Worst tipping situation I’ve ever been with was when I went to a steakhouse with a very large bunch of coworkers. For some reason, we were given a bill that listed the average cost of dinner for each person. So, guess what several of the big drinkers did? Paid the average amount and strolled out. Those of us who stayed late and didn’t drink any alcohol ended up subsidizing the drinkers’ beers and martinis. We barely had enough cash on us to pay the bill. Thank heavens the management had a posted “no tip” policy because no one waiter served one party, but I was still furious.
The worst I’ve ever done is when I misplaced some of my cash before lunch and was only able to leave a miserable tip. I explained to my server what had happened and promised to return the next day to make up for it. Don’t think she believed me, but I did go back the next day and left her a HUGE tip to make up for my mistake.
The best I’ve ever seen is the last San Diego Dopefest I went to. When the bill came, we sent it around the table. By the time it reached Esprix, there was enough money to cover the entire bill, plus a 30% tip, and Esprix hadn’t even put his money down yet. That was pretty sweet.
I come from a well-tipping family, and it’s always done good by us. My dad is well-loved at the local restaurants - he even tips for take-out. I’ve seen servers get into mild arguments about who got to take care of us. Now, THAT’s the life.
To make it clear: I never expect a heavy tip for my service. 20% is reasonable and so that is what I expect. I don’t expect any thing over that and I don’t know why someone would tip that much. I very rerely pick up a check before the table has left and on occasion I have taken the check back to make sure that there was no mistake and that the did mean to write that much in for a tip. Pleasant suprise, but not expected or asked for.
I consulted with my SO, who is a restaurant professional of the highest order. She says the take out question varies with restaurant. In a restaurant with a computerized order system (which, as you know, is 99% of all restaurants these days) servers and bartenders enter their orders into a terminal. The computer then figures out which station needs to know about which order (bar for mixed drinks, beer or wine, kitchen for entrees, pantry for desserts and appetizers, for example) and a little printer at each station prints out the order which is then (hopefully) fulfilled by the cooks or service bartender. The computer also keeps track of each server’s invidual sales and determines how much money the server must pay out to the restaurant at the end of the night and how much money the server must tip out to the bussers, hostesses, etc. To accomplish this, each server either has a card with a magnetic strip on it to identify them to the computer (in many newer systems) or they have a unique indentifying number they must enter into the terminal before each order.
Restaurants vary on how they handle take out orders. In some cases (such as the very well-run restaurant where she currently works) there is a separate ID number for take out orders. In this case, the take out order does not count on the server or bartender’s sales and thus is not counted against them for purposes of taxation and tipout. In other cases, the bartender is expected to handle all to go orders and ring up them up on his or her number. In this case, the to go orders do count on the bartender’s sales and he will be expected to pay taxes and tip out on the assumption that he was tipped 15% on the takeout orders.
So, in general, if there is a takeout window or someone whose job it appears to be to only handle takeout orders, then no tip or a minimal tip is expected. If you must deal with the bartender, either assume they should be tip or ask about which system the restaurant uses. If you eat at a table and ask your server for a takeout order for Aunt Minnie back home, tip as usual on the total amount of the bill which will include your takeout order and the food you ate at the table.
I’ve heard this before, but I’m not sure I understand it. Why wouldn’t the restaurants be able to afford to pay servers what they make with tips? All the restaurant would have to do is raise the menu prices enough to cover the increase in wages. Instead of charging me $10 for a hamburger and soda and then expecting me to add $1.50 or $2 as a tip, the restaurant could charge me $12. Sure, a single restaurant switching to this method might face a competitive disadvantage if the difference was high enough to factor into people’s decisions about where to eat and if advertising that tipping is not expected didn’t overcome that. But it wouldn’t apply if most restaurants switched. Sometimes servers gain an advantage with the current system, and sometimes customers do, but the only entity that always benefits from this system is the restaurant, which gets to post and advertise (almost deceptively) lower prices and lets the servers take the chance of getting stiffed.
I am not a cheapskate who doesn’t tip, but please explain how the cost to me is higher
if I pay $10 for that hamburger and leave a $2 tip than if I pay $12 for a hamburger and leave no tip. The menu price is higher, but since I do tip, I’m paying the same either way.
Right on, vibrotronica, but I’ve got one question.
In all the resturants I’ve worked in, the bartender only tipped out to their own individual busser, they didn’t have to tip out the host, or obviously, themselves, so they didn’t really get upset if they didn’t get tipped on to go orders.
Of course, I haven’t seen many resturants where the bartender does to-gos. To-go’s always had their own number, as you described in your post. Or were put in under the cashier’s number, who didn’t tip out to anyone.
You are correct in saying that the restraunt always wins. They do. That’s the nature of the restraunt biz. That’s why I call it “pimpin’ mexican food” most of the time instead of just waiting tables. It’s a sales job where you have 20 customers clammoring for your attention at the same time.
If you were going to pay $12 for a burger and I get nothing more than an hourly wage from it, then don’t expect me to keep your drinks filled or your order timely or schmooze you at the table or rush to get you other things you need so that you can have a nice night out with your family or friends. You go to a restraunt to be served. I think that it is much better to pay for the service in proprotion.
Think back on the worst service that you have experienced. Server wasn’t attentive. He didn’t keep your glasses filled. It took forever for your food to come out. When it did, all of the appetizers were arriving at the same time. He was rude. He was distainful or just unhappy. He took your credit card and disappeared for 20 minutes. Imagine that that sort of thing happens every time you go out. Cause it would if you didn’t tip us.
I am the opposite of all of that and I train others to be the opposite as well. If I am having a bad day my tables will not know of it. Why? Because my income rests on those little actions. I don’t wait on tables because I love people. I do it because I love living indoors
I think the difference may be that a lot of people don’t consider a tip as part of the cost of the meal, so it appears as if the food cost is lower. Maybe, that’s just a thought.
I also believe that the quality of service would be lower. No, I don’t have any statistics or anything, it just seems to be common sense to me. Think about it. Better servers make better money. I’ve known some shitty servers, and they made a fraction of what I and other more experienced servers made in the same resturant. Why? Because I and other more experienced servers gave better service, and that was reflected in our tips.
Yes, I’m sure that would be able to be evened out via “extra” tips on a standard service charge, or bigger sections, ect., but then what punishment would sub-par servers recieve for giving sub-par service, besides being fired? What remedy would customers have if they recieve bad service? Not bad enough to make a big deal with management over, but bad enough to want to leave less than 15%? They have no recourse. They’re then being forced to tip 15% for crappy service.
Doesn’t seem fair to me.
Now, I’ve got no problem with those who question the current tipping standards in America, as long as they don’t try to “stick it to the Man” via stiffing their server for no other reason than to make some ineffective political statement.
But wouldn’t that depend on what the hourly wage was? I mean, I wouldn’t break my neck for $5.15 an hour either. Are you saying if you had a guaranteed wage of $20 per hour ( with of course, the possibility that people would still tip, although a smaller amount, for superior service) you wouldn’t fill my drinks or get me what I need?
Maybe it’s just me, but I find this to be incredibly insulting to servers and others who depend on tips. Other people, whose pay doesn’t depend on the whims of customers , can be expected to do their jobs adequately for a set wage. But those whose pay currently depends on tips will become lazy as soon as they are guaranteed decent pay. And I don’t believe it’s true. The service provided at catering halls ( which around here, add a service charge to the bill, which is paid before the event) is no worse than I receive at restaurants. The service I received at the dude ranch I went to last summer ( which added a 15% service charge ) was no worse than the service I’ve received at hotels and restaurants.
That’s pretty much what I meant by “almost deceptively” in my original post. It’s pretty clear ( to me, anyway) that the restaurants prefer the tip system because it gives the appearance of lower prices, just like the catering halls and dude ranch I mentioned above prefer to quote a price and then add a service charge rather than just including the service charge in the quoted price . But just as the cost doesn’t change depending on whether the dude ranch builds the service fee into its rates or adds it separately, the cost of the hamburger doesn’t change significantly for for anyone but the people who either undertip or don’t tip at all. fluiddruid seemed to be arguing in favor of the system on the basis that food costs would be in fact be higher if it wasn’t customary to tip, when only the menu price would be higher.
I’m guessing the remedies and recourse would be equivalent to those available in any other customer service job. I don’t get to take 15% off my bill on my own because the clerk or cashier at K-Mart gave me subpar service. I can complain to a manager or to corporate and I suppose they might decide to send me a coupon, but it would be their decision. As for punishing the cashier, short of firing him or her , I guess he or she could be suspended, reassigned to a different job, given fewer or less desirable hours or passed over for a raise. But the manager doesn’t say " Well, one hour’s worth of customers weren’t happy with your service, and there was two hours worth of time when you weren’t actually checking someone out , although you were doing other work, so for those three hours you only get paid $2.13 an hour"
Well, in all fairness, a server is a much more significant part of a customers dining experience than a cashier is part of a shopping experience.
Going out to eat (for me at least) is more about the dining experience, not just about paying for food, as shopping is. People that feel a cashier at Walmart has as much influence on their overall experience as a server in a resturant would probably be better off eating at a fast food place.
Which is most likely the same kind of service you’d get if there ceased to be tipping.
For $20 an hour I would probably do a really good job. I don’t think that the restraunt industry is going to be willing to pay that.
Here’s what it would cost my restraunt to do so on an evening such as last night:
18 servers
$20 an hour
$360 an hour for labor (only on the floor not including the cooks, bussers, hosts, management, dishwashers)
9 hour shift (for me anyway so I’ll call it the same for everyone)
$360 an hour for server labor
$3,240 for just wages for the servers
Not being a business type, but that looks like a whole lot of money. I may be worth it, as I brought in five times the amount that I was going to be paid. But what about the people who are slackers or just bad waiters? They may sell far less food and drink. As it is, the tip system works a bit like commission and I make more when I sell more for the most part. I don’t think that the business could run if they paid as well as they would have to in order to keep their servers.
Granted this is for an upscale type of place, and a burger joint would run differently. I still don’t see how it would work unless the price of a meal went up tremendously.
You realize that this has nothing to do with fairness, right? It’s just a cynical ploy by management to minimize their costs.
People have to earn minimum wage – but they don’t have to get paid minimum wage. The management can count tips toward minimum wage for positions that usually earn tips. Bussers, etc. traditionally did not earn tips so they got paid an hourly salary of at least minimum wage. Now, by earning a share of the tips, management can cut their labour costs – and your pay.
The ultimate goal is to spread the tips around as widely as possible so the restaurant can reduce what they actually pay out in salary to a bare minimum. It amazes me that wait staff can get so upset about the occasional person who doesn’t tip enough when they are so complacent about actively exploiting themselves.
And there’s no reason that the slackers have to be paid the same amount that you are. Really, it doesn’t matter terribly to me if the restaurant gives you the service charge from each of your tables, so that you still get a percentage of what you sell and the slacker or bad waiter who sells half as much as you do makes half as much as you do. The things I don’t like about the tipping system is that you are dependent on your customers to make more than a ridiculously low wage and that the restaurant gets away with listing prices that are approximately 20% below what I am going to be expected to pay. I certainly never meant to imply that all servers, or even all the servers in a particular restaurant should be paid the same.
Absolutely a server has more of an impact on the experience than a Walmart cashier does. I was only speaking of the available recourses and punishments for subpar service.
What sort of a work ethic is that? It sounds slightly like blackmail to me: “give me extra money or I’ll make your night horrible” (I’m not suggesting that that’s what it is, just what it sounds like).
When I did waiting and barwork I was bloody good at it. My customers were almost always happy (some people never are) because I went out of my way to ensure that they were. The reason I did that was because it was my JOB to do that. I was getting paid relatively well to do it. Often I got small tips throughout the night - only a couple of bucks each time, but it was enough for a few beers on the way home. A few times I got really great tips ($40-$50). I always worked hard, because it was my job. Most people I worked with were the same - they didn’t last if they slacked off. The boss kept an eye on us until he was sure of how we worked cause it was in his interest for us to work well. He was paying us quite well to do our job and he didn’t want to pay anyone to pissfart around. Better pay = more watchful boss = better workers = happier customers = repeat business = more money and better reputation for the restaurant.
Well, here’s the problem. In the US, federal minimum wage is nowhere near $15 an hour. I think the last time they raised it (something like 6 or 7 years ago, now), it went to $6.15/hr? Or is it still $5.75?
I agree with Glory. No way in hell would I wait tables for 6 bucks an hour, if that’s ALL we were getting (my base wage is $3.09). I’d make more money from the dole and have free time to look for a job with livable wages, to boot.
On tipping out… consider it such that when you tip your server, you are also tipping the bartender and the bus boy, as well. We give 1% of sales (NOT tips), to the bar, and 2% to the bus boys. This doesn’t go through management at all, we pay out directly from our tips to the guys manning the bar and bus stations. We are also taxed on 8-10% (apparently varies depending on location) of sales (again, NOT tips), whether we actually get that much in tips or not – which means we need to make 13% on EVERY TABLE in order not to lose money. Tips are reported to the IRS as a percentage of sales, and appropriate taxes are withheld from our base-wage paycheck on the whole shebang.
I would love it if the American tipping culture went the way of the dodo and restaurants would simply raise the meal prices and pay a decent wage. But until all you guys manage to convince restaurant management across the country to do so, don’t take it out on your server. It’s not our fault – we have NO say in the matter.
On the OP – is it possible they expected the tip to be automatically added into the check when they got it? I made the mistake once (ONLY once, believe me) of forgetting to add on the 15% for parties of 8 or more, and ended up with $5 on a $120 tab. More than likely he didn’t bother checking the itemized bill carefully and assumed the tip was already in there. Unless it was a small party, perhaps it was just that sort of mistake.
FTR, I work at a mid-scale pizza and pasta sit-down restaurant.
Nope. No chance of a mistake unless he was just really really dumb. There were 5 of them. I don’t know any place that adds a grat onto a party of 5.
There is a place on the credit slip that says “tip.” He marked it through and very neatly wrote in the total. No excuse. The only thing that I can think is that some other family member was supposed to leave the tip and they dropped the ball. Either is unexcusable.
This may be regional. When my dad bussed tables for one of his first jobs–this would have been in the early fifties–he got only tips. Those tips came from the waitstaff and were heavily dependent not only on the sales they’d made that night, but how well he’d done.
I got my first job in the mid-eighties, bussing tables at a pancake house. We made waiter minimum, which at the time was $2.01, and the waitresses were required (by whom I’m not certain) to pitch in to give us each enough to make it to “regular” minimum. You’d get more, though, if you did a good job. The day’s tips for bussers was decided by the waitresses at the end of the shift, they’d all sit together and count out our share.
Like I said, it may be regional, but it hasn’t been my experience that bussers ever “traditionally” made straight wages.
