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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Reading through all these comments, I am amazed that I ever make any money at my part time server job. Yet I do! In fact I make more per hour waiting tables than I do at my full time day job, on average, (and I have a very good high paying day job) Why is that, you may ask? It’s because I care, and I love taking care of our guests at our restaurant. I take a lot of pride in making sure every single person that takes the time to come in, spend their hard earned money, and dine at our place, has the most enjoyable dining experience that I as a humble server can provide them. I look at the whole prospect waiting on our guests, as if they are guests in my own home. I want them to leave happy and hopefully with a memorable experience.
For all of you who think we should just be paid a “Living Wage” I disagree, I want an incentive to bust my butt, to provide you with exceptional service that you will remember. If you don’t tip me very well, I’m OK with that too, because most people do tip me well. If you come back and I get the opportunity to wait on you again, knowing that you weren’t a great tipper the first time, I will try even harder to make you happy. Because that’s how I make you a regular customer, and I want you to keep coming back. I have plenty of guests that tip me like rockstars, but it is the smaller tippers that I work harder for, and eventually it starts to pay off.
For those of you that think waiting tables is only about bringing food to your table, and that anyone with half a brain can do it, I disagree. I have been in the business on and off for most of my life, I’ve seen many people who were very capable, intelligent, and successful at other jobs who could not cut it as a server. If all it was, was just to bring food to your table, you’re right that would be easy. It’s so much more than that, it’s about knowing how ever item on the menu is prepared. That way when you tell me you have an allergy to mushrooms or to glutin, I can show you which dishes will not harm you, or I can talk to the chef (who is swamped with orders) to create a dish that will make you happy and not hurt you. I have to know the 300+ wines on our wine list in detail, so I can help you pick out the one (If you need my help) that will make your meal even better.
I may have 5 or 6 (or more) other tables that I am serving at the same time, they may or may not be in the same room as you, yet I strive so very hard to make you feel like you are my most important table while I serve you, (all while doing the same to my other tables). I don’t do it for the tip (Well I sort of do it for the tip..:) I do it because I genuinely care about you, the guest and I want you to come back and I want you to tell all of your friends about the great time you had at out restaurant. I really do enjoy having a great night out with you the Guest.
For what it’s worth, the customer service skills I learned in this business, have taken me very far in all the other jobs I have ever had, including getting me jobs I was not otherwise not as qualified for at the time. I am grateful for that.
For those of you who think Japan or Europe are better, and that the way we do it in America is all wrong….I don’t know what to tell you, I’ve never had the opportunity to experience their level of service yet. If it is so much better than service here in America, and you really dislike the way it is here….then maybe you should move there. Personally I’ll pit my service against theirs any day of the week, they take pride in what they do….so do I!!!
So if you don’t feel like leaving me a 10%, or a 15% or a 20% tip…..I am OK with that, I just hope you’ll enjoy your time at our restaurant enough to come back.
Respectfully,
Adrian James Stone Jr.
(Part Time Waiter)
You seem like an awesome server to have but for me it isn’t about waiting hand and foot on me- I don’t need, want, or ask for that. I just want a decent experience and if I get that I’m cool with it. As for my comments about Japan having superior service….I stand by my statement. You do sound like an awesome waiter to have and I hope to have the pleasure to dine in your establishment. Unfortunately you seem to be the minority.
Wade,
Thats what I am talking about, in the first 30 seconds of greeting a table, and sizing them up, I generally know what they want. If they want me to wait on them hand and foot, I will accommodate them, if they want more of just palin old solid, yet silent service, that’s what I’ll give them. My point is that as a semi-professional server…..for me it’s not all about the tips, it is about me tailoring my service to the needs of the guest. As best as I can, I am not a mind reader, but in my experience I can do a very good job of it. like I said I have not had the opportunity to experience Japanese service, or European service, but I suspect that I do as well or possibly even better…..because I do care about the experience my guests have, when I serve them. Thanks for the kind words.
Respectfully,
Adrian James Stone
(Part Time Waiter)
In Japan tipping is not expected and is frowned upon and seen as an insult that you feel they can’t support themselves without your pity. And Japan has the best service, bar-none & hands down, out of any country I have been to. Even the people who worked at McDonalds could out class and out hustle anybody in the finest places here in America, and they did it for nothing extra. Just a complete difference in cultures. Granted, prices are sky high there anyways and I’m sure the prices you pay reflects service charge. But the point is they don’t have their hand out and they actually take pride in what they do.
I’ve always been a bit bothered by the percent of the total bill.
Does a waitress at waffle house not work as hard as one at a high end steak house? Of course not, but the bill at WH might be $20 and 20% gives a $4 tip.
Meanwhile the steak house waiter is getting 15-20 percent on a $125 bill or $18.75 to $25 bucks.
Something seems wrong about that.
Tips are the perfect incentive for good service, plus, if you are known as a good tipper, you get great service all of the time.
Raising the minimum wage, however, is not. It only leads to less people being hired because the employer has to pay his current staff more.
I believe tips were meant to be incentive to provide good service and as a way to brighten someone’s day and thank them for being great. But now it’s turned into this social obligation where being a poor tipper is worse than being a poor waiter. And that needs to change. I really don’t care what a person makes, if they go above and beyond to help me out or make me feel like a welcome guest in their establishment than I would want to tip them. I’ve been to Home Depot where the person stuck around and answered all of my dumb questions and talked me out of buying something that was expensive and pointed me to something that was cheaper but still did the job. He could have fleeced me but he didn’t. I wish I could have given him a tip, I don’t care if he made 30$ and hour or 2$. He earned it, end of story. All I could do was make a comment on their service reviews about him and hopefully that will lead to a raise for him next time he’s under review. I do the same for anybody.
I just hate how I feel more pressure as a customer to tip well than the server does to provide good service. Everybody has bad days, not just servers, and it’s your responsibility as an adult to put that aside and be courteous and professional despite having a bad day. And don’t talk to me about work load. I’m one of four health care providers aboard an aircraft carrier with about 5,000 personnell and I see roughly 45 patients in a time span from 0900 until 1200. Nobody cuts me any slack and says “Oh I see you’re busy today so don’t worry about providing adequate health care cuz we know you’re stressed you poor thing.”
For those who say we need to factor in the fact that servers only make 2.15 an hour then factor in that there are other jobs out there as well and nobody held a gun to their head and forced them to be a server. If its such a crappy job then leave and do something else. I’m not a hard customer to please, trust me. I’m a former Marine an I’m now in the Navy so I’m used to not being treated with kid gloves on and being spoken to softly. But when a waitress hands me a plate for my kid that is scorching hot and I wished I brought my asbestos gloves used to change out hot barrels of machine guns without so much as a warning, don’t be surprised when I leave a 32 cent tip. I should have heated the coins up so she would have gotten my point. Face it- eating out is ruined by over priced fare topped with the expectations to leave a tip that is often not earned for fear of having your food spit in next time (or worse).
AMEN and well said, Wade! And thankyou for your Service, sir.
For you dozy lot who believe “service” involves fetching and carrying food, and extorting a 20% Tip from your customers as your Entitlement, think again. As Wade has written, Service is about quite a bit more than that: and nobody knows that better the Armed Forces — you know, the people who go in Harm’s Way so we don’t have to.
Your average Marine probably doesn’t make much more money than your average Wait Staff, when all is said and done — and the scope for having a “bad day” for a Marine would be quite a bit more serious than the scope for having a “bad day” for a Wait Staff.
The worst “bad day” experience for a Wait Staff might involve mixed-up food orders, burnt food, spilled drinks and job termination. The worst “bad day” experience for a Marine might involve mixed-up battle orders, burnt Marines, spilled blood (his/her own) and life termination.
Grab some Respect, folks — and a proper sense of proportionality. 20% for a tip, minimum? Shyeah, right — “tell it to the Marines”, as they say. Sure, pay your 20% tips to Wait Staff — but only after you agree to a 20% wage increase for the Armed Forces personnel who go into Harm’s Way so that we don’t have to. Fair’s fair, after all.
When was the last time *you* and your colleagues had a wage increase, Wade? Was it anything like 20%?
Thank you for your service, Wade!!
People think about tips the wrong way. Tips are not an “extra” cost for having your food prepared by someone else and brought to you by someone else so that all you have to do is eat it. Tips PAY for having all that done. If you go to a place where you order your own food, get your own drink, and find your own seat, then obviously you don’t tip, because the service of having someone do that for you is not provided.
What?!?
A tip is for the service beyond that. The menu price is for the product and the service. Refil my drink, bring crayons for my kids, promptly clean up when my kids spill and generally create an environment that allows me to enjoy my time in your establishment and I will tip well, just bringing my food to the table is the minimum you can do. Why does that earn a tip?
When I said “so that all you have to do is eat”, I meant it LOL!
And, beyond that, tipping is just your personal way of showing your appreciation for the hard work (or lack thereof) of another human being who is serving you.
That is why there are no tipping laws. It is not an obligation, but a choice made, (or not made), out of personal benevolence or cheapness.
Yo Chieftan.
Man if you define service as only going overseas and fighting, and that people should tip 20% when the military gets a 20% increase in wages, that’s like saying lawyers and accountants don’t work just because there are other people out there digging trenches.
Get real, and if you are so adamant about not tipping, don’t eat out!!
@Crumly — lawyers and accountants certainly work for a living, but they definitely don’t Serve. While the tasks they perform are important to our society, they are of nowhere near as important as those who Serve in our military. Show some Respect…
As George Orwell once wrote: “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
And it will be a Frosty Friday in Hell before I ever tip my lawyer or accountant — not even 2%, let alone 20%. You need to get real: lawyers and accountants already make a very decent Living Wage (actually, they make a Partying-Majorly-Wage). Wait staff actually need to make sure their bosses pay them enough to live off, if they aren’t happy with their paychecks.
Thank you all for the support, we all appreciate it and enjoy coming home to the support of good folks such as yourselves. I didn’t want to turn this into a forum about the wages earned by servicemembers because, again, we all knew the deal and nobody held a gun to our heads and made us join. I knew long hours and bad days would be a part of it and a 20% raise for us would not be practical and in all honesty not many of us want a 20% tax raise cuz that would come from the taxpayers and we would end up taking cuts elsewhere. Like crappier gear and equipment. But I appreciate the sentiment. We get benefits far beyond what most civilians get that puts our standard of living above most people.
My simple point is this- there are far worse jobs than serving food and one poster had it right when he said there’s not a lot of skill involved except social skills and also an awesome memory where you take an order for 6 people without writing it down and getting it right is impressive. Kudos for that. But it’s not a hard job compared to anybody else that works in a customer service profession i.e. police, health care, fire fighter, sales etc. To say your job is harder than anybody else’s is like complaining that you only got 4 hours of sleep to a guy that got 2. This sense of entitlement is what drives me crazy about America now. I can’t get directions from a guy off the street without him asking me for a freakin tip. I can’t go out and eat without having to factor in 20% of the total bill for the person to bring me food and fill my cup?! Seriously? 10% is where I start for average service. 15% for a little extra and 20% for “Wow- your service really blew my hair back and I want you to be my only server for here on out!” Again, thanks for all the support and kind words from everybody and let’s step our game up in all of our professions and do what we get paid to do and that is take care of business.
I waited tables for years, and the only person I ever tipped out was the busser (if there was one), and the bartender, if it was a place where customers ordered lots of alcohol. Otherwise, it was all mine. I don’t know about any ‘pooling’ of tips, as it wasn’t done anywhere I worked. I’m sure some of you are decent folk, and know that servers live off of tips, not their sad wage. I always tried hard to serve everyone well, and maintain a professional attitude, even in the face of complete a-holes. So I leave 20% regularly for good service. Bad service is another situation. Btw Janet, America DOES NOT compose both North and South America (and you left out Mexico and Central America, what no love for those in the middle?). Collectively they are referred to as “the Americas”. But they are two continents. And tens of millions call the U.S. ‘America’ every day.
So I have to clean up after I have eaten? What are busboys for? What a self-centered piece of stupidity! Next time I eat I will make sure I leave a huge mess on the floor, table and chairs! And give a 20% tip to pay for it! No wonder she was a waitress, just saying!
B Hobson our new creep of the week. I’m gonna go take a dump on your sidewalk. It’s public land, no need to clean up after myself.
I’m Australian. Wait/service staff in Australia are paid well. Problem is they get paid the same no matter what level of service they provide. It’s a good place to work, but in general our service standards are rather average. There is really no incentive to do a better job. I enjoy visiting the US, the service is so good by comparison. For all it’s faults, the tipping system works.
I knew I should have left a tip jar out when I worked my tail off around people’s smelly feet at Big 5 Sporting Goods for 10 cents above the minimum wage. Everyone knows that waitressing is feast or famine. But, you paid no money to get into that career, if that’s the career you chose. I think it can pay well if you don’t work at Village Inn, or even sometimes if you do. Not bad for not having to invest education money to get that job. I’d say, be grateful for your 15 percent. Most every job in the US has had to take a pay cut. And, waitressing has usually not been a job in the USA that has EVER guaranteed a decent living.
What I’d like to know is whether it’s necessary/customary/polite to tip on take-out in the US. I’ve heard from former servers and “to go” cashiers that it’s expected, but I have a hard time giving 15-20% to someone who at best may have transferred my food into a styrofoam container.
the idea that servers are paid €2.63 per hour is shocking. the idea that the public are then expected to make up the shortfall by tipping is even more scandalous.
heres an idea
1. Charge more for the food , now you SHOULD get rid of the cheapskates
2. Pay the servers a decent wage, so they have an accurate idea of their progress in their ‘career’
3. Eliminate the OBLIGATION TO TIP, now theres no more confusion and people can enjoy their food and servers can do their job without being fixated on will he/won’t he give a large tip.
Waiter/waitress is not a hard job. You don’t cook the food, you don’t really do anything except walk around and carry things. There is no skill involved. Maybe a little bit of organizational behaviour is needed but that’s not complicated.
Here in the Czech Republic, restaurant bills often come with the note printed on the bottom (in two languages): “Service is not included in bill.”
As a server who makes $2.63/hr I expect to be tipped for the service I give. Customers should take a few things into consideration before leaving a zero dollar tip. Was your server obviously “in the weeds” as we put it, with a full section on a busy night? If I see that my server was in this situation yet was still friendly and professional while doing the best they can to serve me I will leave a 20% tip. On the other hand, if my server is rude to me in anyway, or provides poor or slow service when they are clearly not busy, their tip will most certainly reflect this.
If your server accidentally makes a mistake but apologizes and does everything they can to rectify the situation, please do not use this as an excuse to be cheap and jip them on a tip!
Well put. The problem I run into most often as a server is that cheap people will look for a reason to complain and leave little to no tip, even if 99% of their experience was great. If I am friendly and prompt, tip me what I deserve. Everyone is human and makes mistakes. Also, a little kindness goes a long way. I can’t say how many times I greet a party and receive no aknowledgement that I’m even there or they just bark a drink order at me. How about treating people the way you want to be treated?
It is amazing what lengths cheapskates go to not to pay a decent tip. Get over it and pay or stay home. I tip 20%. It is so rare to get bad service. Then I might tip a little less but I do not know who is waiting at home for the server. Hungry kids. An elderly parent. A cranky husband or a lonely room. These are not the rich.
well said!!
No. Always tip the same amount. If the service is no good, or the food, don’t go back.
This article is a little over the top and yes I have worked in the food industry. Bad service with an apologetic waiter can be forgiven but plain bad service is not worth the time speaking to potentially vengeful employees. A bad day does not give anyone a free ticket to be rude. Diners should clean up excessive mess but not be expected to do their own bussing and then tip on top of that.
There of course are those customers who unreasonably want to get their butt kissed for buying a burger but in general people just want their order taken correctly, drinks refilled and someone available to clear the table and be friendly.
On the flip side, waiters DO make only a few dollars an hour! I have paychecks to show for this. Waiters are not “forced” into accepting the job the same way diners are not “forced” to choose an establishment that operates on tips. This is not a secret walking in the door and you will have to do elementary school math to compensate a person for the work you obligated him/her to do for you. Please don’t pretend your 1 dollar tip is some sort of start to a revolution for a more fair system.
If you can’t afford to pay, then STAY HOME.
I used to be a bartender, putting myself through university, many many years ago.
If you cannot afford to tip, then stay home.
Wait staff gets below minimum wage. Due to tips being offered. You are not only tipping the waiter/waitress, they have tip pooling. So your also tipping the cook, and bar staff.
I never tip on really bad service. Ever. There is no excuse for it. I do not complain. I simply put, service inadequate on the bill. They know what they did wrong.
I tip 20% ALWAYS, if the food and service is good. Food is crap, it’s 10%. If the food is good, and the service is bad, but not terrible. Again, 10%.
If you cannot afford to tip. Stay home. If you can afford to eat out with your family. You are making a heck of alot more money than that wait staff, that made sure you got your drinks, food, and anything else, on time.
Think about it.
As confused eater. Stay at home. They don’t need your “kind” there. Lets see how long your wife cooks for you, when you give her no compliments after awhile.
Here in Spain tips are rarely given, rarely expected. The employer pays the waiter or waitress, and in return for that they give a service to the customer. They are sacked if they don’t. Spain has more bars and restaurants per head than any country in Europe.
Quite simple. The same applies to shop assistants, train drivers, nurses and the police.
My mother was a waitress for 34 years. She has said that if you get bad service you are to leave 1c on the table in clear view on top of a napkin, not 1 dollar. Those dollars add up too quickly.
1c will get the waiter/waitress thinking, they’ll either wonder why they were given such a terrible tip or they will think you are cheap.
I like to pay at the register when I can, not the table. It gives me a great chance to tell the cashier/hostess what kind of service I received, good or bad.
That is usually relayed back to the waiter so they can improve their skill.
Those employed in restaurants do so by their own free choice, they were not pres ganged into doing so.
Many jobs have low pay, I see no reason to inflate the cost of a meal by adding 10% or my god 20% to the bill, unless the service was exceptional.
When I worked as a cable repair, I was never tiped by customers as I performed the job my employer paid me to do. When I was a cashier for ma bell, I never received a tip when customers paid their bill. as a teacher, I have never received a tip from parents for teaching their children.
Why not have a 30, 40 or 50% tip? Why stop there? Why not a 100% tip?
The whole tipping business is out of hand. It’s 10% from me from now onwards. BUT………….Inconsiderate people with messy children should be required to pay 30%. That would be a justified tip.
I’d rather tip the chef for a meal I enjoy and that the servers would be polite and attentive yet unobtrusive while I enjoy it. Let credit be given where it is due, and people paid in accordance with their status and skillset.
Is there a consumer review website where restaurants are also rated based on comments about how much was left as a tip and why? It would be useful to know in advance whether the restaurant as a business has a vested interest in all facets of its service delivery and whether I would get value from that.
“If you can’t afford to tip adequately, choose someplace less expensive to opt for a serve yourself type establishment.”
Note to the server: if you can not afford to work at an establishment without relying on the good nature of the customers, then go to school and study and get a better paying job!
Waiter are paid a salary to perform the job, tipping is not necessary. Very rarely have I encountered excellent service, the only case I recall was in Ireland where the waiting staff were professional.
I always find it ridiculous that waiters complain about not receiving enough tips. If you feel that you are not being adequately paid, then maybe you should find another job – nobody is forcing you to stay in something that isn’t giving you enough money to feed yourself.
99% of USA ‘restaurants’ I have eaten in have a truck delivery of frozen processed food from the lowest bidder, once a week which the ‘chef’ heats up and the restaurant over charges for, why bother? The ambience? Normally a car park next to a main road with some cheap mock up of a long gone cultural ideal.
If I ask for a dustpan and rag to clean the table after I leave as suggested, how much should the server tip me? Do I just get the busboy’s share or do we split it three ways?
This attitude is exactly why I. Do. Not. Eat. Out. Ever.
SUE
I lived in Singapore too and god help your country. sinkies (singaporeans) are the most rude and terribly tasteless when it comes to knowing customer service and hospitality. singaporeans are so terrible they now bring in and hire filipinos to provide better customer service. and besides, be honest with people, in singapore it is mandatory to pay your worthless servers 10% which is auto added on the bill no matter how bad their service was. and that’s why servers in your country do not ask for tips–why don’t you try being a bit more honest–typical singaporean tsk tsk tsk.
If servers think they are entitled to 10-15% then I say this: take the prevailing minimum hourly wage in your area and deduct the federal 2.13 per hour and that’s the tip for being in the restaurant for 1 hour.
A tip should have nothing – absolutely nothing to do with what your bill cost. And if you think about it, you stay at a place for an hour and your server maybe spent a total of 5 minutes with you?
Does a mechanic get a 15% tip for changing a tire?
Does the newspaper boy get a tip each time he brings your paper?
Does the mailman get a tip time each time he brings your mail?
So you brought me a drink and food — hey, that’s your job. Piss people off enough with an attitude of what a tip should be and they won’t go to your restaurant and you won’t even have a job much less complain about what a tip should be. Be grateful not greedy.
Think about the bill for 4, say around $60, so 20% is $12. Suppose 1 wait staff can take care of 4 tables at a time, and suppose everyone stays 1 full hour (most don’t). Now that’s $48 per hour. Yeah, I feel so sorry if I get poor service and they get a small tip. (NOT)
Western Canada … minimum wage in my province is $10 hr, and there is no lower minimum based on the industry you’re in. So, 5 hour shift is $50, 8 hour is $80; you could work 10 hours without overtime if you don’t work 40 hours/week, or time and a half after 8 if you do.
Plus the employer has to buy you a taxi home if your shift ends at or after 11 pm.
I work in an industry (not food service) where tipping is customary, so I know what it’s like to rely on tips for part of your income.
I can do math, don’t need any “easy methods” like rounding up the bill. Are there really people out there who can’t double $17.53 in their head?
Anyway I know many people who wait tables here. Average tips for a full shift are $100~200, plus over $80 in wages. I know wait staff who make over $50K year and part time college students who make $25K working 8 days a month (Friday + Saturday).
At the part time salary with college deductions, income taxes (Federal + Provincial) would be under $1500 a year … based on the local University tuition of about $5K it would be $1100.
“I can do math, don’t need any “easy methods” like rounding up the bill. Are there really people out there who can’t double $17.53 in their head?”
GN, there are (more than a few) people “out there” who need to use a calculator in order to divide by 10.
When I was in school we were not allowed to use calculators at all until calculus or trig, nor did cash registers automatically ring up the amount of change. We had to either work it out on paper or do it in our heads. Sadly schools let them use calculators now so students never learn how to do simple math.
Anyone who dislikes the system is brain dead. I served. I believe everyone should do it at least once in your life. America is all about choice. The system is as is because of choice. People whine about the tedious nature of tipping and the entitlement, and say just include it. There are inconsistencies in that logic. Saying just include it or make the establishment pay a fair wage only calls for higher prices. Which then creates a system where no choice is allowed for the customer. You idiots just harp on the one time you were treated bad. If your server is rude call them out. Be charming and witty and its guaranteed your server will react. A server prejudges a table before they sit down. They treat you bad probably because your an idiot and let them. If your treated bad say, “turn around start again.” Your server will appreciate your candor. If that doesn’t work say, I’d like someone else to finish serving me. It’s not hard. Everyone on this post seem to think logical negotiation skills are above their head. Tip what you want, but 20% is the baseline. Don’t justify you being a cheapskate by blaming a server.
Wow. I’m so not going to your restaurant.
20% is a baseline? In your dreams, pal. I’ve got a much better idea: how about 0% as a baseline, and leave tips only for brilliant service?
“America is all about choice. The system is as is because of choice. People whine about the tedious nature of tipping and the entitlement, and say just include it. There are inconsistencies in that logic. Saying just include it or make the establishment pay a fair wage only calls for higher prices. Which then creates a system where no choice is allowed for the customer.”
You mean a system where the prices charged for the customer are enough to pay the wages of the staff, assuming the service is good enough and the product of a decent enough quality so that the amount of customers means the income is more than the costs of running the business? Outrageous!
Okay. So the genius who say just include AND how dare they expect 20% are one in the same? Shocking. Really, I know I meet on average more incompetent people than not but really?
Lets play 1st grade math for the cheapskates. Okay cheapskates (you know who you are – you look for every slight from your server/experience so you can justify being a cheapskate and deadbeat. Even though a high number of servers are young college kids or as the poster noted ‘working second jobs.’ Which means they are all white collar professionals already or will be soon. You know why servers are so rude, because they have to deal with your incompetence TIMES 10 all day long – I digress) let’s say your burger costs $8 and your coke $2. I’ll keep it simple for those of you unable to execute 2nd grade math. That’s $10 plus 10% gross receipts. So your bill comes out to $10.10. Traditional food costs can vary (I don’t dare put a number and get butchered) but lets keep it simple at 50%. So the restaurant banks revenue of $5.05. Many resturaunts pay a flat rent fee and a percentage of gross sales beyond a certain revenue mark if they don’t own their own building, but again for simplicity even if you do own your building you will still have a mortgage. So lets shave another 10% for rent. Everyone see where this is going? You shave and you shave until you have your operating margin, at which point owners make pennies on the dollar of each sale. In fact most resturaunts break even or operate at a loss 300+ days a year and make profit and or break even during busy seasons(whatever that may be given the region). So back to our 2nd grade math. We have our 10 bill. The genius in these comments say “how dare a stuffy server expect 20% baseline tip! The outrage, call your congressman (insert joke on whether these degenerates even know who their congressman is)!” So for fun lets include the tip so our idiot compadres don’t have to do math as they slurp down their 5th sugary coke and lie about it being their birthday so they get a free cheesecake and order extra cheese and extra sauce and extra cholesterol on all their food. $10 + 20% for tip + extra payroll tax + extra rent + gross receipts. $10 + $2 + $2*10% + $2*10% = $12.40*10% (gross receipts) = $13.64. So instead of your bill being $10.10 and you floating a server $2 your are looking at an overall bill that’s $1.54 MORE than if just weren’t a worthless cheapskate. Extrapolate to $50 or a $100 bucks and your paying ~$7-$15 bucks more because you can’t add. Case closed. Once more, don’t go out to eat if you suck. If you don’t suck support your local resturaunts.
> let’s say your burger costs $8 and your coke $2. I’ll keep it simple for those of you unable to execute 2nd grade math. That’s $10 plus 10% gross receipts. So your bill comes out to $10.10.
Ummm… perhaps there is a GOOD reason why you are a waitress. 10% of $10 is $1, not 10c. Perhaps you should go back and learn how to “execute 2nd grade math”…
That’s why the Internet is so fun.
Recap:
Just tip cheapskate,
$11 + $2.20 tip. $13.20 total with tip.
Tip included,
$10 + $2 + $2*10% + $2*10% = $12.40*10% (gross receipts) = $13.64 total with tip included. Or 24% of original tab.
Thanks to Chieftain. Case still closed. Lesson as always, never write your common sense rant after a bowl of……never mind.
@Safado — Ummmm… Your maths still don’t work. 10% of $10 is still $1, not 10c like you said. So your bill does not come out to $10.10, by any calculation you have shown. It comes out to $11.
It’s back to Remedial Maths for you. Thanks for playing…
I wrote $11 dood, I’m giving you a pass for the first catch but I don’t do we’ll with random Internet guy wants last word.
I said $11 which is $10 x 10%. Back to remedial reading class for you.
> I wrote $11 dood,
Ummm… no, dood. You wrote (quote):
“That’s $10 plus 10% gross receipts. So your bill comes out to $10.10.”
So it’s back to remedial reading, writing AND arithmetic for you. Do they teach you kids anything useful in school these days? No wonder most of you are waitresses, dependent on making tips to earn a decent living. Maybe it’s time to put away your calculator and learn the Times Tables, like we had to do in the Good Ol’ Days.
In the replies I wrote $11. If you were as good as deductive reasoning as you were in repeating yourself you would realize this post doesn’t allow one to edit their original post. But you knew that since you’re so good at correcting people.
Although this coming from the guy who thinks 99 percent of people are incompetent soooooo. Lets keep squabbling this is fun. Now I attack your ability to put two and two together and realize that I couldn’t edit an original post. Schmuck. Now you attack some grammatical error that apple auto corrected for me……ready go.
What a pathetic excuse. I wouldn’t have given your post a caning if you hadn’t been so patronizing about people not being able to do 2nd grade math. And then compounded your error by extending it to the restaurant’s take (50% of $10.10=$5.05). Arrogance has been your undoing.
Why blame your Apple technology, when the stupidity actually rests with you?
Truly, you need to wait on tables a few more years. You aren’t ready for remedial math yet.
Yes you took the bait.
You missed two points and your only retort was “lame excuse.” The greatest “I’ve got nothing response in history.” I got nothin so I going to call you lame.
Chiefly, your biggest problem is you are lame and you attacked my arrogance but secretly you loved the arrogance. You knew I would respond and you keep writing back. This feeds your ego as much as mine. You want the last word even if its as lame as “your lame.” My math error was fun and I explained it. I’m two Taco Bell runs into this bowl. Doesn’t explain why at 1 am your still fighting with a lowly arrogant floor sweeper. This floor sweeper is still smarter and more right than you. Get the last word, ready go…………..
If the bill is, say, $26.00, rounding up to the nearest $10 and adding 20% on top of that results in a tip of over 33%. That’s an extremely generous tip. Twenty percent on the price of the meal (that’s without adding in the tax) is more than fair.
What’s laughable in this is that she says the “Government” decides what a server should be paid, or is worth. The FREE MARKET should decide nothing else. I waited tables for over 4 years so I know a thing or two about tipping. What’s also funny is she mentions that the tip (which comes ATF) will give you great service. Completely false study after study has shown there is no correlation between service and tip amount people generally give 15% as that’s what they’ve been told to give, they’ve found the # only goes up or down slightly based on the service. As such I’ve actually made it a habit to tip on service if it’s good I tip well if it’s bad I decrease the amount. I can count on one hand the # of times I’ve ever stiffed someone and if I did they certainly deserved it (20+ minutes to greet you 45+ min for food while 4 or 5 other tables of similar size had come and gone and you were there first) and the manager was called/spoken to.
Whenever I get truly bad service, I leave behind the following verse along with 25 cents:
The food was just atrocious
The service even worse
Had I eaten just a bit more
I’d be leaving here in a hearse.
I have eaten in restaurants all my life…some of which were considered budget prohibitive by some. As a result of this extensive exposure, my family and I are excellent tippers; follow up visits to the establishments reflect how the establishment feels about our gratuities.
Here’s our take. We do not GIVE tips based on people’s fluctuating scale…you did not get my service and you are not providing $$$ into my bank account. I am the one who got the service, so I will determine what is fair and what is grand. If you give me the service you were hired to do, you do get a tip. If you provide me with excellent service, my tip reflects that too. If you give me bad or mediocre service, my tip is reflected on that also, which would be based on my evaluation and not on your minimum wage and percentage views. If you are rude, and I believe I’ve only encountered rude service twice in over 45 years of patronizing restaurants, hotels, eateries, resorts, etc., then I will give you a $1.00 tip and I offer no apologies for that. The way I see it, it could have been worse, I could have left -0- tip.
Excellent Customer Service should be the norm no matter where you are being served. When I am having service “lacking in something”, I discreetly let my server know. When I have to remind them again, I will let my server know AGAIN, in a low but firm tone. This has almost always taken care of the situation and I still leave a tip based on service provided, not by what people’s view of what I should leave.
I retired from 35 years of Customer Service and in my world, when the customer is patronizing my establishment, the Customer is King!!! Unfortunately, some people think that when they work for a living that they are doing you a favor because they are at work serving you. I smile as I write this because these days, instead of having higher goals, we have digressed and that is just plan sad.
When I leave my tips at the table, at a hotel room, with the valet, the bellman, the curbside check-ins, even tip when a hotel employee brings me an extra pen because I was digging into my bag for mine, and any other place where tips are normally expected; my mindset is that tips are not automatic and required…it is a reward factor that is expected and welcomed by the receiving end. I oblige where warranted and I do not subscribe to other people’s calculations nor do I respond to industry standards. In my view, my standards are higher than those of the industry and my tips reflect that.
“even tip when a hotel employee brings me an extra pen because I was digging into my bag for mine , and any other place where tips are normally expected”
Who does this? I can picture you walking around with a big white 10 gallon hat on calling people “son of a bitch” and lighting your cigars with a stack of fanned out 100’s.
They guy give you a pen because you asked for one and its the decent thing to do. And you tipped for that?
there in a nutshell is the problem with our society. Half of us are too damn lazy to work unless you tie a string to a dollar and lead us around, and the other half try to defend this practice.
This forum should be closed after this post above; tips for a pen… Good grief!
This article highlight the server mentality or ‘handout’ mentality.
I remember in my trip to the US. My family and I took a taxi from the Airport. My dad asked the driver how much would the fare would normally cost to our destination. The first thing he mentioned was the tips are 15% to 20% of the fare. We were shocked.
I lived in Asia mostly in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Nobody tips unless the service is super exceptional. In our culture, it is extremely rude to discuss about ‘Tips’ as the first topic. Service comes first. If the service is excellent, then tips is discretionary and extra.
I found the whole tipping culture in US is extremely distasteful. Surely the needs/challenges of the waiter/waitress in US are no greater than that in Singapore or Malaysia, countries that do not have minimum wages. In US, where tips are expected, the service that I had so far ranges from bad to average. In Asia, the service I received in restaurant are often really good to exceptional.
I can say that my job as customer service officer responding to angry customer via email/phone to be mentally exhausting as well. I can also say that the wages provided does not compensate me enough for putting up with that. I should get tips for every call that I answer cheerfully and politely. We can say for every job, nurses treating sick patient and risk getting sick themselves, teacher who is verbally abuse by students, etc etc. .
When we accepted a position, we agreed to the compensation provided by employers to do the job. Everything else is extra. To say that customers owe us percentage ‘tips’ regardless of good or bad service is just Wrong in my opinion.
Some taxi drivers in Singapore would be offended if you provide them with tips. They would refuse your tips on the ground that it is a dishonest income. Unlike that that particular taxi driver in the US, they take pride in the job they do.
I’ve got no problem with leaving a 20% tip for great service, but I don’t like the calculation method of rounding to the next $10 increment and using that as the basis for figuring out the 20%…I live in British Columbia, which slaps on a whole wack of taxes on the meal…and I’ll be damned if I’m going to tip on a tax! So I use the pre-tax amount, since the tip should be calculated on the food and drink I consume, not the government’s take on what I drank and ate…
Like so many others I was a waiter briefly but a bartender for several years at a high-end restaurant. At least important is that I’ve been a corporate traveller for many years and have eaten at literally thousands of restaurants across the country.
I disagree that poor service deserves at least a minimal tip. Being a server is a job that has the same responsibilities as other more professional jobs. If you can’t serve a customer quality food or with satisfactory service, you are obligated to the customer to let them know and explain why. If the kitchen is slow a customer deserves to know that, if a meal choice is frequently ill-prepared the customer also deserves to know.
I will tip a margina meal if the service is satisfactory and I will tip a good meal with marginal service. However, if I receive bad food and bad service, I will pay no tip. This combination is unacceptable!
As a CEO of a company, I do feel an obligation to the owners and managers of restaurants and will always try to leave a comment when either food or service is bad. I will usually sign the credit card slip and indicate on the slip that the tip was poor due to bad service or food in the hopes that management will see the slip and be able to address the problem. At least this way the server knows why the tip is poor and can address problems as they may.
In the end, a good server shouldn’t stay at a restaurant that serves consistently bad food or has slow service from the kitchen. I would certainly not stay at a company that sold a poor product or treated my customers poorly.
Leave a 20-26% tip? For what? I was a waiter in my younger years and am an old man now, having seen the history of this tipping growth.
I remember in the 40s-50s tipping was for good service, and I received 10 cents per trip to tables to serve drinks. Then, in about the 70s the 5% rule was adopted, followed by 10% and so on. All of the time the price of the food and drinks were rising making the tips larger also.
I also remeber that at a typical restaurant the “hard work” occurred only at short meal intervals.
In todays world a $100 check for 4 “requires” a $20 to $25 tip? For What? Less than 5 minutes of actual service. A lot of people would like to earn that rate.
Do you work. If you don’t like it, train for a better job.
As someone who has worked in the food service industry, and also eats out, I have to say, I disagree with most of this article. I live in Canada, and though the wage is lowered, it’s far more substantial than $2 an hour. Perhaps 20 years ago that was normal, but not now. Not to mention the fact that they aren’t taxed on their tips, so in the long run, they’re probably making more money than most people realize. My sister walks away from a night of serving (less than an 8 hour day, by the way) with a couple hundred bucks in her pocket, plus her base wage.
I have never left more than 15%, because quite frankly, that can add up to a substantial amount of money depending on the bill, and they’re also getting a tip from everyone else at the table. And what she said about if you can’t afford to tip, eat somewhere cheaper?! Excuse me?! If I have enough money to pay for a meal, but not for a huge tip…then, too bad for my server, I guess. My advice to the wait staff who are unhappy with their wages is, get a better job. No one is forcing you to work for “$2 an hour”.
If I get crappy service, it’s not my responsibility to figure out if my server is “having a bad day”. I don’t care if you are – you’re at work, and you’re supposed to do your job properly. If you don’t, then why should I reward you? And again, if you hate your job, get another one.
Because I have been in their shoes, I do tend to tidy the table…but that’s a courtesy, not a requirement. I’m not the one getting paid to clean it up. This article makes it sound like the customer should be jumping through hoops for their waitress, when it’s supposed to be the other way around. There is a reason it’s called a SERVICE industry…you provide a service, and I pay for it. Not, I pay for it, and in addition, I also have to make sure you’re feeling okay today, you’re not too busy, and clean up after myself. Ridiculous.
Well said. It’s nice to hear somebody who was actually in the shoes of a server raise the bull s&@t flag. I don’t feel as obligated to leave an outrageous tip and you’re right- what I choose to do with my money is my business and what gives anybody the right to dictate what I do and where I can go eat. If I don’t have enough money to spend on a 20% tip then what’s it to you?
I can’t believe this waitress actually believes the nonsense she wrote.
Tipping isn’t demanded or expected in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Polynesia, Scandanavia or much of Europe in anything approaching the disgusting manner it’s demanded in certain sectors within the US.
If the employer chooses to offer his staff low wages and they choose to accept them, it is simply not my problem to address. I choose to go for a meal, the prices are listed on the menu and I accept them or eat elsewhere. The prices include the cost of rent, overheads, staff wages, an acceptable standard of service, prompt clearing of tables, dishwashing and refuse disposal.
I feel absolutely no obligation to enhance staff wages, tidy up my table, wash my own dishes or take home my own refuse. Especially hard to imagine why anyone would even consider tipping for poor service as suggested by this delusional individual from the land of the delusional.
Well said!
The model that restaurants use is going to have to change. With the increasing rise in food prices, families are just not going to be able to afford routinely spending 80-100 dollars for a meal, then be expected to pay a 20 percent tip. If a waitress at a standard restaurant serves (conservatively) two tables per hour and makes 10-15 dollars per table in tips, that is not bad money. That is an hourly wage that approaches and even surpasses some skilled labor jobs.
I, like most on this board, give 15 percent and scale it up or down depending on the level of service. What bothers me is the level of absurdity that tipping has been brought to in the US. A ten minute taxi ride costs me 20 dollars? AND I need to tip you? You poured me a cup of coffee at the local starbucks? And you want a tip? Tipping for menial jobs where people are paid a base salary should be optional like it is in most countries.
I would be in favor of a 10 percent or 15 percent service charge at restaurants. It would make customers’ heads hurt less, and take away the added pressure of deciding on having to placate your server even if he/she has an off day or leaving a “sub-standard” tip.
I agree. Whenever I travel to the states, and I find that the Americans really do EXPECT a tip, regardless of the job itself or if their performance deserves it. I especially disagree with tipping cab drivers…you make way too much money just driving around to deserve any more than just the cost of the ride. Here in Canada, I have never once tipped a taxi driver, and I never will.
Up in Canada, servers make the same minimum wage as any other employee. In some provinces that is $10.25. If you provide service that far exceeds my expectations, you will receive a 15% tip. Your tip by definition is not a given and therefore starts at 0% and you need to earn it. Terrible service will not be tipped. I am sick of ex servers or restaurant owners wildly suggesting that we should compensate for the lack of a decent wage. Either you charge more and pay well or don’t expect your patrons to do it for you. Period!
Amen Mike!
Here in Brasil you have not 1 but even 15 servents per table for example in Churrascaria’s and they don’t expect any tip. The restaurants here are full, food is good and waiters are very friendly. The waiters chat with you and try to amuse you and they know that they won’t get any tip because tipping in Brasil is uncommon. You know what you have to pay when you order your meal and the whole experience of eating out is superb. No wonder that restaurants here are full and people from every social class afford to go eat out – even 7 or more times a week.
Where do you get this $2/hr from? It entirely depends upon where one lives. Where we live, the min wage for everyone (wait staff included) surpasses $10/hr. If – as it sounds- you are basing your entire analysis upon your personal experience- most of your advice is pretty meaningless.
I couldn’t ignore the comment about “real jobs that require real skills”. I have worked in this field for lower than minimum wages and tips are not part of the Italian culture (where I live). When people learned I was working as a waitress they would be surprised (as it is considered a lowly job for immigrants or young people). However, I discovered that to do the job properly and look after your customers, you need an abundance of real skills….and a lot of understanding. What’s more, where would people be without those who serve them? I think some form of community service should be mandatory.
I suppose that comment refers to the idea that you can walking in off the street, get hired, and go through “training” in an hour…
People will comment that it is much more than that but it is still a fact that it is one of the few jobs that you can get with no experience which is great for students and the under educated but in no way should you expect to own a house and car and put your kids through college working this kind of job. It simply does not pay enough nor should it.
Where would people be without thoses who serve them? The strong ones will figure it out and the weak ones will pay more for the services. Some people have enough money to pay $30 for a sandwich, others will make their own…
I make in two nights what most make in a week. So yes actually I can have house, car, etc.
No question that some do. Do you think that you are the exception or the norm? If you are the norm you are proof to the point that tipping is not required. I would venture a guess that you are the exception that proves rule.
I also don’t know what “most do is week” mean. Some people make $8k/week…
I travel quite extensively,
In Germany it says it plainly in German, the meal includes the tip and the 19% vat tax, the price is complete. One tips a bit if the service was great. The same with cabs in Berlin, they expected a tip or two. In Poland tips are not expected and one server told me that her tips would be impounded if I left them on the table, gave them to her or left it on the credit card though she gave excellent service.
The USA is very tip oriented, other countries are not. In Mexico, one usually leaves 10 percent on meals on the table in the USA style. Taxi drivers are NOT tipped in Mexico, the tip is included unless they haul your luggage very far or up stairs or whatever.
In some countries tips will be refused as being unnecessary or near insulting. People in Germany don’t expect tips and they have to learn our complicated system when they come to the USA or Canada. In NYC when I eat out in the restaurant where I am very well known and hang out a lot, I may tip 2 or 3 USD or more on a refilled cup of coffee as I get excellent service and may be in the restaurant for hours for business or meetings. The NY Times, by the way, had a long article on tipping and felt that the tip is calculated on the tab MINUS the sales tax. Overall the whole tipping topic is very overblown and complicated as compared to other countries which pay a normal complete wage.
Maybe in the USA the answer might be to just pay the real normal min. wage of about $7.15 as a minimum and then the tips on top of it for the server to keep. Most of them do work hard and deserve at least the federal min. wage as a basic given. I had cleaning staff in my digs in Poland in the summer and when I went to tip them for a great job they refused and said it was for friendship, which was quite touching and nice. But in my USA mentality I would have preferred that they take the tip. In Mexico, the average wage for a helper is 20 pesos an hour, about $1.60 an hour USA, but one can also give a further tip, money for their buses, etc. I think one should always give a dignified pay and or tip especially if the person is hard working, punctual and helpful.
So every country definitely has its own value system.
I concur with japan. The servers there were very noble and professional and would have been offended by a tip.
I remember when I was in Guatemala a few years ago and I tried tipping those I thought deserved and needed it. To my shock, as they did really need it, it was mostly not accepted or refused, even many were students who I thought really needed it but long fights would ensue and the to be tipped often refused to accept anything. I never figured that out, but strange and true!
the world of tipping is quite involved and differs tremendously from country to country and to service from service. when i n Rome do as the romans do………………………………….
Ooops… Sorry I found this web site only after returning from USA back home to Scandinavia. I’m afraid we have in comparison seriously undertipped the good people serving for our lunches and suppers, as I went with the 10% and sometimes even less if I had no more cash with me; when I payed with cards.
I believe in the whole North of Europe we practically do not have tips, some may flash the idea thanks to the Americanization (movies, TV-series), but in general we expect and hope our society to be able to keep the salaries & wages on the level that guarantee a dignified, self-sufficient life.
But I would like to learn, are you also expected to tip in MacDonalds’ and such fast-food places?
And another question, how do you take care of tipping if you cover your bill with credit card? Or you just prepare yourselves with adequate cash?
I have to say I really would have loved to have all the stuff included in one final bill, just the final number below the line, without having to spoil the fun with having to evaluate the waitering qualities and use a calculator to think how they’ll get to save for their kids’ college expenses – and shortly, allow me to embarrase myself.
Just as in the stores – what is it with having to count the shoppings and add the taxes on it separately?? Can’t the automatization figure out the maths on its own at labeling or do merchandise chains believe people want to see only lower prices, up to this self-betraying extent?
Why would people wish to keep these things complicated? Out of love for a tradition perhaps, simply because they can?
Kati,
1. One does not usually tip at fast food restaurants.
2. When you pay with a credit card, there will be an extra line on the bottom for the tip for you to fill in, and then total.
3. Occasionally you will find places where the price includes sales tax, but that’s rare. I suspect the reason is what you indicated–stores want to draw you in with the lower price, and “everyone” (excluding foreign guests of course) knows that the tax will be added. Or perhaps it is because many US citizens are very focused on the cost of government and how much we are being charged for it, and thus want to see that charge broken out. I admit I appreciate the places that automatically add the sales tax to the price being displayed.
4. Why do we do what we do w/r/t tipping? I don’t know, but in the US the importance placed on individual enterprise is very high. I’d rather be able to reward an individual for good service and not pay for bad service than assume that all servers perform equally well. Just like at my job, where I want to be rewarded for contributions above the norm.
5. Hope you had a good trip here!
$2/hr? Shamefull really. In Australia they pay waiters/waitresses a proper wage, its the law, consequently tipping is generally not required or expected, but nothing stopping you doing so if you want to particularly reward someone.
I’m an American living in Japan. I am actually annoyed the some aspects of service in U.S. restaurants, such as the forced happy talk, constant refilling of huge, 500-calorie beverages, and constant checking on you.
In Japan I couldn’t tip if I wanted to. The waiter would be ashamed to accept it. And they do their jobs politely without being annoying.
I think one of the differences is that a job as a waiter or waitress is usually filled by someone with ownership or other close interest in the restaurant, or by a young college student or older ex-housewife. It’s not considered a career. You’re not supposed to be able to buy a house, raise two kids, and send them to college on it. It a low-level job that you are trained for over a few days and master within a month (or you’re let go). If you’re young, you eventually go on to a real career that requires real skills. If you don’t like the money you get another job.
I’m in a similar situation (Canadian, living in Japan – been here 15 years). One other point to add is that the wages for being a waiter here are low, but not criminally so.
I found it difficult to not tip when I first came here. I was always thinking “Really? Won’t my waiter/waitress be upset?” Now I find it really annoying when I go back home. I’m exactly in the camp of the comment up there at the top: it has become such a hassle to figure out what is a fair tip, and I’m really tired of hearing waiters/waitresses telling me that their job is sooo hard and they really deserve 20% or more. I’m only surprised that the “standard rate” hasn’t gone up to 25% already.
People choose careers for themselves. If you want to be a server making $4 dollars per hour, that is your choice, not mine. Tipping in North America has just completely gone insane.
I order a $100 dollar bottle of wine and I need to leave $20 dollars simply for you to make a 30 second trip? Tipping should be based completely on service alone, and not the total dollar amount on the bill. Absolutely insane!
Here in Ireland I tip on service alone and not on what the bill is. I adopt this system wherever I travel. If a few of us are out for a meal and were splitting the bill normally we all throw money in for the tip. I will normally tip between €5 and €10 depending on the service provided but I refuse to tip on the basis of the cost of my meal, what extra work has my server done by delivering a more expensive meal NONE.
John,
I disagree, by that logic, why should you tip more for ordering a $30 dollar steak as opposed to a $5.00 bowl of soup? I mean it takes roughly 30 seconds to serve either. The only reason you should consider tipping based on your total bill, is because the US governement taxes servers on their total sales. Not the amount of time they spend serving it. That being said, it is acceptable to tip less on wine like 10%. Remember, you are not required to ever tip on anything, and a good server knows that, thats why a good server will bust their hump giving you the best possible service that they can. We did not create the system here in the US, we just work in it.
Respectfully,
AJ Stone
As an American/Australian dual citizen who travels extensively, I feel I have to comment on this article. Service staff in Australia are paid around $18/hour for normal working hours (9-5) x 1.5 after hours and Sat., x 2.0 for Sun. and x 2.5 for recognised holidays. Meaning that a waiter working on one of the many holidays in this country can earn around $40/hour to wait tables. Plus “superannuation” of 9% (rising to 12% soon), and workplace insurance – all paid for by the employer. Even the normal award wage is excellent by World standards. This is great for the wait staff, but terrible for the employers and customers because the wait staff don’t care if they give good service or not – they still get the same generous wage. The restaurateurs try to get by with a minimal staff, so the service suffers even more, especially on holidays when many Australians want to eat out. In the U.S., service is many times better because the staff are working directly for the tippers (customers). Sure, the English and Aussies may stiff you for a tip because they are not educated in this art form, but having worked as a silver service waiter, I have to say that providing excellent service in anticipation of a big tip adds another dimension to basically being a servant. It allows the restaurant to employ many staff who are motivated to increase the final tab by adding more drinks or suggesting more expensive dishes, thus adding to the overall experience for the patrons. It is true that fast-food staff get only the $2/hour, but there is always an opportunity to move up to a better establishment, one would hope. I believe that dining in Australia would be a far more enjoyable experience if the American model was adopted here, After all, this is the “egalitarian society”, and I am sure that Aussies would love the opportunity to express their solidarity with their comrades through tipping. I might add that it is common to earn $2-300 for a 6 hour shift in a top restaurant in a seasonal restaurant, after tipping out the bartender and bus staff – unreported, in cash!
What about places that charge you the mandated 18%, even if services sucks? Why are we obliged to pay this regardless of the service we receive? Is this fair? I agree with most here. We tip how we feel based on service we receive. I waited on tables for 3 years to pay for university. I was kind, fast, smiled, asked all the right questions and was rewarded by 95% of the patrons. Be nice, kind, smile, ask if the food is good etc..show interest in your customers and you will be rewarded.
Piero,
Most of the restaurants I have ever worked in do not automatically charge 18%, they usually only do that on parties of 6 or more, or parties of 8 more, etc. If you have a party of that size and the automatic gratuity kicks in, but you get poor service, you can bring it up with the manager and they will take it off. (in almost all instances, especially if you recieved poor service) Or you can even request that you be allowed to tip accordingly even if you have a big party. Any restaurant worth its salt, will let you do that all you have to do is talk with the manager.
Respectfully,
AJ Stone
I live in Australia and we dont tip as a rule (mostly never) as the server or waitress is getting paid a decent wage to start with. I have just returned from the USA and i have to say your system is confusing. Matter of fact you seem to do things the hard way. All our taxes are included in all purchases so we always know upfront what we are going to pay and that includes tipping. Nearly all our transcations are done here by eftpos (no cash) so that saves all the money issues and we dont have one or two cent pieces either everything is rounded to the nearest 5c if you are dealing in coin. America would be much easier if all this stuff was streamlined. But I love the USA and its people. Americans are the nicest people on the planet take a bow.
Clearly Chieftain is of a slightly different opinion….
No, the USA is a great place, and Americans are good people. However, if you think you are being kind to your wait staff by tipping them, you’re actually not. You’re perpetuating a thoroughly abusive employment relationship, and allowing restaurants to make their staff absorb a fair bit of the business risk, and that’s just plain stupid. It’s dozy at best, and utterly immoral at worst.
Wait staff deserve to be paid a Living Wage for the work they perform. Just like everybody else does. And it should NOT be the responsibility of the customer to evaluate and compensate the wait staff for their job performance: that should be the responsibility of their bosses.
Cheiftan, I am sorry, but I disagree with your statement that servers in the US work in a “thoroughly abusive employment relationship” I am a server, part time. I have been working in restuarants since I was 15 years old. (I’m 50 now) I have a full time “Day Job” that I make very good money at. I only work part time as a server. Why do I do that, its because the restaurant business is in my blood, and I’m very good at it. I have been fortunate over all these years to work for owners and management that taught me how important good customer service is. I love it, I love trying to give each and every customer that walks in to have the absolute best dining experience they can have. I want them to come back, the owners want them to come back, and a restaurant will not survive if we don’t keep them coming back. It is a extrmemely competitive business here in the US. Over time I see waiting on tables as more like contract work, I sign on with your restaurant because I think I can make more money at it than I did at the previous one. You always start at the bottem and keep working your way up. Dishwasher, Busyboy, Prep Cook, Line cook, Server, whatever suits you the best. (And trust me I’ve done all those things) But waiting on tables and taking care of our Guests is where I found out that I was the best at. You, the Guest, deserve the best possible dining experience that our restaurant can give you. It’s my job on the front lines, face to face with you, to make sure that happens. I want you to come back, I want you to tell all your friends about the wonderful service and excellent food you had at our restaurant. I don’t feel like a slave, I don’t feel like a servant, I feel like I am part of a team that is centered on your dining experience. I love this job, I really do, it’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s a very personal experience for me (and hopefully for you our guests). That being said, here in the US, you are never, ever required to tip me. EVER!!!! Let me make that point clear, you do not have to tip me. I have never ever felt entitled to any sort of a tip, I always have to earn it by providing you the guest with outstanding service. If you don’t want to tip me, I am OK with that, I will make it up on my other tables, so long as you’re happy with the service and the food that we provided you, then I did my job. If you come in on a Tuesday night and don’t tip me, then come back the next night even knowing you did not tip me the night before, I will try even harder to give you better service, because thats what I do!!! (Besides, if you come back the second night then I HAVE done my job!!)
I did not create the system we have here in the US, I just work in it, and I am DAMN PROUD to do so!!!! It will help put my kids through college, and it’s setting me up with a nice nest egg for retirement. Our system here is not immoral, it is not slavery (I Chose to do it) It is what it is. So come visit me at our restaurant, and we’ll introduce you to some of the best steaks on the planet…..no Tip required!!!!!!
Respectfully,
AJ Stone
Server at Kahill’s Steak and Chophouse
South Sioux City, NE
United States of America
Here is Germany, there is automatically an 11% ser charge. It is part of the total bill and is indicated on the menus. If the service is excellant then I add more when the bill is paid. If the service wasn’t good then I give the server nothing extra. When I vacationed in France, Paris to be specific, I had outstanding service from 2 waiters. When it came time to pay the bill, another waiter appeared. I asked where the other two were. They were on break. I asked where the break room was and went to them and tipped them 40% of the bill. They went above and beyond for me so I did the same for them.
Gawd am I glad I live in Australia with no tipping and a decent minimum wage! Why haven’t you people overturned such a ridiculous scheme? $2 an hour?? And half of you don’t vote!!! sheesh!
For the amount to tip: double the tax!
For tipping in general: ridiculous!
My varying gusto on what I’m want to eat&drink today defines what the waiter gets into her/his pocket? It doesn’t change the waiters work at all.
Well, one thing this article and many articles on this topic forget to say is, should the tip be based on the amount before tax or after tax? This matters because in California, the sale tax is close to 9%. Now imagine, if 10 people go to a restaurant and the bill is, let us say, $300 and the tax part alone is probably around $25. 20% of $300 (including the sales tax) is $60 where as 20% of $275 is approx $55 (excludes the sales tax from the bill). That’s a whopping $5 more in tips. Keep that in mind. The 20% tip should be based on the amount before sales tax. Otherwise, you may be over-tipping, which is fine if you can afford it, but it is definitely not a good idea if you do it unknowingly.
Are you kidding, waiters can earn anywhere from $20-$30 /hr depending on penalties. You can make a very good living being a waiter in Oz. Even McDonalds staff can earn $15+. The US economy is living in the past.
Lookit, you dozy Yanks are mugs. Sorry, but there it is: you are dumb as a sack of hammers because you TIP your wait staff, and you think it’s OK to do this. Mor than that, you think it is compulsory!
You dozy lot aren’t actually helping the wait staff out: instead, you are perpetuating a thoroughly abusive employment relationship. The wait staff bosses pocket the difference, AT YOUR EXPENSE. And the wait staff go home with a pittance!
Wait staff *deserve* a proper, living wage, just for showing up in the morning with brushed teeth and tidy hairdos. Whether the restaurant is busy, or dead-flat. Wait staff *deserve* to be paid. Every other industry pays their staff fairly, so why not restaurants?
And restaurant customers *deserve* to be served properly always, by well-paid wait staff. Why not? Every other business manages to look after their customers properly, and without being bribed — it is the norm — and so why not restaurants, too?
Customers SHOULD NOT have to pay the wait staff directly. That is not why we go to your restaurants. We go to your restaurants to enjoy ourselves, and it is up to the RESTAURANT to make sure that happens. This includes evaluating and paying their wait staff for their performance: that should not be our job, that’s the restaurant owner’s job!!!
You dozy Yanks need to sort your business practises out. Pay your wait staff fairly, a decent living wage. And stop requiring your customers to bribe your staff. Because Tipping is actually Bribery: it is underhanded and wrong. And it almost certainly results in untaxed income.
Wow, I’m wondering now if you’ve had some terribly traumatizing childhood experience in a restaurant. Little over the top, aren’t you, “mate”?
To make matters worst for tipping in general, a lot of restaurants pool tips. A percentage goes to the front staff, a percentage goes to the back staff.
Now some restaurants are insisting that the house then also take a percentage!
Yes folks the restaurant owners all realize how bad everyone is with math and that we all feel we have to tip well or be embarrassed. So they are now beginning to take some of the tips we give to the wait staff.
The house taking a percentage of the tips is not that wide spread but i’m running in to it more often then just a few years ago.
But it is a bad trend.
It really would be much better to just not tip at all, like they do in the UK.
You’ve never been to the UK, have you? Because if you had you would know that it is customary to tip. Waiting staff, bar staff, taxi drivers, hairdressers, all sorts of service staff. It’s just the usual thing to do, even though all of those people will be earning a guaranteed minimum wage with the added benefit of universal healthcare. Minimum wage and universal healthcare, and still the world turns….
20% is standard!!!!!!!!!!!! I leave 30 for great service sometimes 40. If you are not leaving at least 20% your probably to cheap to be dining out. There is never any circumstance which allows no tip. People are just scumbags, if you cant afford a tip then you shouldn’t be eating at restaurant. How would you feel if others could dictate your paycheck? cheap bastards
You write:
> “20% is standard!!!!!!!!!!!! I leave 30 for great service sometimes 40. If you are not leaving at least 20% your probably to cheap to be dining out. There is never any circumstance which allows no tip…”
You sir are living proof that “a fool and his money are soon parted.” If you are throwing your money around like that, you’re probably too stupid to be trusted with Real Money to spend. Does your boss give you an expense account? If so, I hope he checks it carefully.
> “How would you feel if others could dictate your paycheck?”
That’s an easy question! If others ever dared to try to dictate my paycheck I’d leave and get a Real Job — like anyone with any self-respect would do.
You know, a job where my paycheck and my working conditions are agreed in advance between my employer and me. NO WAY would that paycheck be for anything less than a decent Living Wage, else I’d merely go elsewhere and work for someone who appreciated my services enough to pay for the privilege.
> cheap bastards
Silly bastard. Only “Flash-Harry’s” throw their money around and expect people to be Grateful, and to treat them with Respect: when in fact they actually get treated with disdain and contempt, because gratitude and respect are Earned, not Bought.
Everyone knows that!
And, stupidly, Flash-Harrys think that throwing more money at people will buy them the Gratitude and Respect they think they deserve. But it doesn’t: it only makes their self-esteem worse! And it makes the people they perceive to be their “servants” more uppity, demanding even more… next year, it will be 25% minimum, then 30%…
We live in the USA not Europe. Yes these are not salaried positions, but they are jobs that people live an pay there bills on. Who are you to say get a “real” job. These are real jobs that help people pay for college or maybe it is even their career. If those people were not working there then there would not be restaurants. Have some respect and realize that those “rules” are the way the hospitality business works here in the U.S. so if you don’t approve, stay home!
You write:
> If those people were not working there then there would not be restaurants. Have some respect and realize that those “rules” are the way the hospitality business works here in the U.S. so if you don’t approve, stay home!
Mate — guess what? Your “hospitality” business in the US is morally crippled, you are exploiting your slaves^x^x^x^x^x^xservants^x^x^x^x^x^x^x”employees”, the rest of us don’t approve, and so we *are* staying home, and keeping our wallets closed.
Consistent with your idiotic advice.
I thought you Yanks emancipated your slaves back in the mid-1800’s, following your Civil War. Did anyone ever think to tell them about Juneteenth? Seems not! You forgot to tell your waiters and waitresses that they no longer needed to be beholden to their self-impressed privileged Little-Lord-Fauntleroy Masters like you.
For shame.
In the US, we allow the consumer to have more control over the amount they feel is adequate for the service rendered. I would much rather have some control over the cost then have ZERO control as you do “Mate”. Charge 15% service charge sounds nice and easy, maybe because other parts of the world don’t want to have control. Lucky for the waitstaffs in the US, we know how the system works and allow a small portion of the cost to be the tip.
In the US, if you have $50, you buy $40 worth of product and allot the other $10 for tip. You don’t HAVE to use all $10, but it is up to the consumer to decide.
I wonder who it really is that thinks they have “servants”, people who tip or people who are too cheap to tip? Which group is it that really has a sense of entitlement? I would say more, but I already know everything a person like you would say in response.
Em, I don’t believe you for a second. I do, however, believe you’re probably a waiter or waitress somewhere.
Keep it simple. 15% for a meal, 20% if the service and food was simply outstanding.
$3-$4 for delivery, $5 if you really want to make the guy’s night.
As Jamie said, a kind smile and respectful treatment is a welcome surprise and goes a long way.
This whole article is enough to make me stop eating out.
Wow. Just wow.
That’s the whole problem right there. I’m a reasonably generous man, happy to reward good service and don’t patronize a place twice if I get rude or unpleasant service. What I hate is math, and the really annoying end to a good meal and a few drinks in good company when I have to take a math exam at the end of it.
Reataurant prices in the US are generally lower than any comparable country. This is achieved by underpaying the staff. This sucks for the staff, but keeps people eating out more often. The cognitive dissonance here all gets dropped into the ‘service for tips’ basket. The customer has to calculate relative qualities of service, and all the other variables above, which takes all the relaxation out of the meal.
Which sucks. Really, really sucks.
I ate at the bar of Ryu a Japanese restaurant in NYC last month, had a fabulous time, laughing and joking with the barman, left a $64 and change tip, rounding up to $200 for two of us. Money well earned and well received. A fun night all round.
No math, just a generous thank you.
I don’t wanna have to calculate percentages.
Stayed at the Marryat, Niagara Falls, Canada. Every item expensive, with x% sales tax to calculate, a compulsory 15% service fee, and then a personal tip ‘appreciated’. No wine or champagne glasses in the rooms. Everything from room service with no mini-bar, and all the extra to calculate. Result – resented every cent being squeezed out of me, the cynical ‘service’ fee annoying, having to add an extra for the room service service. Not how to win my repeat business in any Marryat hotel.
The rules, the entitlement, the math.
Just sucks.
This answer is for people who want to make sure waiters get to minimum wage. My sources for numbers:
“Depending on how busy a restaurant is are and what section the waiter has, they can wait on 20 to 45 tables in a 5 hour shift.” (ChaCha!)
“About 3-5% of the server’s sales (not tips, but sales, which of course comes OUT of the servers tips) for the night goes to the bartender, 1% of the sales per server goes to the busser and then the server keeps the rest… of course they must claim 12% of their sales at tips that they have to pay taxes on as well. … The base salary is about $2.13 per hour. (Yahoo)
—– Actual Math follows. Get a cup of coffee. —–
I’m going to look at lowball numbers first.
A five hour shift
6% of server’s sales are given away (5% to bar, 1% to busser)
$2.13 for base salary/hr
20 tables (I’ll use 4 people at each table each buy $10 worth of food and drinks. This seems VERY reasonable if 45 tables is the top end)
Taxed: 12% of sales plus the wage
Base wage: $2.13 x 5 = $10.65
Sales: 20 tables x 4 people x $10 spent each = $800
Waiter must give up out of tips: .06 x 800 = $48
Waiter pays taxes on .12 x 800 = $96 (+ $10.65).
At 10% tip, .10 x 800 = $80. $80 – $48 is $32.
Hourly wage is (10.65 + 32)/5 = $8.53/hr
At 15% tip, .15 x 800 = $120. $120 – $48 is $72.
Hourly wage is (10.65 + 72)/5 = $16.53/hr
At 20% tip, .20 x 800 = $160. $160 – $48 is $112.
Hourly wage is (10.65 + 112)/5 = $24.53
Thoughts so far:
A “round up to the nearest $10 and then tip 20%” method is ridiculously generous, putting it kindly.
The waiter’s tax rates appear to assume that 20% tipping occurs universally.
This is pretty lame, because we know this doesn’t always happen. It’s suggestive that my numbers are in the right ballpark though. Which is scary in the next section.
—–
Here are the same numbers using the 45 table “good night”. I’ll also assume that 20% of them ordered drinks, enough to add 20% to the sales.
Base wage: $2.13 x 5 = $10.65
Sales: 45 tables x 4 people x $12 spent each = $2160
Waiter must give up out of tips: .06 x 2160 = $129.60
Waiter pays taxes on .12 x 2160 = $259.20 (+ $10.65).
At 10% tip, .10 x 2160 = $216. $216 – $129.60 is $86.40.
Hourly wage is (10.65 + 86.4)/5 = $19.41/hr
At 15% tip, .15 x 2160 = $324. $324 – $129.60 is $194.40.
Hourly wage is (10.65 + 194.40)/5 = $41.01/hr
At 20% tip, .20 x 2160= $432. $432 – $129.60 is $302.40.
($302.40 – $259.20 = $43.20 is not taxed unless the waitress declares it.)
Hourly wage is (10.65 + 302.40)/5 = $62.61/hr
The “round up to the nearest $10 and then tip 20%” method pushes the server past $60/hr towards $80/hr in a busy weekend dinner environment.
—–
If the waitress gets to work only one ideal 5 hr shift, and works the other 24 hours (thank you, Obamacare “full time”) at minimum, she has:
5 hrs at $62.21/hr (45 tables, with drinks) = $311.05
24 hrs at $8.53/hr (20 tables, $10 Special plates only) = $204.72
This is $515.77/29 = $17.78 per hour.
$515.77 per week x 52 weeks = $26,820.04/yr … at 29 hours/week.
There are a lot of $8-12/hr jobs out there. Skipping the examples but using the same math, they make:
$8/hr = $232/wk x 52 weeks = $12064/yr
$9/hr = $261/wk = $13572/yr
$10/hr = $290/wk = $15080/yr
$11/hr = $319/wk = $16588/yr
$12/hr = $348/wk = $18096/yr
I’ve not been a waiter. However, I’ve worked jobs that fit the categories above. I’ve also worked professional jobs at a couple thousand dollars per year salary over the $26,820.04/yr waiting tables job above. Mine required college and an advanced degree just to knock on the door for the interview, for a 40-50 hours/week job.
I do not identify with Jamie Simmerman’s statement: “I can honestly say … servers deserve far more than the reduced minimum wage plus tips the government says they are worth.”
To waitstaff: Is my math far off? Can you fix it? If it’s not far off, do you stand by Jamie Simmerman’s strong feeling that waitstaff are worth “far more” than $17.78 per hour? (Figure out your own realistic lowball hourly wage if you don’t like mine, but be sure to explain how it’s under minimum wage or even close to it.)
To others: Is my math far off? Can you fix it? If it’s not far off, what tipping method are you going to use now?
The problem with your math is that it makes a good deal of assumptions about number of tables and customers, perhaps based on weekend numbers?
I’d say the math was accurate for a waitress working say at Moxies (a popular restaurant here) in a busy location ie West Edmonton Mall. Staff there make close to 20/hr. In the restaurants in my town, $12-14/hr is the norm (tips included).
I’m not sure about the states, where taxes and cost of living are much lower but $27k a year does not seem excessive.
Honestly, is it anyone’s concern how much they make? I’m really not bothered. There are so many people who don’t even make what the waiters are making. May be u shd go around compensating all these people!?
As a delivery driver, making -minimum wage- PLUS tips, for 30 to 40 hours a week, I never made the numbers that your math indicates and, while the Pizza Hut serves two small cities, it gets quite busy quite often.
I have other comments, I don’t know who all they should be directed to, but here we go: Tips -are- supposed to be reported 100% on your taxes. I know they arent always, or even usually. I was taught, when I first started, to just report $1 for each delivery. Our particular Pizza Hut went through an ownership change and I, for one, report 100% of my tips and it really didnt effect my taxes all that much. The point is, tips are very much taxable, if the IRS somehow finds out you are under reporting that is a huge deal.
Also, at least at my Pizza Hut, and I’m pretty sure this is industry standard, your delivery charge is -not- a tip. We get paid $1 per delivery, some other places pay per mile, but that money doesn’t actually come from the delivery charge. You could argue that it all comes from somewhere, but to say that the delivery charge = tip is tacetly false.
I resent the idea that if I’m not making enough money at my minimum wage, food service job then I should have studied harder in school. Any idiot knows that the economy isn’t good right now and sometimes people have to take what is available. I work at Pizza Hut 29 hours a week, a Super 8 motel 24-40 hours a week and about 10 hours a week at the university I graduated from in the security office to pay down the reasonable (compared to the national average) amount of student loans my wife and I have, to pay down the modest car we bought when our old one crapped out, to live without credit card debt, and to have somewhat of an enjoyable, more-than-just-surviving life.
Some may say that with 3 jobs I certainly don’t have a right to complain because there are so many without a job at all. There are plenty of jobs out there. Just because you are either a) overqualified, b) unwilling to accept a minimum wage job, c) unwilling to work more than one job to stay afloat or, on the other hand, can’t get a job because of past felony convictions or whatever else is keeping you, none of these things diminish my right to complain about the idiots I sometimes have to deal with instead of spending time with my wife while I make an honest effort to make something of my life.
Tipping is NOT optional, unless you receive poor service. There’s a difference between being thrifty and cheap. If you go out for a meal, have enough respect for your waiter’s time to tip for it. To do otherwise is the mark of a skinflint of low class, no matter how you try to justify it.
Same goes for delivery drivers. Speaking from experience, even in Canada they don’t necessarily make minimum wage, and rely on tips. And those who tipped poorly tended to be trailer park residents, along with a few of the more wealthy but equally classless residents.
Tipping is ALWAYS optional and up to each person to decide to give one or not.
Have enough respect for your waiter time to tip for it? Are you kidding? I wonder if you put these comments down to inflame the forum into posting?
If it was not optional it would be on the bill not an option…
As for delivery, yea tipping is a good idea but nowadays there is a delivery charge added to the bill so now what? Now you have charged me for the service.
Tipping is always optional and there is no really logical argument to the contrary. I applauded you for you bottom shelf attempt at an argument through name calling, well done! You make a strong attempt!
The best argument I can think of for tipping is because it allows wages to be lower and entices people to go out and spend money. The risk is that the workers are the ones who potentially will pay the price and we do (we not they).
You tip them and they do not pay taxes on the tip, someone has to make up the tax shortfall, so you and I pay again. You pay them 15% and pay their taxes for them with so there goes another 15%.
Sounds like a great system to me. Someone please make an argument that doesn’t revolve around “it’s not fair”. Not making 15% extra for bringing food to the table is right up there with not being able to finish a text message at a red light – 1st world problems…
Surly, spoken like someone who has never had to scrape by on a job in the service industry. I’m not trying to be offensive or ignite anything, so let me spell my position out more.
If I receive terrible service by a waiter who simply does not care, than I’d be the first to leave without leaving a tip and after explaining why.
The requirement to leave a tip is not a “legal” requirement, but based on North American labour legislation it is certainly the polite and correct thing to do if you receive good service. This is why it is considered “customary” in North America. As mentioned by other posters, it is not customary or necessary in countries like New Zealand and Australia where wait staff make a living wage. In a slow restaurant here (Canada), the staff does struggle to get by, and resenting a 15% tip is simply mean.
By not tipping you are simply punishing the waiter for common North American corporate policy of underpaying service positions. It is also standard to restrict wait staff to part-time hours so that benefits do not have to be given. So please, if you do not think you should not tip for your servers time, make a statement to the restaurant by not eating there, or write a letter to you MP/Senator. Your patronage won’t be missed.
As for delivery drivers, that delivery charge is what the driver is paid. So I made $3.50/delivery, +tips -my gas and car maintenance costs which came out of my own pocket. On a slow night I made $5/hr, on a good night $18/hr. If everyone used your logic and blamed the driver for corporate policy, I wouldn’t have made more than my vehicle operating costs. Generous tippers made up for the skinflints, and you can be sure that we took note of which was which.
I’m sorry if my paying rent/eating is a first world problem. Must be my ridiculous sense of entitlement.
Dave: What I and others resent is the assumption that the customer is responsible for making sure the worker is paid a decent living wage. That is the responsibility of the employer. As a customer, I play a role in the revenue coming into the business but your agreements with your employer are not my business and frankly, should not be. I do not get to negotiate the percentage of the revenue you receive. I decide what I want to pay for a service/good and either that is acceptable to the business or not. The worker decides if their wage from the business is acceptable for their labor or not. Don’t blame me if you did not negotiate well with your employer and you demand that the customer provides an adequate wage.
I am so happy I have never had to work as a waitress. Dave, I don’t agree with everything you say but I do agree with most of it. But you may as well save your effort because some people are just cheap and will always find an excuse to keep their money in their pocket.
The real problem is the fact that the government allows restaurants to pay a lower minimum wage on the assumption people are going to get tips. That’s ridiculous, but it stays that way because restaurant associations lobby to keep it that way. If you are not going to work to change it, then, yes, they are entitled to at least enough tips to make it up to minimum wage.
I tip a fixed amount depending on service. The service and the appreciation thereof by the customer should not be dependent on the size of the bill!! Why should I tip more if I have a more expensive dish? Or less if one of the party only has soup?
The restaurant should add what they feel is an appropriate percentage to their prices and pay it to staff in the first place. tips should be paid only if feel you have received exceptional service.
10-15% still applies for bringing drinks at a buffet???? This is the whole problem with tipping. Tipping has become an ‘entitlement’ not an ‘encouragement’.
Tipping hasn’t become an entitlement. Just because one person thinks buffet servers should get 15% doesn’t mean all wait staff feel the same way. I hope this one person’s view doesn’t affect the way you handle transactions with other waiters/waitresses. I really wish people could understand the system in the United States. Once people do, I bet they would agree with the system mire than what has been stated in thus forum.
My tipping will depend on how I am treated, the quality of service that I receive, and this may surprise you, but the way the waiter/waitress is dressed, gooomed, and how they carry themselves & present themselves to me at the apponted table. I take umbrage with waitstaff that look as though they have slept in their clothes, or have worn them for numerous days, ot have greasy hair & pimple covered faces, I don’t mean the zit here and there but those greasy assed, overweight slugs that try to present themsleves as wait staff. Get a grip, wash your face and clothes, tuck your shirt in and you will get noticed and tipped, otherwise find another field of work to get into where you will not be offending anyone, and BTW you at the Outback Steakhouse the reason you didnt get a tip was because your hair was in my steak, yes remember me, I am the guy that saw you carry the serving tray n your shoulder and sent my meal back, yeah that is why you didnt get a tip…
I generally don’t mind tipping if the service is good and the server is friendly,however what I see now in some restaurants and hotels,there is a 15% gratuity already added for you! and now with some gall,there is a “extra gratuity” _____$ for your server and room service person.
When we were in Toronto I jokingly said to my friend,you know if the extra gratuity was added for you just like the initial 15%,I bet there would an extra extra gratuity.
In Japan you never have to tip and the service is almost always top rate.
I *always* leave 20%. Take the bill, knock off the rightmost digit, then double that amount. *Rarely* have I had bad service. I could probably count the number of times on 2 or 3 fingers. Those particular times I deliberately left two pennies.
I don’t believe waitstaff is “entitled” to tips, but I always reward good service (there’s too much entitlement in this country already, but I won’t go there). You know how much crap they put up with from some people? I wouldn’t last 5 minutes doing what they do. I have the utmost respect for my waiter or waitress. I immediately learn their name, use it during the course of the meal, and always leave a tip.
…and I agree with Jim about the “Service Charge” complaint. : )
The first mistake many make when considering how much a server/waiter/waitress take home is thinking that they make ” a mininum wage per hour”! NOT TRUE. I worked as a waitor/server in two different States and areas (country – city) through my High School and University days. In every Restaurant, the minimum wage is taken as an average and then an “given Tip average” is deducted and so then a taxable wage of $2-$3.00 is reality! Of course this was 20 years ago, but from what I hear from younger relatives and neighbors, things have not changed too much! So people, Tipping is necessary for a decent wage. 15-20% is good and not overly taxing!
Servers in the US have this twisted sense of entitlement. Even if their only job is to hand you a cup of coffee! Its gotten to the point where they expect tips regardless of their service. You see a tip jar at damn near every cash register. Servers around the world do not have this expectation. Does this say something about the state of America today? This is why the downfall of a superpower is always inevitable. Everyone just wants to run victory laps and avoid the hard work that got us here. I have been a server for many years and I have been a barista as well. I know what i’m talking about and it was sad to pour a cup of coffee for someone and then have them apologize to me for not having tip money. I would tell them straight up, I poured you a cup of coffee. I don’t deserve a tip!
Tipping is optional. Good service equals good tips. Bad service = small or no tips. Its not my fault that you are in this kind of job. I am grateful that you are because most of the time you provide excellent service, but it is not my responsibilty to “pay you your keep”. the customer has the right to leave a reasonable tip s/he deems appropriate. Here is a tip: listen to. Your parents, go to school and study hard. Then you don’t have to rely on tips to survive.
I don’t base my tip on the bill for the most part, I base my tip on the quality of service I received based on things within the server’s control, ie I don’t penalize the server if the kitchen screws up my order. However, if I receive extremely crappy service I was always taught and continue to practice the idea of leaving one penny for bad service. It shows you tip but that you were extremely dissatisfied with the service you received
the european norm is about 10%, more would be for specially good service. But then wages are full minimum wage as a minimum and more in many places. I remember when I lived in Paris service was automatically added by law so a small tip to show appreciation only. When I lived in Finland they didn’t expect tips because a service charge was added by law. UK is 10% or so as a norm, but staff are paid the minimum wage or higher.
Some places do a service charge which they may or may not add to the staff. Its all quite variable and really ought to be scrapped. In all countries the restaurants should pay decent wages people can live on, the staff should have pride in their work and we can just pay the bill nd forget tipping. Wont happen of course …
I don’t know if you are ignorant to the fact that European bartenders are salaried, so no it is not custom THERE to receive tips.
I don’t know if you are ignorant to the fact that Europe has enormous cultural variation and in many EU member states it is indeed customary to tip.
I must’ve been doing it wrong all my life then ‘cos I’m in the UK and I tip bartenders, who are by law on at least minimum wage but more often more than that. It’s entirely commonplace. I’m not sure what you mean here by European, it covers a large area with a multitude of customs, but certainly tipping bartenders is not something unusual in any of the countries I would normally visit.
In Australia waiters are paid a basic wage that’s OK plus penalty rates for evening and weekend work ( these are different percentages which i am unable to quote) as are shop assistants, and anyone else required to work unsociable hours. But unsurprisingly there is a push to get rid of penalty rates with deregulated shopping hours (still some control) as those who make money out of these enterprises look to the US model.
You don’t know what you are talking about. So stop pretending you do in an amateur manner in which to sound cultured. Love from Australia
The US is one of the few places in the world where tips are the norm. My friends throughout the world think I am a spendthrift to leave more than the billed amount.
If minimum wage is not enough for wait staff to live on, do they think that ALL other minimum wage earners should also receive tips to compensate, or just them? Tips are obviously not the solution, proper salaries, as in the rest of the world, are.
The waitress writer is delusional as has already been made abundantly clear by most of the comments here.
I reserve my harshest comments though for double-dealing restaurants that add a 15% Service Charge to the bill, but do not pass it on to staff. Whenever Service Charge is added I not only do not leave a tip but leave a note why, defining what a “service charge” is. Wait staff are so self-absorbed as to actually get miffed at that, totally uncaring that they have decided to continue working for a boss who does not pass it on, and totally unconcerned that a 20% tip on top of a 15% Service Charge amounts to a usurious 38% additional cost of the damn food. If the food prices are not high enough let them honestly list them higher rather than adding a so-called ‘Service Charge’ scam.
Wow. Eating out is bloody confusing in the US. Tipping for the most part doesn’t exist in Australia, and where it does it’s completely voluntary (and not expected) and only for really impressive service. Although I can’t comment on the wages for wait staff in Australia compared to the US.
There’s got to be a more straight forward way to do this.
My wife has been chased out of restaurants in New York by waitstaff and confronted in the street because, in their opinion, they weren’t tipped generously enough. What a horrific, disgusting practice. Tipping should be abolished.
Making the minimum wage higher sounds nice, but if you are a successful waiter/waitress, you can make more than $9.40 an hour. I think the main issue people have is leaving the responsibility to the consumer for the added compensation of the waitstaff. At least with the system in place, the consumer has some control over what they can pay for the service received. Adding a 15% service charge and paying the waitstaff $9.40 only puts more money in the owners pocket. Even at 10% the owner would make more money.
Also, it is best to look at this over a period of time instead of in an instant. During a busy time in the restaurant, it will appear the waitstaff makes a killing if the consumer tips 15-20%. But realize there are other times when the waitstaff doesn’t make $5.00 an hour. It all evens out.
It has been said, in the U.S., tipping is expected and the norm is 15%. But if you feel it necessary to not tip due to bad service, the don’t. Just don’t NOT TIP just because you feel like the system is broken. Waiters/waitresses have to work within the current environment and to punish them for what some may consider a broken system is unfair.
I’m astounded that your minimum wage is so low!!!! Here in England it is £6.19 per hour – that’s about $9.40 per hour, and funnily enough the country still runs.
Have the decency to set a decent minimum wage for all workers and they would not have to rely on tips – a rare thing over here.
are you kidding? i’m in Australia and I get $21.98 per hour (AU dollar has same value as US dollar) plus i get to keep my tips and more on Saturdays and Sundays.
I seriously don’t understand the whole mandatory tipping thing, i mean, leaving a tip for good service i can understand, but tipping that much on all food service? That sounds a bit nuts to me.
I’m moving to Australia! Crikey!
I’m with Steve Martin:
“I don’t believe in tipping, I believe in OVERtipping”
Agreed with all who say this is an entitlement mentality on steroids. This is about as reasonable as the patron expecting the check to be reduced 20% when lodging a complaint.
In most if not all jobs, if you don’t do your job, you don’t get paid. While some customers are, by nature, difficult, that is part of the job. 99% of them don’t merit bad service. If you know your tips come from good service, then provide it. If you arent providing good or adequate service, you arent doing your job. And if you arent doing your job, you shouldnt expect to be paid like you are doing your job.
And as an aside, I always tip well (above 20%) for good service, and I still do tip when I am not totally satisfied, but telling people they HAVE to tip irrespective of the quality of service only encourages bad service.
If someone did the job, they did the job, and it needs to be paid for. I think the tipping system is terrible. But if the food was carried to you, it was carried to you, regardless of whether or not the person was smiling.
It is the resto owners responsibility to pay and not the customer’s!
“…round the bill up to the nearest $10, and leave 20%. ”
If the bill is$51, this method means you end up tipping $21, about 41%. You are throwing away money. If I had your table, I might consider asking if you’d made a mistake.
How did you get that? If you round $51 up to $60 and leave a 20% tip. it’s $12.00. It is a generous tip at almost 25%. but hardly what you described.
Round 51 up to 60 = 9
20% of 60 = 12
12 + 9 = 21
Get percentage: 21/51 *100 = 41.17
Have I got a brain cramp?
Chris. yes, you do have a minor brain cramp. Round up to 60 and 20% (as suggested) means a 12$ tip. You add that to 51, not to 60 for 23.5%. Of course in this model a 51$ and a 59$ check would all get 12$ tips while a 49.99$ bill would get a 10$ tip.
Living where I do in Asia they add a 10% service charge on every bill and don’t seem to expect tips (at least from the locals!). For good service I add another 5+% IN CASH. That goes to the waitstaff for sure… I doubt the credit card tips do here.
In the states I default at 15% for adequate service and go up to 20=% for better service. Since I don’t have big (any) alcohol bills I am occasionally a better tipper in percentages….
I rarely stiff anyone unless it is really abysmal service or the food is awful and the waiter makes no effort to address the issue.
No brain cramp at all. The article was unclear. Chris’s interpretation was also how I originally read it, but Nostril’s is also a valid interpretation–and one that produces a more reasonable result. And there’s a third, less obvious interpretation that says leave $9 (the rounding) plus 20% of 51 for a total of $41. Just a poorly written part of the article.
Don’t worry Chris.
There’s a reason most people tip way too much.
They don’t have your math skills…
I don’t think you’re supposed to add the $9 on… the rounding up is for determining the amount to tip, you don’t add the $9 and then figure out the percentage. You just give the percentage of the rounded number.
NicoleK you are absolutely correct. This is how I have determined tips for over 50 years. If there is a hostess, busboy or girl, I tip 20% for decent service, because I know the tip will be split at least four ways (bus person, chef, wait service and hostess). It is so simple to round up to the nearest $10, figure 20% of that, and add that to the bill you received, that I cannot imagine any person who has ever grown up in America not knowing this simple formula. No matter the reason, at minimum for decent service, I tip 15% for regular, polite service, with no extra services necessary from the wait staff.
If I receive really poor service, and have been given no opportunity to speak with the wait person, I will leave $1, in the middle of the table, not discreetly tucked under the edge of my final plate or the sugar container, as a statement that can be seen by all. But if I have a chance to politely ask, “What’s going on tonight? We never got our (refills, dessert, salad course, whatever)?” I always ask. The person has a chance to either explain or shrug it off (won’t be in the job for long!)
We are all human, and human service allows us to be part of the experience. Otherwise, eat at fast food places. See how much you enjoy that!
15% is fine. Work up, or down, from there based on quality of service. I was a bartender for years, and my wife waited tables in white table clothe places. 15% is perfectly respectable for standard (which means good) service.
Its very rewarding to be able to leave an extra amount of tip if the service was top notch, attitude, presentation, smiles… I often leave more than 20% in those cases.
I too used to work in the industry and the good servers do not have to be told and their posture makes it that you see their professionalism and want to give them their due. besides, what goes around comes around.
I will usually leave 15% when it ‘normal’ service because that’s all it is. I’ll leave 10% when its bad… just because someone is having a bad day, doesn’t mean I have to pay for it… but I do leave them the minimum because I also do not want to penalize them… the owners do tend to be cheap.. and you do get what you pay for.
Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you handle it… yes I know that sounds cliche but a great server will never let you see an attitude worth anything less than the 20%+ they should get paid for a job they chose to do.
“Waiting” is a service and service is not a product you can put in your pocket — so act accordingly and reap the rewards.
I live in Japan and it’s a huge no-no to tip here. When I first came here, 20 years ago, I left a tip on a table and the waitress actually chased me down outside to give it back to me. On top of that they give great service. It is extremely rare to run into a rude waiter/waitress here. They do their job because they have pride in their work.
If I’m back home in the US there are times that I’ll forget to tip, because I’ve been living over here for so long. When I do remember I’ll take into account the service I got. If I got crap service you can rest assured that I won’t leave a penny.
I live in Japan too, and I absolutely love the fact that you are not supposed to tip anyone. It’s an insult, as if you’re suggesting they won’t perform their jobs properly unless bribed! I am all for the employers paying their staff, not expecting me to do it.
Hi from Japan too. Yes, it makes so much more sense here. I eat dinner once a week at two restaurants between afternoon and evening work hours. The dinners cost $30-$40 for, say, soup, main dish and coffee, but that’s all they cost. (The Japanese national sales tax is added into the price of the items on the menu, so the customer doesn’t have to figure that out either. You get some odd prices, like ¥1,008 for a formerly ¥950 salad, but you know what the total is you have to pay when you order: no surprises when the bill comes.) As diners in America know, a dinner that says $25 on the menu sounds cheap (which is what the proprietor of the restaurant wants it to sound like) but has, perhaps, 8% sales tax added to it, plus a 15-20% tip, bringing the total to around $32 after all. I’d rather they just print “$32” on the menu and have it over with and have the right and expectation to get good service every time. If a server is not providing good service on a regular basis after multiple warnings, their income should be reduced not by 5%, but by 100%. They should be fired. I got very good service from those restaurants here in Tokyo right from the beginning, but now, as a regular customer, you’d think I was royalty arriving. Of course, I was also very polite to them right from the beginning. Customers ought to enter a restaurant for the first time thinking that they may come back twenty more times and be dealing with those people as they deal with anyone they do regular business with. Ditto, the restaurant staff. Use the words could/would/might and all the other polite language you would use if you were negotiating with an important client, remembering both sides have something to gain from a positive atmosphere. On rare occasions, a mistake is made or something takes a little longer than usual. I am still polite (I make mistakes now and then in my job too or can’t get something done on time) and they fairly gush in apology and rectify the shortcoming. Result of all this? Everyone is happy. Servers are not left wondering what they did wrong (or right, for that matter) based on the tip and the experience is pleasant all round. Oh, once long ago in Ohio, after particularly rude service to some friends and myself at a lunch, we left four pennies on the table, so the waitress would know for sure we hadn’t just forgotten. We also never patronized the place again, of course. What an unpleasant thing to have to do, though, the only other alternative, making a public scene, so surly and committed to making us feel like crud, was the server
Nearly 15 years ago I started waiting tables. It is deflating to receive a bad tip when one thinks one gave good service; however, the word “thinks” is key. An honest reflection on the service provided usually turns up the answer. I’ve been training servers for many years now and I like to return to my magic button theory. One can do all the normal service, but if you don’t find yourself in-tune with your guests(ie. excellent rapport), you will never hit that magic button or achieve the level of expectation your guest are seeking and receive the best tips.
And please people, for the love of Pete, never tip for bad service. I want those bad servers out of the business. Their poor performance is costing me the repeat business I need to make a living! That said, one needs to keep in mind that for most jobs, they pay a salary/wage even when one has a bad day. The kitchen can be slow, the business level too high for the amount of staff, or the kid kept you up all night with an illness. Having a bad day and not giving a hairy rat’s arse are pretty easy to distinguish between.
The restaurants which I frequent know me as a regular. I tip between 35-50% because the service I receive is exemplary! This may be a reflection of my tipping habits, but if so, the quality of the drinks, food and service I receive is well worth it.
If I could not afford to tip, I would eat at home!
35-50%, you must be single. Imagine having being a single mom with 3 kids and all you want is a break from cooking. Going to a budget restaurant and pay 35-50%? You might as well make sure that single mom stays home and never takes a break.
35-50% does seem high to me.
But I have found that if you are a regular and tip well, like 20-25%, lots of servers will start comping you occasional drinks and meals. At those places, tipping well actually ends up saving me money in the long run.
Comping drinks? Is it allowed? Is it not cheating the hotel owner?
I don’t know whether you are independently wealthy, or you eat in seedy dives where 50% of the bill is still not all that much. Yes, you will be known as a big tipper in the places you frequent, but you are also raising expectations. The staff must be wondering what’s wrong with the rest of us poor saps who only leave 15 – 20%. And of course, why should they be bothered to try hard to please us when we’re such skinflints?
if you tip so much then you are clearly insecure and seek approval from everybody you meet, servers especially.
Obviously written by a waitress. Lousy service but still a good tip? I don’t think so. It’s the waitperson’s responsibility to do a good job, regardless of the size of the tip. If you are having a bad day, go home. Don’t expect me to support you if you don’t do what you expect to be paid for doing.
Tip 15% at a buffet? In your dream, waitperson.
I’d like to see the wait staff done away with. Devise a system which allows the customer to order their own meals . I’ll bus my own table too, if I can save the size of the tip this dreamer is trolling for. You expect me to wipe down my own table and clean the floor before I leave and still give you a 20% tip? Either you are an idiot or your customers are.
They have, most people call it fast food.
Very well put. I about fell out my chair laughing at the ‘cleaning up after yourself’ remark. If we’re going to start doing that, I’d like to see a discount on my meal.
No one who keeps a budget should tip more than 15% for typical service. Restaurant associations push 20% because it means owners can pay their wait staff less. Duh. Unless you have money to give away you shouldn’t go along.
Actually Kevin, my family keeps a vey tight budget, and I would be motified to leave a 15% tip. If you cannot fit an acceptable tip into your budget, then eating at that particular restaurant really is not in your budget.
KP, if your skin is so thin then don’t be mortified and pay the “required” 20%. I will leave 20% for exceptional service but 15% is more than adequate for “adequate” service. I also agree with the person that said TIP is for “to insure promptness” and if the service was not prompt, they DO NOT deserve a tip. I worked as a waitress in high school and if customers didn’t come in just because they could not afford 15% tip then I would have less customer to receive tips. I was a “server” and believe people have a choice when it comes to tips.
Let’s say for arguments sake there is a 15% service charge on the bill and no tips are expected. How many people would refuse to pay the service charge? In reality you would be bound by that cost. By allowing tipping, the consumer has control over how much to compensate. I’m not saying the amounts in the article should be the norm. But if you expect to pay 15% when you walk in, you should allot that money in your decision on how much to spend.
I couldn’t disagree any more to this article. I have no problem giving 20-25% for excellent service, but I also don’t believe in giving a big tip for awful service.
The tip isn’t obligatory, and it’s a measure of how one provides the service.
If the food or the way people do things isn’t up-to-par, my pocket book should reflect that.
I’ve been to restaurants where no one comes around with an item for 30 minutes. Or where servers have been absolutely rude. Am I going to complain? On occasions yes, but some nights, I’m going to wager my vote with the thing that speaks the loudest, which is my pocket book.
And yes, I have left 50 cent tips before, for absolutely awful service.
It’s a service industry, and if you want me as a customer, treat me right, and I’ll pay you accordingly. Do things awfully, and I won’t leave you a generous tip. I think paying someone 15% for bad service sends the absolutely wrong message. And I simply won’t do it.
I am amazed that there is any substandard of how to reward someone for doing their job. Regardless of what they are paid, they chose the job, well knowing what their paycheck was going to be at the end of the week. I myself waited on tables for about a year after high school. It doesn’t cost a server a pretty penny to be respectful, kind, polite, thoughtful or to be on top of things- it is their job after all. If for one second I did anything less in my current career, I wouldn’t have a job the next day. I have empathy for each hard working human on this planet, but there is a difference between what you call “empathy” and servers who just don’t care and expect a handout of cash at the end of a meal. My husband and I went out to eat at an upscale Burger Bar resturant just last night in MN, with 2 meals, and app and 2 pops, the tab came to $61.00. After having menus thrown on the table, no soups mentioned to us, unlike the table before, no greeting, no pop refills offered, no questions how the meals were…no clearing of dirty plates or glasses, no extra napkins, etc, etc. I did not leave a penny. We have gone to this place several times in the last several months, and had nothing but excellent service from multiple servers, all of who I had NO problem leaving at least the “mandated” 20% (at a burger place)… It’s what you make of it. If you need the job bad enough, make it worth you getting out of bed for.
> … with 2 meals, and app and 2 pops … $61.00
So next time, don’t download any more apps during dinner ^_^
So let me get this straight. All I want to do is take my family for an enjoyable meal. Good food, good company, nice place, good service. But while doing so, I need to determine:
I have to know my state’s wage rates for tipped jobs. I need to scan to count number of patrons per waiter and how many support staff will at one point or another touch my food or table at one point. Then I have to figure out if the owner seems like a decent person who will pass all tips to the employees or retain part, then watch to see if the bartender made the drinks too slow of if the waiter just delivered them too slow. Same for the kitchen/waiter with the food and again with the desserts. Then it’s my fault for hanging around the table too long after the meal to enjoy an after-dinner drink or to soak up the ambience which I’m sure was already factored into the cost of my food. And then I have to pay 15-20% tip based on value of food and drinks rather than actual minutes of work by the waiter for my table? No wonder I don’t eat out much, and when I do I frequent the same handful of places.
Change the laws. Make minimum wages the true minimum. Raise the prices if restaurants must and let us decide if and where we can afford to dine without having to bring a calculator, scorecard and video recorder for dinner. If higher prices force people to eat out less, so be it. Another bad business model fails. What else is new? I’m all for tipping exceptional service, but having to waste my night determining what is fair or accurate is totally absurd.
Someone mentioned teachers. As we all know, their unions balk at a merit-based pay system due to the difficulties of accurate evaluation since the teacher is often not the only issue (negative or positive) in the learning chain. Same applies to waiters. Let the employers and managers do THEIR job of evaluating and paying their employees while letting the consumers concentrate on enjoying their over-priced meals. Clearly posted prices including service. Tips optional.
Bingo. You hit the nail on the head, Confused Eater.
The article smacks of a sense of entitlement on the part of the servers.
Entitlement?
Yes, I think people are entitled to get paid for their work.
You don’t?
Absolutely. Paid by their employers. Not by customers.
I despise going to America, where it seems everyone’s got their hand out for a tip and you can’t buy anything without factoring in this, that and the other, whether it be tips, sales tax or whatever. Pay people properly to do their jobs and charge an all inclusive price to the customer.
I too find visiting the US traumatic and confusing.
Nothing ever costs the marked price because of tips, tax, surcharges etc.
Pay people a decent wage, so they can plan their lives, treat them like people, not “resources” or day labour, and post what products or services are actually going to cost me.
If a store is going make a big deal about much tax I have to pay, why don’t they also list their profit margin as well!
I despise going to europe where they automatically add a gratuity of at least 18% to the tab regardless of quality of service, removing any incentive for a server to step up their game.
Then don’t come to the USA! … btw– the USA does not equal America. America encompasses the entirety of North and South America.
@Janet – so what is “America the Beautiful” about, “American Airlines” a misnomer? The bottom line is that tipping is a curse, and you need people to come to the US of AMERICA so that you can earn money so that you can pay interest to the Chinese on all the money you owe them, which you have borrowed so you can buy fuel so that you can fly your children to Afghanistan to die for no reason. If Americans were no so insular the entire world would be a better place.
Are you effing kidding me…food is twice as expensive in Europe and the tip IS figured in…asshat get a clue.
I think we need to differentiate between servers at a Denny’s and places where waiters and waitress’s routinely get stiffed and those at restaurants wherein they rarely get “no tipped or low tipped.” The places I frequent, everyone is giving 15 to 20%.
But let us consider what the servers do to earn that 15 to 20 pure profit? Did the server invest any capital into the business? Do servers need to get a degree or are they required to pursue continuing education? Is there any special skill that would preclude nearly anyone in the world from walking in to the role and nailing it within a few weeks?
The answer to all is NO.
And yet the author and many other servers seem to think that they should be compensated like their special. Listen you may have been daddy’s little snow flake, but you’re doing a simple, easy job and have not made any real investment in the business. You have not earned 20% pure profit on the revenues that pass through your section. Let alone rounding up to the nearest $10 and tipping on that. You are completely out of touch with the reality that the rest of us live in.
I think I am going to drop down from my usual 17 to 25% to a hard top of 15% because of this smug article.
Doesn’t the fact that everyone is talking about how bad their service is, show that not everyone can pick it up and master it in a few weeks. Also, despite your claims, the tip is not “pure profit.” It has to be split many ways (bus boys, food runners, bartenders), so likely, you will only receive about 65% of a 20%. Because you are sharing your tips based on a percentage of your sales, the lower the tip amount the lower your realized rate is. In other words, if I have to tip out a total 6.5% of my sales, and average 20% on $1000 in sales, I would take home $135 (13.5%), however if I only average 15%, I still have to tip out the same $65, but am now left with $85 (8.5%).
Bingo again! This article is laughable in its attempt to inflate the cost of service in restaurants. Especially the point about taking into account the patron level in the restaurant. Well, taking that into account should lead to lower tips, not higher, since my poor service is depending on the server trying to serve too many people in the same time period. At least he/she will receive more tips from more people, even if they are far less than 20% (think 10%)
You don’t know the meaning of entitlement. About half of our tips are our entire pay. I expect to be tipped according to service and it is not my sense of entitlement that makes me expect a tip. It’s the way the system is set up. You don’t want to be waited on, go to McDonalds, don’t mooch off your server. Please find out what entitlement really means before lambasting us with a misuse of the word.
I am getting a bit sick of this as well. Isn’t there a rule that servers generally pool top money together and if it is less that a certain amount per employee, the business needs to make up the difference. Servers are not exempt from the minimum wage, so stop this “$2/hr” non-sense. However, minimum wage is tough for someone to make a living on, so get rid of tipping all together, clearly communicate a service charge at the time of service, and let me pay the full bill. If I receive “bad service” let me vote with my feet and patronize a different restaurant next time… logical, right? By the way, I’m on business travel in malaysia right now. Restaurants general charge a 10% service charge on the bill. Service is generally great. Simple, easy, logical.
Federal Minimum wage for Tipped Workers: $2.13/hr.
http://www.paywizard.org/main/minimum-wage/tipped-workers
Each state however may add to that so YMMV.
Being a waiter or waitress is pretty rough. Don’t be cheap, its karma in the end.
It’s not about being cheap, its about making it easier for the customer…
Serving is rough? I guess it depends on your frame of reference. I think waiting tables can be physically tiring, but it is quite easy from an emotional and mental POV.
Don:
Fairly easy from a emotional and mental POV? You, my friend, have never had to wait on someone who had a bad day, or on someone who decided that you would be a slave to them… and run you ragged…have you? I didn’t think so. The people are getting you food, when you are too lazy to make it yourself. Everyone wants to be treated like royalty, and at the same time treat someone like the help. You want to save money? Make the food yourself, and eat at home. A lot of servers have to tip the bar and the busboy too… so you being a cheap@ss does affect someone else.
and yeah, I have been to Europe a few times, and the top is included there, but the service is crap. Europeans dont tip well, so they shouldn’t complain.
Former server:
I have waited tables, bused tables, been a prep cook, and a dish washer.
If you attack people whose opinion differs from yours so aggressively, then I can imagine you ran into quite a few people who were “having bad days.”
It is OK to express your opinion without making fallicious comments and assumptions about others.
The federal minimum wage of $2.13 is if they earn an average of $5.12/hour in tips. If they don’t, their employer is supposed to make up the difference. From http://www.paywizard.org/main/minimum-wage/tipped-workers-regulation:
“You are a tipped employee – that’s for example a waitress or bellboy – if you receive regularly and customarily more than $30 a month in tip. If so, your employer is only required to pay $2.13 an hour in direct wages if that amount plus the tips received equals at least the federal minimum wage of $7,25 per hour.”
In the Province of Ontario, Canada…the minimus wage is $10.25 per hour…and for restaurant servers it is $8.55 per hour.
They are still being robbed by the Government Law!
The only answer is for all Retail and Restaurant Servers is to join a Union and get Fair Day’s Pay for a Fair Day’s Work. Then we all should only patronize Unionized Establishiments. Then B OYCOTT ALL CHINESE PRODUCTS…it is just CRAP anyhow.
Yes unionized servers is the answer! That way we can all pay more for an already over-priced night out for dinner. And all the small independent restaurants (which usually have the best food) will risk being able to stay in business having to deal with union wages and demands. Great idea!
Then when the servers lose their jobs after the employer goes under we can all be happy that it was at least a fair day’s pay.
Great for the economy too!
Number Five, privately owned establishments rarely take advantage of their employees. They depend on the return guests and the servers who have a following are highly sought after. Early in my career, I was pirated from one great job to the next. I never got more than $5 an hour but I also got free food, the best stations and the best guests. But since the corporatization of the food industry, unions are the only way we are ever going to get paid fairly. Unionize!!!!!!
Where did you get the idea that a professional server works for anyone else but themselves. Some chains may hire young people who live at home and come to work for pocket change but when you actually go to grown up places, you are expected to tip 15% and up. The system is set up so the server takes all the tips and then has to pay the support staff and taxes to the tune of 7-8% of the sales. It doesn’t matter if the waiter is given nothing. They still have to pay the tipshare and taxes. So, when you short a server, she must make it up on the next check. In Malaysia, they may live with 10% but it still doesn’t mean you aren’t supposed to tip extra for great service. They probably get a good salary as well.
Excellent comment. I hope the servers learn from this, however I don’t bet on it
Excellent point. The whole system where the customer is in charge of evaluating the restaurant processes efficiency is absurd. As pointed out, to be absolutely fair each time I dine out I would need to bring along my laptop, run some BPR application, map all restaurant tasks and processes, monitor the efficiency and then based on myriad of variables determine the tip. Considering monitoring performance is the manager’s job in most industries why isn’t it in restaurant industry as well?
Yeah, I suppose you could go that route… or you could do some simple mental math, decide if your number seems fair given the circumstances of the evening, and adjust accordingly like a rational human being. No one’s asking you to evaluate process efficiency or monitor every aspect of the operation. This really seemed like a pretty straightforward post… if you get good service reward it. If you don’t, then give your server the basic human decency of letting them know what they’ve done wrong and give them the chance to correct it. If the problem continues, then report it to management and leave a niggardly tip to drive the point home.
Many people have forgotten what “T.I.P.”stands for. The practice of leaving a “TIP” was “To Insure Promptness”. If a waiter or waitress gave you prompt friendly service a gratuity was left “To Insure Promptness” upon your next visit for appreciating their good service. Now waiters and waitresses feel they can give you the crappiest service and as long as they get you any thing to the table you OWE them a HUGE gratuity for doing their job, whether they do it well or not. If waiting staff want good TIPs quit expecting IT regardless of the service you give and just give the service that EARNS IT and with most people like me who routinely leave 20% TIPS for quality service, they’ll get the TIPS they’re looking for.
Obviously this post is late, but I believe every state does require that a restaurant insure that servers get the true minimum wage (not the 2 dollar wage for those tipped).
What I mean is that if they don’t make enough tips to bring their $2 per hour up to $7+ then the restaurant must make up that money.
Therefore I think it’s disingenuous for servers to say they only make 2 dollars per hour. They make much more than that and even if they are so horrid that they receive no tips they still do make minimum wage. I worked at a coffee shop for 3 years and made minimum wage for the first year and barely more than that the next 2 years. I never thought that people should tip me for making/serving their cup of coffee/sandwich/etc because I made minimum wage. I knew what I was getting into and would’ve looked for another job if I felt I was being under paid.
All that said, I tip well (usually at least 20 percent) unless the server does something significantly poorly. I do so because I have the money to spend and often go back to the same restaurants and I find that the better I tip the better service I get.
I think in the end it’s pretty simple. Tip because the service was good. Not because the server only makes x amount per year. If that were the standard we would need tip anyone who makes minimum wage and that is silly.
What’s confusing about multiplying a 10-20% in your head….doubling a salary to make it even with minimum wage would only cost people more to eat out, like Europe..where the service sucks with no incentive for the server to be any better because you automatically pay gratuity in the bill. You must be one of the idiots that thinks raising minimum wage helps our country too…
AND…server minimum in the USA is $2.13, while most do make more than this because of individual state guidelines, the average is around $4 an hr. Try living off that, and don’t give me that bullshit they can get another job crap..because that is what is ruining our country.
This country was made great by people working their asses of an not bitching about it. Some of the greatest progress was made during depression era’s where hard working citizens went off for work or started their own Bussiness because the minimum was not good enough for them.
If you think that all should be fair and that I should pay you “extra” for carrying my food twenty feet because you can’t make ends meet as a server then you should move your ass to Canada. Your entitled attitude is what’s killing this country
Surly you know they should pay the waitstaff better, but in the end that 20% will be added into the prices on the menu. Have it your way …lol
Hold on Em…
My point is that if you want to use a system where the customer uses their discretion then you need to earn it. Bringing the food from A to B and tossing the plates on the table does not deserve a tip. I have a bonus at work and I know what I need to do to earn it. If I do not meet my objectives then I don’t get my bonus plain and simple.
A servers objectives are to take care of the customer. If the food is cold from the kitchen –> Make it right. If the bar mixed up your drinks –> make it right. You’re in charge of your tables and it is your job to make sure that the customer is taken care of and choses to come back to your restaurant the next time they eat out.
If you do all this and the customer leaves with a good experience why wouldn’t they tip?
The problem that I see is that waitstaff today expect the tip regardless of their performance (entitlement) and they are too quick to resort to name calling rather than to take a look at themselves and see if there is something that they could do better.
Surley, if you were to do my job, you’d demand a decent tip too. There is no entitlement here.
Americans are not teamwork people. We don’t like doing our job and someone else’s and getting the same as they do. Tips are negotiable, depending on the service provided. And while you are not expected to know all that is going on in the restaurant, just know your own business. If it ain’t right and the server can’t fix it, call for the manager. You still have to tip. There’s no excuse for being cheap. If you are happy, tip 20%. If not, give them somewhere between 10-15% depending on the problem.
Servers are not responsible for the quality of the product, the length of time it takes to cook or how much liquor is in your drink. If it’s really busy, you need to come in at a slower time if you want special service. If you want personal service, it is $25 an hour for your own server. Solved!!
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