Restaurants are required by the IRS to either track revenue by server and report 8% of that as tips to be taxed or (and its been a few years since tax class and this is from memory) report tip income directly (if you have it because its credit card receipts).
In general, its favorable to employees. If most people tip 10-15% and a few are the 20-25%+ big tippers that populate message boards, you only get the occasional person who stiffs you and you only get taxed on eight, you are probably under reporting tip income. (You are required to report ALL your tip income, but the 8% formula is what your employer is required to report if they don’t have a more accurate means. And its one of those things that is hard to audit to - the IRS usually doesn’t bother to try and prove you made 12% in tips - there are bigger fish to fry that fry up much easier.) There are some places and times when it isn’t favorable. A friend worked at a Perkins in South Minneapolis where tips wouldn’t reach 8% on average. But those places generally don’t keep waitstaff.
Restaurants are also required to make up the difference between base pay and tips to minimum wage. Many don’t, but they are suppose to. (That’s labor law).
Dangerosa, the people on the board who don’t tip well simply don’t fess up. A few will get into th heated debates, but the most you’ll see is usually “I don’t think tipping is necessary so I’ll do 15% and I hardly eat out”. Stuff like that. Lots of people stick with 10% or under. It’s sad, really.
I’m treated like a freaking queen when I tip 20-25% (I guess it’s warranted when I hit 30). Thanked profusely and remembered for next time if I’m new. It shouldn’t be like that.
Wow - I’m really surprised both by the brazenness of the waiters to chase customers, and of tour operators who basically dictated how much you should tip them, especially in the U.S.
I have only encountered this once in my life, which was just this year in Morocco. As part of a cruise ship sponsored tour in Agadir, we took a bus to a small town where they played some traditional Moroccan music, fed us, and took us on a 30 minute donkey ride (15 minutes each way) back and forth to a nearby oasis. The donkeys were led by local villagers, but the donkey ride was included in the price of the tour, so it was questionable whether you should tip at all. We were going to tip the guides at the end, and since this was a regular tour, the assumption was that the tour guides split the money with the donkey guides. All the same, the donkey guides seemed dirt poor, and it wasn’t entirely clear that was going to happen.
So we, the tourist group, talked among ourselves and decided we should each give some euros to the donkey guides. Man, was that a mistake! We practically got attacked. I don’t even know that these people were looking for a tip, but as soon as you gave them any money, the default for them was to get angry and not ask, but DEMAND more. I gave my donkey person 10 euros (about 15 dollars), and like everyone else, I was harassed mercilessly. One woman in our group gave her guide 50 euros, which I couldn’t believe and she was still badgered and belittled. What’s funny is, the second we got on the bus, it all turned out to be a scam. The ‘individual’ guides then assembled in a doorway as we were driving away and handed over their tip money to someone just outside of view. It really turned off the whole tourist group and ruined an otherwise nice day. Perhaps it’s a cultural thing, and everything else we saw in Morocco was lovely, but that one thing was very assholish and stood out in my mind as a low point in the trip.
I don’t believe that less than half the people out there tip 10%. Nor do I believe that all the people who say they tip 20±30% (or more) as a habit do. I suspect most people tip 10-20%, and my suspicion is backed up by talking to people around here who wait tables. With the reporting rate on tips set to 8%, that isn’t a bad deal.
Dangerosa - I tip a few bucks at a buffet and 15% at any restaurant. Probably two times a year, someone gives me truly stellar services and they get 20%, but that’s it. That is more than made up for by the 10 times a year I get truly bad service and they get between nothing and 10% depending on how bad it was. Even then, I have never been approached after leaving such a tip as I think even the waiter/waitress realized how much they sucked and deserved the minimal tip at that point.
I didn’t mean for this to become a “how much do you tip” discussion. Merely stating that the restaurant reports 8% in lieu of better information, and that given that I doubt stiffing is really done all that much (obviously, it happens, but I suspect its 10-15% of tables or less in most places), 10% is considered “minimal acceptable” even for most of the Denny’s Senior Lunch Crowd and that the internet is filled with people who claim that they always tip AT LEAST 25%, I suspect most waitstaff comes out ahead tax wise on tips.
If anyone is getting 8% reported and their customers are stiffing them or shorting them often enough that they aren’t turning 8% in tips, its probably time to look for new employment. You work with a low class clientele - even if you are waiting tables at a $200 a plate restaurant.
The reason most people on the boards who don’t tip much/at all (like myself) don’t usually admit to it is because instead of people saying “You know what, I respect your point of view and see where you come from and understand your objection to/issues with the practice; however I respectfully disagree and have this approach to the matter…”, it’s “FUCK YOU, YOU STINGY ASSHOLE! YOU’RE AN AWFUL, AWFUL PERSON WHO MAKES BABY JESUS CRY! YOU’D FEEL DIFFERENTLY IF YOU WERE FORCED TO WORK IN A RESTAURANT FOR 4c AN HOUR! IF YOU CAN’T AFFORD OR DON’T WANT TO TIP THEN YOU SHOULDN’T BE EATING AT ALL! Incidentally, I always tip 128% of the total bill and get free sexual favours from the waitstaff at my local restaurants because I’m so beloved by them and one restaurant even has a marble bust of me in a prominent location.”
Not exactly conducive to civilised and reasoned discussion, in other words.
OK, I do have a story that kind of turns the question in the OP on its ear; one snowy day last winter, we ordered delivery from the diner around the corner. I tip for delivery, and I tip extra when the weather sucks. This particular diner, however, does not give you a total when you call to place your order for delivery. When the delivery-person arrives, they give you a total and you pay. This is a PITA, because I like to have exact change (including tip) ready when they arrive. So I try to estimate how much the bill is going to be, then get out that much money, plus enough for a tip.
One night, I guess I was distracted by something, I had a $20, a couple of $5’s and a handful of $1s at the ready. When the driver gave me the total, I gave him a handful of cash and said “Keep the change”; when he counted out, he said “Uh, ma’am? Keeping the change would be, like, a $14.00 tip”. So I asked him to give me a $5.00 back. I really appreciated the honesty. How many people might have just pocketed it (many just assuming I meant to tip that much), and said nothing?
But you live in Australia, right? Tipping isn’t a big deal there, is it? In the US, it’s rude not to tip, especially in a restaurant, because it’s legal to pay waiters below the minimum wage, as it’s assumed that they will earn their income in tips. It’s not fair to harangue people for not tipping in a place where tipping isn’t the custom; conversely, it’s pointless to argue that one shouldn’t tip if, in fact, it is a regional custom.
Cool - Shot From Guns and Google maps to the rescue… looking at the locations of the two I think it might well have been Mader’s. The name sounds familiar and I remember it as a fairly short walk from the Hyatt Regency with the revolving restaurant where I was staying (which was adjacent to the convention center – called MECCA back then – where GenCon was being hosted).
I’ve gone over my objections to tipping (and reasons thereof) countless times in numerous threads on the boards, and you’ve perfectly illustrated why people on the boards who don’t tip rarely come out and say “You know what? I don’t tip.”
FWIW, my wife does tip when we’re in the US, so it’s not like there are any starving waitstaff out there because that mean Antipodean didn’t want to give them any extra money or anything.
This is a foreign concept to me. When the bill comes, I give them my credit card and they bring back the copy, I add the tip, sign the receipt and then I leave the restaurant. I don’t make a habit of sitting around after that, so I’ve never had a server thank me for a tip. I eat out a LOT at 4 or 5 regular places, and I’ve never had the same server twice either.
If there are servers you particularly like, you can ask before you’re seated if that server is working, and if so, to be seated in their section. I do this. Also, if you eat out a lot at 4 or 5 places, you’d best believe word has gotten around amongst the servers about what kind of tipper you are!
I’ve always tried to tip well, my siblings and I have all worked in various areas of the service industry, and know what it’s like. What always irritated me about being a hotel maid was that a lot of people don’t know they’re supposed to tip their maid at all, and even when they did it was often a pittance. I got less after cleaning this one couple’s suite every day for two weeks than the bellboy got for bringing their bags up in the elevator one time. But sometimes there were really good tips involving not only cash, but snack foods, ski clothing and booze. I don’t know if I could stand to work as a waitress though.
Since moving to Scotland, I’ve ordered pizza delivery several times, and knowing what a crap job that can be (though at least I think here they don’t have to use their own car, the Domino’s down the street has its own scooter), I always tip generously. I think it’s earned us extra-fast service, they recognise this address as a good place to deliver. I don’t know if they have to tip out to the cooks or not.
I don’t know if I could stand to work as a waitress though.