My uncle worked his way through college being a waiter and I was close to him, so I learned at an early age to tip at least 15%. Honestly, I don’t have a problem with that.
What I do find annoying is when people who select this job as their profession complain because not everyone ponies up the minimum 15% although it’s totally optional.
I worked at a cocktail waitress to put myself through school. Granted, it was in a Vegas casino so I accept that I made more than the average cocktail waitress. In fact, on average I made more at that job than I do my job now and I consider myself fairly well compensated. Sure there were nights when people stiffed me, but there were nights when customers handed me a thousand bucks, too.
I worked with girls who bitched about people who stiffed them or didn’t give enough. Believe me, we busted our asses in uncomfortable outfits and a minimum of 3 inch heels every night. We worked hard, but let’s face it… the drinks are FREE and they don’t have to tip. At all. When they’d bitch to me I’d always tell them to quit because the casinos had dozens and dozens of girls who were ready to work for those tips.
Of course we all want to make as much as we can. Of course a good waitperson will do the best they can for each table and hope they get compensated for it. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won’t. If it didn’t end up average out decently, they wouldn’t stay at it.
No matter how hard I work on behalf of my patients, nobody comes up to me and says “Oh hey you really went out of your way, here’s 15% extra on your day!” Most of us do the best we can at work and just get our plain old salary. We knew that going in to the job, just like a waiter or waitress knows, too.
Yes, and when you suggest doing away with the tipping system and just paying servers a decent flat wage, most of them will balk. “But then the service wouldn’t be as good,” they argue. Does this really follow?
It was - it was higher on the coasts and lower in the center for a long time. I’m “only” 41 and still have a tip card from when I was in college that figures tips at 8 and 10%(!) I grew up in Minnesota.
However, one of the outcomes of mass media and easy national communications is that things like tips have standardized to 15-20% - waitstaff on the coasts have been lobbying for an increase for a long while, but it really hasn’t budged.
Going the other way, about 7 years ago my mom and I traveled to Ireland. She knew that tipping customs were different there, and so researched it by the simple expedient of asking the server at the first place we ate what the custom in Ireland was. Clever fellow that he was, he answered “Oh, I always just tell people to follow the customs of where they’re from.”. She was a bit surprised when, a few days later, we found out what the custom really was.
Oh you’d LOVE our local Applebees. “Kids Meal $.99 Wednesdays.” My neighbors take their EIGHT KIDS out for dinner every Wednesday night. :eek: TEN MEALS…bill comes to probably $25.
Standard around here seems to be 15 to 20%. I usuallky try to tip better if I’m a regular at a restaurant, and it usually has paid off in better service the next time I’m there. Even if th service is pretty bad, I at least leave just under 15%. (Usually rounded down to the nearest half dolar).
Couple things to remember. Cash FLOW is just as important as income. So while one may OCCASIONALLY make $200 (and will no doubt tell everybody when the do), a $200 night this coming Friday doesn’t help me with my phone bill due Wednesday. $200, I’m guessing, are also only possible at the highest establishments. Your waitress and Denny’s ain’t making $200 a night no matter HOW hard and long she works.
Two, when people working more traditional jobs say they “make $35,000 a year” they’re almost never taking into account any benefits they also receive. People in the service industry will almost never have these. So it’s important to note that a server’s ass busting $100 night would have to happen TWICE a month ONLY to pay for health insurance for themselves and their child. An employee in a different industry gets health insurance but never claims it as “income.”
I have spent the last 7 years in the restaurant business, at a place similar to Applebee’s. We made $2.13 an hour. That all pretty much went to taxes, so it was rare to actually get a paycheck over $10-20, even working 40 hours a week. Yes, there were rare nights (usually a Friday or Sunday) that I would make $200. But there were a lot of days and a lot of nights when I would be lucky to leave with more than $50. In addition, we had to tip out 3% of our sales to the hosts, so even if I made 15% on a check, it was automatically reduced to 12%.
I was good at my job- and I’m not just saying that, because I had a lot of customers who would request me and some random people who would just leave me notes or thank me for the great service. I often received tips between 15 and 25%. I have NEVER gotten angry over a tip that was 15%. A lot of people consider that the standard, and that is fine. What makes me angry is the people who tip less than 10%, after I’ve made 10 or more trips to that table, and after they’ve let their oh-so-precious child crumble crackers and empty sugar packets all over the table and floor. A nice family of four who only needs a few refills and to-go boxes? 15% was always fine with me. I, especially in the past few months, considered myself lucky to have a job and to have customers at all.
But, if you frequent a place often- throw your server an extra $2. It will make them happy and get you good service next time too.
Your problem is the assumption you mention at the very end.
An hourly rate of over $80 an hour?
You’ve got to be kidding. Do you really think any waiter, anywhere, makes that much freakin’ money?
Do you have any idea how much time and experience and patience and work it takes to get a job in a high-end restaurant? And even then the server would have one hell of a memorable shift if he/she ever made that much money per hour. I’ve had incredible shifts as a waitress and as a bartender and I’ve never made anywhere close to $80 bucks an hour. The only people I’ve ever met who make that in tips per hour are strippers.
Which is a whole other topic.
And I call BS on the idea that the servers at a high-end restaurant “did the exact same job” as the waiter at IHOP/Shoney’s/Denny’s etc. If you really think this, you’ve either never dined at a high-end restaurant or you’re just in denial.
And my point remains…if you have $100 bucks to blow on dinner, but you want to tip on the percentage of a meal at IHOP, it’s a free country and gratuities are expected, not required.
Audrey Levins, That’s easy enough to do at a high end steak house. Two tables of four, will at a minimum ring up at 135-150.00 without drinks or dessert. Add those in and you get a 200.00 table. That’s 40.00 a table assuming 20%, or 80.00 /hr give or take a bit. I’ve seen plenty of times at places like Charley’s Ruth Chris or The Melting pot. Servers are busy there and often seem to average three tables/ hour. I’m sure they have to split up with the runner, but it probably isn’t that far off target for prime time.
Here in England I have been tipping waiters / hairdressers etc who give polite service 10% for 40 years.
I realise the US sets expectations higher.
But I don’t agree with this at all. Why do restaurants expect me to pay your living wages? What makes this profession so different?
Why don’t restaurant staff form a trade union to fight for a living wage?
I always thought that the restaurants were legally obligated to make up when you didn’t get minimum wage with your base wage and tips? The place I worked at as a cook in Tennessee had all the women claiming only enough in tips to get to minimum wage and then would pocket the rest tax free.
I don’t know the actual mechanics of it, but if a server reports very low tips, the IRS will charge taxes based on what they feel the tips should have been.
What’s a tip-out?
That’s true, but I can’t think of any actual restaurants that have less than $110,000 in annual sales, so I didn’t mention it. At that level, they couldn’t be paying for a server, cook, rent, and so forth – it would just be (as you said) a little coffee shop.
Everything’s different from state to state, as I mentioned earlier.
Servers tip out to people who help them earn their tips. This can include secondary wait staff, bartenders, hosts, the people who bus the tables (what’s the PC term for “busboy”? Busperson? Busser?), etc.
When I worked we only tipped out the bartenders and bus boys. Hostesses got a (low) wage. I guess the restaurant owners just find more ways to avoid paying real wages, or it can also be a more “team” thing.
Back when I worked 15% would be a good tip and 10-12% was more average after tipping out, etc. That was in the early 1980s. I’d make anywhere from $30-100 a night and maybe $15-20 at lunch. My gross annual income was in the $20-25k range back then, of course no benefits and hard to get any kind of credit, etc.
Here is what I don’t like, and the attitude is displayed in the thread…
I should tip 20% because some other guy is going to stiff you?
How about I tip what I believe is fair, he tips whatever he wants, and I’m not expected to make up for someone else’s failing.
As a customer, it really isn’t my problem if you get stiffed by the table of 14 (regardless of their color) or if its a slow night, or if the law says they only need to pay you $2.17 or if you need to split your tips with the busboy. Or if your phone bill is due on Tuesday. My only concern is getting my own food here now in a satisfactory manner. For that, I will give you the customary tip - perhaps more if service was exceptional or I’m a regular and want service to be exceptional. Anything else is not my problem.
I think tipping is Libertarianism in action. Not being a big fan of Libertarianism, I’d prefer if we just paid waitstaff a wage. But that isn’t the system, so I tip.
Or they could do what we did at a buffet restaurant in Copenhagen when we weren’t sure whether or how much you’re supposed to tip at those places. We asked someone at the next table over from us, and they told us what we were expected to do.
I wish restaurants would just pay the waitstaff a decent wage and do away with tipping altogether. I hate having to do the math.
You’d end up paying for it somehow. If my restaurant had to suddenly pay even minimum wage (which is still a shit wage) for all its employees that now get $4 an hour, that would be an extra $200 a night, which ends up being an extra $73,000 a year. And my restaurant isn’t all that big, a place like Outback would probably have to shell out an extra $200,000 a year in better wages. And the restaurant isn’t going to do that out of the kindness of their heart, they’d jack up the menu prices to cover it.
I don’t know why, but a lot of servers don’t want a flat wage. I wouldn’t care, if it was like England where I’d get a decent wage (say, $12 an hour) and then if I did a really good job I’d get a dollar or two. I think most servers are thinking about those once a year (or less, I still haven’t gotten one) tips where someone throws you $40 for no good reason.
Dangerosa, you shouldn’t tip me 20% to make up for someone who didn’t tip me, you should tip 20% because it’s standard. I know, some people still think 15% is enough for good service, and less than that for bad. But you’re talking to someone who has been tipping 20% for a decade. If I give someone 15% it means I thought she was a really bad waitress. So if I get 15%, I assume I didn’t do a good job. Then I think about how hard I worked for that table. Then I conclude you’re cheap. I won’t call you an asshole in the kitchen, and I won’t bitch to my coworkers about you. I’ll just think you’re cheap.
There seems to be a big divide between older and younger generations. All my friends won’t tip a cent less than 20%. The older diners are, the more likely they are to leave 18% or 15%. I guess it’s a generational gap or something. Like I said, even before I started waiting tables, I thought 15% was reserved for bad service.