It won’t matter. Even if you claim 0 dollars in tips for a given shift, your employer will have to claim something for you, and it’s generally a percentage of your credit card sales dollars, IIRC.
Every year I worked as a server I owed taxes, and I never got a paycheck. My $2.13 an hour never covered it, even when I would work 40 hours in a week.
It’s like the Time Cube guy wrote a manual on restaurants.
The difference is (or was) that a server had to declare tips as a certain percentage of sales at minimum; but if a credit card tipper left a big tip, the server could no longer claim the minimum percentage, they had to claim the exact amount of the tip on the credit card slip. At least that was the way things used to work.
No, that’s never been the way things have been. The IRS sez that a server should keep a Log. The tips reported should be based upon that log. However, sometimes/often the IRS/the business will tracks tips and come up with an assumed rate, which often is reported on the W-2. If an assumed rate is calculated, then the server must show it’s wrong. Of course, CC tips are an excellent way of figuring the minimum tips a server got.
Ah, I must have misunderstood then.
Wait, I mean:
AH, I MUST have misunderstood THEN!
No–I get that. SHE said that “We went out last night to a restaurant we don’t frequent, but is a local chain.”
How does she go to a restaurant she hasn’t even visited once?
Believe it or not, that makes perfect sense to me. You can go to a restaurant only occasionally, or only once, and therefore not frequent it.
But ShibbOleth just argued that going to a restaurant even once meant you frequented it.
Actually the definition is full of the word “often,” so I don’t think that Shibboleth was arguing that at all.
So, should you tip the driver of the cash cab?
I was watching the John Water’s flick Desperate Living last night and trying to figure out who Mink Stole’s character reminded me of, until I suddenly remembered this thread. Springs1 is Peggy Gravel!
"Hello? What number are you calling? You’ve dialed the wrong number! Sorry? What good is that? How can you ever repay the last thirty seconds you have stolen from my life? I hate YOU, your HUSBAND, your CHILDREN, and your RELATIVES!!! "
Now that we’re in the Pit, let me just say that you must be one of the most clueless, confrontational, and downright mean restaurant patrons I’ve ever encountered. You appear to spend your time looking for offense and excuses to stiff your server on a tip, even when the server is trying to help.
Incidentally, did you read my birthday party post above? I was hoping you’d respond to that one.
Look, you flaming idiot, here’s how it works in the real world:
Your glass is getting empty.
Waiter comes by to refill it.
If you want a refill, smile and nod.
If you don’t want a refill, place your hand over the glass and shake your head.
If you want something different, ask.
Simple. Easy. No time wasted.
I understand that in your world, if the server shows up with a pitcher of iced tea or a pot of coffee and you haven’t EXPLICITLY ASKED, then you raise a fuss, stiff the server on the tip, and complain to the manager. That isn’t because it’s bad service. It’s because you’re an ass.
I’ve heard all kinds of “rules of thumb” on tipping: double the sales tax; 15% here but 20% there; yadda yadda.
My stepson is a waiter. He works a lot of banquets where the gratuity is figured in automatically, but he still busts his butt because there is a line on the ticket for “Additional Gratuity”. He wants to give them service so good that they will leave more on that line than was calculated automatically.
My personal tipping rule: I walk in prepared to tip 20% on the bottom line, which includes booze and sales tax. I know how hard these folks work and what a really thankless job it is. It’s up to the waiter and the kitchen to keep me happy enough so that the 20% doesn’t start shrinking.
My method is similar, but I start at 15% and it can go up as well as down.
You have your own etiquette rules for how a waiter must behave around you so isn’t it pot, kettle, black to bitch about Springs1 and her rules?
You want waiters to read your mind and automatically refill your glass without asking.
Springs1 wants waiters to read her mind and ask before having her glass refilled.
I don’t see much difference between your behavior and hers, although you do get bonus points for packaging your views in a neater and more sane presentation.
That is NOT what InvisibleWombat said though–you are incorrect there. He isn’t asking for mindreading like spring-bot is. I personally would go a bit further and actually ask if I wanted a refill–but I think a hand gesture or catching an eye is often good enough though. Here is what he said in Post 251 on page 6 of this trainwreck:
*Now, please calmly re-read what I wrote and then re-read what you wrote.
I said that the server should “catch my eye and see whether I want a refill.” Walking into my field of view holding an iced-tea pitcher (or coffee pot, or whatever) and gesturing with it is perfectly adequate, and any customer with an IQ over room temperature understands what that means. If I want more, I’ll hand my glass to the server or scoot it over to the edge of the table. If I don’t, I’ll cover the glass with my hand. Again, universal gestures. Everybody understands them. They’ve worked in a dozen countries I’ve visited where I didn’t speak the local language.
I should never have to track down the waiter to ask for refills. The waiter should ask me–without interrupting conversation. I said: “Do that, and I’m happy, and I tip well.”
I don’t know where you got “mindreading” out of that unless you weren’t reading my entire post, or perhaps fixating on the fact that I, personally like it when the server goes “above and beyond” and fills my glass without being asked. I understand that you knew someone ten years ago that disagreed with me. That’s fine. But it doesn’t require dozens of paragraphs of ALL CAPS and BOLD CAPS and nonsequitors about lemons and sweeteners and mind reading*
Springs1, you ARE absolutely the most insane PERSON I HAVE ever had THE pleasure to read ON THE Dope. I mean, **Rand Rover **is 100x saner THAN you in this THREAD. Rand Rover, for fuck’s sake!! THAT dude EATS crazy FOR breakFAST!
But if he runs out of CRAZY,** DO NOT BRING HIM MORE WITHOUT ASKING!!**
LOL, clapping and all!
Can I get that link? I read a lot of stuff, but didn’t notice that…
Thanks!