Tipping

If you cannot afford to leave a 20% tip on your meal, please don't go out to eat. Tipping isn't some extra *perk* servers get for good service, it *is their wages*. They are typically paid around $2 per hour, which gets taken away by taxes. Their actual paychecks every two weeks are almost zero. If a server is coming into work for a few hours, and you sit at one of their assigned tables for one of those hours, then screw them over on a tip, you are actually *costing* them money - in other words, they are *paying* for the "privilege" to wait on you.

The government allows restaurants to pay servers well below minimum wage, because it is assumed they will make at least minimum wage once the tips are factored in. If they really get screwed on tips, the restaurants are supposed to make up the difference to bring them up to at least minimum wage, but they never do. In fact, not only do restaurants not do this, they engage in what's known as "tip pooling" - which is illegal in many states, but continues to happen. Tip pooling means the server is expected to give a percentage of their tips to other employees, including the bartenders, the food runners, bussers, and expediters.

In addition, they are required to claim their tips at the end of the night for taxes. Since tips are relative to total sales for the night, if they claim anything less than 8% of their total sales, they run the risk of getting audited by the government. So if they get screwed by several tables who didn't leave a tip but rang up big checks, they actually have to lie and say that they earned tips from those tables, then they are getting taxed on money they didn't even make!

Between getting taxed on money they didn't make, and being expected to "tip" out other employees from tips they didn't make, that is what I mean when I say that it ends up coming out of the servers pockets when you screw them over on a tip.

What's misleadingly referred to as a "tip" or "gratuity" IS the sever's wages - period. Stop acting like it's some little gift you leave on occasion when you're feeling generous. Regardless if whether or not the server kissed your behind or not isn't the issue, they waited on your table. You wouldn't like it if your boss decided they weren't going to pay you for coming into work today because they felt you didn't get much done, or weren't being extra cheerful today, would you?

You're not entitled to free service by walking into a restaurant - there are operating costs, which include the server and other employees wages, which come directly from the tips you are expected to leave with your check. People don't just show up to restaurants and volunteer for free to wait on tables, be real. And yes, the restaurant could just factor the costs into the meals and pay the employees steady wages, but they don't - because they can care less if the servers get paid, they just want to keep the prices to a point where the customers will come in, so they can make money.

One other thing, it is very common for restaurants to include a mandatory gratuity on checks from parties of 8 or more. This is common knowledge, yet customers still like to act all shocked and appalled when they see this on their checks, and try and argue with the managers. If a restaurant has this policy, they cannot make an exception for you, it's literally illegal to do that if they are enforcing it for all their other tables, and they can be sued for discrimination. You know why this is mandatory at most restaurants - people in large parties love to leave without tipping, because they assume everyone else will leave enough of a tip. The problem is when the whole table does this, the server gets really screwed. The other scenario is when one person is picking up the whole check and they get sticker shock at the thought of leaving 20% on such a huge check, so they only throw like 5 bucks down on the table - again, seriously screwing over the server.

And yes, if you order a $150 bottle of Dom Perignon with your meal, that should be factored into your tip as well. The servers get taxed on their *total sales* and are expected to give a portion of their "tips" to several other employees at the end of a shift, again, based on their *total sales*.

If you cannot or do not want to leave a tip, stick with fast food and drive thru's.

end rant, lol

 

I normally do about 10%, though it does depend on where I am. I appreciate that in the US it's far more part of the culture than most places in the world. But when it's required elsewhere, I don't have any problem in doing it.

 

@ohiotom76 : Take it with your moronic country laws, not with normal people who just want an evening out. So waiters salary sucks. Because you have a federal law which states that the minimum wage for tipping jobs is 2.13$/hours.

I hate to say this, but I don't care. That's your country. I think it sucks, just like your health system sucks. Every other country I've visited had better restaurant working conditions than this (including my home province of Quebec, where the minimum wage for tipped people is 8.95$), so maybe you guys fix your broken system instead of blaming normal people who just want to eat and not be responsible for your salary. Stop blaming the people who have no money. Stop blaming the poor hardworking people who work many shifts to sustain their family and who sometimes want an evening out NOT in a junk food place but in a nice place to celebrate. Of course, if anyone has the money to throw on a 150$ bottle, then it's more than rude if that person does not tip, but I say all of this because of your first line. "If you cannot afford to leave a 20% tip on your meal, please don't go out to eat." Bullshit. Why not: if you cannot afford to give your employees a decent pay, please don't open a restaurant? Why not even: if you cannot afford to bargain yourself a good salary, please don't work in a restaurant and then act like the only people who are not trying to rip you off (the customers) are the one making your life hard.

You can be sad about the way your salary is decided in many ways, but ultimately, the blame lies on your stupid country laws, and your stupid boss, and that's all.

I mean, if I go to the restaurant and spend an hour there for a 20$ menu, you say I should tip 20%. That's 4$, twice the amount your boss gives you. This is ridiculous. Surely you can realize this.

And with the common speech about how important it is to give a good tip even though waiters are many times not at all the sort of customer service we expect or want, because they are humans and they get taxed on tips so "the customer is taking their money", I have to say again, bullshit, the government is taking their money; their boss is taking their money. You can argue all you want that "we should not expect to get free service and we should not expect YOUR BOSS TO PAY YOU in a restaurant", but this is what every other business does, and there is literally nothing wrong with this and everything wrong with the food service system. I will not start paying the salary of every worker who has to help me out in every place I visit. If you are so angry, instead of all of you guys scolding people on the Internet, maybe you start doing something about it. People have had horrible work conditions in many fields before and they fucking fixed it, don't act like in this day and age it would be impossible to even try. I mean, I don't care. I'm not a stupid worker in the US, so every time I worked in kitchens and as a waitress, I actually had decent wages on top of tips. But to read this many angry rants is just annoying, especially when they are so misderected and when they clearly excuse the root of the problem rather than try to fix it.

I leave 15% in my home province (the amount of the taxes, what is normal around there) and around 10% in average in European places. But your rant pisses me off because leave it to people to just bend their head and instead of protesting the people who really do profit from them, rant against people who are poor but "a nuisance".

God I did not mean to go this long but this really pissed me off. I hope you don't take it personal, I agree that in a shitty society, people have to help each other out and tip correctly. I just hate that system but I don't live in the States and I would love it if you guys would finally go for solutions about it. The US is so backwards and a stupid place to live in if you're poor, it's a wonder people from poor country try to get there to make a living.

 

Tipping isn't so big in the UK, particularly as we have a minimum wage system. I do tip though and usually leave 10% of the total cost. I can't really afford to go any higher than that.

 

Tipping in the US is different from the rest of the world. While @ohiotom76 paints an accurate portrait of the US system, that doesn't mean it is correct. The idea of tipping is to give extra for good service, if it was supposed to prop up the wages than it should be transparent and clear on the menu prices as simple as that. That's why you don't tip in France as the service is included in the final bill. The words gratuity optional means that and is not obligatory.

It's something everyone knows but turns a blind eye to, so why don't they charge a compulsory service charge instead for each diner, then people can leave more if they want to? That is a more honest way, put at the bottom 20% charge for servers wages, why not?

Personally 10-15% is what I would leave. I do read many say if you can't leave 20% as a tip don't eat out, what if the service was bad, the food cold and the experience poor, why should you tip then? I used to do many mystery visits to restaurants and had to tip so as not to arouse suspicion, but they always asked whether I would have if I didn't have to and how much I would have paid.

 

I usually leave 10% of the overall bill. I also gauge how the whole service went, as well as the food and drink. However if the food was rubbish, I don't hold it against the waiting staff. It's how they handle the matter that I look at. There's a coffee shop that I really like, but the waiting staff there aren't always very attentive. Sometimes if I'm particularly miffed, I don't leave a tip!

 

I agree. I think the concept is a lot bigger in America where if you don't tip at all, you're frowned down upon. In the UK you're not really obliged to, and most people tip based on the quality of the service.

 

Let's get to what the word "tipping" means, because one of the variations of its etymology is "to give a small present of money to." Whoever has the idea that tipping is necessary is insane and ridiculous, and possibly has oppressive proclivities hidden in their character. Tipping is all voluntary, and beyond the U.S.A., it's mostly a big no no to do and is even a insult in many countries!

I personally only tip at places that are U.S.A. type of food service places, any other place I do not ever tip because the people who work there will feel insulted because its against their cultural ways. Honestly, I believe tipping is great, but only as a personal gift given directly for the individual who helped you and if she/he will accept it personally.