# Am I being a jerk by leaving a pile of small change along with my tip at a restaurant? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2010, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620 "2010-04-10T08:17:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/21 "2010-04-10T21:46:08Z")
> [@](#): > > I always round too…but I don’t write write in the tip value. Just the total. Am I being dickish? Nah, again, no biggie. If they were no good at numbers they wouldn’t last as servers. Don’t worry about it. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/22 "2010-04-11T00:24:26Z")
I use to work in a restaurant and I voted no problem. The people telling you your being dickish probably assume servers can’t add up collective sums, they can. ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/23 "2010-04-11T00:46:11Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > However, some people have told me that this is a little dickish, and that I’m merely making the waitress deal with the change. The amount is never more than a dollar, probably never less than $.35 or so. Am I being obnoxious? No. Really all this proves is that some of your friends are tiresome, contrarian shit-stirrers. So, I’d say you’re doubly generous! ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/24 "2010-04-11T00:58:25Z")
I usually top off my ( **at least** ) 15% tip with whatever loose change I have in my pocket. (minus quarters of course…gotta do the laundry, ya know). If the staff has a problem with that, they should let me know. I’ll be happy to take my business elsewhere in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/25 "2010-04-11T04:19:51Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > …it seems weird to leave a $5 and then add a little pile of 17 cents. Oddly, I have no problem with writing odd tip amounts on credit card meal purchases to round the charge up to an even amount; if I had a meal that cost $14.83, I’ll write in a tip for $5.17. _That_ seems much stranger than the first (because there’s no need or reason to be “round” when paying by card), though I’m sure your waitress appreciates the **35%**. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/26 "2010-04-11T15:15:58Z")
This is sort of off the subject, but close. In my youth I waited tables in fairly fancy supper clubs, nice and not-so-nice restaurants and college joints. This was before the IRS figured out that there was a lot of untaxed tip income floating around. The one thing I learned very quickly was that you needed to give the customer change that he could easily use to make a generous tip from the money laying on the table. In other word, if the bill was 14. 65 you did not give the customer a dime, a quarter and a five dollar bill. You gave him .35 in small change and five one dollar bills. In those 10% days you expected to get 2.00 and maybe the small change as a tip. If you gave him a Fiver there was a fair chance that all you would see was .35. The European system was a bit easier. Typically the tip/gratuity was included in the reckening and you just left the lose change behind. Since the DM was worth $.25 back then in was no big deal and eliminated the need to do a 15% canculation in your head. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/27 "2010-04-11T15:22:16Z")
What would be weird is leaving an all change tip. Leaving a decent tip, plus $.50 in loose change isn’t a big deal unless, as some others have pointed out, it’s in a fancy pants restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/28 "2010-04-11T15:22:43Z")
I’m on the fence - if the $.35 was a mix of nickels, dimes and pennies - no worries. If it was a stack of 35 pennies - well that seems a bit rude to me for no particular reason at all. ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/29 "2010-04-11T20:08:15Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Let me assure you, as long as you’re leaving a decent tip, in addition to the change, servers don’t care. It’s all money. And they usually have access to a till where they can change it out for whatever they like, come the end of their shift. > > Don’t sweat it. Yeah, this is my impression. I’ve never been a server, but money is money, and a little more is always good. If the loose change is ALL you’re giving as a tip, then yeah, it’s jerkish. But on top of a good tip, it’s bonus money. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/30 "2010-04-12T03:12:33Z")
So, one time I go out to dinner with a friend visiting from Scotland on business, and take him to dinner, and leave a 20% tip. He was astonished, then started to get nervous and asked how much a typical tip was in the US. I said 20% was pretty typical these days. He then confided that he was accustomed to tipping 5% to, maybe, 8% for good service. By chance, within a week, my dumpy little local newspaper ran for some reason a front page story about how the new standard tip was becoming 25% (which like much of what this paper prints doesn’t seem true), which of course I had to send him. ---
**Author:** ![Av8trix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@Av8trix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Av8trix)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/31 "2010-04-12T10:09:38Z")
I never minded getting change. I could always change it in at the end of the night, if I chose. Also, some restaurants require that a server keep a “kitty” and make their own change for their customers. Receiving a bit of change throughout the night helped me continue to make change without going to the grumpy bartenders to break a 5 or 10 into change for me, while a customer waited impatiently. In the latter part of my waitstaff career, I just saved the change, didn’t trade it in. I threw everything in a 5 gallon water bottle as a gimpy savings plan. I didn’t miss the change, but once a year or so, I’d empty that bottle, roll it up, and spend the resulting 500 ish dollars on something fun and frivolous (stuff I wouldn’t normally permit myself to spend on.) Now that I don’t wait tables, I still throw my change into a jar, when I have some, but it’s not nearly as much as I used to deal with, of course. And I still pick up pennies. =) ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/32 "2010-04-12T19:55:23Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > So, one time I go out to dinner with a friend visiting from Scotland on business, and take him to dinner, and leave a 20% tip. He was astonished, then started to get nervous and asked how much a typical tip was in the US. I said 20% was pretty typical these days. He then confided that he was accustomed to tipping 5% to, maybe, 8% for good service. > > By chance, within a week, my dumpy little local newspaper ran for some reason a front page story about how the new standard tip was becoming 25% (which like much of what this paper prints doesn’t seem true), which of course I had to send him. Good to see the Scots living up to comforting national stereotypes. 10% is the norm here, but then servers do get paid at least minimum wage. The restaurants tried to deem that to include their tips, but the courts told them to drop that ploy. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/33 "2010-04-12T20:28:20Z")
I waitressed in High school and never minded change. I think a bunch of pennies would be insulting and make you look like a jerk. I’d rather get a good tip in change then a lousy tip in cash. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/34 "2010-04-12T21:01:29Z")
Some loose change on top of a regular tip? Fine. My mother-in-law loves to tip entirely with the quarters from the washing machines at her apartment building. Even though it’s a normal sized tip, that many quarters has to be a little annoying, although I assume the servers can swap it out at the register. ---
**Author:** ![statsman1982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/35 "2010-04-12T21:59:34Z")
People who get worked up over someone leaving them _more_ money baffle me. Hey, if you don’t want the change some customer gave you, if it offends you sooo much, give the change to me. I’ll take it down to Coinstar with the rest of the change I save at home. More money for me. Honestly, I fancy myself as someone who can see various sides to an issue. I come up blank on this one. I cannot cognitively process the offense that this causes. It takes all kinds, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/36 "2010-04-13T11:19:35Z")
At the bar I work at, my register doesn’t carry anything smaller than quarters; my boss won’t even accept it when I turn in my checkout at the end of my shift, so I have to buy any small change I receive. So yes, small change annoys me. I’d also rather be stiffed than have somebody dump eighty cents’ worth of petty coins into my tip jar to clean out their pockets. Apparently in this thread I’m the minority, but yeah…I’m with the person who suggested giving it to a homeless person or donating it to one of those charity jars that are everywhere. I don’t want thirty pennies and a handful of nickels; you can keep them. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/37 "2010-04-13T13:03:50Z")
As long as you’re leaving a reasonable tip as well as the change, I’d say that on the scale of jerkitude this rates maybe a 2. You’re going to have to try much harder if you want to advance. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/38 "2010-04-14T12:15:26Z")
I waitressed in college and coins in addition to a good tip are just fine. Money is money! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/39 "2010-04-14T22:09:27Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Let me assure you, as long as you’re leaving a decent tip, in addition to the change, servers don’t care. It’s all money. That’s what I would have thought, but I’ve not worked as a server, so glad to hear it confirmed. _Pecunia non olet_. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620/40 "2010-04-14T23:26:54Z")
It’s definitely jerkish, but very mildly so. However you’d better be _damn sure_ that you’re leaving a good tip in addition to the change. Too many people have their own opinions of what a good tip is and if you’re one of those who thinks 10% is a good tip then the change is liable to be taken as a gigantic “FUCK YOU” by most servers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-being-a-jerk-by-leaving-a-pile-of-small-change-along-with-my-tip-at-a-restaurant/535620.md?page=3)