off because they’re parents are not well off, who is trying to put himself through college…while their rich-parents-peers coast through life with ample leisure time to put in extra hours of study time to make better marks and get a better job, and network and keep up with social and technological trends. I grew up in a working class family (yeah, I know class doesn’t exist in the US, riiiiiight!) and know what it’s like to struggle to get ahead. The Romneys, the Bushes, the Kochs, are born at the finish line, while if your African-American, a new immigrant, or occupy the bottom 20-25% of the income ladder, you can run all your life and never see the finish line.
This discussion is just a distraction from discussing the real issues here: income inequality in America and what can be done to fix it.
I mean $2.50 per/hr? In 2012? Is this a joke? This is worse then slavery. At least with slavery your owner had to provide health coverage, food, shelter, etc. What the f#*k is wrong with this country? No wonder people around the world resist it so forciby.
I think 10% is fair enough especially when you have beewn odering wine. Do restaurants even make 20% profit per plate if all overheads are considered.
@ Dolapo 10% is NOT fair enough especially if you have been ordering wine. If you have been ordering wine that probably means you have been spending more time at the table drinking and enjoying your wine which prevents the Server from getting another table and another tip. In most restaurants, even fine dining, servers make there money based on the volume of customers they are able to serve. Also, although I’m not really sure why this matters, but restaurants mark wine and booze up 300%, so if you are drinking they are likely making a substantial profit.
I thought 10% was good enough! My bad. Next time that I get good service from our waiter, I will give 20% to him. Thanks for sharing!
Kiwikid, which poor person are you going to sponsor?!? :O) Of course, I don’t want to get off topic so we can have that conversation another day.
Anyway, since it use to be illegal to tip (which seems rather odd, why should the Gov’t care if I want to give someone a tip for good service?). $13.50 * 8hrs = $108. I’ll presume no tips since most people probably haven’t caught on yet.
Fed Minimum wage in the US is $7.25. Some states have it higher. So $7.25 * 8 = $58. If a server is able to serve 5 customers an hour averaging $30, they get an extra $15 an hour (assuming a 10% tip). That gives them $178 for the day (Assuming 8hr shift). Seems a little higher than your figure.
I would rather have more $ in my pocket so I can decide what to do with it then the Gov’t taking more and spreading it around.
Sponsor? LOL
But, tell me, as a worker (assume you are a waiter for this question) would you rather go to work knowing you are going to get $108 or go to work knowing you are going to get $58 and whatever else you *might* get in tips? And what if its a s-l-o-w day? Remembering also, legally in the US, you have to declare your tips. And, in a lot of places, so I’m told, tips are pooled and shared, and in some cases the owner gets the LIONS share. Where it’s shared there are various convoluted formulas for determining who gets how much.
Why do you find it odd that a Govt decrees that people should get a livable wage? That was the rationale behind banning tipping in the first place. Also helped eliminate (to a certain degree) getting favours by bribery.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a problem with tipping. But only if it is for something way beyond the call of duty. But, just doing your job? Come on, accept it, a lot of US employers are ripping off the lower paid workers…
and this just in courtesy of Wikipedia… (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._minimum_wages)
Under the federal law, workers that receive a portion of their salary from tips, such as wait staff, are required only to have their total compensation, including tips, meet the minimum wage. Thus, often, their hourly wage, before tips, is less than the minimum wage.
In light of that, I totally stand by my last statement above.
Further to my comments:
Arizona: The state tipped minimum wage is $4.65 per hour.
Colorado: January 1, 2011. The tipped wage increased to $4.34 per hour. January 1, 2012. The tipped wage increases to $4.62 per hour
Connecticut: Tipped employees earn $5.69 per hour, which is a tipped rate that is 69% of the state minimum wage.
Florida: $4.65 per hour for tipped employees
Georgia: Tipped employees earn $2.13
Hawaii: Tipped employees earn $7.00
Illinois: Tipped employees earn $4.95 (employers may claim credit for tips, up to 40% of wage). What????
Iowa: (Jeepers, this is scary) Most small retail and service establishments grossing less than $300,000 annually are not required to pay the minimum wage. Tipped employees can be paid 60% of the minimum wage, which is currently $4.35.
Kansas: Kansas also allows the “tipped minimum wage” for employees who receive tips, which is $2.13.
Maine: Tipped employees earn $3.75 (one-half of the current state minimum wage).
Massachusetts: $2.63 for service (tipped) employees, $1.60 for agricultural employees.
Michigan: $2.65 for service (tipped) employees.
New Hampshire: In June 2011, media reported that state lawmakers approved legislation that repeals the state minimum wage law and aligns it with federal law.[38] The new law does not affect the tipped wage rate, which will remain at $3.27 per hour.
New Jersey: $2.13 per hour for tipped employees.
Ohio: $3.85 plus tips for tipped employees ($3.93 in 2013)
Oklahoma: $2.00 per hour for work not covered by federal minimum wage
Rhode Island: $2.89 for employees receiving tips.
Utah: $2.13 an hour for tipped employees.
Vermont: Tipped employees are paid $4.10
Wyoming: $2.13 for employees receiving tips
Washington DC: The tipped wage in Washington, DC is $2.77 per hour
So, there you have it, a lot of places pay WAY less than Federal Minimum Wage. Given that DC has one of the highest cost of living bases in the US $2.77 plus tips is nothing more than a joke. Doesn’t DC also have one of the highest crime rates in the US as well, especially in the homicide stats? Coincidence? Me thinks not.
Kiwikid,
You looked at all the minimum wage but did not looked at the labor law carefully. Employer are to make up the different if the tipped employee does not make enough in tip.
For example: In Colorado, tipped employee minimum wage is $4.34/hr and the State’s “regular” minimum wage is $7.78/hr. Lets say the work day is really slow, and the waiter worked for an hour and only got $2 in tip. The total the make for that hour is $4.34 + $2 = $6.34. The restaurant have to pay the server an extra $1.44 ($7.78 – $6.34) to meet the minimum wage. Since most server do make decent tips this fact is mostly ignored.
I extracted this information from the Colorado department of labor website: http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/CDLE-LaborLaws/CDLE/1248095305236
“employers of “tipped employees” must pay a cash wage of at least $4.62 per hour if they claim a tip credit against their minimum hourly wage obligation. If an employee’s tips combined with the employer’s cash wage of at least $4.62 per hour do not equal the minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference in cash wages. ”
I manage a small new restaurant in Colorado. Our server make about $100 (plus base pay) on a decent night and $200+ on a busy night of 4 hours shift. I most people rather make what my server make than $108 per 8 hour shift.
Also relate to the DC cost of living comment. If you know cost of living are high, meaning food and meal are going to be high as well. This mean the restaurant bill are going to be higher = more/higher tips. That’s why they can make the minimum wage for tip employee $2.77.
It just dumb for you to bash the way a country is run without knowing all the facts.
Just my 2 cents.
As noted by Joseph, in North Carolina your tip + tipped minimum wage (2.13) could be combined for the threshold of the federal minimum wage. However, though required by law, employers wouldn’t make up the difference for shifts were you earned less than that amount. If you were smart, you didn’t complain, and got moved to better shifts. There were slow lunches where I earned far less than minimum wage, or got sent home and thus got no pay after incurring the time and opportunity costs of coming in. I would rather come in knowing there was a reasonable minimum to what I would earn that day. And given the expenses and regulations already burdening restaurants, it makes little sense to nickle and dime one restaurant at a time to produce the difference for a server’s slow day. Flat rate fair pay seems so much simpler and easier to enforce.
While I was unaware of Colorado labour laws, I’m sure they are different in other states, i.e. not mandated Federally.
However, if we assume it is as you say (and I’m not saying it isn’t) in Colorado, I would say that minimum wage is simply unliveable. So you can work your little butt off and be no better off if I understand it correctly. If a waiter gets a tip of $1 for the shift, then they legally have to be topped up to minimum wage. If they get up to the minimum wage in base pay and tips then they still get minimum wage. Helloooo?
Also, note the comments by Coco.
I pay zero in tips. But then I live in New Zealand. Up until a relatively few short years ago tipping was I.L.L.E.G.A.L. !!! That’s right, it was against the law to tip. It only changed after some anal retentive complained that Americans were complaining that they couldn’t tip! WTF???
But, in New Zealand we have a minimum wage of NZ$13.50 roughly US$11.35.
So, what is this $2 an hour lark…? Oh, that’s right they call that the American Dream don’t they?
While I have never travelled in the States, my wife has, and so have a number of friends. All say that the service in New Zealand is far, far better across the board than in the States. So you can’t use the argument that it encourages better service by having tipping. The employers in the States are laughing all the way to the bank.
I just checked the stats for the US for 2012. Poverty rate across the country is 15%, and the highest rate is in New Mexico at 22%. 22%? That’s almost 1 in 4 people living in poverty. To say that is disgusting is to be polite. How any country, especially one with the resource the US has, can let that happen and not fix the problem, well that is beyond my comprehension. And you wonder why you have a crime problem?
Poverty is relative. Being poor in America is like being rich in sub-Saharan Africa in absolute terms. If we gave everyone a billion dollars for each thumb, the schmucks on the bottom would still be the schmucks on the bottom.
Funny how you turn an article on tipping into bashing the US.
Tipping is just an excuse for employers to underpay their employees. Simple as that. And as more and more employers are trying to take more and more money from their employees to put in their own pockets, I suggest elect politicians who will legislate laws that make employers pay their employees a FAIR WAGE, including restaurant servers. Restaurant employers are laughing all the way to the bank. I live in Canada, but have traveled in the US on many occasions. I agree with Kiwi, that it is failed American policy that is creating so much poverty in the US. One of the highest poverty rates in the western world, not to mention that 1 in 20 African-Americans are imprisoned in many parts of this unequal racist right wing-nut country. It is because employers are allowed to pay employees such low wages that one sees so many tip jars popping up everywhere like mushrooms…coffee shops, etc. Where does it end? Tipping your plumber, the bus driver, the guy at Home Depot that gave great service? It’s ridiculous to have THIS ONE INDUSTRY where employers are allowed to underpay their employees and have the customer make up the difference. MAKE EMPLOYERS PAY THE EMPLOYEES A DECENT WAGE.
But meanwhile, we need to pay these servers a living wage, and that means fair tipping.
Great point! I think tipping is soo useless
Good information KiwiKid about New Zealand.
Sounds like New Zealand is a good place to vacation.
I agree with Mike White about “Poverty is relative”. I have traveled all over the U.S.A. and you have to see it to believe it. I have traveled in Mexico and have seen true poverty…heart breaking.
I usually tip 20% . Good article.
Ok,
I decided to post here because the Kiwi is right, and the rest of you are just brainwashed Americans, and probably will vote republican.
Firstly, let’s get the main point out of the way – I worked as a waiter in about 4-5 places, and I was NEVER told about any law where the employer would have to make up a difference in the minimum wage. Furthermore, I am sure that any place an employee requested it, would promptly fire that person. Restaurants are free to fire anyone at any point for anything. Surely, there are some ‘official’ reasons to be listed, but they can always make up a story about insubordination and what not. There is absolutely no mechanism in place to protect you from a crooked, angry, or insecure manager. Secondly, the restaurants here ‘cut’ people very efficiently. I am sure that in New Zealand, if you’re on schedule for 8 hours, they must honor that even if you’re sitting on your thumbs.
Don’t be ridiculous, uneducated Americans if the gentleman here comes from a better place, a place where YOUR interests are protected primarily, and not those of the boss or the owner. As well, I am sure they also receive a benefit package as well as health insurance, which does not exist in the US for such workforce.
Now onto tipping: if you work at a great place in the center of a great city, you will definitely make a lot more than those 12 bucks an hour the Kiwi mentioned. I am from Chicago and I know that waiters from top places make 200-300 a night. But competition for such jobs is IMMENSE since they pay well. We must then observe the average. On the average, your patrons (the ones who don’t go to the cool places and are cheap and looking for and manufacturing excuses just to save up 5 dollars on a tip) will be quite stiff on the tip, but also on the bill. While it’s true that the amount on the bill does in the long run does directly correspond to the tip amount, the percentage of that tip may be anywhere from 12 to 20 percent depending on the quality of the establishment. What do I mean? You could work in a place where the average bill is 40 dollars and the average tip is 12%, but you also could work in a place where the average bill is 300 dollars and the average tip is 20%. The article states that you should not go to places out of your reach as the tip is really a part of the bill, and in my serving days that was my biggest beef with patrons when I got stiffed. You may think you’re slick, but on the opposite side of the table stands somebody who deals with up to 10-15 different bill payers per day, who has honed their skills of reading how cheap you are to the perfection of a poker pro. I could read in the comments right now, out of the ones who opposed a 20% tip no matter what, and pick out the ones who are genuinely cheap people and the ones who had legit concerns, not to even mention in person. Bottom line is, again: if you are too cheap for an extra 5 dollars, please, do yourself and everybody else a favor and go to a place that’s about 20-30% cheaper. That’s what I do, that’s what all sensible people do.
Bad service is a reality though, and it should be punished. I believe the absolute bottom line for bad service (short of the server straight up insulting you) is about 10%. If the service was spotty, then you still should do about 15%. You know, faces are remembered. If you’re the cheapa$$, you’ll never know how much you’re ridiculed behind the scenes and how much people fight not to take your table. Do you want to walk around with such a stigma everywhere you go out to eat over 5 dollars? Quit making excuses, if you’re cheap, go to a cheap place as that’s where you belong. I have received bad service in past too. I still tip. Now, look at the flip side. Tipping properly and generally being a pleasant, fun, and interesting patron (instead of showing up with a smirk on your face and acting like we’d just showed you our testicles and crying about every single thing) makes you likable and makes your serves go above an beyond. Servers often have connections with managers and bartenders. I have countless times gotten free drinks for my pleasant and decent patrons, gotten them free deserts, talked them up in front of their dates, and so on. You choose who you want to be, and if you choose to be a great individual and a patron, you will probably be met with the same on the other end. And remember, they are human beings too. If you’re making 6 figures and dining out and feeling good, while they serve you and you act like a total pr*ck, just imagine how you feel when your boss drills you a new one for no reason just cuz he’s having a bad day.
That said, I am no longer in the service industry, but I felt compelled to reply primarily because Kiwi got bashed for no reason whatsoever. And then as I kept on reading I saw a couple of responses by some ultra cheap individuals. Hey buddy, takeout requires no tip! Rent a movie and get some Chinese!
p.s. excuse the tone of my message, I absolutely despise cheap people on all levels and have felt the same before I ever worked a minute as a server. I refuse to be friends with cheap people, and I refuse to be one.
p.s.s. Kiwi, cheers man!
One more thing, which really doesn’t get highlighted here enough:
In any truly full service restaurant, the server has to share the tip with the bartenders and the bussers. There are many different systems and I’ve seen a few, but the most common one seems to be – 5% of your total sales.
Now think about that before you tip 12% next time. They have to tip out the support staff 5% to begin with, so your tip is really only 7%.
So, any place that has bussers and bartenders will definitely have a ‘tipout’. Now, if you do your regular 18-20% tip, you’ve done your job. Everybody understands that is the most fair and most standard percentage. If you feel you received great service (which is subjective.. to me great service is, say if I’m on a date, leave me the f*ck alone.. and make sure we don’t run out of drinks… for some people it’s a little shoulder massage, a back rub, and smiling and nodding when then tell you about how they took their little pooch to the vet.. but I digress) and if you feel you’ve done well in your life and a few bucks isn’t an object and you go over that, it will definitely be noticed and when you come back your service will keep improving. Sometimes to the point, if you’re a regular, where rules are broken for you, and chef can (if not busy) do something custom for you, some free drinks and so on.
But don’t ever feel the pressure to go over the 18%. That’s just sufficient.
Dude learn math, 5% of 12% is .6% that means just over half a percent.
12-5=7… The waitress made 12% in tips, 5% goes to other staff. That leaves 7% for the waitress (12%tip-5%for tip-out=7% for the watress/waiter).
“If you’re cheap, you’ll never know how much you’re ridiculed behind the scenes and how much people fight not to take your table. Do you want to walk around with such a stigma everywhere you go out to eat over 5 dollars?”
This is the problem with talking about tipping in America. It always comes down to blaming the customer. Do I want to walk around with a stigma on me over five dollars?
How about this: Why would I want to go to a restaurant where the wait staff is so petty and childish as to refuse me good service over five dollars? How about that?
Because if everyone had the same attitude as you, servers would starve. And then that’s when you wind up with 15 yr old servers that do not give a shit and only have the job for spending cash, because the 20 yr olds can’t afford to feed themselves with a serving job.
I don’t care what people say if they don’t feel my tip is enough, or if I don’t give a tip at all. It’s none of their business. They don’t know anything about me. Sounds like you need to experience what it’s like to have to watch how much money you spend.
Minimum tip on bad service 10%, 15% for spotty service?! You are a douche. I was a waiter and a busboy, and only an idiot would expect those kinds of tips. waiting tables is not really any harder than working fast food and I have done both. In the 90’s I was making about $20 an hour waiting tables in a mid level steak house. If we had a busy night I could pull in $100 in tips alone in a 5 hour shift. Get over yourself. 15% on pre-tax bill is plenty.
I have to correct my youthful countryman. Tipping was never illegal in New Zealand. Technically people recieving them should declare them for tax purposes but unless they formed a significant part of your income most people simply would not and would be unlikely to be audited for it.
Generally New Zealanders were proud of the tradition of not tipping as a gratuity expectation could be misused by employers to simply not pay a reasonable wage.
I remember travelling to Europe forty years ago for the first time and noticing that a tip or “service charge” was expected. Over my next visits this became part of the bill as a formal “service charge included” or “tout compris” bill with no discretion in paying it and if you wanted to give a tip or “pour bois” (drink money) you added it to the total.
This convinced me more than ever that tipping could become a rort and we had done well to avoid the process.
Nevertheless American culture means it would be unfair to everyone to unreasonably refuse to pay wait staff there a tip along the lines suggested in this article. When in Rome……
Ah, but Mr Maclean, you are wrong. I recall there was a big bust up about tipping because it became a scandal that the Tour Bus drivers in Rotorua were creaming money, and that they weren’t paying taxes on it. I well recall the TV doco’s on it. And the Govt in it’s infinite wisdom made it legal to tip.
But as a (I presume) fellow countryman said, the price is the price is the price. Including the outrageous goods and services tax the government imposes…
Not only that, but if you do pay a tip, it is paid directly to the staff member by the customer and the employer has no rights to it at all. Additionally, we don’t have bussers (well I’ve never seen any myself). The wait staff set the tables, they serve the customers and clear the tables.
(Yup — a fellow Countryman I am.)
I can recall when I first emigrated to NZ about 20 years ago trying to leave a tip for a Parking Attendant — as was the custom where I am originally from. He threw it back at me, and said:
“What’s this?? We make a Living Wage here in New Zealand, and we don’t need you foreigners throwing your money around at us, either. You keep your money: I earned my wage today.”
He was actually insulted! But I learned a valuable lesson, and I never forgot it.
I doubt this would happen so much today: our various service establishments in Auckland have started to get greedy, and occasionally they pull a fast one by leaving the Bill Total open, with a line for Tips and Gratuities. And some bars have a jar by the till for Tips…
However, there is still a Bylaw in the RSA Club which I belong to, prohibiting the practise of tipping the bar staff. You can get ejected from the club if you violate this rule (tho’ I have never seen it enforced, it is on the books…)
Having lived in places that promote tipping, and also in NZ where it is officially frowned upon, I know what I prefer as a consumer. I like businesses to pay their own staff fairly, and not expect me to play Lord Fauntleroy and shower their servants with my largesse. It’s degrading for the wait staff to be tipped, and its insulting to the customers to expect them to.
0% seems like an eminently fair tip: the reward for good service is a polite smile, plus repeat business. That ought to be good enough for everybody.
Regarding the article: I was a little surprised at the suggestion of not going to a restaurant if you couldn’t afford both the meal and a 20%+ tip. That’s seems a bit presumptive to me. Now, if you’re going to an upper-scale restaurant, sure you know you should have enough to tip, but if you just happen to be out and want a meal, why give a lot of thought to having “enough $” to tip? I have to believe that the restaurant owner and the waiter/waitress would prefer the business, regardless of tip, because people coming through the door is what keeps the place open.
@ QBJ The owner of the restaurant would prefer the business regardless of the tip, but not the waiter. If you go to a restaurant and don’t tip, not only is the waiter losing out on the tip from you, but also losing out on the opportunity for a customer to be placed in his/her section who will tip. Please be more considerate of the people in the service industry. If you can’t afford to tip at least 15% at any restaurant then you can’t afford to eat there. As the author pointed out you can always go to an establishment that doesn’t have a waitstaff.
If you can’t support yourself if some of the customers aren’t leaving you a tip, then you can’t afford to work there. Find some other place to work. One’s obligation is to pay for the food he ordered, not to think about how the waitstaff will make their living.
Fortunately most all the rest of the customers understand how the economics of the restaurant industry work, that the price of the food has been subsidized by the owner’s only having to pay $2/hr. Therefore they tip. If they think the price including an average tip is too high, they go to a restaurant they can afford. You, however, are creating an issue for the server by not tipping. The server does not have to quit, because fortunately hardly anybody else believes tipping isn’t necessary. If your boss decided to withhold your pay for a day every few months you probably wouldn’t quit, but you damn sure wouldn’t be happy about it–and would probably complain to somebody!
If you want to pay only for the food you ordered, you go to the grocery store or a fast food restaurant. Many servers have to pay a tip out on the percentage of sales, regardless if they make tips or not. So if you don’t tip, not only are you taking up a table in a server’s section (who is working for minimum wage and running herself ragged), you are also taking money out of her pocket while she serves you with a smile.
I sincerely hope you never come into my restaurant. Your comment suggests a narcissistic attitude in which you are so important that I should work for you for free. In the US, the full-service restaurant industry has evolved such that you do actually have an obligation to pay for (professional-level) service. To hide behind the idea that tipping is optional f***s hard-working people out of the things we need. Because trust me, if people stopped tipping, anyone who can do this job would quit in an instance. Maybe I should come to your business and get the efforts of your hard work for free too.
If you come to my work and hire me to do a job, we agree on a price and that’s what you pay for my service so I never work for free. If you don’t like the price you have a choice and can hire someone else.
I go to your restaurant pay the menu price and somehow you are working for free if I don’t tip? You need a reality check. If you “professional” list writers and food delivers all quit I guess we are screwed…. No wait, we could have monkeys with ipad take our orders and attach little wagons to dogs to bring the food out.
Please stop making your job sound like an essential service for mankind. If that astriod were to hit earth i dont know how we would choose between food jockeys and doctors to ensure mankind lives on…
You’re basically providing a night off for the parents of the world and trust me, we would make due if you quit.
So then I’m sure you told the kitchen to tell you when your food was ready so you could go retrieve it, and you cleared away all your plates and read up on what the better deals that day were, too, I’m sure. Your bill only includes the FOOD you ordered. The charges are delineated for you in detail on there. The tip was for the SERVICE. Poor tip for bad service, but always SOMETHING unless you had to go to the kitchen yourself. If you want to eat somewhere but not pay for SERVICE, then go to a fast-food place.
If you’re paying for the service, then it shouldn’t be a %
as someone stated before there’s not difference in pouring a bottle worth $15 or $150 why do I have totip 20%, it’s insane.
I agree. Does a server in an upscale restaurant ($50 a plate) work that much harder than a franchise restaurant ($20 a plate). Just because the restaurant is more expensive doesn’t mean the service is that much better.
Actually, most business minded reataurant owners prefer patrons that tip well, because higher tips keep higher quality servers. If good servers make enough money, they will not move on to a better establishment. If you have a staff filled with great servers, you will have more patrons and more repeat/word-of-mouth business.
Some people are getting off topic. I told why I hate the city and the rude waiters and the expectation of huge tips for doing little more than what I could do. Give the order to the cook and then pick it up!! I used to work as a busboy and the waitresses that tipped out to me got the better service and help!! We travel a lot and the Longhorn and Cracker Barrels are our favorites. We’ve asked the mangers about coming to California. They said NO– wages too high #1, break periods, too many regulations from the C – “city managers” and rotten politicians. And more!! And most waitresses I knew made BIG MONEY and the best made even more. I think the IRS rule for taxes is 8% of the tickets for tips and a lot of wait staff make a heck of a lot more than that. So no shortage of tips!! The IRS, from what I’ve heard in the past, does more audits in Nevada on service staff than any where else. So I don’t feel sorry for the whiners who DON’T give good service and complain about low wages. sf is a rotten city for food. I know, I ate there in the 60’s when it was not the cesspool it is today. And when I said sf meds the meaning is sf medical staff including Drs!
What color is the sky in your world?
Such a bitter, shriveled up excuse for a person should just stay home and eat. We’ll ALL be happier.
If you think waiters/waitresses would rather have the business than the tips, you are sorely mistaken. What many people don’t realize or take into account is “tip out”. Many of you have heard that we have to share our tips, but I don’t believe most of you understand exactly how it works. Where I work, tip out is 5.5%. Of SALES. Doesn’t matter what I made in tips. So if I get a 10% tip, I only get to keep 4.5%. If I get no tip, then I just paid money out of my own pocket to serve your ass for the last two hours. So imagine my frustration when a group of guys rack up a $400 bill and throw me a 20 at the end of the meal? People in general have such a bad attitude about tipping, and it’s sick. People seem to think that waitresses are subhuman, and don’t deserve any compensation for running around and answering to their every whim.
Of course servers have to earn their tips, and I’m extremely critical myself when I go out. But there is a special place in hell for those of you who don’t believe in tipping.
That’s funny because I picture that particular hell filled with bad waitresses serving the cheap customers for eternity.
If you don’t like the decisions you have made in life make new ones, not excuses.
Work in the US was slow so I picked my family in 2009 (wife and 3 kids) and moved to Asia where my field of work had more opportunity. I did not sit around my hometown talking about how others are hurting my life; I took control. If you keep depending on others for happiness you get exactly what you deserve.
I’m replying to you in general – not just this thread.
Who do you think you are? Seriously? You can not tip. That’s cool. You’re nothing but an inconvenience to me. I won’t think twice about you once you leave – and I won’t think twice about you when you come back. You can complain. My managers will pretend to care, but they don’t. And you’re going to get bad food and bad service the next time you come in. We say we want you to come back, but we don’t. You’re simply an inconvenience to both the servers and the managers.
If you want to pay the menu price, then only pay that. I honestly don’t care. I make more than enough money without relying on non-tippers like you. Do you honestly have any idea how much the food would cost if servers didn’t assume the risk of not getting paid? That’s really what they do for you. Not take your orders and bring you food. You think 15-20 percent is ridiculous? Think again. There is absolutely no way for a restaurant to be profitable in America while paying their servers a respectable hourly wage at their current price points. And the price of your food? Far more than (1)20 percent. You obviously don’t understand that there’s only about 5 hours in the day that are actually profitable to a restaurant. 2 hours for lunch and 3 hours at night. Yet servers are schedule outside of those peak hours just in case. Most restaurants are open 12 hours a day. You can’t pay people if you’re not making money – and the restaurant industry is extremely volatile. That’s about 7 hours of “wasted” or “break even” labor.
But forget all of that. That’s not even your argument, anyway. You’re saying “take charge of your life”. How noble. Not everyone has been given the same opportunities as you – the same hand outs. If you think everyone can just up and move away to a more profitable region, then you have a seriously distorted up view of reality.
I spent 10 years working in hourly jobs that provided little to no opportunity of improving my life and financial stability. Now I’m in college thanks to my serving job where I make near twice what I was making before…. even when people like you don’t tip me. You don’t have to and that’s fine with me – I’ll remember your face and put my priorities elsewhere the next time you come in. But if you come in here on your high horse and act like servers aren’t trying to build a better life for themselves then you are mistaken. Seriously. We don’t rely on hand outs. To you a tip is a hand out because you have no clue how the restaurant industry works. That’s cool. You’ve never worked in one before. But don’t act like we don’t put in the hours. My job isn’t to take your orders and hand you food. That’s the easy part. My job is to keep you irrational, self-righteous, self-entitled “customers” happy. It’s not digging ditches but I guarantee it’s not easy.
“But that’s not even my point.” – ignore that. Unsure of why that sentence is there.
Wow, touched a nerve. Glad to see your character coming through with your profanity filled tirade but you failed to see the point. The point is not about leaving for a more profitable region but more about you bitching that everyone else around you is responsible for your misery. If you don’t like your life change it. If companies close down because they are not profitable then so be it that’s the way businesses work.
I am not on a high horse. I made my decisions, right or wrong, and I take responsibility for my actions and I am not looking to blame others. Before you start slamming others tke a hard look at yourself.
Surly, I’m not a service provider, nor have I ever had to rely on a service job to make a living. Unlike you, I’ve actually taken advantage of every opportunity that has come my way, make a healthy six-figure salary, and have never had to uproot my family and disrupt their lives by forcing them to move to another continent. Clearly your attitude towards others in less fortunate economic circumstances has carried over into your work environment, poisoning your relationships with others and leading you have to go to such extremes, rather than just finding a similar position at an employer closer to home.
The reality is many people in the US rely on service jobs, like waiting tables in restaurants, to make a living because they were not fortunate enough to be born into a family that could provide them the means to do well in school, attend college, and get a high paying, non-service job. Whether you choose to accept it, it is the culturally-enforced custom in the US for service jobs like waiting tables to rely on tips as part of their overall compensation. If everyone chose to be an ignorant scumbag like yourself, then there’s no question either wait staffs would quit en masse, leading to massive restaurant closures, and subsequently a major disruption to our economy at large, or restaurants would simply choose to go the route of Europe and other places, and raise prices across the board to account for the increase in pay they would have to make in order to keep their doors open. Thankfully, most people are not clueless morons, and recognize that the benefit of the US system is that at least the customer does have some ability to influence the level of customer service at the places they visit. A poor waiter or waitress will eventually tire of poor tips and find a job that doesn’t rely on tips. Choosing to not participate in the custom of tipping in this country, since it is a well-established practice that has been identified as a fundamental part of how service workers are compensated, doesn’t make you smarter, or better with money; it just makes you an asshole. Think of it like an honor system, that you think you are outwitting.
As a high-wage earner (the so-called 1%), I disagree with you emphatically … the service workers play a crucial role in our economy, they are the engine for our economy, and I know full well that it is their willingness to work their asses off for very little money that enables our capitalist system to work, and what allows me to make the money i do make. The least I can do is show my appreciation for their willingness to do the “dirty” work that I am seeking to avoid at home, like cooking my food and cleaning up my messes.
Yet, as reprehensible as I find your attitude, I still find myself writing this with a small smile on my face. That’s because while I have never worked at a restaurant, many of my friends have. They’ve shared many stories with me about how patrons such as yourself (self-absorbed douchebags who think they are better than everyone else, and are exempt from things like tipping) are treated. While my friends indicated they themselves did not participate directly in such activity, and while I normally would not approve of such activity either, I nonetheless relish in the fact that you have likely eaten some truly grotesquely contaminated food. My advice to you would be to make sure not to dine in the same restaurant in a six month period; these servers who you look snidely down upon likely have a better memory than you probably give them credit for. Enjoy your Karma.
“or restaurants would simply choose to go the route of Europe and other places and raise prices across the board to account for the increase in pay they would have to make in order to keep their doors open”
Sorry, but you are way off on that one. Restaurants in Europe are, at best, just as expensive as those in the US, while realistically the prices are less than those in the US. This is without this excessive “tip” or “gratuity” that is “required” (demanded? expected?) in the US.
I remember when tipping was supposed to be 10% on the pre-tax portion of the bill. All of a sudden 15% was the norm about 15 or so years ago. Then about 10 years ago, I started hearing people talking about going up to 20%. What’s next? 25% as a minimum?
I was turned off of the whole excessive tipping practice after I was out with a friend who told me that she was going to pay for me since she made much more than me. She was a bartender, working at a typical bar. Not a slow place and not the busiest place, just an average bar. I was making just under 6 figures at the time and I must admit that statement from her shocked me.
Since then, I have looked at the practice in a whole different light.
As for the sharing of tips, I assume that the kitchen staff is also part of this sharing. What about the fast food joints then? Do they also get tipped 15 to 20% because they are being paid so low as well?
The thing that would solve all this tip business would be for the employers to pay their employees a decent wage. Why in the world do they pay waitresses and waiters below minimu wage anyway? It is trully not my place to leave tips and make up for the employer’s not paying a full wage. I do tip pretty good when I get good service, but not when I get crappy service. But like I said, it’s the employer’s place to pay their employees. It’s not my place. I’m not going to refuse to eat somewhere if I can only afford the food and not the tip. I have been a waitress before. There was a lot of low in come families in the area. I did not get mad when they took their children out to eat, and didn’t have money for a tip. I gave them the same friendly service I gave every one else.That is called compassion.Like someone said, if the job doesn’t pay what you want, get another one.
Brianne, anybody who works for a pittance AND allows their greedy boss to undertake dodgy business practises like the “tip-out” you described, has rocks for brains!
You and your fellow waiters/waitresses need to invite a Union rep around and get yourselves properly organized — not just from your bar or restaurant, but from all the bars and restaurants you can get hold of.
It’s not your customers’ job to evaluate your performance and compensate you for your work: that’s the job of your boss. And it sounds to me like your boss is way too dam’n greedy for his own good, or for yours.
Collective bargaining is there for an excellent reason: it’s there to protect ordinary working stiffs from the unreasonable demands of their greedy bosses.
Good businesses that treat their staff well tend not to have Unions.
However, every business that has a Unionized staff has always — once upon a time — done something to their staff in order to desperately deserve having them organize and bargain collectively. 100% of the time, this is true.
Tipping isn’t the answer: getting your employers to pay a decent, living wage is. If you can’t negotiate that for yourself, a Union certainly can on your behalf. Why not call up a local rep and get the ball rolling?
Why should it surprise you? If you can’t afford the meal + tip, you can’t afford to eat out. Why should you be surprised that you shouldn’t do what you can’t afford?
It is amazing how low the minimum wage can be when you think about how expensive things are in US. They really deserve good tips when they perform a good job.
Yes, in many states servers make the minimum wage, plus tips. And if you’re in a city with a “living wage ordinance,” like San Francisco, you make well over $10 an hour, plus tips. One server I know, who works part time, can make well over $500 a week in tips.
I tip 20% pre-tax for good service, and less for bad service. I don’t go out often (too painful with small children).
I live in Cali though, where servers make more than $2 an hour. They make at least minimum wage, which is $8 an hour.
For cities like San Francisco where servers do not make reduced minimum wage, what do you suggest?
I leave next to nothing when we do eat a bit. The damn liberal city makes the owners pay over $10 an hour to the waiters most of whom are rude, snooty, and uncaring. In addition, the damn city has forced the owners to hit you with a 5% health benfits tax for teh workers as well! nobama rules in effect here!! as welll! So my advice stay away from frisco!!! We go in for our medical treatmenta, and then book it out!! Everything has deteriorated and in additon, a whole bunch of crime NEVER gets reported!! You can talk to meds at sf general and they will tell you. This vile sewer city needs to sink into the bay!!
@Nook – why all the hate for San Francisco? Judging by all the people moving here, I’m guessing you are pretty much along in your anti-SF views. Its a beautiful city, one of the safest big cities in the country and a foody mecca filled with great restaurants.
If its not for you, feel free to stay away 😉 But if you do come don’t skimp on the tip. SF is a very expensive city and even with better wages its hard to live here as a waiter/waitress.
So chill out. Mean and cheap is a terrible way to go through life.
Well said, SF Guy!
San Francisco also produced “Dirty Harry” Callahan: a cop who paid a buck for a large black coffee and didn’t pay a tip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ishbTwXf1g
GREAT TRUTH!! You said it far better than I did!! Used to be a great city until the liberals took over and stunk up the place with shitty cumfarts!!! pelosi, a jurkess from baltimore, threw a lot OF OUR TAX money at business’s there buying votes! And harvey milk was a homo jurk dan white shot him and the mayor, moscone, “rumored” with a single bullet! You figure it out. Too bad it had to come to that and dan white will answer for what he did. I don’t trust the food in sf anyway and will mostly avoid it. Take a ride through the castro district—Sick perverted trash and don’t EVER go to a homo “get-together”! On second thot, forget it! It will sicken you!!! And why do we have to give even a cent to aids “victims”??
Ummm . . . Earth to SFGuy . . .
SF is a great city. Love the place. Lived there myself, years ago, went through the Loma Prieta quake. Love the fog, love the mild weather.
But San Fran can’t by any stretch of the imagination be called a low-crime city, even by US standards.
Its average crime rate used to be twice the national median, but fortunately has started to go down and is now only 75% higher. When I lived there it had the 4th-highest violent crime rate in the US, but fortunately that’s dropping as well, has been for several years.
The touristy districts downtown are under control and safe, and there are really nice posh, safe neighborhoods, but there are areas where you have to really watch your back. For anyone interested in what to look for when moving or visiting SF, Google “Crime rates for San Francisco, CA” and you’ll get leads to great statistics & maps.
We go out to be served. If served well, I generally tip in excess of 20%. If served poorly, I tip much, much less.
I generally stack as many of our plates and try to make it easier for the server and staff to clean-up, but again (and as KZ mentioned) I went out so that I didn’t have to deal with all of that.
If the server wants a good tip, then every new customer is a brand new day. Whatever happened with the previous one or at home or at school is irrelevant. It is your job. I do not punish the server for the restaurants staffing problems. I tip them based on their performance. However, I don’t keep coming back if the establishment itself can’t get its act together.
cd :O)
I don’t necessarily agree with all of these. Everyone does have bad days, but where I work, even if I am having a bad day, I am not supposed to let that interfere with my customer service. I work through bad days and put a smile on my face, so when I actually go out, I expect to be treated like I treat others. And while I do clean up after my kids, I don’t go as far as getting a dustpan or wet rag – that is part of the joy of going out that I don’t have to bus my own dishes or wipe down my own table. I’m all about being courteous, but if a servers job is dependant on customer service, then I have the right to expect good service if they want a good tip.
WELL SAID. 100% AGREE
I agree. This article is written with the waitresses in mind and not the end customer. Having a bad day, take off like I have to.
I totally agree. The server in the article seems to think of the tip as, not a gratuity, for great service, but as a portion of her salary that is due from the people she is serving.
It’s not only the server who thinks of the tip as a portion of salary. It is also the employer who pays here such a miserable $2 an hour. This sub-survival rate does not exist in any other job. Why are servers discriminated against in this way? Apply the minimum wage to everyone – servers included – and then tips will become what they should be – a bonus for genuinely good service.
EXACTLY! A tip is not a bonus. The employer is allowed to pay less because tips ARE considered a part of regular wages. Servers should be paid as any other employee is, and this will be reflected in higher restaurant prices, and a tip can then be an actual “reward” for good service. As it stands now, a tip should not be considered optional, or a “reward.”
Agreed, to pretty much all of your posts, though I *do* think of a range of tip as wage and a another range of tip as *reward*.
Who helps pay for the wage increase for servers and bartenders? Customers. You ready to pay $10-15 for a ground chuck burger and frozen fries? How about $20-25 for a Kobe burger? Your asking a business to increase an hourly wage for one server working a standard 4-10pm shift by $30. Not to mention the additional taxes that restaurant has to pay in due to the higher wages. With 10-12 servers working each night the restaurant is now down $300-360. That’s pretty close to the profit margin for most places pulling in $4000-5000 a night in sales right now.
Prices should go up to compensate the staff that’s the way business is. In Australia servers are paid $60/hr on a public holiday. A burger costs $25 and 12 oysters are close to $50. A pint of beer is $16-$18. This is the all in price and not for a fancy place in Perth and the AUD is wrath more than the USD
If you don’t like it stay at home or hit McDonald’s for a cheaper meal but quit trying to sell me on the idea that tipping is necessary. Until the system changes I’ll tip a good waiter but a poor one get exactly what they earn… Nothing!
BTW there is no tipping is AUS
Uh…since we are ALREADY paying the higher food prices by the ‘tip tax’ the final bill would still be the same.
KZ: So should I assume then that you either get paid less at your job when you don’t perform perfectly or that your performance is always perfect?
DS: Servers cannot just take off and still keep their job.
Cheri: That would be because that is the way it actually IS in many states. Hopefully not yours apparently. In many states it IS part of their salary, as the business is allowed to pay BELOW minimum wage. Like the example the text above that you read provides.
While you and I may be expected to “work through” bad days, certain bad days simply DO affect our performance, like it or not. And our employers don’t reduce our pay on those days. You need to grow up, and have a little empathy for others.
What is this grow up attitude? As you said like it or not tips are a part of their wages. Tips are based on performance and like it or not if a waitress has a bad day the tips are lower that day. The attitude is perfectly fine. People tipping a shitty waitress and not expecting more in exchange for a tip is why articles like this get written in the first place.
Similarly, in our jobs we don’t get rewarded when we have an especially good day. You choose a job w/ that risk; you can’t have it both ways- extra reward on a good day w/ no downside on a bad one
I tip between 15 and 20 percent for decent to good service. I was a server once too but if you don’t like the job or don’t think it pays enough get a different job or work at a more expensive restaurant.
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