<p>I generally tip 15% in a restaurant, 20% for really good service, 10% for subpar but not truly awful service. S is a waiter, and depends on tip. Keep in mind, too, that if alcohol is ordered, waiters often have to give the bartender a % of the bill as a tip.</p>
<p>I trip my hairdresser very well. I generally tip a valet parking attendant well when I leave my car, bellman when I have a lot of luggage, curbside checkin guy at airport.</p>
<p>I don’t tip hotel maids (unless I’ve made a mess for some reason), fast food clerks, and I think Starbucks has a lot of gall to put a tip jar at the cash register with the prices they charge. At least, at McDonalds, change goes to charity.</p>
<p>“Why can a food company do that? Why should they be allowed to pay their employees mere pennies? My boss is not allowed to do that. When I order pizza, I tip based on what I actually ordered; not based on all the fees they charge me after the fact. Those delivery guys may get screwed because of it; THAT’S NOT MY FAULT!”
Because the system has evolved where waiters make virtually all their money from tips and that you’re supposed to pay it? Suck it up or go try to change it, Go work as a pizza delivery guy and see how they feel. Unless the service is god awful then you’re just being selfish to not tip (For a 10$ pizza I would give 1-2$)</p>
<p>I don’t need to. I have a full-time job; not looking for one. And apparently I’m not too bad… I typically give up to the nearest dollar and 1-2 more. </p>
<p>And I’ve already paid for the food and I’ve paid for the delivery. Tell me why I should be expected to pay even more to the owner of the pizza place!</p>
<p>That was the law in Illinois when I was a server there but good luck actually getting a restaurant to pay you the difference! At $3 hr you are 100% expendable. </p>
<p>One place I worked just stopped paying us the 3 bucks even. I made enough in tips that I didn’t care.</p>
<p>hopscout, admit it, unless you’ve been lobbying to change the law, you’re not espousing some great societal change–you’re just attempting to justify being cheap. If the system were different and employees didn’t get tips, the employers would have to pay them more and pass the cost along to the customer, and you’d pay the difference anyway. Let the moths out of your pockets and tip appropriately! (Or inspect that pizza real carefully next time…)</p>
<p>Absolutely! Well proven too. In large groups, research easily has shown that each individual tends to grossly undertip. Diffusion of responsibility. And come on, haven’t you been the holder of money at a large table without a set tip? You always get screwed as the person gathering the money because it always comes up way short.</p>
<p>Being raised in restaurants (parents IHOP managers) the importance of tips is evident. As a restaurant the labor percentages can’t be too high since food costs are a large amount of monthly costs. What you may sacrifice in a few dollars tips is made up in the cheaper food prices offered. As well too often I have seen waiters being stiffed for bad service (when it was not their fault). Happy and attentive service interrupted by a cooks mistake or a loud customer next to the table is not the waiters fault, yet many times have seen them tipped little or none. Its not about “reforming the system” it comes down to labor costs, food costs and understanding</p>
<p>^I agree. If you believe in basic economics, you know that if we don’t have tips, we will all pay through another mechanism anyways. With tips you at least get some say in who gets your extra money (which is actually better than your extra money being added to the price of things you buy to cover higher wages). There is no free lunch, so to speak. </p>
<p>It’s a voluntary system that relies on goodwill. Of course the downside is that there will always be selfish jerks that exploit the system, and not tip anyone regardless of service (and pretend they are taking some kind of intellectual or moral high ground in doing so).</p>
<p>Tell you what… the day there is a Certified Athletic Trainer in every single high school in the United States, I’ll start taking up another job’s cause.</p>
<p>starbright- you are correct. My wife and I stopped going out in large groups because of that issue. It amazes me how often the waiter was short changed.</p>
<p>Like I remind my brother who is a waiter and complains about this.</p>
<p>No one FORCES a waiter to be a waiter. They could always get a <em>GASP</em> real job??? </p>
<p>If a waiter performs poorly they don’t get paid. If thye perform average they get 15% and if they blow me away they get 20% or more depending on how well they do.</p>
<p>That is the basis and the reason for tips.</p>
<p>Plus… Everyone likes to throw out the “Waiter’s get 2.13/hr.” Sure they do, and and shortchange between what they get paid+tips and minimum wage is covered by the restaurant. If the restaurant doesn’t do this then that’s their labor problem…</p>
<p>So the moral is to do a good job and then they’ll get good tips or better yet restaurants can just pay them a wage and end the tip practice like most of the rest of the world…</p>
<p>If you are not tipping at least 20% and go to the same place you are eating spit. Believe me I grew up working in my parents restaurants and I know what goes on there. On the plus side tipping large actually saves you money in the end.</p>
<p>I personally tip no less than $5 for anything. If I go to a cash bar I get 2 beers at a time (usually $2.50 or more per) and tip a $5. If I eat at a resturant i leave $10 if the tab is under $30 and $20 if the tab is under $75. Because I am a good tipper the tab for me and a guest is never more than $75 as long as we stick with mixed drinks and draft beer and skip bottles of wine… its a trick that almost anyone that has worked in a resturant knows… order draft and mixed drinks and if you are a good tipper you will never be charged. (some resturants do count things like lobsters though… but your waiter will warn you.)</p>
<p>I tip DJ’s I hire $50 and limo drivers get the same (neither ever hook you up with anything though.)</p>
<p>I tip the waitress at buffets $5, My barber $10, I tip every single person that works at country clubs (and honestly because most people are too stingy to tip them because most clubs include a grat, I could probably bludgeon a fellow member in the dining room with my golf club and not a single employee would see anything.) </p>
<p>Taxi drivers in smaller communities I tip very well and get their cell phone number… I only call them personally from then on and usually just give them a $20 and they take me anywhere.</p>
<p>In all I tip every single person that it is traditional to tip to… I have good tipping karma built up from years of spreading it around and if I ever find myself needing a job I should do well (seriously ask any waiter or bartender about tipping karma… they all believe from the most devout holy roller to the professed atheist.)</p>
While this may be “better yet,” how is this sea-change to take place? </p>
<p>xSlacker, if you don’t think being a waiter is a “<em>GASP</em> real job,” you may already have ingested more with your food than the recipe calls for, unless you’re good at hiding your feelings …</p>
<p>Group tipping can be a minefield. We occasionally escort a group of seniors to restaurants that don’t provide individual checks for large groups. Many seniors grew up before tipping was common. They’re on limited incomes and many of them have negative attitudes, as well - none of which is conducive to generous tipping. Fortunately, there are two elderly guys who know this bunch well and hang around until we’ve collected every last cent, then add whatever’s lacking so that the waiter/waitress receives at least 20 percent for dealing with our challenging group.</p>
<p>I too believe in tipping karma. Those who don’t really ought to check out “Waiter Rant” by Steve Dublanica (first suggested by TuftsStudent in post 3).</p>
<p>I feel bad for waiters who work at cheaper places. When I go to a diner for breakfast and my bill comes to under $10, I don’t have the heart to tip just 15 or 20%, I’ll tip close to 30%, especially if they kept on refilling my coffee. That being said, I really do hate the tipping culture - just pay those people and add that into cost of food (service) - the reason is prevent those workers from getting ripped from some cheap people out there.</p>
<p>All three of my sisters and my daughter have worked in restaurants for tips. I don’t believe there is a better job in the world for learning about human nature. The lessons learned by my D have paid great dividends and continue to do so even in med school where she is doing quite well dealing with patients. Education comes from many places.</p>
<p>Perhaps I have… No big deal, unless I catch them. It’s not like restaurants are the cleanest or safest places to get your food. A quick Google search will illuminate that topic. In fact, you HAVE had something in your food that isn’t part of the original recipe. You should hang out in a restaurant bathroom sometime and see how many workers don’t wash their hands or do the faux water only hand washing…</p>
<p>As to hiding my feelings… I’ve worked in nursing for over a decade. I’m a pro. Talk about a service industry that should receive tips…</p>
<p>I always try to tip at least 20 percent. If the waiter or waitress ignored us for half the night and didn’t refill my glass or this or that, they may only get 15 percent… I usually still give 20 percent because normally the resteraunt is very understaffed and the poor person is running around like a crazy person… but if i see them around talking to their buddies and doing nothing they’re only getting 15 percent. If they do a beyond great job I’ll give them more then 20 percent. </p>
<p>BF and I were on vacation two months ago and we went to his favorite vacation food place. We sat at the bar because it was so full there were no tables… so we were kinda sorta talking to our waitress a bit. He asked her how the vacation season was going so far and she was saying how they had only been open for 2 weeks at that point… she said the weekend before some ‘awful college kids’ were in town for a school event who ‘apparently forgot to take the course on how to leave a tip’. 50 dollar bills with 2 dollar tips being left, 100 dollar bill with a 3 dollar tip, etc. These people hung around for hours occupying their tables and being waited on hand and foot and that’s all they could part with? This is why places try to add the group grat to your bill. We asked her what college it was and let me just say they are local to us here and it doesn’t surprise me at all that their kids don’t know how to tip. They are a rather expensive school and have a reputation in my town as being the rich kid school where mommy and daddy pay for everything… didn’t surprise me one bit that they didn’t know how to tip someone. Our bill came to about 50 dollars and I think we gave her 80 bucks and told her to keep the change. We felt like we had to at least attempt to make up for our local idiots who were down there the week before us. Plus she was extremely polite, filled our drinks without even asking, and talked to cook into giving us extra food on our plates. I’m sure if we would have gone back later in the week she would have remembered us and treated us very very well.</p>
<p>My daughter waitresses and makes a few cents more than $2.00 an hour which she does not receive because it goes directly to SS or taxes. When someone pays their tip by credit card she does not receive the full amount of the tip because money is taken out for the credit card transaction and some other fee. Sorry that I do not know the other fee…my daughter has not mentioned it. </p>
<p>At the restarant my daughter works most customers pay their bill and tip using credit cards. My daughter wishes the tip was given in cash so that the fee for the credit card was not removed from the tip. Believe me people dont make alot of money working as wait staff. I tip pretty heavily now since I know that these people are living off of tip money. As far as the bad service and tipping accordingly…very often it is a screw up in the kitchen and not with your wait staff.</p>
I’m sure if we would have gone back later in the week she would have remembered us and treated us very very well.</p>