This makes me think of the episode of Friends where Rachel’s father takes her and Ross to dinner - for those who haven’t seen it, Ross adds to the tip and Rachel’s father gets hugely offended at the implication that he’s a cheapskate when he’s buying the meal for all three.
:p:D I’m watching Friends reruns and they just showed that episode!!
There’s nothing wrong with upping the tip, of course, but I also think it’s emotionally healthy to realize that what this guy does or doesn’t do has nothing to do with you and isn’t your problem. Don’t be embarrassed by other people; they will always be doing things you can’t control, and leaving you feeling crappy about yourself.
Forget about it. One of he reasons waitstaff seem to get paid so poorly in America probably has something to do with the fact you lot tip them, which makes their employers pay them a below livable wage.
I’m curious, what is the typical practice? Do the waiters just get to keep tips left on the tables that they wait, or is it all combined and divided equally between all staff, including cooks etc.
It varies from restaurant to restaurant. In many/most places cooks and kitchen staff are paid full wages and aren’t expected to be tipped. Bus boys and bar staff are more likely to get a cut. Sometimes they’re paid by individual wait staff, other times the entire restaurant pools tips.
It seems to me like if waiters get to keep the tips and they can get at least a few $10 tips an hour, that can make quite a decent earning.
20 an hour, 9 to 5 = 160 x 5 x 4 = 3600 in tips per 4 weeks.
Thanks. We “lot” will give your advice all the consideration it is due.
Well, I always carry cash anyway, but if I know I’m out with a bad tipper who insists on paying, I insist on paying the tip. Or I quietly leave extra cash behind.
Might have worded it poorly, but if you actually have any problems with what I stated apart from the aforementioned bit why not bring it up instead.
Not quite true. The employer is allowed to claim a tip credit up to $5.12/hour based on tips received. If an employee only made $1.00/hour in tips the employer can only claim a $1.00/hour tip credit. If a server’s total pay is less than the federal minimum wage the employer has fraudulently claimed a bigger tip credit than they are entitled to.
There are also some strict rules about pooling tips.
He’s right. It’s a weird system, and is only loosely correlated to actual service. It encourages “free riders” who abuse the system, and the real losers are about the most helpless segment of the whole economic arrangement. It’s a system that gives, stingily, with one hand, and takes away, coarsely, with the other. It reduces “service” personnel to “subservient” personnel.
When I go out to eat with my mom I usually pay. I almost always tip 20% minimum. It would have to be pretty bad service for me to tip less. My mom always fusses about how much I leave. She thinks 20% is extravagant. She and my aunt go out a lot and I feel bad imagining the bad tips they most likely leave.
Don’t like the pay? Find another job. People go to a restaurant to eat, not to support the staff.
This. It’s simply good form.
Except you can’t really run that kind of calculation for waiting tables. In most hourly jobs, the number of hours you work determines your pay. When you’re waiting tables, which hours you work is just as important as how many.
That $20/hour only happens when the restaurant is busy. From noon to 2 for lunch or 6 to 9 for dinner, that’s probably pretty reasonable… but if the lunch shift runs 11 to 4, you’re averaging those two good hours with three lousy ones. Same for dinner - if you work 5 to 11, you’ve got 3 good hours and 3 bad hours. There are places where your calculation holds true, but there are a lot more places where it doesn’t.
This is not that discussion.
Well, when you can convince all of America to consistently give up tipping all at once, causing all the waiters and waitresses to quit their jobs and therefore cause the restaurants to rethink their hiring practices, I’m all ears.
In the meantime, a few people choosing not to tip out of principle will do nothing but cause a waiter or waitress to be personally shortchanged.
The fact that you phrased it as some sort of obvious cause and effect also made me laugh. It’s a chicken and egg problem; not nearly so clear-cut as you make it sound like. I could just have easily have said “The reasons waitstaff are paid so poorly are because the restaurants pay them poorly” and it still wouldn’t have described the whole situtation.
The USA is laughably outdated in a lot of ways. I’d rather start with the healthcare problem myself, if you don’t mind.
Yeah, this is the way I generally roll. Depending on my mood.
I’m not going to bother getting into debating broken tipping systems, but there’s something I don’t get.
How does all this tipping work out as bad money? Say you sit in a restaurant for two hours and leave a “stingy” tip of $10. That’s still $5/hour and almost hitting minimum wage. That’s assuming a rather small tip for a two hour meal, and assuming only one table, which I think are both quite conservative assumptions. And if someone is only waiting on one table at a time, why do they deserve more than minimum wage anyway? I don’t see how even an unlucky waiter/waitress with consistently stingy tables can earn less than $20-40/hour. Is there something I’m missing?