<p>Do you agree? I always thought 15% is for average service and 20% is for good service. But the author claims the days of 15% tip is long gone. Coming from Hong Kong where people don’t tip (at some nicer sit-down restaurants, they impose 10% service charge), I already think 15% is very generous. Yet, I have adjusted and usually put more than 15% but not necessarily 20%.</p>
<p>Lets do some math here - in NYC it is not unusual for a table to spend $100+ for 4 people (that’s probably on a low side), assuming a waiter waits on 10 tables a day, that is 400 x 10 x .2 = $800 a day, 5 days a week for 48 weeks(4 weeks vacation), $800 x 5 x 48 = $192,000.</p>
<p>I always tip 15% for below average service, 10% for not-so-good service (1% if it’s really bad), and 20% or more if the service was good or really good. I have tipped over 50% on really excellent service (even on expensive meals).</p>
<p>I understand that tips make up a majority of a waiter’s take-home pay, especially in a state where the wage is less than the (federal OR state!) minimum. I happily consider gratuity part of the dining experience in America. However, nothing makes me feel like tipping less than the entitled attitude of a waiter who chooses to get snippy over being “stiffed” even though the service sucked, or when they say that 20% wasn’t good enough for the service they provided.</p>
<p>I suggest that anybody who believes that waitpeople are over-tipped should quit their job and try it out. I don’t disagree with Barrrons that people should “learn about the new economy”, but that lesson will be learned without ratcheting down tipping percentages. When the economy is down, people eat out less and spend less per average. The amount tipped goes down automatically. </p>
<p>I generally tip 18-20% for what I consider good, solid service. Maybe 22% for stellar service, but it really has to be well above and beyond the call of duty. 15% for just okay service. You really do have to give terrible service for me to go down to 10%. All tips are based on pre-tax amounts. </p>
<p>Do I over-tip? I suppose some people may think so, but I think on a $50 bill, ten bucks isn’t that unreasonable.</p>
<p>booklady is right. I don’t know any server, low end or high end restaurants, who get to keep the tips they ‘earn’. They’re pooled, and/or they’re handled on a ‘tip out’ system where runners, bussers, bartenders, get to share in the tips. Some places determine what the ‘tip out’ amount is based on the amount of food and drink sold by that particular server. Yes, servers can make good money, but the other side of that is that they may have to pay to cover the idiots who enjoy food and drink for a couple of hours then skip out without paying. It happens more often than you can imagine.</p>
<p>My thoughts are similar to those of undecided. It’s rare that I’d only tip 15%.</p>
<p>Good food plus good service equals a wonderful experience – 20%, sometimes more. Good food with bad service is lamentable – 10% max. BTW, my niece confirms what Iderochi said: People are eating out less, and spending less when they do eat out. Bummer.</p>
<p>Since we’re eating out less, I try to trip more, hoping it will work out for the servers somehow. If service is so terrible that I’m leaving a “statement” tip, I write a note explaing why (so they’ll know it’s them, and not that I’m just cheap). </p>
<p>Of course, when I’m really torn is when the service is horrible because the restaurant is obviously understaffed. The waitperson is working his or her tail off, but I still have a horrible experience.</p>
<p>A lot of how I tip depends on how often I eat at that restaurant. If it’s a meal where I never expect to be in that restaurant again–> 15% or so. If I’m a regular (or am considering becoming a regular–i.e., it’s Chinese or sushi and it’s near my house): 20-25%. </p>
<p>In restaurants that don’t have waitresses but do have cooks–we have a few near us where you order at the counter, find a table, and pick up your food at the counter when they call your name–I usually leave around 10% for the cooks. </p>
<p>If the service is terrible and it’s not the waitress’s fault, I will leave a 15% tip for the waitress and ask to speak to the manager and then explain that I was upset about the service. One time I asked to speak to the manager and got the owner instead. The next time I went in, the manager thanked me: he’d been trying to explain why they needed another waitress!</p>
<p>I will also note that if you regularly tip 20%, and it’s a restaurant you go to often, you will eventually end up getting little extras from the staff, at least in my experience.</p>
<p>Although it’s convention to tip according to some percentage of the bill, I temper that with the amount of work the waitperson actually did. If they spent very little time actually waiting on the table, in some cases < 5 minutes, I don’t think it deserves a large tip regardless of what the price of the meal actually was. If they spent more time than typical, then I might give more even though the meals might have been inexpensive. I haven’t seen a waitperson yet that’s worth $100/hour or more.</p>
<p>I think of 15% of the pre-tax total as standard, and I round up (never down) to the nearest convenient dollar, especially if splitting a bill, so it’s likely a bit higher. 20% if the service was particularly good. I’ve occasionally left 25% if the person had to do extra stuff for us, and I judged that our table was a pain to serve. </p>
<p>I can’t actually remember leaving a low tip for bad service. Most service is at least competent, and problems usually seem to be the fault of the kitchen or understaffing, so why penalize the waitstaff? If I did have a rude waiter, that would be another story, but I can’t recall one.</p>
<p>Here is how my son feels. He worked last summer as a waiter in a low end restaurant. At this “low end” establishment meals can easily still cost $20-25 per person including a beverage and a dessert (before taxes). My son did not have to share tips, but was required to clean his tables, pepare one box of silverware each day (rolling each place setting in a napkin), prepare all drinks, salads, and desserts for his tables. This is how the restaurant saves on hiring more people. There is one cook/chef (usually the manager) and an assistant manager. The manager and asst. manager are on salary. All waiters/waitresses earned $2.15 per hour. They depended on tips. My son received tips as high as 35% of the bill, and adults also had the nerve to walk out without leaving a dime. Many teens came in and forgot about budgeting for a tip, and then they apologized and left .50 per teen (groups of 10 teens at a table did this all the time). My son said that he would no longer ever leave less than 20% for a decent waiter/waitress. Also, if the chef could not get the food out within a reasonable period of time (happened regularly when the restaurant was crowded) that message was always received by the waiter, who would get the lousy tip. My son knew to get that order in immediately, and check on orders to get them asap to tables, but there is only so much a chef can prepare at one time.</p>
<p>BTW, my son had plenty of tables where people left 30-35%, but more tables of teens that left inappropriate tips. Many people really do not know how much one should tip.</p>
<p>Consolation, my son felt that more people should understand that. He was left often without a decent tip because the kitchen could not get the food out fast enough.</p>
<p>I take the pre-tax amount of the check and multiply it by 1.25. Depending on the tax (7 to 8% in my area), that comes out to a 17-18% tip. </p>
<p>This works really well when you have only one bill for a group. People often round up their bill to the next dollar, so the tip is often a little more than that.</p>