Tipping on a sliding scale. People have a lot of opinions about it.

If you can't afford to tip, don't eat out. Karma has a way of dealing with parsimonious fucks like OP.

I almost always tip at least 20% because I don't remain a customer of places with repeated bad service. And I certainly understand that there are things that aren't a server's fault, and that it's hard to avoid mistakes when overwhelmed by too many tables in a busy restaurant. But the bottom drops out if someone is rude to me or the people I'm dining with. If you regard customers as an irritation or being expected to do your job as an inconvenience, you need to find another line of work.

I never tip. They should be happy enough to serve an Academy Award winner.

Such stupidity. From the article:

Q: How should diners tip when they get poor service for whatever reason?

Carman: I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding about tipping in America. Diners have been led to believe that tipping should be based on the quality of the service. But this is not the reason we tip. We tip because restaurateurs in America have shifted the burden of paying for some of their labor costs to diners. So when you don’t tip, [bold] it affects the wages of servers.[/bold]

Me: yeah, that’s the point! JFC, of course that’s the point!

More stupidity.

Q: Why should customers have to correct bad service?

Carman: ...I think part of the problem is that diners don’t always realize they can exercise more control at the table...

Fuck that. Not unless you want your entree dragged across the kitchen floor. Yes, that has happened to picky customers.

Fuck them. Unless it’s outstanding service, they get 15%. If its 20%, you mean to tell me you want me to give you an extra $10 for a $50 meal? Not to mention they get a base pay and work at least 3 tables at the same time. Please. That means they would get at least $35 an hour. That’s more than I make! Half the time the waiters don’t even know what the fuck they’re doing or have information they should have. I was recently at a restaurant where the drinks menu had no prices and the waiter had to keep running to the kitchen to ask what the price was when I asked how much certain drinks were.

R1 = waiter

I think one should be generous in one’s allowance for the possibilities of things naturally going bad. Not every day is the Fourth of July, and that doesn’t necessarily mean a tip should be cut.

Generally, I tip 20%, or I storm out with no tip because it’s horrendously bad. The one time I actually recall, the waiter spilt fish slop on me in an anti gay incident, and I didn’t want to pay for the meal, either, but my partner did, the jackass.

Another time, the waiter apparently quit mid-meal. No kidding. The place was too busy to fight our way to the manager, so we just left. It was NY Eve and impossibly crowded. Lucky us.

I've worked in restaurants, and I'm generally a pretty generous tipper. You almost have to go out of your way to offend me, but if you ever do, watch out. I've seen too many waitstaff in tears back in the kitchen because some customer hurt or humiliated them, but they still had to go back out there and put a smile on. I've been there myself. I generally give 20%, except when I'm at a diner for a cup of coffee and a piece of pie. If my meal is only six bucks, I can't just leave 20%. BTW, I try to always have cash on me, since I prefer to leave cash tips. If you put it on your charge card, it ends up being reported on the server's wages. Depending on the restaurant, if you leave cash, most servers aren't reporting the entire amount on their taxes.

I almost always tip generously (my only exceptions are similar to others: hostility and rudeness that go way beyond just having a bad day), but the whole business makes me hate tipping as a practice. Tipping advocates claim that it's a way to correct bad service, but that's an idiotic take. It's not like an office worker who's having a bad day makes less money for the day. Why should waiters not get paid when they are technically doing their jobs (just not very well)? The people who like tipping because they can punish bad service always strike me as the worst kind of control freaks.

But if 20 percent is to be the standard no matter the service, then it should be a required surcharge, not something left up to the customer. Another reason I hate tipping is the knowledge that, as a 20 percent tipper, I'm subsidizing the cheap assholes out there.

Ultimately, when I have atrocious service at a restaurant, I want the manager/owner to deal with it. It's not my responsibility to reward or punish a worker for good or bad work; that's their boss's job. As if a restaurant with consistently bad service won't simply go out of business.

I agree with R2, generally. You shouldn’t be too critical, unless perhaps you’re at a really high end place that I actually never go to! Then, maybe you can expect more.

R6, I hope you’ll think about resetting your starting point to 20%. That’s were it is, and has been for at least 20 years now.

I recall when it was 10%!

I tip 20%, but I don’t agree with the advice to tip in cash so servers don’t have to pay as much in taxes.

Why the fuck do we have tipping in the US for restaurants? Why can't the restaurants just pay them a decent wage?? (at LEAST minimum??)

It makes no sense. Lots of places in europe don't have tipping, just a service charge which is not optional.

The whole thing makes no sense

I once essentially stiffed a waitress at Bubbila’s in PTown. But the math bugged me. I kept thinking about it and went back about 10 minutes later. I walked in and asked her if I undertipped her. The other waiter smiled like she’d been ranting about it. She sheepishly nodded. I shoved $20 into her hand and ran out, I was so embarrassed. I didn’t actually calculate if $20 was right or not, I was too embarrassed.

I guess someone could get away with undertipping, if it's that imprtant. They just have to be careful not to go back to the same place twice.

I’m with you R13! This tipping culture has gone overboard. Now some restaurants want tips even when you’re picking up a carry out order! WTF?

There’s not much tipping here in Asia. In general I tip but hate the idea of having to tip. If it’s good service I’ll tip. The other day I gave a generous tip to a particularly handsome waiter- he was thrilled. Next time, I will be sure to get good service from him. But I find 20% way too much.

I try to remember that that extra $10 is simply not going to change my life, one way or another. Think of that. So, unless the service was terrible, rude, and so forth, I try to be Reasonably generous with the tip.

I am a generous tipper at all times. The only time I do not tip is when I wait to be acknowledged or waited on for over 15 minutes, then I just leave. If the service is bad after ordering, I still tip well, as I do not have all the information about the bad service, such as a slow cook, idiot manager, overworked wait staff and such.

!5% is my rule. 20% if they're exceptionally nice and attentive to my needs. If they're inept or rude, just the coin change or no tip at all. I think this is all quite fair. You're free to leave more if that makes you feel magnanimous.

I have always tipped 20 percent and upwards but now I live in London and they look at me like I’m giving them a million dollars when I leave 10 to 15 percent.

I just had food delivery to my house and tipped 20%. I usually don’t tip some lesser amount due to bad service. I’ll just tip nothing in such a case. But that really never happens.

I absolutely never tip only the change. It’s incredibly rude. It’s like saying “Sir, I demand satisfaction!” And slapping the other party with your riding gloves, then choosing pistols at dawn. Really, people should rethink that, if they do it. I don’t think you should tip the change at all. These days, change is simply not worth value.

I've noticed a few places lately that use handheld chip-readers and the preset tipping percentages are 20%, 25%, and 30%. If you want to tip less, you have to choose 'other' and type it in.

Feels greedy and opportunistic to me.

Yes, R23, exactly.

R23, Feels like extortion!

Tipping is always optional.

The basis for tipping, whether guilt at low wages or good service, is irrelevant.

You can tell it's optional by the fact that you don't have to tip anything and are free to leave the establishment upon paying the bill as presented.

20-25% for table service or car service, 33% for my barber, 1 dollar for counter service, 2-3 dollars per drink at a bar, 5 for regular restaurant delivery and 10 for grocery delivery.

When dining out I always tip at least 25%. If it's poor service, I will leave 18%. I don't mean to bring race into it, but I'm black and some servers assume that they are not going to get a decent tip from a black customer, so I always over tip. I dated a Jewish guy and he also always over tipped. These types of social things should be taught in schools, in my opinion.

Always 20 percent for table service because the math is easier to do in my head.

Gratuities are included in the annual dues at The Mortimer Club.

I tip the amount that I want to - and it ain't 20%. Quit trying to make people feel guilty.

I'd like to know how much waiters are paid because I suspect they make the same as minimum wage people who aren't tipped at all, like retail clerks.

They don't tip in most parts of Europe because they get paid a living wage. And no they are not unmotivated like you might think. Because they are treated like any other professional, they act like ones. They know their stuff. It's a life time profession not some griffing gig that Americans seem to view it as.

Yeah I don't think people here view food service as a profession. It's just something to do to make money until you grow up or get clean and find a real job.

Here you go. In some states tipped employees make as little as $2.13 per hour based on a wage model that assumes a decent tip percentage of sales.

I'm a generous tipper at restaurants...20%. There are very few times I've had bad service. If the meal is not okay, it's not the server's fault. If I don't think the food is up to snuff, I'll talk to the maitre'd.

This may not be the correct thread, but since it's about tipping...I'm sick of going into bakeries or other shops that have tip jars next to the till. Putting a purchase into a bag and working the till does not require a tip.

Those tip jars are mostly just for change and singles.

You pay the tip, OP. If you hate the service then speak with the manager like Karen.

20% in most casual restaurants, like OP's favorite Olive Garden, gets spread around quite a bit. At the end of a night a server is required to tip out to other employees. For example (depends on the restaurant) 5% of bar sales go to the bartender, a flat 5 bucks per server to a food runner, 2-3% of total sales to bussers. If your tips are mostly done through plastic, expect your normal tax rate to be deducted from that.

When I was a server I made about $40 an hour in tips while actively taking tables (3 hours let's say). So $120. If I added in the hour on each end where I didn't have a table and did opening/closing duties then it already goes from $40 to $24. Take out my tip outs, usually about $25 total, My wage suddenly goes down to $19. The "hourly" sometimes doesn't even cover taxes when you have a lot of plastic tips, so you may even owe the restaurant. Most servers work less than 30 hours a week so the company doesn't have to offer them benefits, so an average server will be lucky to take home $400 a week. that's on about 18% tip rate.

In the early 00s that was ok. It's poverty now.

Oh for crissakes. The same old cunts posting about this topic again? At least twice a year this airing out, and your practices are nevah gonna change.

The American way of tipping is so vulgar. So indiscreet, and vulgar.

I generally tip 15%, except in cheaper restaurants, where I tip more. I know this is the opposite of what you're supposed to do, but I don't know why a waiter in a fancy restaurant should be entitled to more money for doing the same work as a waiter in a diner.

But why restaurants in the US allowed to operate this way? It seems incredibly unfair to servers. Why shouldn't they get paid a living wage or at least minimum wage like every other business?

Managers are thieves.

I tip 15% if the service is OK. If it's really good, then 20-25%. If it's shitty (if they fuck up my order/keep me waiting forever because they didn't care to write it down; if they leave and don't come back to check if anything else is needed or if everything's OK; if they don't refill drinks; if they have a nasty attitude), then ZERO.

They shouldn't expect tips when they aren't doing their job. If they can't do better, then maybe they're not cut out for it and should find some other gig where their income doesn't depend on actually working.

They carry food and drinks to your table. It's not pediatric surgery.

Tipping is also about your self esteem.

People will low self esteem seem to tip more hoping that will translate into the waiter liking them more

Thanks, Dr. Joyce Brothers.

[quote]Fuck them. Unless it’s outstanding service, they get 15%. If its 20%, you mean to tell me you want me to give you an extra $10 for a $50 meal? Not to mention they get a base pay and work at least 3 tables at the same time. Please. That means they would get at least $35 an hour. That’s more than I make! Half the time the waiters don’t even know what the fuck they’re doing or have information they should have. I was recently at a restaurant where the drinks menu had no prices and the waiter had to keep running to the kitchen to ask what the price was when I asked how much certain drinks were.

What base pay? It's standard and legal for restaurants to pay servers close to nothing. Next, you have an entire list of people you need to tip out regardless of how much money you make a night. Bussers, bartenders, kitchen staff, sometimes managers.

Then non-tipping assholes like R26 factor in..

[quote]Tipping is always optional.

The basis for tipping, whether guilt at low wages or good service, is irrelevant.

You can tell it's optional by the fact that you don't have to tip anything and are free to leave the establishment upon paying the bill as presented.

So that's an hour worth of your time stolen. (Remember, the restaurant isn't paying you and is actually charging you a commission to be there!)

Has no one here really ever worked as a server before?

***fucked up the quotes tag.

It's the same old mean bitches sharting out the same crap again.

[quote] Why the fuck do we have tipping in the US for restaurants? Why can't the restaurants just pay them a decent wage?? (at LEAST minimum??)

Because about 90% of small businesses in America, including most restaurants, are actually failing businesses unable to actually sustain employees and profits without government handouts and a lack of regulations that let them get away with treating employees like absolute shit.

[quote]It makes no sense. Lots of places in europe don't have tipping, just a service charge which is not optional.

Fuck service charges. Just add it to the prices and be honest and upfront about it instead of adding it on at the end. If you can't keep your business open because no one is willing to pay the price you have to honestly charge, then your business is a failure.

Tipping in America has it roots in racism. It it really a surprise so many old queens here like the OP are obsessed with it? And so preachy about perfect service?

I tend to overtip for incompetent service, not bad service, just cases where it's obvious that the server has no future in foodservice. I want them to look back at their short career and remember me as a highlight.

I'm also a softy for servers who are doing their best when i'ts obvious that the restaurant is collapsing around them.

At the end of the day, what's a few extra dollars to me? Why not give it to someone who is performing a service for me and most likely needs it more? I bet half of the tightwads on here who demand perfect service don't even pay the measly 20 bucks per year to post here and still complain about Muriel or trolls or whatever.

There will always be people who find something for dirt cheap and still have the nerve to ask for a discount. Shame on them and their cheapness.

Be honest, have you ever thrown in an extra 5 or 10 percent because the server was hot?

I agree with Judge Judy...”if you don’t tip 20%, you’re lucky you don’t get the food THROWN at you!”

"I'd like to know how much waiters are paid because I suspect they make the same as minimum wage people who aren't tipped at all, like retail clerks."

Sigh, in some states servers make less than minimum wage BECAUSE OF THE EXPECTATION THAT THEY WILL BE TIPPED

Unfortunately there does not seem to be the political will to pay proper salaries and eliminate tipping. Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group did it in all of their New York restaurants and it is a pleasure not to have to do extra math, fish out dollars for the coat check or think about who “deserves” how much. The employees seem very happy and the service is excellent.

This issue is prices go up. Of course that includes paying in advance the former tip but Americans are conditioned to look for bargains, sales and “deals” so facing the reality that not everything is going to be rock bottom cheap doesn’t go over well.

You can’t have it both ways. It’s like the people who scream “America first” and then rush to Walmart to buy acres of Made in China garbage.

Waiter/waitress problems are tedious slave problems.

[quote]What base pay? It's standard and legal for restaurants to pay servers close to nothing. Next, you have an entire list of people you need to tip out regardless of how much money you make a night. Bussers, bartenders, kitchen staff, sometimes managers.

[quote]Then non-tipping assholes like [R26] factor in..

LOL - my wallet wishes you were right. However, you are woefully mistaken. Not only that, I worked as a waiter during college.

But, whether I tip or not is beside the point.

Your basic premise is wrong. Employment is at will. We ALL do the calculus - what do I have to do, how much time do I spend doing it, and what will I get paid. We all make choices. Few people, relatively speaking, choose to be rentboys, but it pays very well. Why do you suppose that is?

Most of us on DL would rather be waiters than your average shop bottom - why? However, if the calculus were to change, then you can bet that people would leave restaurants for shops in a heartbeat.

Fuck that shit. Most waiters don't care about me because I'm an ugly gay. They're lucky to get 20% if they're nice and respectful.

When I'm visiting a foreign city I may not be back to, I barely tip if at all.

Only thing I tip is my hair stylist and tricks.

Smell the cunts who write the reason for a lower tip on the receipt and hope it is a lesson learned!

I don't think that I have ever tipped less than 20%. I had a girlfriend (yeah, I was a headcase) that had been a waitress and she had very strong views on the subject. It is often a shit job and they put up with an awful lot. I know that it's something that I'd never want to do.

We don't tip in my country. People actually earn a living wage here.

As illustrated by R64, higher prices in restaurants in order to pay their workers proper wages without the necessity of tipping wouldn't be a problem if everyone in society as a whole was making a living wage. The money anxiety in America leads to so many of our societal ills that it's sickening. Even something as small as tipping amounts is an issue because no one but the most rich feel financially secure.

It's not a question of financial security for anyone in the vast middle class. Stingy tipping is mean spirited antisocial behavior. People know the cultural rules in the USA and those who refuse to follow them are asswipes. They could easily NOT eat out or eat at a cheaper restaurant if the difference between 5, 10, 15 or 20% is so anxiety making, due to money. Cheap mean bastards.

And some of these nasty cheap tipping cunts learn it from their equally antisocial parents. Sad! Very sad!

I read this in the paper today and, while I always tip, it starts at 10% for really bad service. 15% for mediocre, 20% for normal, and then it varies.

We should just make restaurants pay a fair wage. it's not fair they can pay less than other businesses.

I actually don't want my server to be making minimum wage. That's a very shitty wage and not a "fair wage". They are handling my food and making my experience pleasurable. Or not. And you know the "fair wage" restaurant job will come with zero benefits. It will be a miserable occupation. I waited tables in college and afterwards sometimes. I always made at least good money and I tried to be professional about it.

I won't/don't tip as well because restaurants should shoulder the load and pay food service people a living wage (but don't) is not a sound argument. You're just screwing over the wait staff twice.

R32, servers are paid well below minimum wage - like around $2.70 or so per hour, which gets eaten up in taxes. They live off their tips alone. The taxes they pay are based off their sales each day. They're required to report their tips after each shift. If they are reporting less than 8% of their total sales, it can trigger an audit from the IRS. Also, technically speaking, if a server legitimately didn't earn 8% of their sales in tips, the restaurants are required by law to make up for that by paying them at least minimum wage - think cashier at a store - but they never do that, so the servers get screwed over.

So in other words, if you worked a shift and did $1000 in sales that day, at the bare minimum, the IRS is assuming you made at the very least $80 for working that shift. Often times that's not the case, as restaurants illegally engage in tip pooling, expecting the servers to give out a portion of their tips to the bartenders, bussers, and such.

Just assume $2 for every $10 you're spending. If you can't afford that, stay the fuck home, and stop going out to eat in the first place. Especially you entitled middle aged "karens" that come in with your whole fucking family, including their screaming brats, and run a server ragged then don't leave a tip at all. Fuck. You.

I tip cute waiters big time, oh well I'm gay. I even tipped the cutie who bought out the bread. What's your name? Cameron. Every time I go in I tip Cameron and his bread.

I usually tip 20-25% , more if the service was exceptional.

Keep in mind- The wait staff can't control everything so don't be pissed at your waitress because the kitchen undercooked your steak nor that they forgot your side order of asparagus.

Once I was in a restaurant that became extremely busy and there wasn't enough wait staff. The young woman taking care of the table where I was seated was running around trying to take care of all of the tables in her section and everyone was waiting, frustrated. The manager later went table to table and informed everyone that 3 waiters had called out but to please be patient and they gave everyone complimentary dessert for the inconvenience. None of this was my waitress' fault and I never saw the girl stop during the hour & a half I was there and so I made sure she was well tipped. On the flip side if I spend too much time looking for my waiter/waitress and I can see that they're off talking to fellow employees etc and I have to ask another server to get them for me, that makes me tip less, like< 15%. I did have a waitress once who was the pits and I did leave her 10%.

R70, the point is, if they were paid at least the full minimum wage, then tipping would be the bonus they get for giving good service as it should be.

There is a difference between minimum wage in the USA and a living wage in, say, Europe, where such "socialist" benefits as health care, affordable education, vacation pay, long unemployment insurance, good cheap public transport, are taken as a given. Minimum wage is not a living wage in the USA and it's painfully obvious everyday.

r72, tip pooling is not illegal (except in certain circumstances)

r66, I do agree in general that stingy tipping is bad although in some cases I think it is due to ignorance (teens who don't know any better or old people who are out of touch and don't know that 10% isn't a "good" tip anymore, and sometimes immigrants or tourists who are from countries with different customs)

R55, I do occasionally (hot waiter or bartender is worth an extra 5%, same as very friendly service that makes me feel welcome). But I dine alone more often than not, which seems to result in me being seated in the section of the youngest, cutest waitress under the assumption that she'll get the best tip out of me.

It is ridiculous, it used to be 15% is generous and 10% is OK, now they pushing to 20% as normal. Bitch! It is by percentage and the price goes up every year on the menu. At this rate, they are gonna expect 50% tip just for fetching my Chicken Alfredo, while forgetting to refill my sweet tea!

Sweet tea? Is that you Miss Lindsey?

[quote]It is ridiculous, it used to be 15% is generous and 10% is OK.

r79 types Born in the 19th Century.

I hate it when I visit other countries and the service charge is on the bill. like 15 -20%. The service is barely adequate. nothing special and I gotta pay it!

At least in the USA, I can leave a good tip, a normal tip or no tip depending on service provided!

[quote]If you put it on your charge card, it ends up being reported on the server's wages.

Good. Do they still only have to report a measly 8% of their earning for tax purposes?

Credit card tips are taxed, I don't think they are reported as wages...are they?

I always pay cash tips.

Waiters know the tricks to make you tip higher, including things like touching your shoulder or seeming interested in your sexually. The second the bill is paid they ignore you

I realize we aren’t talking large sums of money and I fully support full minimum wage or higher for waiters but I am always annoyed by cash only policies or payment of (partial) wages in cash. My full income is reported and taxed. Having a system that relies on self-reporting of untraceable cash seems ripe for abuse. Pay living wages that are transparent. We all need to move beyond the “wink wink avoid taxes” schemes and encouraging people to shirk responsibilities.

[Quote] Credit card tips are taxed, I don't think they are reported as wages...are they?

My wages are taxed so why not theirs.

It’s ridiculous to do mental gymnastics—20% no matter the service and it should be in cash to prevent their having to pay taxes.

Ironically, they are expecting the tip based the price of the meal post tax.

Some states like California now demand that wait staff get paid a living wage.

The whole reason for tipping just disappeared

[Quote] Minimum wage is not a living wage in the USA and it's painfully obvious everyday.

Then get a better job

Funny how the restaurant industry comes up with the tipping rules and then called you a cheapskate if you don’t abide by them

^ It's both.....the restaurant industry is cheap for not paying servers a real wage but people who know they get paid shit wages and still don't tip are cheap as well

I read that a resto group in NYC did away with tipping, gave staff a better wage but they are making less money. If you are in a major city go work in hotel, it's unionized. even the dishwashers have health insurance.

I tip shitty (10-15%) in red cities and states because they deserve it and service usually sucks anyway, and normal (18-20%) in blue cities and states, unless you do something stupid and then it drops to red level. It takes something comped or above and beyond to go above 20%.

[quote]The second the bill is paid they ignore you

Which isn’t smart in their part because if you're not from out of town, you might be a repeat customer and then you won’t tip as good the next time they wait on you.

R76 Nailed it.

I don't tip bartenders 20%. It's $1 a drink or $2 for something harder than a mixer and alcohol. Unless I'm in a group at a very fancy bar. I try to double tax on food bills, in LA County tax is 9.5% so double that is 19%. Unless the service is deplorable or something is very off I will leave that, but if I'm very unhappy I just won't come back.

I used to tip generously when people were nice. Now people are only nice to you if they want to fuck a chick they're serving or if they can "bro out" with their customers.

The treatment they receive in life is their tip. They can enjoy that.

R93, are you under the impression that every single person in a "red" city or state supports Trump? Do you actually stop and have a political discussion with your server, or do you just punish them because their state's electoral vote went to the Republican candidate, as if some waiter or bartender could personally control the outcome of an election? If you feel this is true, why spend any money whatsoever in a "red" state? Why even set foot in one?

And did you believe, also, that every single person in a "blue" area voted for the Democratic candidate?

Another innumerate idiot churned out by the US educational system, I guess.

R97 sounds like an asshole. Maybe that's why servers don't treat you well.

I don't drink much wine and seldom do it in restaurants so this really doesn't apply to me, but do you seriously leave an additional 20% for the cost of an expensive bottle of wine? How about when you bring your own wine? The last time I was with someone who did it the corkage fee was $20. Do you tip on top of that?

As a New Yorker I typically give 20-30% and sometimes even more when the service is acceptable to great. When it's poor or terrible, and It's because the wait staff is apathetic or blatantly lazy, I give less. A couple of times I gave zero. They didn't deserve even 1%.

I’ve you are overdoing the tipping, you’re just ruining it for the rest of us.

20% is the minimum, though how come in the 70s 10% was normal?

r100

Yes, you tip on the entire amount, INCLUDING taxes and you should add in a 4% addition if you tip via credit/debit card

I’m in Australia, where very few people tip. And when they do, it’s often in a “keep the change” way (5 cents etc). If the service is good, I tip the server, as here people usually keep their own tips.

[quote]how come in the 70s 10% was normal?

It wasn't, except in Cheaptown Heights, a planned Skinflint community in the state of Parsimonia.

R104, I’ve always heard you shouldn’t tip on the sales tax. Can you cite a source that says you should? Usually it’s a small amount and easier to calculate a 20% tip in your head, if you don’t remove tax from the calculation.

[quote] R103: 20% is the minimum, though how come in the 70s 10% was normal

It’s a conundrum. Given that meal prices rise with inflation, up 400% since 1978, the buying power of a 1978 10% tip would have the same buying power today. I can’t explain it.

[quote]r79 it used to be 15% is generous and 10% is OK

When was that?

I tip for good service. That means promptness, checking to see if everything is fine, refilling water glasses without constantly having to ask for it, and manners. Good service is NOT practically sitting down at the table to find out how our days were, hearing about their life story, or calling me by my first name because he heard someone at the table use it. The automatic disqualification for me leaving a tip is when the waiter, whether he's gay or straight, knows he's serving a table of gay men and begins flirting that is bordering on offering a lap dance. If you're that much of a stupid whore and you think my gonads decide how much of a tip you'll receive, then you'll get NOTHING.

And yes, I am fun at parties.

R109 has STATED her BOUNDARIES!

[quote]r109 The automatic disqualification for me leaving a tip is when the waiter, whether he's gay or straight, knows he's serving a table of gay men and begins flirting that is bordering on offering a lap dance... you'll get NOTHING.

Have you considered joining our Society?

20% or at least $5 if 20% still looks meager.

R79. Sweet tea and Chicken Alfredo? You are either kidding, or a fat whale.

Well if you pay for a coffee now in a small coffee place with a debit card there is no tip jar it asks you for a tip on the readout with a20% minimum.

So I'm expected to pay an extra $1 on a small $5 cappuccino. No thank you. I just paid the 5. Of course I won't go back expecting I'll get the stink eye. It was a good coffee but a bit expensive for 5. I don't want to pay 6 for it. If they are now expecting a service charge for a cappuccino they don't want my business. It wasn't like I was served at a table. This means we should start tipping people who serve us at fast food places.

Dairy Queen needs to put tip requests on charge card read outs when somebody makes you a sundae or a blizzard.

In NYC they've raised hourly rate for restaurants workers to almost $15 an hour. A friend who works at a Midtown diner had his hours cut. Some servers were let go. With food costs and rent going up, management won't absorb the increased wages. My friend now gets day work at places who let people go.

15% is my routine tip for routine service where it would have been as easy to be more attentive (allowing for how rushed they are and other factors). For a good waiter who is attentive and anticipates things and gives the appearance of willingness to be helpful, 20% and up.

I don't need hand holding or fawning or a treatise on ingredient sourcing or compliments on my choices or acts of deference or undivided attention gratitude, just not unpleasant not unprofessional service.

I don't know why gay men so often have to show off with their tipping and make it a deal breaker. Do as you please without deliberately mistreating others and leave other customers to do as they please.

Being a financial prince to waiters and cunt in other aspects of life is less charming than some would believe.

[quote]Being a financial prince to waiters and cunt in other aspects of life is less charming than some would believe.

And r118 would know. He wrote the book on "cunt."

r4, the same thing about the employer has shifted the responsibility to the buyer could easily apply to Walmart clerks and Amazon employees. So why don't we tip them as well?

[quote] You almost have to go out of your way to offend me, but if you ever do, watch out.

Mary!

I always tip 20% because the math is so easy - just doubling the numbers on the bill, basically.

I dated a tightwad who would leave a dollar. He was such a loser.

[quote]I always tip 20% because the math is so easy - just doubling the numbers on the bill, basically.

Same.

As a former waiter, if you become known as a generous tipper I can almost guarantee you'll always recieve great service on repeat visits. Staff gossips.

R120 Because the wage, by law, is different (i.e. significantly lower) for people in a service industry. Gratuity that waiters earn must at least equal the regular minimum wage (according to each state). If that wage isn't reached employers must make up the difference.

I don't think servers that need to have the employer make up the difference to minimum wage are long for working at that restaurant, though. From what I've heard everyone who does a halfway decent job is going to clear a lot more than that hourly. And there are easier jobs to make minimum at where you don't have to deal with all the BS that comes with waiting tables.

[quote]Fuck that shit. Most waiters don't care about me because I'm an ugly gay. They're lucky to get 20% if they're nice and respectful.

You sound charming. What a cunt face, and that's without your pic!

I knew an older gay couple back in the 90's who had been together for 35 years. I think they were in their 60's by that point. Anyway I liked speaking with them about being gay and one thing they brought up was tipping. When we went out to dinner, they were very conservative with the money, like one glass of wine, split the check etc. But when it came to tipping, they would always tip at least 30%. They said they did this so that the server would always see gay men as good tippers and therefore people they wanted to wait on which eventually translates to a positive view of "the gays".

One year around Christmas they gave the local gay friendly church $10,000! And one of them was a hardcore atheist. Again, same reasoning, money doesn't just talk, it changes peoples mind over time. This was long before gay marriage was even a possibility. So ultimately, I think they were right. It's people like that who are the unsung heroes of the gay movement.

They could afford to because they didn't have children. It's hard when you have the responsibilities of a family. And in a way they were trying to buy respect which is easier to do when money is easily available. Ask mob men.

People who don't have children are selfish. At least that what I was told when I was growing up. Personally I think it's bullshit.

This is stupid. Even when I don't tip well, I tip a fair amount, so it's not like the shitty waiter or waitress is going to go hungry. Why do people nowadays think they're entitled to have their cake and eat it too? You don't get paid well for doing a shitty job. This isn't elementary school, life isn't going to give you a gold star for effort. God, the world today is full of such entitled brats.

r126, there's just no getting around the fact that Walmart employees make SHITTY wages, comparable to waiters but without tips.

Waiters at high end restaurants make a lot of money.

I waited tables while studying in college for extra cash. You can always tell those who are in the business, they tip very well. I remember once, one week before xmas, Ia customer tipped me 70 dollars, the bill was only 30. Very generous.

Thanks R35. I waited tables in Texas in college and had to hustle to make a decent effective hourly wage. When I moved to Oregon, I was astonished that they made the actual minimum wage plus tips. It seemed as though the state actually valued its service workers. With higher base wages, we can and should be more discriminating in tip %. In Texas, I think of 15% as my table rent fee. Servers earn more based upon the service I have received and the time I sit there.

I waited tables back in the late 90's. I was only getting paid like $2.75 per hour. My paychecks were basically nothing, because it all got taken away in taxes. The tips were my income. Not to mention we were expected to tip the bartenders and food runners at the end of the shift as well. Servers get taxed relative to their sales each shift. So if you worked a shift and did $1000 in sales, if you claimed anything less than 8% in tips at the end of the night, or $80, you would run the risk of getting audited.

It's beyond ignorant to not tip at least 20%, otherwise the server is essentially waiting on you for free.

Not tipping servers is the equivalent of your boss telling you they are not paying you for a given hour or so of your shift, not even minimum wage, because your work wasn't up to par.

Shouldn't we all have had that happen to us MANY TIMES? But it doesn't.

So that's rather a false equation.