<p>Sam, interesting about your brother’s observations. My d. has customers from Germany frequently. She said they are the most friendly, wonderful customers and then she is always shocked at the low tip. Until she waited on a few, she thought something was wrong with her and not just a cultural difference.</p>
<p>I think all states should make restaurants pay the state’s minimum wage just like other industries and perhaps then we won’t feel so obligated to give 20% or whatever of tips. I really don’t like how paying tips is like a moral obligation for the customers to subsidize the “poor” waiters/waitress because restaurants pay them nothing (and then in the process some would make the amount that even many professionals would evny). I also dislike paying 15% even when the service is p*ssing me off but feeling guilty if I don’t pay that in such situation.</p>
<p>mkm56,</p>
<p>When I gave tips that’s not even close to 15% in Hong Kong, the waiters/waitresses often seemed not to know how to react. In many places, they just expect you to leave the coins or even nothing. They probably thought I misread the bills. :)</p>
<p>$2.13/hour is right for Texas. There were nights D2 came home after having been scheduled for a 6 hour shift - only had a few tables all night and spent most of it cleaning up, rolling silverware, wiping off menus, etc. - then cut early because too many waitpeople were scheduled for the crowd that showed up. Net pay for the night, around $12. This was at a busy and “well managed” restaurant.</p>
<p>and yes, tips are shared around - she had to “tip out” the bartender and bus-persons. The iinteresting part was that after a good night the waiters come home with a pocket full of cash, but it’s all recorded and taxed, so the paycheck is sometimes just a few dollars for the week.</p>
<p>^that’s sad. My friend, on the other hand, has been waiting for 3 nights a week at a steakhouse. He gets more from that than his full-time job as a HS teacher (over 20 years in the same school district). This is in CA so he gets the full min wage of $8/hr.</p>
<p>Do you mean he makes more than $40,000 working 3 nights a week, or that he makes more per hour than his teaching job?</p>
<p>I have a D who quit college when she made more money as a bartender than I did as a lawyer. I’m thankful she finally realized she wasn’t going to be a cute little bartender the rest of her life and she eventually earned a degree.</p>
<p>More than his teaching job, not sure if it’s gross or net. Maybe it’s 3 nights during the week + a night in the weekend (I don’t remember). But definitely not 5 nights. Public HS teachers only make $40K/yr after 20 years of teaching these days?</p>
<p>mkm:</p>
<p>In Germany the waitstaff will look at you strangely if you try to leave a tip. Ditto with most other areas of the world. It’s no surprise that some of them come here and leave either no tip or just don’t really know what to do (re Sam Lee’s question in the first place). Plenty of them though have asked others what they should do or have consulted the travel guides. I wonder what Fodors recommends for the USA?</p>
<p>No, in Germany they do tip - but like an earlier poster said, they just round up. In our language class, we were told to never go over 10%. Others told us it to just round up and add on perhaps a Euro if there wasn’t much to round. Our language teacher was from a bigger city - I think they were used to more Americans there than in our small town.</p>
<p>We had a friend who was a cook in a restaurant. She said the wait staff loved to get Americans, because they tipped so much. But they sounded derisive - like tipping well was an ostentatious show of wealth, but they were happy to be on the receiving end. The wait staff does not share their tips with the other staff, nor have to report them.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, we have a friend who works for the state IRS here in GA. He has lots of stories about waitstaff pocketing cash tips. I don’t remember the details, but I think he said the restaurants are expected to report something like 12.5 % of sales in tip income, when everyone knows that there is probably quite a bit being pocketed outside the tip jar.</p>
<p>I also do not tip at any “cafeteria” style restaurant, where I order and collect my food at a counter. Even if they have a big tip jar sitting there. I do tip at buffets, where they bring clean plates or drink refills, but generally more like a dollar per person. (Which is probably like 10%).</p>
<p>^^ I’ve been to Germany many times and no one ever tipped. I don’t count the ‘round-up’ as a tip - just a convenience.</p>
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<p>I’m calling BS on this one. I live in NJ and the average starting salary for a newly graduated teacher is 40K PLUS extremely generous benefits. And that’s just for the first year, and that year is just 9 months. BS I say!</p>
<p>^i don’t know him very well but it’d be strange that he’d lie about it (he just shared that info like it’s cool to know; i didn’t ask and i don’t really ask how much people make; but people can be weird…lol). he teaches in palm springs/cathedral city; maybe teachers don’t earn as much. i am not sure. i do pay a lot everytime i go to a steakhouse (and leave a good tip) so i wasn’t thinking it’d be impossible.</p>
<p>Toblin: teacher pay in NJ (and other east coast states) is much higher than in the west coast states. My sister, in NY state, makes 50% more than I would if I worked full time. (The salary for teachers is set by the state here in Washington.)</p>
<p>It is a myth that the teacher’s year is only nine months. Most teachers work a ten month year–180 teaching days plus 20 additional days is the most common schedule–AND they are required to take college courses to maintain their certifications.</p>
<p>What do you think is the proper amount to tip the pizza delivery person?</p>
<p>How about the person at curbside take-out service who bring you the food at chain restaurants such as Chili’s or Outback??</p>
<p>Around here there’s a delivery charge of $1.50 - $2 added to the bill for the local pizza/Chinese food places. I have no idea how much of that actually goes to the delivery guy, so I usually add a dollar or two.</p>
<p>Curbside takeout? I don’t think we have that around here.</p>
<p>
Extending the question further - how about the fast food employee? They’re still waiting on you and many times carry your food to the table.</p>
<p>I guess the expectation is that the curbside or fast food person spends very little time ‘waiting’ on a person so they probably wouldn’t get a tip.</p>
<p>When I was in HS my grandmother from back east tried to tip a kid at a McDonalds we went to (she’d never been to anything like a McDonalds before) but the kid had no idea how to even respond.</p>
<p>I don’t know how it is now, but back “in the day” when I worked fast-food as a teenager, we were not allowed to accept tips.</p>
<p>I know I don’t tip at fast-food places.</p>
<p>DH & I stopped at the Friendly’s restaurant in the local mall for an early dinner. Had a young waitress who took our order. 2 sandwiches, fries and sodas. Nothing difficult. 15 minutes later my sandwich arrived…(no drinks)…YW tells DH that his will be finished in 2 mins…I finish my meal (I’m a slow eater)…(still no drinks, I’m spittin’ dust) YW counts her tips, plays with her younger sister in an adjoining booth…still no dinner. YW walks by I stop her to ask about DH meal…“oh, it will be just 5 more minutes”…I then asked for our drinks…we waiting for another 15 and then my DH walked out.
I couldn’t find the waitress so I walked to the front of the restaurant and asked for my bill. YW said well his meal will be ready in a few minutes?? really, huffy…I told her the wait was too long, no drinks, just let me pay the bill.
She asked if she could pack up the meal, I said no. She hands me the bill, WITH DH food on it. I told her I would not be paying for it and to please take it off my bill. She had to go to the back - more than likely to talk to the Manager, who was no where to be found.
Eventually she came back and gave me the bill for $13.00…she tells me “You don’t have to leave me a tip”…I told her, although I was unhappy with the service, I am not a total ogre…I left $2 on the table.</p>