What if I go to restaurant X, where a meal costs $25 and I can afford the 20% tip, only to find out that other people who normally patronize the restaurant normally tip 25%, and the waiter spits in my food for being a cheap bastard?
What if they just opposed raising the minimum wage relative to inflation (which is essentially giving you a pay cut)?
And how much do you add, exactly? 10%? 20%? 50%?
Let me set one thing straight, if this is to be believed:
… then I fully retract every single one of my rants. Your appeal to authority “I worked in a restaurant so I know everything” fails in this case – I’ve worked in a restaurant too and I know that waitstaff do not in any fucking circumstance consider it “part of the job” when they get “stiffed” with a 10% tip.
You straight up fucking lie if you say that a regular customer who comes in and leaves a 10% tip will be treated equally with a regular customer who comes in and leaves a 50% tip.
And what exactly is that social custom? 10%, 20%, or 50%? Ten years ago, 10%-15% was normal (e.g. under 10% was risking ire, over 15% and they’d give you a handjob on your way out). Now 15-20% is normal and you’ve got people in this thread who think that 20% is even low.
It’s people like you that make me want to leave a substandard tip. As a matter of fact, at any point, should my server ever make the same fucking retarded assumption you have made (that I complain about tipping because I don’t tip well), I would gladly leave them a penny just to reinforce that belief. I don’t rant because I don’t want to pay; I rant because I don’t want to guess at how much I’m expected to pay.
“…Well, Roger, I always enjoy threads that have a nice, direct story arc, with some vivid character development and enough action and violence to drive the story to its logical conclusion. I have to give this thread a thumbs up.”
“Richard, I couldn’t disagree more. This is just another example of the kind of clockwork thread we see all to much of. If the SMDB keeps delivering more of the same with regard to simplistic story development, obvious plot twists, banal dialog, and derivative conclusions I can’t help but think that readers will stop coming out to message boards at all and will instead just stay home and read blogs. I know I’d much rather read even the least of David Mamet’s Huffington Post entries rather than sit through another generic action-tipping thread. I have to give this a thumbs down.”
“Well, that’s all for At The Message Boards. Next week, we’ll take a look at Slashdot.org. Until then, try not to stick your tongue into an electrical socket while standing with one foot in the toliet.”
I would wag that the 20% standard of tipping came about because the cost of the meal did not keep up with inflation over the years, so at 15% the waitstaff was getting less real $'s then years ago. Due to increasing energy costs, I expect the cost of a meal to go up and perhaps the 15% tip will come back as standard.
I think I see the problem. yerba bueña, its’ okay that you have a small wee wee. Really. Some women like them tiny… No I’m not laughing. I just had a popcorn kernal in the back of my throat.
Um, the boss? You know, the guy who sees the server perform every day of the week and knows just how he or she is doing at their job?
And complaining about tips doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a cheap bastard. I hate tipping and I still (usually) give 20&. It’s not the server’s fault the system sucks. Just sayin’.
While this thread has already gotten overly hostile (no surprise there), I would still like to say I think tipping is a horrible custom. My main motivation is that it allows for dishonest advertising on the part of the restaurant. And, in the spirit of the thread so far:
Weirddave, it is unlikely that you are as stupid as your posts suggest, so I will have to assume you are being deliberately dishonest. I think it was pretty clear that yerba buena did not mind if the prices increased 20% instead of having him pay a 20% tip. Remind me how suggesting a scheme that involves you paying exactly the same fucking amount makes you a cheap bastard again, I must have missed that part?
The best system would be that there is no mimimum wage exceptions for waitrons and no tipping. The incentive for doing a good job would be that you would get to keep your job, just like the rest of us. And when the restaurant advertised $20, I would actually pay $20.
Having said that, I really don’t feel that strongly about the issue. I’ll tip somewhere between 15% and 20%, depending on how all the rounding and taxes work out.
There are plenty of restaurant owners who don’t give a shit if their staff gets screwed on tips, as long as the customers come in the door and pay for the food and drink.
What do you think a restaurant owner would prefer on any given night—$4000 in sales with a total tip of 20%, or $5,000 in sales with a total tip of 12%?
Then you have extremely low reading comprehension.
And this sums up the problem nicely. This is my system:
Excellent service and/or really cheap food: 25%
Good service: 20%
Adequate service: 15%-20% (usually 1/6th rounded up to the next dollar or 1/5th rounded down to the next dollar, whichever is mathematically more convinient)
Downright awful: 15%
So, I get downright awful service and leave a 15% tip, to the penny (my subtle hint that I am not giving them a cent more than I am socially obligated to), and my waiter (who believes in your system) thinks, “Hey, I did an adequate job!” That is abso-fucking-lutely not the case.
Or worse yet, I go to a restaurant, get decent treatment, leave a 18% tip, and then get fucking chastised for being a cheap bastard by alice_in_wonderland who thinks that I’ve stiffed her!
Note: I have not been personally chastised, but I got the evil eye from a restaurant where I dined with a group of 15 people who felt that a 11% tip on a bill of $400 was acceptable. I took the cash and charged it – throwing in an extra $50 to make an acceptable tip. When questioned why I didn’t just give them the cash, I lied and told them my friends were from a small town and that they don’t usually tip as much there – to which I was given a lecture about how they really needed the money and how a 20% tip “barely covered expenses” and how I should tip more for large groups because a group of 16 is harder to handle than 4 groups of 4. Fuck that. If you expect a 20% tip, and feel anything lower is insulting, then add it to the fucking bill and stop fucking lecturing the only person out of 16 who cared enough to even try.
You know that you aren’t legally obligated to give a tip, right? If a waiter is downright awful stiff the bastard. That’ll teach 'em and if not you don’t have to worry about your money going in a dick’s pocket.
Oh noes! They might think I’m mean. They might whisper about my behind my back. Grow a set!
Except for a few notable exceptions, like the waitress a few weeks ago who reallly pissed me off and thus got a mere buck, I am a great tipper. It is not my mission in life to put pressure on management to increase living wages. It is my mission to spread a little bit of happiness to my fellow human beings if I can.
A few weeks ago, I tipped the pizza guy $10 (on a $10 order) because I was in a good mood. The look of surprise, and then happiness, when I assured him that I really didn’t need change, was worth it.
How does the waiter spit in your food? I never pick up the final bill until the table is cleared off and the people are ready to go.
Also, doofus, I automatically (as a waitress) get taxed on 8.5% of your bill, so if you stiff me, you’re not just reducing my hourly wage, you’re making me lose money for having waited on you.
Not gonna happen. The boss is way too busy watching the register, checking kitchen inventory, and checking who knows what else. Unless a customer seeks out the boss to register a complaint, bosses are clueless about how the waitstaff are interacting with each and every table. Leave it up to the customer to determine what they thought of the service provided to them.
Then why the big objection to simply tipping the 20%? If you are willing to pay the 20%, simply pay it and shut up. Adding it to the price of the food and then paying the servers $3 more an hour will cause the quality of the service to go way down. In spite of all the yammering in this thread about caring what the waiter thinks about you, which is…weird (if you’re that damn insecure you shouldn’t leave the house anyway. We’re all staring at you, every one of us. Yes we are, you cheap bastard.), I can apple-solutely guarantee you that a 20% tip is adequate in any restaurant in the country. (There are some where it isn’t a “good” tip, but 20 % is adequate anywhere) There is no logical reason for objecting to the tipping system unless you’re trying to avoid paying somehow.
And waiters can use ESP to tell the difference, I suppose?
The quoted text does not match your response, nor does the person being accused of being a doofus match the actual doofus. I think you read my quote and saw what you wanted to see.
In the very rare occurance when I get absolutely terrible service and I’m sure that it is the server’s fault, then I will speak to the manager. I’ve seen waiters have a fight with their girlfriend while they’re supposed to be serving me. I’d expect the manager to be aware of such situations.
Still, I’ve reaped the rewards over the years for being a generous tipper. If I’m a regular at your sports bar, your bartenders are going to like the tips I get. I will then get to watch the game I want to see.
No, legally you have to pay taxes on what your tips actually are, but even if you receive no tips, you have to pay taxes assuming you got 8.5% of what you sold in tips. IOW, 8.5% of your sales is the floor that the government starts from for tax purposes.
Really? I thought that if you had credit card slips to prove that you were getting stiffed, you wouldn’t have to pay even the 8.5%.
And my question wasn’t, “if he tips you 15%, are you required to only pay taxes on 8.5%?” It was, “if he tips you 15%, do you only pay taxes on 8.5%?”
Assuming he pays by credit card, my understanding is that you pay taxes on exactly the tip. Assuming he pays cash, my understanding is that the vast, overwhelming majority of wait staff pay taxes on 8.5%. They’re legally required to pay taxes on the full amount, but most only pay on the 8.5%.