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<p>This is not true where I live. That said, I always tip.</p>
<p>My D is waitressing in a cafe in Soho (NYC), and making very nice tip money. No alcohol is served but I would bet that would increase tips. Keeps her food budget super low too. I lived as a waitress for nearly 15 years before D was born, I loved every second of it.</p>
<p>I think their is an exception for wait staff to the minimum wage requirement. By glorified fast food I mean a chain restaurant. There are tables with waitresses or you can order take out. My D and I were just talking she has one customer that comes in and sits at the table for 2 hours and leaves $2.00 and another that sits and reads a book and leaves $1.50. D will never get large tips because the place is very inexpensive.</p>
<p>I’ve always tipped, but I have to admit I became more generous when I learned that in many places waiters don’t even get minimum wage. Our local pizza takeout has a cup on the counter, and while I didn’t used to put money in there, now I do. I figure dh has a safe job and so far I’m not hurting, it’s a good time to be generous.</p>
<p>Speaking of carryout, are you supposed to tip for it?</p>
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<p>Does “D” mean daughter? Any other CC (college confidential), lingo I should know?</p>
<p>“NSM I disagree. If you can afford a $30 dinner, you can afford at least a $5 tip.”</p>
<p>I don’t eat out in restaurants without tipping. I buy what I can pay for and leave a tip for.</p>
<p>However, I still would rather see people eat out and not tip than not eat out at all. If the restaurant closes due to lack of customers, wait staff will not only be out of tips, they’ll be out of their jobs, which do pay some money even without the tips.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, $2.53 was what I was getting as basic hourly wage…40 years ago, when I worked one summer as a waitress.</p>
<p>Well Marite…I’m guessing we are about the same age. Between 1970 and 1973, I earned $1 an hour plus tips waiting tables. The minimum wage was about $2.50 an hour. We did NOT earn minimum. My son worked as a waiter…$1.77 an hour (last summer) plus tips. NSM…without the tips, he would have been in the hole as HE was responsible for paying tips to the busboys and hostess at the end of the evening. I think one should go to a restaurant they can AFFORD to both eat at, and tip at.</p>
<p>Why should you tip somebody who is doing there job. If somebody goes above and beyond il give them a tip, but not simply for being there. doing what they are already getting paid to do, getting paid to much if you ask me anyway. As an example, if the waitress brings me another coke without me asking her , il give a tip. If they don’t, then they didn’t do anything special so they don’t get anything. </p>
<p>I think its silly to feel obligated to give a tip when one is not deserved. </p>
<p>It may also be the area you work in. My cousin in North eastern PA is a waitress and she gets around $350 a night on pure tips at a lake restaurant. Not a fancy place either by any means.</p>
<p>birdeye- my son gets about 3 dollars less than minimum wage per hour. If tipping were not part of the equation then restaurants would have to raise prices in order to pay servers a fair wage. At least this way it gives the customer some control and certainly provides incentive to the wait staff to do their best. BTW at son’s rest. they split all tips which means that they all have a stake in each customer’s “happiness”.</p>
<p>“if the waitress brings me another coke without me asking her , il give a tip. If they don’t, then they didn’t do anything special so they don’t get anything.”</p>
<p>It is sad, but that is the reality of the way restaurants work in this country. If you do not want to tip, do not eat out in a restaurant where the servers make around $2.00 an hour.(yes in some states restaurant workers make as little as that!) And my generous tip is not there because I want to subsidize your cheapness.</p>
<p>My D worked in a restaurant Junior year and when I was an undergrad and grad student I worked full time first as a waitress, then a cocktail waitress, a hostess, a bartender, a sous chef, and finally as a line cook. I hated being a waitress because it didn’t matter how hard you worked for some tables. They would still stiff you, because they didn’t “believe” in tipping. Well whether they believe in it or not, it exists, and plenty of people depend on it to make their living. So pony up if you go out to eat.</p>
<p>In Europe, service is included in the bill. People leave the change, which can be just a few cents. In the US, service is not included, so people are expected to tip and should tip. It used to be 10%, it is not more like 15% or 20%, depending on the level of service provided.</p>
<p>Nothing worse than going to a restaurant in the US with Australians. Those guys just cannot bear to leave a tip. They can party and have a good time, make the waitress think they are are her big friend (and a big tip to match must be on the way) … then they just won’t pay what’s due.</p>
<p>I know tipping is much less in Australia, but when you are in another country you learn the local custom and follow it with a smile.</p>
<p>They are getting paid to do a job, paid a fair wage, yes I think $2 a hour is very fair for what they do. They don’t deserve more and I shouldn’t be looked upon to to give away the money I worked for to somebody else who isn’t working for it at the same rate I am. I dont nor will I ever agree with or support any minimum wage laws.</p>
<p>Once I had to run back into a restaurant on the pretense of going to the restroom, so I could add money to the insufficient tip my date had left. That was my first and last date with the cheap SOB. He had just bought a new red sports car …but wouldnt leave a decent tip. :eek:</p>
<p>$2 is not fair wage, it’s not even minimum wage. </p>
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<p>Birdeye: You don’t know what you’re talking about. Several of us have experience working in restaurants. It’s no picnic. It’s way more difficult than bagging groceries, but in my area, baggers earn $8 an hour.</p>
<p>Tutu- was it Birdeye. He seems quite the charmer.</p>
<p>I really dislike this tipping business. I wish restaurants would just pay their waiters and include it in the food price. But since it is not the case, I will order less and leave 20% tip if I was watching my budget, and leave 15% if I wasn’t too happy. I am in Australia now, we are told to leave 10% because that’s the norm. I totally agree that one shouldn’t go out to each if one couldn’t afford to tip. It’s just trying to get service for free, and it’s a form of stealing.</p>
<p>All of us who have waited on tables know Birdeye one way or another. In fact I remember(a looooong time ago) that I chased an SOB like him out in to the parking lot and threw the nickel he left in his face, reminding him that he forgot his change. </p>
<p>ps Birdeye…I hope to God that you never eat in the same restaurant twice. Servers have a long memory for your ilk and they have devious ways of wreaking revenge.</p>