It has always perplexed me about tipping a waitress or server. I have seen the that the standard tip should be anywhere from 10% to 20%. Now maybe someone can guide me through the following befuddling situation. I go out for a meal and my bill comes to $20.00. The waitress was very efficient that she paid attention to refilling our drinks, getting our order right and checking back to see if we needed anything more. We pay the bill and leave $25. A $5 tip (25%) Her total time of waiting on us was about 10 minutes. I go out for a meal and my bill comes to $100. Same good service and attention as the other waitress. Her time and attention about 10 minutes. We pay the bill and leave a $25 tip. My wife the ex-waitress has no problems with the tip. I have a minor cardiac as I see the waitress going off with about what takes me 2 hours to make. Should one be required to pay someone a lot more for ten minutes work; what takes me two hours to make? Why are tips based on the cost of the meal? Your thoughts?
I’m pretty critical of service. First, if I have to order at the counter, and return to the counter, I won’t give a tip in that type of establishment. For a sit down and order with someone bringing my food and drink, it is totally about how the waiter and food makes me feel, cleanliness of the establishment, and all around quality of the experience. It is strictly on a case by case basis. Could be no tip, could be equal the amount of the bill. I’ve left $100 tip for a $50 meal before. I don’t tip because of a custom, I tip out of gratitude. That’s why it’s called gratuity. Rewarding mediocrity is wrong.
My thoughts on leaving tips have gotten me in trouble with friends and the wife before, but here it goes. The 10%-20% to me is a start point. From there you can go up or go down based upon the service. If the service is good I may tip 20%, but if the service is terrible I may only tip 5%. Now to your question. I've wondered why it's a percentage also, but like Crownline my wife and I have been know to leave $50 or $100 tips, but that is usually around holidays. While I have wondered about it I still pay the percentage, figuring if I don't want to pay that much in a tip I just wouldn't go out.
I too have left a tip more than the meal. ( When I was single.) I also have left nothing to a incompetent server. The worse thing that a waiter can do is, make no effort, to correct a complaint.
I think that's a slightly different point. Staff at a high-price restaurant will generally be paid more than at a low-price one regardless of the existence of tips, though the difference is probably exaggerated in tipping. Because it's a long established industry-wide fraud designed to evade tax responsibilities, hold back staff pay and artificially lower advertised prices. I think it'd be best if tipping returned to the original idea of an entirely optional freely given bonus for truly excellent service. It should be entirely removed from the scope of business income, staff pay or customer pricing. I don't see that ever happening anywhere though.
I think your reply is more agreed upon by most of us but we have been brainwashed to do the wrong thing.
More that most of us don't care enough about the issue to do anything to change it and some relatively powerful people care a lot about maintaining the status quo.
Tips should be no less than 10%. The servers are taxed as if they make 10% tips. That said, unless you're some kind of cheapskate, you should tip 15% for adequate service, and however much you want over that for good or excellent service. Tips are based on the cost of the meal because for the most part, it takes more time to deal with fancier meals. if you can't tip or don't want to tip, go to a counter service restaurant. Also, the waiter/ress does more work than simply her/his interaction with you. They assemble the salads, etc. I will give you this, despite grumbling, you are an excellent tipper. Chill out about the amount. If you really have a minor cardiac tipping that much, go to a cheaper restaurant.
I don't mind the current system. I'd rather do that than have service built into the bill, because that will simply raise prices without making for better service.
It wouldn't increase what you actually pay though. If you pay $100 + 20% tip now, you'd pay $120 flat without tipping. If anything, prices might go down, at least initially, because the restaurants wouldn't want to openly implement such a sudden increase on their menus.
Tipping can be a shock for foreign visitors. It's optional in Australia and generally accepted that you shouldn't have to pay someone extra , for just doing their job. In Japan tipping is frowned upon. I tipped a taxi driver, who glared at me and handed the tip back( and not because it was miserly). In China too, tips are refused. I've heard that in France, the n high end restaurants, wait staff pay the restaurant, as tips are the bulk of their wage. I think tips should be optional and not just a way to keep wages low.
I was a waiter for 6 years (summer jobs. not full years). If my customers gave me more than 12%, I was pleased. I had many nights where I worked a table for a few hours, 300 dollar tab, and they gave me 20 bucks. time of service has no relevance.
It’s usually young people, and I like teaching them that working hard shall be rewarded. I’m a generous tipper for good service.
Yes, but at least with the current system, I can choose to tip less if I get bad service. Restaurants, in general, have a fairly low profit margin. They can't decrease prices too much.
In the U.S. is is part of the social contract and the way the system works. If you refuse to tip, first, the server will get taxed by the IRS on income as if the server made a 10% tip. So, if you don't tip, you are not only being cheap, you are actually taking money away from the server and giving it to the government as taxes. Second, the employer does have to pay the server minimum wage if their total tips+low salary (about half of minimum wage) don't equal minimum wage. That said, that server (unless at a very low priced restaurant) will usually be making more than minimum wage.
Talk to most servers in the U.S. If they are at all good at their job, they prefer the current system. Most have much higher take home pay than they would get in other jobs.
I largely agree. I definitely do NOT tip when I am expected to do as much work as the staff who I am tipping. It is connected to the time involved in our interaction. I don't put things in jars at Starbucks. I do not tip at McDonalds. I do not tip because the owners do not choose to pay more than minimum wage. I tip as an incentive for good service but this service has to exist and it has to be my service. . I do disagree with the 'cleanliness' thing. My waitress is probably not really at fault if the windows have streaks or the floor is not kept shiny or if the food is poorly cooked. I look at what she can control. I also will not penalize her for a lousy staffing ratio. If she is working her ass off and there are only two wait staff at rush time, its definitely mitigating Edit: I thank Perdidochas for bringing up the tax issue It may force me to reconsider. I sure as hell don't want to take money from them, and Honest Joe for speaking some blunt truths.
That's hardly a solution to bad service. The wait staff might just assume you're a cheapskate and those who benefit from the tips will often not be to blame for the bad service (maybe the kitchen staff were slow, the owner doesn't employ enough wait staff for busy periods or another difficult customer took up too much of their time). Tipping doesn't really achieve what is often claimed in improving actual quality of service, especially in the form it's devolved in to. There's pretty much no other (sub) industry in which tipping is considered the go-to tool for quality (indeed, it would be illegal in many other contexts) and I see no reason why the same things customers use with other businesses and managers use with other staff shouldn't apply in the field of sit-down dining.
Why the hell should customers have to pay out because of the corruption in the tax system? That simply shouldn't be allowed (and indeed isn't for any other industry). I've never understood why a nation capable of getting angry about pretty much anything happily lets this go by without a second thought.
