# Don't let your kids pay for the delivery pizza **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 22, 2002, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384 "2002-12-22T14:41:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/81 "2002-12-23T03:33:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SwimmingRiddles \* > \*\*I’ll take this one, kids. I’ve been waitressing full time for about two and half years, working in three different resturants. If people don’t tip me, they’re generally gone by the time I figure it out. And if they have the audacity to return to my resturant (and I rarely forget a face, much less a cheap bastid face…) I simply don’t try to be a good waitress. I’ll take longer to take their order, I’m not as friendly. Sure, they’ll get their food, and they’ll get what they ordered, and it will be clean. But I’m paid to make sure the customers have a good dining experiance, and if they’re not paying me, then I can give a rat’s ass. The $3.50 an hour is really the only thing keeping me from telling them to take their cheap-ass selves over to Burger King. \*\* So, in other words, because your employer is too cheap to pay you a decent wage, you treat the customers who keep you in a job poorly when they don’t tip you – which they probably did because they wee either mistaken about how much money they’d brought with them or because they weren’t happy with your service to begin with. Nice way to perpetuate an already screwed cycle. > [@](#): > > \*\*No. The reason why minimum wages are lower for servers and others who get tipped is because the _assumption_ is that the customer knows basic ettiquitte and is going to tip 15% or higher. If a customer isn’t going to do this, then it really doesn’t make sense for you to A.) attempt to give them good service, or B.) encourage them to come back and do the same thing over again. \*\* The reason that minimum wages for servers are lower is because restauranteurs have a damned strong lobby and fight any and all efforts to bring their employees’ salaries into line with the salaries of the poorest of Americans. They do that because the vast majority of Americans take for granted that they’re going to have to make up the difference themselves via the goofy tipping game. Surveys have shown that if restaurant owners raised their prices in order to pay their waitstaff decent wages, people would still tip but it would be because they wanted to, not because it was expected even when the server was a lazy, ill-mannered bitch who barely did the minimum required by the job that she took voluntarily. > [@](#): > > **I know that if I wasn’t working for my tip, I’d be a whole lot less pleasent to people who were asses. So in the long run, I end up with more money and they end up with better service.** Which says it all – providing good customer service is a _requirement of the job that you took_. That means being prompt, being efficient and being polite. That doesn’t mean that you have to be obsequious to someone who is being impolite to you, but that means that you don’t get to decide that you don’t like it when someone makes a request for something or wants service from their _server_. And let’s face it, let’s be 100% honest. When you say that customer is an “ass” it’s rarely because they were just a basically rude moron with zero people skills. I’ve waited enough tables in my day to know that ass = customer who hustles your butt with lots of requests: a substitution, a bunch of questions about what’s in things and how things are cooked, another salad dressing, a bunch of refills, more bread, take this back it isn’t cooked the way I wanted, and so on. But that’s the job. If you want to hand someone a pre-determined, never varied meal without any additional requests or interactions, then _you_ ought to be working at McDonald’s. ---
**Author:** ![CRorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CRorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CRorex)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/82 "2002-12-23T04:12:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by snermy \* > \*\*Y’all, remember, **Francesca** is in the UK (IIRC), where they don’t pay delivery people less on the expectation of tips…But if you do leave them a tips, it may just go towards their wage instead of being (as intended) a bonus for good service. > [http://money.guardian.co.uk/work/story/0,1456,819415,00.html](http://money.guardian.co.uk/work/story/0,1456,819415,00.html) > > And ya’ll in the US, remember even with tips, \*\*employers are still required to pay minimum wage. \*\* If you don’t make 5.15$ per hour your employer has to make up the difference. This is on a _weekly_ basis though, so just making under minimum for one shift won’t cut it. (the exceptions are listed here, your pizza guy isn’t one of them > [http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/article.cfm/objectID/244AD836-D9F5-49AE-813B0478FF97298B/catID/A6167778-4246-4156-A6277BB2DF1CE4C4](http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/article.cfm/objectID/244AD836-D9F5-49AE-813B0478FF97298B/catID/A6167778-4246-4156-A6277BB2DF1CE4C4)) > > \*\* If I remember correctly, if they make LESS than minimun wage after tips then they get paid more. Totally fucked up system ---
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/83 "2002-12-23T04:22:47Z")
The other day, I found myself unable to leave my retail job for lunch, so I called a certain popular pizza delivery place to bring a pizza, some wings and cheesy sticks for my staff, and put the order on my credit card. Ordinarily, it would have taken 30 minutes. However, the guy on the phone asked me if I wanted to put a t ip on the charge. I told him yes, five dollars. The food was there in less than 15 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/84 "2002-12-23T04:27:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kiteboy \* > \*\*I’ve stiffed a pizza delivery guy (sort of): Price of the pie was a little under $14. As he arrives I realize all I have is a $20 bill. My hope is to get 6 $1 bills in change, keep 4 of them, leaving him with a tip of $2 plus a little bit. He gives me a 1 & a 5, … I ask for 1s instead but he says he doesn’t have them. So, I am left with the choice of tipping him $1+ or $5. 35% tip? I don’t think so. He takes the $1+ with a sarcastic “thanks a lot”. > \*\* Asshole delivery person. If you cannot provide the customer with the demonination of bills to tip a fair amount, it’s your own damn fault. kiteboy, you should not feel bad at all about this. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by amarone \* > \*\*Really? Does he pay tax on that? The IRS limit for tax-free reimbursement is somewhere in the region of $0.36/mile. \*\* I think you misunderstand. It’s 75 cents for the entire trip, be it 3/4 of a mile or 10 miles. ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/85 "2002-12-23T04:38:50Z")
Aside: > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cardinal \* > **We directly elect our most powerful government official, you don’t. (Right?)** Over here, the eligible voters in each electorate vote in a Federal Member of Parliament (“MP”) from a political party. Simply put, the political party with a majority of MPs in the Lower House forms government. The leader of this political party becomes Prime Minister, our most powerful government official (no jokes, please :)). It’s not _exactly_ direct election, but prior to the election, there is no doubt in voters’ minds as to which prospective Prime Minister they are indirectly voting for. Nit: I believe in the US, the Electoral College actually votes for the President. So you too have indirect election, strictly speaking. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/86 "2002-12-23T04:47:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Narrad \* > \*\* > Nit: I believe in the US, the Electoral College actually votes for the President. So you too have indirect election, strictly speaking. 🙂 \*\* Correct, as evidenced by the fact that more people voted for Gore than Bush but under the electoral college system, Bush won. ---
**Author:** ![SwimmingRiddles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SwimmingRiddles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingRiddles)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/87 "2002-12-23T05:38:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tlw \* > **So, in other words, because your employer is too cheap to pay you a decent wage, you treat the customers who keep you in a job poorly when they don’t tip you – which they probably did because they wee either mistaken about how much money they’d brought with them or because they weren’t happy with your service to begin with. Nice way to perpetuate an already screwed cycle.** Oh, please. Give me a motherlovin’ break. I do NOT “label” someone as a bad tipper when the enter the resturant. I’ve had farmers who still smell of cow manure give me 30%, I’ve had business men in Armani suits give me 10%. I give everyone the same service, and I’m told at least two or three times a week that I am a great server. This is sometimes told to my face, sometimes whispered to my manager, sometimes written on the credit card recipt. It’s not me, it’s them. Sure, there’s been days when I’ve been sick, or cranky, and I KNOW my service wasn’t up to par. And I expect my tips to reflect that. But when I am at the top of my game, bussing my own tables, hostessing my own tables, and balancing five plates on a tray so the table gets all their food at once, and people STILL give me less then what is _expected by US law,_ then yea, I blame the customer. And even if tipping system here resembled the Aussies’ or Brits’, the food would STILL come to the same price. Tip would be included in the food price. So people who were mistaken about the money they brought would be washing dishes instead of running out on the server. > [@](#): > > The reason that minimum wages for servers are lower is because restauranteurs have a damned strong lobby and fight any and all efforts to bring their employees’ salaries into line with the salaries of the poorest of Americans. They do that because the vast majority of Americans take for granted that they’re going to have to make up the difference themselves via the goofy tipping game. Surveys have shown that if restaurant owners raised their prices in order to pay their waitstaff decent wages, people would still tip but it would be because they wanted to, not because it was expected even when the server was a lazy, ill-mannered bitch who barely did the minimum required by the job that she took voluntarily. I’d love to see evidence of these mystical resturant lobbies and surveys. > [@](#): > > Which says it all – providing good customer service is a _requirement of the job that you took_. Nope. Sorry again. I took a job that paid $3.50 an hour BECAUSE I, my employer and all of the United States Federal Labor Laws EXPECT people to pay 15%. I didn’t take the job because I love serving people food. This is not my passion, it’s a good way to make money while I go to school. It’s physically demanding work, it’s often degrading and messy. I fully expect people to do what is correct, and let me know that I have given them the service they expected. And if I haven’t, for whatever reason, they should give me a damn good reason why I’m not getting my 15%. Hell, if I’m doing something wrong, tell me so. And, as MANY other posters have noted, most resturants operate on a tip-out system. At the high-end resturant I work at, I sell a meal that comes to $50, with a $30 bottle of wine, I am expected to give $5 to the expo, $2.50 to the busser, and $1.50 to the bartender. That means that if I get less than $9 on that meal, I am _losing money from my pocket by waiting on that table_ Does it suck? Sorta. But all that help means I can spend extra time with each table, do a full wine service, and basically make sure their every whim is met with the sparkling wit one would expect from a Swiddle like me. At the lunch sandwich resturant I work at, we only tip out the kitchen 6% on our total cash. At the high-end place, I was pulling a MINIMUM of $100 a night, my highest grossing night was $200. I make, on average, 18%-25% a night. At the lunch place, I bust my ass and usually make about $50, which is about 13%-20%. Needless to say, I’m really looking for another high-end job (the place I was working is seasonal), but they’re not terribly easy to find, serving is a very social business, and it REALLY helps to know someone in the resturant. (I’m going in to interview at a shee-shee job that a friend of a friend serves at… here’s hopin’) As for the $1 tip for the pizza guy with no change: He deserves that. I am required to keep my own bank of change, and every delivery person I know is too. Just because that guy didn’t take the time to break one of his $20s before work isn’t your fault. And as far as the US tipping laws go: Minimum wage in my state (I assume federally) is something like $6.50. I worked the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and had ONE table come in. I made one $14 tip. I was there for four hours. So because I made LESS than minimum wage on an hourly average, my employer was required to pay me the difference between $6.5 and $4.38 (the hourly average of $3.50 and the $14 tip), a whopping $8.48 for the night. Now, I’m not complaining about that night, as I spent most of it in front of a roaring fire reading, or in the bar watching TV. It sucked not making the cash I expected, but that’s no one’s fault. I use this just as an illustration of how the law works. Again, I’m not disputing the fact that in the UK, Australia and some parts of Canada, tipping is an option. When I was in Germany, I loved not having to figure out the tip. (And having the price on a price tag reflect the tax…another thread) I’m directing my wrath towards Americans who are cheap. ---
**Author:** ![Flowerchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/858c86/32.png) [@Flowerchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flowerchild)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/88 "2002-12-23T06:00:13Z")
Oh god, threads like this make me remember every time I’ve ever gotten stiffed. (Which says good things about my waitressing, you can count how many times I’ve been stiffed on one hand. I know some girls who get stiffed at least once every day) ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/89 "2002-12-23T06:51:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Krispy Original \* > \*\*I hear anecdotes from time to time of wait staff making “$100” or “$150” or even “$200” on a “good night” in tips… > > …are those stories true…or an exaggeration?..or maybe just representative of the best night they ever had? > > If it’s true, then I’m thinking “damm!”…there are lots of non-tipping jobs in these parts that pay merely $8-12 per hour, including factory jobs. If the tip wages are realistic, then why would anyone work in a factory for $10 per hour when they could wait tables and make $150 in 5 hours (not all of which is reported and taxed) on top of the hourly wage? > > What is the true about the earning potential of wait staff?..how about delivery drivers? \*\* I waited tables for a little over 8 years. I worked for this great resteraunt (tip wise, the management were fucktards) where we didn’t tip out to anyone. We didn’t have bussers, or a bar (we just did wine and beer) so we kept all of what we had. There, I would never end a weekend (I worked Friday and Sat nights and all day Sunday) with less then $500 in my pocket. Man, I miss that. 🙂 I worked my \***ASS[/I** off for those tips though. For those of you who are saying _It’s a stupid system, I don’t tip out of protest!_ This is just dumb on so many levels. Don’t take out your frustrations of the stystem on the server. They don’t make the system, they shouldn’t have to pay (literally in some cases) for your disgruntlement over it. :mad: _Servers shouldn’t expect tips!_ Have you ever been stiffed on a really big check (over $200) that you busted your ass on? That you ended up having to pay so much attention to, that it distracted you from all of your other tables, resulting in crappy tips from them? Or prevented you from even taking any other tables? Basically, threw your whole night off? Did you just shrug your shoulders and say _ah well, they’re not **required** to tip me…"_ and hold no ill will towards the customers? I don’t think so. I think most of the people who “protest” against tipping, or insist that it’s not _really_ a requirement are just looking for justification for being a cheap asses. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/90 "2002-12-23T06:52:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Flowerchild \* > \*\* I know some girls who get stiffed at least once every day \*\* Someone else can field this one. I’ve hit my quota of straight lines for today. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/91 "2002-12-23T06:55:12Z")
Bad **lezlers** , you’re supposed to PREVIEW!! _ **PREVIEW!!** _ I waited tables for a little over 8 years. I worked for this great resteraunt (tip wise, the management were fucktards) where we didn’t tip out to anyone. We didn’t have bussers, or a bar (we just did wine and beer) so we kept all of what we had. There, I would never end a weekend (I worked Friday and Sat nights and all day Sunday) with less then $500 in my pocket. Man, I miss that. 🙂 I worked my _ **ASS** _ off for those tips though. For those of you who are saying _It’s a stupid system, I don’t tip out of protest!_ This is just dumb on so many levels. Don’t take out your frustrations of the system on the server. They don’t make the system, they shouldn’t have to pay (literally in some cases) for your disgruntlement over it. :mad: _Servers shouldn’t expect tips!_ Have you ever been stiffed on a really big check (over $200) that you busted your ass on? That you ended up having to pay so much attention to, that it distracted you from all of your other tables, resulting in crappy tips from them? Or prevented you from even taking any other tables? Basically, threw your whole night off? Did you just shrug your shoulders and say _ah well, they’re not **required** to tip me…"_ and hold no ill will towards the customers? I don’t think so. I think most of the people who “protest” against tipping, or insist that it’s not _really_ a requirement are just looking for justification for being a cheap asses. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![NightRabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@NightRabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NightRabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/92 "2002-12-23T06:58:03Z")
I’ve ordered food at school before where it’s 3am, I’m starving, and all I have is $5. I always try to scrounge up quarters or borrow a couple bucks from a friend for tips. It would be phenominally easier if it was added into the price of the food. Although, I can’t see the deliverers for popular places in a college town hurting too much for tips… Question: I ride the train a lot, and sometimes one of the ticket-takers will wander down the aisle and help people put their heavy suitcases into the overhead compartments. I’ve never seen them get tipped, but I always wonder whether I should be tipping them? ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/93 "2002-12-23T07:03:05Z")
Sounds like they’re performing bellhop duties. It’s customary to tip bellhops, so I’d guess you should tip them. I was at the airport a couple of weeks ago and the skycap threw our bags onto the belt then grumbled to my mother “we work for gratuities” and put his hand out. My mother and I fumbled for some change, but I’d never heard of tipping a skycap before, and the way he went about it was a little rude, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/94 "2002-12-23T07:21:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reuben \* > \*\*And why don’t chefs get tipped? \*\* Because they are actually paid. Earning $2.13/hr (what it was when I was a waitress) sucks ass, and is impossible to live on without the tips. Technically, if your tips don’t make your final income at least minimum wage, the employer is supposed to pay you the difference, but it doesn’t happen like that. At least not in my experience. More like… if your tips are low, they bully you into reporting more tips or they start cutting your hours until you quit. As for the OP, Dominic always answers the door for the pizza guy. I’m always right nearby watching (usually in the kitchen, where I can see him very clearly and I’m maybe 8 feet away). We give him the exact amount or a check and he doesn’t ask for or accept change. He knows this. In fact he really likes tipping. Quite often in a restaurant, he insists on taking the tip, tracking down the server, and giving it to them personally. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/95 "2002-12-23T07:32:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LolaCocaCola \* > \*\*If you know you don’t have enough to tip the delivery guy, GO TO THE STORE AND PICK THE PIZZA UP YOURSELF! \*\* This works especially well when you can’t afford a car and don’t live close enough to walk. Another scenario: There have been a couple of times when I’ve been really hungry, have had no food in the house, haven’t had the car (for whatever reason) and no ride to the grocery store… and a $10 bill, and decided to order pizza rather than wait 5 or 6 hours to eat. Sorry, it’s happened. I’ve also been a pizza delivery driver, so I know what it’s about. Most of the time, I tip well. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/96 "2002-12-23T07:35:04Z")
Ahhh! sorry for posting yet again, but I wanted to add this. [restaurants, not delivery] I tip the minimum for mediocre service, well for good service, very well plus talk to the manager for great service… …but I never leave _no_ tip. If the service is horrible, they may think I just forgot if I leave nothing. If I leave a penny, they know that I thought they sucked. I actually left half of a cut-in-half penny once. The waitress had brought us our food with a snarl, _THROWN_ our check at us from 3 tables away, and never checked on us even once. That is the only time I’ve ever complained about a server to the manager, and funny thing… there was another couple at the counter complaining about her just as we were. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/97 "2002-12-23T07:39:25Z")
Sorry, but tipping as standard is a stupid system. I do it when I’m in the states, but it annoys me considerably that I’m basically perpetrating a system which allows bosses to screw workers. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/98 "2002-12-23T07:40:51Z")
sorry - perpetuating, not perpetrating. What can I say, it’s early. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/99 "2002-12-23T07:44:32Z")
one last thing and I swear I’ll shut up :X I’ve never actually stiffed a delivery guy, I’ve just occassionally tipped sorta lousy. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2002, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384/100 "2002-12-23T08:05:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by reprise \* > \*\*If I understand **smermy’s** post above, the employer only has to pay the difference between tips and the minimum wage? That can’t possibly be right, can it - why wouldn’t the employee simply lie about how much they’ve received in tips? Or is the labor laws such that the employer pays the minimum wage LESS the 15% the employee is assumed to have earned from tips? Either way, it sucks BIGTIME, I’m just looking for clarification. \*\* The minimum wage when I was a waitress was around $5.45/hr. The minimum for tipped employees was $2.13. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-let-your-kids-pay-for-the-delivery-pizza/144384.md?page=6)