<p>Why do people complain about this issue so much? A minimum wage job is not supposed to be a career, is it?</p>
<p>I’ve worked minimum wage jobs before, but haven’t expected to be paid more than what was listed under the job description. I don’t understand.</p>
<p>Here’s an analogy for you, maybe: at the car wash I frequent, there are two lines. In one of them, you stay in your car, and the machine washes the outside of it. In the other line, you get out of the car, and people get in it, clean the windows, dry it off after, etc. These two services don’t cost the same. At the end of the car wash is a tip receptacle. Personally, I only tip when I go through the side that involves human beings touching my car. Would anybody tip for both lines? Would anybody tip the same for both lines?</p>
<p>“Congratulations! That has to be the dumbest, most pointedly asinine juvenile post I have ever read.”</p>
<p>Really? You obviously haven’t read many of my other posts then…If you get that angry over someone who disagrees with your opinion, I’d hate to be that waitress that unintentionally brings you cold french fries.</p>
<p>" I never said I would tip $10 for a $50 order."</p>
<p>You did say, “Somewhere between 10 and 20 percent.”</p>
<p>As a waitress, if someone gave me a large tip for putting the order in a bag, and bringing it to the cashier to ring up, it would make me take notice. A couple of bucks would be appropriate and sufficient, in my opinion, for the level of work that I did. Of course, I worked at a restaurant where nobody was expected to share in the tips, except for 10% to go to the busperson. I would think that someone was wealthy (and there’s nothing wrong with that), or that there was something funny going on. Maybe not if they just seemed to be a really nice person, or a regular customer…but if some guy gave me a big tip for doing very little, I’d quickly go in the back before he tried to strike up a conversation with me.</p>
<h1>102 I like your analogy, Hunt.</h1>
<p>My car wash is a bit different. You have to get out of the car. All cars go through the same wash line, but you pay extra for vacuuming beforehand and wiping it up in and out afterward. Usually I get full-service car wash, but if the line is long and I’m short on time I take wash only. I put the same amount in the tip box when I walk out to get my car regardless. I go to the same car wash probably 3 times a month.</p>
<p>I’ve worked in restaurants. I tip for takeout (not as much as sit down). I also tip extra at breakfast. The bill is usually lots less than lunch or dinner but the waitress is working just as hard if not harder with all the coffee refills.</p>
<p>" I also tip extra at breakfast. "</p>
<p>God bless you. Breakfast service is the toughest gig in town.</p>
<p>Hunt—yes, the car analogy works for drive thru service where no one touches your food. 
But generally I think everyone agrees that service level demands different tips. That’s why it’s important to tip more for breakfast service. My real issue is that most people have no idea whatsoever what goes into different types of service so it’s best to err on the side of generosity.</p>
<p>“The bill is usually lots less than lunch or dinner but the waitress is working just as hard if not harder with all the coffee refills.”</p>
<p>Yes. Tiny bills at breakfast, many cups of coffee, lower staffing, people don’t stay long. Definitely the toughest shift for the most amount of work and least amount of money. I’d imagine many people end up tipping 30% for those meals, as it’s not generally that much money anyways.</p>
<p>Here’s a good one – those who believe in tipping everyone, do you think that the people who fill up your gas tank should be tipped? Isn’t that a “service”? In a few states (NJ and I believe OR?), customers cannot fill their own tanks with gas by state law.</p>
<p>Who said that they believed in “tipping everyone”? </p>
<p>I do remember, when I was a kid, my dad used to tip the local gas station attendant. Personally I have not used a service attendant even once for the last 10 years.</p>
<p>Aren’t there only like 2 states where people fill up your gas tank? I’ve personally never experienced that so I’m not sure what I’d do.</p>
<p>I’m responding to one of the first replies for this thread…</p>
<p>The people who answer the phone/take your order and give you your order are usually getting paid a much higher hourly wage because they’re not getting tips for serving. So no need to tip them</p>
<p>Uh…not always. </p>
<p>My younger son worked as a lowly paid $2 an hour bartender this summer at a popular national chain restaurant. It is the bartender’s job to take the call in orders, fill the orders, and do the payment. If there’s no tip, then then they really get screwed.</p>
<p>I agree that they may not deserve 20%, but 10% seems fair.</p>
<p>OP, thanks for starting this conversation. We tip about 10% on take out orders, whether it’s pizza or a restaurant. Recently we showed up 1/2 hour before closing at a casual restaurant, and were the last customers in the building. We tipped a bit more than usual for that, because the waitress never made us feel rushed.</p>
<p>Maybe we need another tipping thread. What about the valet at a hotel? Or the hotel maid?</p>
<p>No one said they are tipping “everyone”. I haven’t had someone pump my gas for more than 30 years. But if I’m getting personal service from any business where tips help round out the person’s wage, yes, I tip. And I usually tip 20% if I can afford it.</p>
<p>To the above asking about hotel maids-they should be the highest paid employees in the hotel. H’s mother was a hotel maid and the stories he’s told me about the things she had to deal with have made me a little ill…really disgusting stuff sometimes, even in the nicer places. We always tip the maid, no matter what the room rate is.</p>
<p>I always tip for take-out orders. Not as much for take-out as for a sit-down meal, but everyone I’ve ever known who has worked in restaurants tips for take-outs. As a customer you just don’t know what the pay arrangements or work assignments are, you don’t know who’s getting that tip money, but for many of the people who work there, tips are the difference between a living wage and not. </p>
<p>Some of the little ethnic eateries we frequent are literally mom & pop operations where mom & pop do everything–take orders, cook, serve customers, bus dishes, wash dishes, clean the toilets. I don’t go in there thinking, “Gee, these aren’t sub-minimum wage workers, they’re entrepreneurs, the bosses, so I don’t need to tip them anything.” Nonsense. They’re working their tails off to please me and serve me a satisfying meal, whether I sit down or carry out. They’re probably operating on a very slim margin, as evidenced by the fact that these sorts of places tend to come and go with some frequency, and in all likelihood tips are the difference in their being able to make a go of it. I’m not going to come pick up my take-out order and say, “Hey, that didn’t take them as much time as if I had done sit-down service, so I get to stiff them on the tip.” No, it doesn’t work like that. Pop spent just as much time cooking my meal, mom spent just as much time taking my order and getting it to pop and making sure it was right when pop says it’s ready, and mom spent a lot of time and care in packaging it up just so and taking my payment, with every second keeping her from getting back to waiting tables and possibly annoying some crotchety sit-down customer who’s going to reduce his tip because he thinks he should be getting more prompt service. </p>
<p>At another place we frequent for take-out and sometimes for sit-down service, the same servers take orders at the counter for take-out or service at the table, as well as phone orders for take-out; they also fill drink orders for sit-down customers, and make the salads for both in-house and take-out customers. Another set of workers prepares hot meals in the back. It’s not full sit-down service; you need to order at the counter, but they bring the meal to your table when it’s ready, or hand it to you at the counter if it’s for take-out. You know they’re working for sub-minimum wage plus tips, and they’re working their tails off. I also think in this particular establishment the servers pool their tips, because they’re constantly rotating assignments so any one order is not fully the responsibility of one server-- on person may take your order at the counter, another deliver it to the table, a third come around to refill your wine glass, etc. I tip them whether we’re eating in or taking out, again a little less for take-out because it’s a little less work on their part, but only a little, and every second of their time I take is keeping them from other customers. With most restaurants though, I don’t know what the pay arrangements are and who gets the tip, so I tip for takeout by default, as I have been schooled by numerous friends who have worked in restaurants. </p>
<p>And just because you don’t tip at McDonald’s doesn’t mean that standard applies to real restaurants. McDonald’s is set up differently, you aren’t expected to tip, and tips aren’t part of anyone’s compensation. They don’t pay their employees well, but they don’t pay them sub-minimum wage, either.</p>
<p>Not only don’t I tip when I pickup the Chinese food, I hand them the $2 off coupon they give me with every order if I pick it up and the total is more than $20.</p>
<p>Both of my children have been servers or delivery people so I tip more now than I used to.</p>
<p>I managed a full-service express gas station 35 years ago. We were trained to pump gas into four cars at the same time. We seldom got tips but we washed your windows, put air in the tires, and always asked to check the oil. Our “tip” was 25 cents for every quart of oil we sold. I loved it when the dip stick was bone dry and the customer was down 4 quarts.</p>
<p>I always tip a bit extra in the hotel because I’m never sure how much of the 18% service charge goes to the server. I always think the hotel is just pocketing that and not giving the full amount to the person doing the work.</p>
<p>Yes, Musica, same place! Small world.</p>
<p>On not tipping, today wait staff have to report tips and even back when I waited tables in college, the restaurants mandatorily reported 8%, if I had been working at the place I mentioned, with no tips on to gos, nickel tips on counter orders and no tips from many Europeans, I would be having tips reported to the IRS which I had never received. Hmmm.</p>