I worked as a busboy in a Houston, Texas Chili’s restaurant in 1989 (literally 30 years ago; my first day was the day after the Tiananmen Square crackdown- I remember reading the newspaper article while I waited on the manager for some kind of paperwork).
What I recall is that if the bill was above a certain amount and/or for dinner, I was a lot more likely to see 15%-ish sitting on the table. But… a lot of people still didn’t quite get the whole tipping as a percentage concept, nor did they know that servers were paid a lesser wage ($2.01/hr, IIRC) and not minimum ($3.35.hr IIRC) for their shifts. So it was super-common to see people tip a flat $2 for lunch, or if they didn’t know better on larger bills.
As a busboy, I got $2.01/hr + 1% of the total tip-out of the servers. Even at that, it was super-rare (like one super-dead shift) that I didn’t make significantly more in my 1% tip-out (roughly $20-25 per shift) than I did in wages. Wait staff did considerably better than I did on tips.
Ah, a tip thread. Let me repeat that I don’t mind tipping waitstaff and cabbies or even parking valets. But all the others I’m getting tired of, shelling out for people who are just doing their jobs. Hairdressers, massueses, movers, hotel maids, delivery people…The list goes on.
Perhaps my recollection is biased by age. Back in the 70s I was a lot younger and poorer so the tips were somewhat lower.
I remember tipping at a restaurant at 10% for average or expected service, 15% for good or memorable service. I wasn’t frequenting New York or San Fran back in those days though. (still don’t so my experience is more suburban than many)
I agree that the suggested tips I see top out at 20%, but I go above that at some places. Again, age and income plays a part in it. It would require a serious problem for any of my friends to go down to 15%. If the service earned less than that, that service would get a discussion with the manager.
The rule used to be standard was 15% pre-tax (before that 10%). This made it easy in some states as the guideline was to double the tax amount, though this sometimes would cause a undertipping situation when absentmindedly tipping in another state.
Now it seems to be 18% post tax / 20% pre tax, though I’ve seen occasional ‘suggestions’ of 22% 25%, 28% in some of my mixed neighborhood’s gentrified restaurants I visit, though some restaurants that were there before ‘gentrification’ list 15%,18%, 20% .
Anyway I usually will tip on the positive side of what I order, what the bill is and what the meal is worth. In other words, if I get off with a cheap bill I will overtip - often by quite a bit, 50% is not unusual, at a more expensive place I will stick more to the guidelines for equal service.
I’ll confirm the 15% standard tip as far back as 1962. My family took a cross-country trip and my brother (10 YO) would always rush to calculate the tip by “dividing by 10, dividing by 2, then multiplying by 3.” Seems silly, but this was higher math for a kid.
Does anybody know how the price of restaurant meals nowadays compares with the price in the 80s (or before), adjusted for inflation?
My suspicion, though I can’t back it up, is that at the lower end at least, restaurant meals are cheaper these days (adjusted for inflation). If that’s true, it would make sense to increase the percentage, since keeping the percentage the same would make the amount lower.
Actually it is slightly cheaper; the Brinker Intl. site has a 1975 Chili’s menu from the original one, and an Oldtimer w/Cheese is $1.65, and fries are $0.50. So $2.15 for a burger and fries.
According to pretty much every site I checked, that $2.15 in 1975 is roughly equivalent to somewhere between $10.25 and $10.50 now.
I went to the Chili’s website and pretended to order an Oldtimer w/cheese (which comes with fries now) to go, and the price the website quoted me is $8.99. So we’re looking at about $1.25 cheaper in today’s dollars vs. adjusted 1975 dollars.
I understand what you’re saying, but I disagree that they’re the same thing. Waiters almost never actually get compensated by their employers beyond the 2 bucks an hour - even when they’ve earned it - and it’s basically wage theft but it’s reality.
But more importantly - when you’re a customer at a restaurant leaving a few bucks on the table, you can be almost certain that it’s going into the waiter’s pockets, that’s it’s going to increase the waiter’s take home pay.
But the way doordash does it, if you tip $2 or $3 or $5, it doesn’t affect the driver’s take home pay. The company just keeps it. Would you even bother to tip if you knew it would never get to the driver? Or would you tip cash instead of tipping in the app? Almost certainly one of those things. And so there’s a layer of deception here, a breaking of the customer’s trust and intent with the tipping.
I can see, philosophically, the comparison you make, but in practice it just doesn’t really work like that. Additionally, the rest of the gig driving jobs let the drivers keep the entire tip (I’m not 100% sure about uber or lyft but I’d have probably heard about it if they did the DD shit) so DD is the odd one out, violating norms in this case.
I remember growing up that 10% was the norm - 60’s early 70’s. Since I rarely ate at full-service restaurants, I don’t remember exactly when that changed, but it seems to me during the 80’s (mid-80s?) it went to 15%. I started to hear about 20% while in more expensive places like New York around 2000.
I strongly disapprove of tipping as a concept, but I’m not going to be cheap - I’ll pay the 20% at restaurants with full service. I like the idea of tipping cash, it probably is more likely to make it into the wait staff’s pocket. I recall reading that California, for one, makes it directly illegal form management to take any part of tips. (Recall reading of one restaurant in Kelowna, British Columbia, where someone complained the management took all tips because “we’re just starting up and need to pay all the start-up costs.”) Also remember that some states allow full offset(?) - if the server meets minimum wage in tips, the employer pays nothing. More insidiously, the employer must withhold taxes from any tips they pay out from credit card receipts too. Big brother demands his share.
The ultimate is the service industry in Egypt, where slinging luggage and a hotel for foreign tourists can earn the staff substantially more than a nurse or teacher would make, thanks to foreign exchange rate and good tips. Two or 3 good tips is probably more than the average other workers make in a day. Do we need to head in that direction? OTOH, they probably have minimal income tax and certainly no welfare, medicare, unemployment insurance, or other amenities we expect from a government.
But granny is a thieving cheapskate. I’ve had a similar problem - Uncle “Joe” will wait and put in less than enough to cover his share of the bill if I put in too good a tip. So I’ll put my tip down separate under my plate when all the bill money is collected in the center of the table.
Yeah, I just generally put the meal AND the tip on a card anymore. I don’t care about whether “it’s better for the server to tip cash”. And I’m single and always ask for a separate check. I’ve got a few relatives and a couple of friends that can’t seem to come up with enough when it’s going into the common pot. I’ve had my cash tip picked up and thrown in the pile by someone who doesn’t want to leave enough. Learned my lesson.
And if granny or anyone else tried stealing from the table, that would be the last time I’d go out with them.
I’m all for it when tipping serves its intended purpose: to reward better service so that good people rise to the top, encouraged by their vast tip earnings.
When tipping is treated as a part of base pay by employers then this encourages employees to treat tips as an entitlement (and rightfully so if it is their base pay) and thus perform their duties with less enthusiasm.
Fortunately, there is still room for really good workers to earn more for their behavior, but the arrangement seems, like unions, to reward mediocre service more than it should.
It is this action by employers that subverts the whole point.
New York, Central Illinois and Louisiana were all 15% in the '70s. Now I do 20% rounded up, but I have more money and servers have less, so it just seems fair.
I also remember 10%, but I may be remembering the 70’s.
Yes, those three professions are just doing their jobs, but they have a long tradition of living on tips, much moreso than the others. Plus we’re talking amounts here. Movers may charge something like $800. A hairdresser can be $70 for perm and dye. A masseuse, $100. Even at 10%, for movers that’s an extra $80.
In the fifties, at least in Philly, it was 10%. Then crept up to 12, 15, now 20. In Montreal it has been 18 for quite a while. I tip more like 25% in the very cheap Indian restaurant we frequent.
Wow. I remember back in the early 70’s, my mom told me to tip at least 20%. If you can’t afford that, you have no business going out to eat. I grew up the son of a son of a factory worker, union household. That might explain the relative generosity.
Right, the moving company may charge $800 (or much more depending on the length of the move) but the guys humping the furniture in and out are making very little. I’m never sure about this and never know who to tip.
And a percentage seems silly. If I get a $5 Uber ride, then $1 would be 20% but that seems pretty cheap if I am tipping. Likewise if I get a breakfast at the local diner: breakfast smile for $3.99 and a coffee for $1.29, I might throw down $2 which is near a 40% tip.
I’ve also never understood why if I go to dinner at a decent steak place and have a meal for two for around $100, the waiter/tress should get $20, ten times my breakfast waiter for doing very little more.
We should do it like Europe and have the restaurant pay them a salary and the service is included in the bill. No tipping. I think it is insulting to do that to someone, like you are throwing them a crumb for emptying your piss bucket.
I should clarify. I have and still do tip all of the above workers. I just resent being guilted into it, as it’s the expected thing. If you don’t tip these extra people, it’s never assumed that the service was bad. The assumption is that you’re a cheapskate.
I should also further clarify, I have never tipped a hotel maid, but some people do. For me, the line has to be drawn somewhere. It’s moot anyway. I can’t afford to travel.
