Tipping in North America.

[Kru03]

I waited tables in my younger days. We were paid slightly over $2 an hour and essentially worked for tips. We would have gotten fired immediately if we ever complained about a tip w/in earshot of a customer and we would have deserved it. A waiter isn't entitled to any tip at all. It's given gratuitously regardless of whether or not it is customary. A sense of entitlement to a tip in the first place is most offputting to me. But I'll generally leave 15% plus or minus depending on the service. If it's truly egregious then I'll leave nothing. But it's still a gratuity - at my discretion and based entirely on my opinion and inclinations. If a waiter has a problem with that they need to do something else. For every time I got stiffed, I was double gratted or over-tipped by somebody else. It more than evens out at the end of the day/week/month. I worked at a crappy Bar-B-Q restaurant in Austin, Texas and I rarely made less than $10 an hour.

If a waiter ever complains to you about your tip or about your tip to somebody else and you find out about it, you should go to the restaurant manager and tell them. It should be a terminable offense for any waiter and I think it's unforgiveable.

 

[Stelth]

I waited tables in my younger days. We were paid slightly over $2 an hour and essentially worked for tips. We would have gotten fired immediately if we ever complained about a tip w/in earshot of a customer and we would have deserved it. A waiter isn't entitled to any tip at all. It's given gratuitously regardless of whether or not it is customary. A sense of entitlement to a tip in the first place is most offputting to me. But I'll generally leave 15% plus or minus depending on the service. If it's truly egregious then I'll leave nothing. But it's still a gratuity - at my discretion and based entirely on my opinion and inclinations. If a waiter has a problem with that they need to do something else. For every time I got stiffed, I was double gratted or over-tipped by somebody else. It more than evens out at the end of the day/week/month. I worked at a crappy Bar-B-Q restaurant in Austin, Texas and I rarely made less than $10 an hour.

If a waiter ever complains to you about your tip or about your tip to somebody else and you find out about it, you should go to the restaurant manager and tell them. It should be a terminable offense for any waiter and I think it's unforgiveable.

I think the highlighted sentence above is all that needs to be said on the subject.

 

[benchwarmer380]

With all due respect, that's kind of like saying "you can't afford to take a walk downtown if you can't afford to tip the aggressive panhandlers."

Also, why does McDonalds keep being brought up as some implied bad example? Their food choices are rich in calories, but it's a well established brand with an international presence that has been around for a while. Never had any problems with the service there or at Subway, or Wendy's..or any similar establishment.

I have to disagree. Waiters are working (hopefully hard) for their tips, panhandlers are begging for scraps.

If you have never had service problems at a McDonalds or Wendys or any of the like, then I'd have to say you're either lucky or have the best fast food employees anywhere. I would not classify Subway with these because they are making you're food right in front of you to your exact order, not to whatever is written on some screen that they can chose how close they want to follow or disregard.

I have worked off tips. I have never stiffed anyone and rarely tip under 15% usually closer to 20%. One can usually tell when someone is busting their rump or slacking off. I don't eat out often and have never had an experience I would deem deplorable.

 

[DB731]

I have to disagree. Waiters are working (hopefully hard) for their tips, panhandlers are begging for scraps.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but the waiters work for the restaurant, not me (the customer). The restaurant pays them for their work. I pay the restaurant an upfront, non-negotiable amount for the prepared food and a place to eat it.

 

[benchwarmer380]

No you are not wrong, but your analogy was inaccurate. They do get paid by the restaurant but generally poorly. Usually $2-$4 under minimum wage with expected tips to balance it out. Now if they get stiffed all night and their tips don't equal minimum wage the restaurant has the obligation to make up the difference. It's not a perfect system and to many people it doesn't make sense but its here and probably won't go away for the foreseeable future. Just remember if you leave jack **** the next time you go to the same place you won't be high on a waiters priority list. This is America though so live how you want to live sir.

Riding the pine

 

[Stelth]

 

[DB731]

No you are not wrong, but your analogy was inaccurate. They do get paid by the restaurant but generally poorly. Usually $2-$4 under minimum wage with expected tips to balance it out. Now if they get stiffed all night and their tips don't equal minimum wage the restaurant has the obligation to make up the difference. It's not a perfect system and to many people it doesn't make sense but its here and probably won't go away for the foreseeable future. Just remember if you leave jack **** the next time you go to the same place you won't be high on a waiters priority list. This is America though so live how you want to live sir.

Riding the pine

I thought it was very comparable: two types of people expecting money they are not entitled to. If the waiter has a "priority list" I am sure customers have their own lists as to which restaurants to go to. Going out to eat is a luxury, not a necessity, and in the end, the customers count.

 

[benchwarmer380]

Again I slightly disagree. Waiters are not entitled to a tip. It is earned. Bad service bad tip and vice versa. In such an arduous business the customer has to count or you will fail. However, to the college student paying for housing, books, tuition, and beer or the mother of three working double shifts to make ends meet, the dude that's came in six times in the last two months and continuously leaves $2 or nothing on a $60 check be assured he will get his drink refills after all their other tables are happy.

Ride the pine

 

[De Plano]

There are a lot of pan handlers around where I live and I see zero comparison to a server waiting on you at a bar or restaurant. At my local bar I think the bar tender makes less than four bucks an hour and I think it might be less than three. Gas is $4.20+ a gallon in town as a reference

At Mc Ds and other places you make at least, and probably more than minumum wage, it is different. There is no wait staff and (hopefully) you bus your own tables.

I am not sure where you live and whether you go to sit down restaraunts but I have always figured tip into the restaraunt and bars pricing, and the prices of food would be quite a bit higher if the places I visited (bars and restaurants with wait staff) if they were paid a reasonable rate for their work. If the staff sucks they get less tip and less visits from me, but I do expect part of going out is tipping (obviously not fast food).

If you went down town to see the panhandlers and they did a great job then you should give them something, if you did not want to see them or they did a poor job of it then you should stiff them

No offense was taken by the way and I hope none is taken with what I said.

 

[Insipid Moniker]

Sounds like the servers need to organize and pressure the people who pass the laws. However, since that requires courage, persistence, and hard work, it's probably easier to just badger, shame, and pester the customers who are the reason they have jobs in the first place.

I thought you didn't believe in blaming the victim?

Anyway, I tip at a 20% base plus or minus depending on service.

 

[DB731]

I thought you didn't believe in blaming the victim?

Anyway, I tip at a 20% base plus or minus depending on service.

There are no victims in the restaurant/tipping equation. Forced unpaid labor was outlawed long time ago in the US. They are there working by their own free will. In fact, the restaurant owner didn't even have to go to their homes asking them to come and work at the restaurant. They showed up and asked the owner, knowing in advance what the pay was.

The wages are set by the market and/or union contracts and in the case of tipping, the good will or the guilt of the customers.

 

[DB731]

I am not sure where you live and whether you go to sit down restaraunts but I have always figured tip into the restaraunt and bars pricing, and the prices of food would be quite a bit higher if the places I visited (bars and restaurants with wait staff) if they were paid a reasonable rate for their work.

In that case, the "tip" should be included in the pricing on the menu, i.e. in print.

 

[Insipid Moniker]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but the waiters work for the restaurant, not me (the customer). The restaurant pays them for their work. I pay the restaurant an upfront, non-negotiable amount for the prepared food and a place to eat it.

Okay, you're wrong. Customers directly pay the lion's share of every servers salary. They are working for customers, the restaurant is little more than a temp agency hiring them to do that. That's why people who don't tip infuriate me. When someone works for me I pay them a fair wage. That's the entire basis of our system and servers are most definitely working for you.

 

[Krav]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Z-qV9wVGb38

this topic reminds me of a scene in reservoir dogs

 

[Stelth]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Z-qV9wVGb38

this topic reminds me of a scene in reservoir dogs

See post #46

 

[DB731]

Okay, you're wrong. Customers directly pay the lion's share of every servers salary. They are working for customers, the restaurant is little more than a temp agency hiring them to do that. That's why people who don't tip infuriate me. When someone works for me I pay them a fair wage. That's the entire basis of our system and servers are most definitely working for you.

If that was accurate, wouldn't collection agencies be all over non-tippers? Wouldn't shoplifting laws apply?

 

[theHobbyist]

OK, I live on a non-tipping country but I've lived in the US so I know how it works, or thought I did. In Vancouver recently I was a little surprised to have a taxi driver explain to me that I should add 20% to the meter. Now we had got to the hotel alive, he had put my case in the trunk and he had been reasonably genial en route but it was almost an instruction.
Then a friend was in Boston last week and put 15% on the credit card for her meal and was chased out of the restaurant by a server yelling "20%!'
Whats the deal these days?

My tips are dependent on how well my server does... I've been a server, I have had tips in the 200% range, I gave EXCELLENT service.

If a server EVER yelled 20% after I left a 15% tip I would have gone over and taken my signature copy and removed the tip... then give him piece of my mind... in front of all of his customers...

Taxies... I've always gone no less that $5usd, and no more than 20%, but mostly because out here the drivers split the fuel bills with their companies...

If I'm drunk and the cab it home, usually a minimum of $20 (I live less than 5 miles from the bar i frequent)... much cheaper than a DUI!

 

[jnich67]

Now that I recall, one of the high-end sushi restaurants in NYC just did away with tipping. They pay their workers a full wage and charge a little more for the food. The owner says it probably saves the customer a little over what they would have paid with a tip.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/sushi-yasuda-tipping-new-york-japanese_n_3398027.html

Jordan