On the other hand beer is expensive in France. There used to be a value meal in McDonald that included wine for drink.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Paris, drink wine.
It’s not true that there is NO tipping in Paris. Most restaurants will have tip included “Service compris,” but not always. If you don’t see the service added to the bill, there may well be the expectation of a tip.
http://www.eurocheapo.com/blog/paris-when-to-tipand-when-not-to-tip.html
Note the article says this will reduce the total cost because people tip more than the price increases. That says a few things to me: a) this is a total reduction in what servers make, which is not good and b) this is a price increase for people who don’t tip or don’t tip much. I suspect they will lose business because service is already fine and customers will get angry - as they do now - because there will be “service” problems. There will always be service issues: the kitchen screws up an order, the kitchen is behind, one meal gets prepared wrong and they either hold the rest - which reduces their quality - or they make someone wait or they run out or whatever … and the diners blame the people they see at their table and some will say I’m paying this much more and you still screwed up. And some people who don’t tip much will just decide to go elsewhere.
I thought this article was interesting:
http://www.eater.com/2017/1/12/14250128/danny-meyer-tipping-hoax-slavery
Recently my dinner was delayed because the waitress “forgot” to place my order and my daughter’s as they were on the next page. She apologized when she told us this bad news and did get our orders to the kitchen. We only had to wait 10 to 15 minutes so I tipped her 15%. She also told me they didn’t have the soda I asked to order, but when I showed her a picture of it on their menus she said oh yeah and went ahead and ordered it. I was tempted to either leave no tip or reduce it to single digits.
15% was definitely appropriate. That is like the lowest amount that is in good taste. Anything less would be an insult and I am sure you did not want to make the waitstaff sad.
Definitely not.
I strongly prefer tipping. Having experienced wildly varying service quality over the years, I like the ability to reward good service.
Why would I want to tip people who forget my order, totally screw it up, have a bad attitude, or are just careless?
" I am sure you did not want to make the waitstaff sad."
If a waitperson provides crappy service, I don’t care if they are sad. Their happiness isn’t my responsibility. It’s a direct correlation to them doing their job and in their own control and responsibility.
“I strongly prefer tipping. Having experienced wildly varying service quality over the years, I like the ability to reward good service.”
Think of all the other service you get - sales clerk, dental hygienist, the cook who prepares your food, etc. Your service level from them isn’t predicated on receiving tips. It doesn’t have to be any different with wait staff.
Plus most people don’t have their pay docked if they make a mistake at work or have an off day. Or if their co-workers screw up part of a product that they have no control over (analogous to wait staff being blamed for kitchen’s mistakes or delay).
The disparities by race in the amount of tips received are very, very troubling, as is the history of tipping (if what Danny Meyers says is true). I heard an interview with him on the podcast “The Sporkful” recently in which he discusses why he has done away with tipping in his restaurants in greater detail.
That is a good point, doschicos. It does seem a little strange to me which professions we deem worthy of tipping in our society, and which ones we do not.
I suppose it makes sense to incentivize those who are the face of the business, and are required to perform a significant amount of work to make the customer happy.
Regardless, I am a generous tipper, and feel like those who do treat customers well should go home with more money at the end of the day.
“I suppose it makes sense to incentivize those who are the face of the business, and are required to perform a significant amount of work to make the customer happy.”
But think of all the businesses where you interact with the “face” of the business who don’t get tips - salespeople, receptionists, flight attendants, checkout clerks, and so on. You don’t tip them. Many provide good service and can make customers happy. A good management team will do that. We all know businesses where the management is good at what they do and we go back to those establishments. We also, unfortunately, know examples of the opposite. My favorite restaurants have top notch service (what I think of as old school service because it seems rare these days). One is a restaurant group in a major city. No matter what establishment you go to under their umbrella no matter who your waitperson is, you’ll get good service. Often during a dinner, you’ll be serviced by 5-6 people easy - it is pretty seamless teamwork. It’s not because of tipping, it’s because of great training and management. Many of us know grocery store chains we prefer for the same reason - good service. They aren’t being tipped, they are just trained well.
Since we tip at the end of transaction, I don’t think tipping really insures that each individual transaction is good, honestly. Otherwise, all service would be great. Think about how often it isn’t even when the person knows they are working for tips…
I am a fairly generous tipper, but it really bothers me when I am presented with a tablet that “suggests” tips! It just seems tacky to me, especially when they start at 20%+ and go up from there. I always tip at least 20% when I get remotely decent service, but do not want someone to tell me I should tip a MINIMUM of 20%. The only time I will tip less than 20% is when the service is terrible and it is obviously the service person’s fault and not the kitchen or something else. It also really irritates me when I am at a fast food restaurant and a suggested tip comes up on the register. Jersey Mike’s is one that comes to mind. At least to me, a tip is for extra service over and above the norm. I have tipped JM’s when I did a huge catering order and they were extremely helpful, but for a single sandwich for me, I am not going to tip, when I have to stand in line to get my food.
I always tip – in cash – because I know my server is more likely to get it that way. Even then they might not because some places require that all tips go into one jar and they’re divvied up by percentage after the shift. But it’s better than adding it to my cc bill and depending on the business to give it to them.
Here is an intersting fact:
Tipping started since Prohibition era; alcohols was a major part of sales in bars/restaurants/etc and now they couldn’t sell alcohols they had choices: Jack up prices, sell alcohol illegally, or worse, cut the wages. The waiters/waitresses had been FORBIDDEN to be paid tips before but after their employers cut the wages, they had to accept tips.
Now the alcohol hasn’t been illegal anymore for more than half decade and we still are doing this old practice that came from bad policy.
I waited tables all through undergrad, and I would not do it for minimum wage and no tips. For minimum wage and no tips, I’d have worked retail or some other job.
At the time, minimum wage was about $3.35, and tipped employees were paid $1.67/hr on the assumption that they’d make up the rest in tips. If you had a short shift with only a few tables, had a stiff or two, and then you were expected to tip share with your bartender and busser, sometimes you didn’t make minimum wage for that shift.
In addition to wages, the restaurant tracked our sales, and we were assessed taxes on a certain percentage of that. So if I sold $100 of food in a shift, I’d be assessed taxes on around $10 in addition to my wages for that shift - again assuming that I’d made at least that much in tips. You could claim more tips than the specified amount, but there was no way to declare less, so sometimes, in addition to not making minimum wage, you were getting taxed on tips you didn’t get, too.
At 20 hours a week, my weekly paycheck was around $33.40, before taxes. After taxes? Usually less than $5/week. Sometimes less than $1. Sometimes I got a paycheck for a negative amount, which meant I owed more for taxes or Social Security than I’d earned in wages.
We paid for our own uniforms, nobody got benefits because nobody was allowed to work more than 35 hours a week, and the job included cuts (broken glass), burns, a concussion (slip and fall), permanent shoulder damage (discovered years later) and the occasional customer who thought it was OK to grab various personal regions as I walked by.
On the upside, my fellow wait staff and management were mostly wonderful, I was good at my job, and tips meant I often (but not always) made more than minimum wage. Tips meant I earned more if I excelled.
I worked fast food in high school. Excelling at working fast food got you bupkis. Raises were regulated by the franchise. You got reviewed every six months and if your review was stellar and glowing, you got a raise of a nickel per hour. If your review was marginal or just OK? You still got the nickel. Oh, and you still had to deal with cuts, burns and the occasional grabby customer.
I’m dubious that a 20% increase in menu prices would be enough for servers to make minimum wage. In many places, that means doubling (sometimes more than doubling) wages. If you don’t like paying $12 - $15 for a burger and fries, how will you feel about paying $18 to $20 for it, or even $25? And if I’m making minimum wage and no tips, there’s no way in heck I’d wait tables.
“I waited tables all through undergrad, and I would not do it for minimum wage and no tips. For minimum wage and no tips, I’d have worked retail or some other job.”
The idea is to pay a living wage, $15+ per hour. It is doable. Read some of the linked articles about Danny Meyer. Additionally, there are places where even fast food workers in this country make $15 per hour. Seattle for example where the pay is $13.50 to $15 depending in whether the job includes benefits or not.
I really wish wages would be increased and tipping would stop. I think many make much more than $15/hour given they do not report the full amount for taxes. Cash transactions are often underreported.
@yearstogo but good portion of waters do NOT want it because they are currently exempt from tax
interesting - I did not realize there was a tax exemption for waiters. which state is that in?