Have you noticed the tendency for “Tips” cups to be set out in places where you never used to be expected to give tips?
Who leaves tips and who doesn’t? Do you think it’s wrong to be asked to tip, but would be willing to pay higher prices? God knows these people don’t get much in their regular wages, and I tend to think they deserve more regardless of whether they actually said “Have a nice day”, or smiled at me.
My first thought: the tip jar is nothing more than asking “can you spare any change?”
My second thought: If I worked in a coffee shop or similar place where we commonly see tip jars, I’d probably set one on the counter without hesitation.
At least we’re not being shamed into adding to the tip jar the same way we would be if we failed to leave the correct tip for table service.
My final thought: I have, on occasion, dropped a few dimes & pennies into the tip jar because it has been strategically placed right next to the register. Having just received my double latte and blueberry muffin, I am suddenly caught off guard when the cashier hands me my change and I don’t feel like setting my drink & muffin back down just to put a few coins into my pocket.
I will generally dump all the coins I get as change into them, except for the quarters.
At fast food places? Tip jars? I think thats against a lot of companies’ policies. I’ve gone into McDonalds and Dunkin DOnuts, among various other places, and there are signs that say “Please do not leave tips.” I’m thinking these people are trying to con a little money out of you.
At McDonalds, we’re abspolutely not allowed to accept tips. If a customer insists on leaving money behind, our policy is to put it in the donation jar for the Ronald McDonald House. More often than not, it ends up in the cash drawer, and is deposited to the bank.
All the Dunkin Donuts in this area have tip cups out. I think it’s tacky…waitresses and such are paid a smaller salary, but depend on tips as part of their income. For a counterperson to ask for an additional wage is rude.
Man, I’m glad I live in a country where tipping is not the done thing. Minimum wage laws prevent waiters from needing tips to make ends meet.
I’m not trying to sound like a goody-goody, but I tip whenever I see a tip jar at one of those places. When you work a job like that, every little bit helps! I just thank God I’m not the one behind the counter.
I was picking up an order at Red Hot & Blue a few weeks ago, and they had a tip jar at the takeout counter.
I kept my mouth shut, but my thought was, “What’s the tip for? You’re just handing me my order.”
Much as I’m glad I’m not working that sort of job in my late 40s, most of the workers seem to be HS-age, so a tip is hardly a ‘there but for the grace of God’ sort of gesture in this case.
I think the discomfort that comes from the abundant situations where one has no idea what constitutes an appropriate tip, negates the value of whatever service one’s receiving in most tipping situations (aside from restaurant waitpersons). I’ll leave it at that, since I went on about that here awhile back.
But at least in your long-standing tipping situations, there’s the underlying rationale that the person you’re tipping is providing a service to you, and how well it’s done makes a significant difference to you. When you walk up to the counter, place an order, stand there while they pull it together, and take it when they hand it to you, that rationale no longer holds, and I see none to replace it.
Only place like that I’ve seen a tip jar at up here is the smoothies & pretzels place at the mall. I always get a smoothie when I go to the mall and I usually dump my change in there, except the quarter. I wouldn’t leave 'em anything if it weren’t that they actually MAKE the darn smoothies from scratch right in front of me. If all they were doing was pouring it and handing it to me i wouldn’t think them worthy of a tip.
It seems to me that this will shoot emploees in the foot overthe long term. Eventually they will be reclassed as “tipped employees” which means thier wages will be cut in half. Mind you, the ones there now won’t be the one’s there then, but still . . .
I agree with RTFirefly: tipping is something you do in return for some personal serivce, and counter help dosen’t qualify.
Also, counters are starting to get crowded: what does a person do when their is a “Help Fight Childhood Cancer”; “Help the Humane Society” and a tip jar all warring for your change?
I didn’t mean to sound like a cheapskate in the OP. I think counter workers, in most instances, simply need to be paid a little more, and if the prices must be raised to allow that, then so be it. It’s a lot like arguments against minimum wage increases. By raising the minimum wage, so the theory goes, you’ll eliminate jobs because employers can’t or won’t pay the higher wages. But if the workers are essential to your business, you’ve got to keep them on even if they are more expensive.
The problem with tipping is that you’re being asked to evaluate the worker’s performance and then determine if the change in your hand is adequate, or if you need to dig out more. I say to restaurant owners, just train your people to deliver good service and pay them what they’re worth. If the pay level is reasonable you’ll have good morale, which translates into good service.
Disclaimer…I have absolutely no qualification or experience in restaurant work. These thoughts are simply
my conclusions based on what I’ve seen.
I’ve been a waitress at the local IHOP off and on for the past four years now. I work my butt off serving these people. Most of the time, all we get in return is $3 a table (on average). Keep in mind that we only get paid $2.61 an hour. After taxes are taken out, that often drops to below $1 an hour. To see places like Dunkin Donuts asking for tips is a disgrace. They are getting paid at least minimum wage and their jobs are way easier than that of a waitress.
I’d also like to bring up the issue of tipping delivery guys. I have honestly never held the job, so I don’t know what it entails. The help wanted signs for drivers in my area are offering $9-$12 an hour plus tips. Do drivers usually have to pay for their own gas? I don’t mean to sound rude or ignorant, but I know it will probably come out sounding that way. But what do drivers do that warrants tipping?
And a slight thread hijack, javaman…
Do any delivery guys out there have any adventure stories to share?
PLUS tips? Are you sure you’re reading that right? Most delivery drivers around here get $5 or $6/hour plus tips.
Yes.
Hmmm. Let’s see…
- Take phone orders
- Help make pizzas
- Learn the delivery area so that they can route pizzas and move them to you in as timely a manner as possible.
- Put wear and tear on their own vehicle, the immense costs of which come out of their own pocket. You wear out tires faster, need oil changes more frequently, pay for all of your own gas and then you get to play “which part will break next?” The really fun part comes if and when you’re lucky enough to go to work one day and total your car on the job.
- Assuming that they let their insurance company know what they do for a living, pay an increased rate for their insurance.
- Risk their lives on a regular basis while dealing with heavy traffic, drunk drivers late at night, drunk drivers on holidays, rain, sleet, snow, etc. They don’t just deliver from the kitchen to your table - they go from the kitchen all the way to your home or business.
- Risk their lives by delivering to dimly-lit areas late at night with a big sign on the car basically saying “I HAVE MONEY AND AM NOT ALLOWED TO CARRY A WEAPON.”
- Having to hear “You got any pizza for ME?” 10 times a day from people who didn’t order but think they’re saying something witty, clever or entertaining and expect some sort of enthusiastic response in return for driving their proverbial nails down the chalkboard.
I could go on, but I’d sound bitter 
These four, I’d like to call special attention to. The rest of the list that Sacrilegium made really doesn’t call for tips … or at the least, it’s stuff that a lot of other (non-tipped) employees have to put up with.
We have to have vehicles. Taking the bus, carpooling, bicycling, etc., is not an option. Furthermore, we have to put hundreds of extra miles a week on those vehicles. This costs us money. I at least get some money from the store for the use of my car. Enough to cover gas, sure. Enough to cover gas, extra oil changes, accelerated maintenance (those hundreds of miles add up quick), and extra insurance costs? Nope. Oh, and a lot of insurance companies (at least out here) won’t insure pizza delivery drivers at all, no matter how good our driving records are.
And yes, we’re risking our lives out there. For minimum wage, usually. (Admittedly, I get more than minimum wage. But that’s due to my doing managerial work at the store, so I get to deal with the irate customers as well. I’ll save whether it’s worth it for another thread.)
Would anyone be willing to drive hundreds of miles a week in their own car, frequently in the dark (especially during the winter), looking for houses that frequently are ill-lit, don’t have their house numbers displayed visibly, carrying both money and hot food on you, with an advertisement claiming the presence of said money and food, for minimum wage?
And in response to the OP, I do leave tips in those tip jars, even at fast food places. Usually a dollar when I’m alone. Although if the people behind the counter were exceptionally rude, I probably wouldn’t. I probably also wouldn’t shop there again.
Here’s some pizza delivery adventure stories for you, Star Light.
Speaking as a tipped employee, I have to say…
Tipping at McDonald’s? You gotta be freakin’ kidding me. Someone puts a prefab pattie on a griddle, flips it over, someone else puts it on a bun with some ketchup and a pickle, someone else wraps it up and puts it in a bag, someone else hands it to me. Has anyone actually given me any special service? Also, here in Vegas, most fast-food jobs pay more than I make before tips. The casino pays me minimum wage. A lot of fast food jobs pay $7 per hour or better.
The only fast food people I would tip would be the nice person at Subway who custom mokes my sandwich for me. They’re actually giving me some service.
I thought I made my disclaimer clear. I have never been a delivery person. I have no idea what it’s like to be a delivery person. I asked my question not to be rude, but to help end my ignorance. Please don’t attack me anymore.
After reading the posts in this thread and in the “Tipping Pizza Deliverymen” thread, I can definitely say that I am ignorant no more.
I can honestly say that next time I order out, my delivery guy will be getting a very nice tip.
In the vein of McDonald’s employees not being allowed to accept “tips”, I used to work at Canadian Tire. Those of you who don’t live in Canada may not be aware, but Canadian Tire is a large “sort-of department store” that sells camping and outdoors equipment, hardware and housewares, car-care supplies, and also does auto-body work. I had the misfortune to work there as a cashier for eight months as a cashier.
When you make purchases at Canadian Tire, you get “Canadian Tire money”, at a rate of about two cents for every dollar you spend (if you paid cash or by bank card, but not credit card). Getting back to the topic, cashiers were NOT allowed to accept CT money as tips, not that the customers wanted to tip us, but they usually said “I don’t want this shit… YOU take it!” Anyways, Canadian Tire is very strict about this, and you have to return that “money” to the till. A fellow cashier was FIRED, after working there for almost a year (an excellent cashier, friendly, responsible, etc…) for “stealing” 10 cents worth of CT money. This strikes me as completely ridiculous. I mean, it’s not even real money, it’s only redeemable at Canadian Tire. No one ever has very much, and it seems like everyone in Canada has about 65 cents worth in their wallet that they will never, ever actually spend.
In terms of tipping *myself * at fast-food type restaurants, I’ll usually toss the pennies and nickles from my change into the cup, and at McDonald’s I’ll put it in the McDonald Children’s Charities box. Sometimes it’s a little confusing though, because you’re not sure if it’s a “tip cup” or one of those “have a penny leave a penny, need a penny take a penny” type of things.
I don’t feel the least bit obliged to tip at places like that. I see it as an opportunity to add a little something for extra service. For instance, the little Cajun place across the street from my place (Jozo’s) has such a cup, even though filling my order involves exactly scooping some food into a styrofoam container. I do feed the cup there, since they know me and they often make my regular a large “by mistake”, or “forget” to charge me for the extra bread, or punch my card twice.
At a place I visit less frequently, I might leave something in the cup if someone goes out of their way for me, or if they seem extra nice. I don’t feel obligated to tip like I would at a sit-down place.
We had, at one point, a thread that tried to collect all the tipping ettiquite. It could be a handy reference.
Dr. J
As a general rule, if I’m not seated and haven’t had my coffee and water refilled at least once, there is no tip coming.