Your tips don’t all go to the waiters, though, if you’re in a state that allows tips to offset the employer’s wage obligations. If the state has the federal minimum cash wage, a tipped employee at the minimum wage gets nothing from the first $5.12 in tips they earn in an hour. That $5.12 goes to the employer, who doesn’t have to pay that money to the employee anymore.
And the average waiter isn’t earning so much that only a tiny fraction of their tips are going to the employer. Indiana is the first state I found that has federal minimum cash wage, and the median hourly wage for a waiter there is a whopping $8.93. A good chunk of the average tip is going to the employer there.
I fully agree, which is why I would support no-tip restaurants that paid all their employees a decent base wage plus bonuses based on profits or customer satisfaction. Until then, it’s a good idea to tip for many reasons on many different levels - including anti-loogie insurance.
I know this sort of thing is done sometimes by resentful restaurant workers, but it goes without saying that it’s not only dangerous and wrong but highly illegal. Three wrongs don’t make a right, any more than two wrongs do.
I’m strongly opposed to any form of server “vigilantism”, even in the case of the most inconsiderate and selfish non-tippers. Restaurant staff have legal and ethical obligations to do their jobs well, no matter how jerkishly some of their customers act.
Of course, angry restaurant servers aren’t asking my advice on the ethics of their situation, any more than selfish tip stiffers are. But if I were running a restaurant someplace where routine tipping was an established and expected custom, here’s what I’d do.
I’d let my servers know that it’s my restaurant’s policy to treat known or self-declared tip stiffers politely and responsibly, just as we do any other potential customers, but that we aren’t obligated to serve them. If some tip stiffers come in asking for a table, the staff can call me, and I’ll politely say to the diners:
“I’m sorry, sir/madam (as the case may be), but here at Chez Kimstu, we think our serving staff do a very good job and we’re proud of that. We prefer not to serve clients who make a practice of stiffing them of the tips that they’ve earned.” (And you better believe I’ll say that audibly enough to embarrass them in front of the other diners within earshot.)
If the tip stiffers make a fuss and insist on being seated* and start going into a diatribe about how they shouldn’t be expected to tip just because society says they have to and tipping is optional and a tip is nothing but a bonus and they’re the ones who get to decide if the quality of the service warrants extra payment, and if I don’t want to deal with the hassle of getting the cops to eject them, then I’ll say “Very well, sir/madam, if you insist upon it, ServerName will be happy to seat you. But I must warn you that we consider promptness in taking your order to be optional, and I’m the one who gets to decide which customers are entitled to it.” And then I’d tell the staff to ignore their table completely for the next ninety minutes.
And if the tip stiffers bloodymindedly insist on waiting it out and still want to order dinner, then I’ll tell the staff to go ahead and serve them as politely and efficiently as they would any other diners. Because we’ll have made our point.
In this scenario, of course, Chez Kimstu is deservedly one of the most popular and successful restaurants in town and always has plenty of customers, so even inconsiderate tip stiffers getting a frosty welcome are still desperate to eat there.
yeah well, I learned that savings accounts paid 5%, 20 mpg was good mileage and there were 9 planets. I also learned to tip 15% - when I first started buying my own resturant meals 40 years ago. Welcome to the 21st century.
It is my understanding as well that most countries outside the US are not “tipping cultures”
Who else tips for take-out pizza? I have never heard this one.
The thing is, as food prices go up, tips already go up accordingly. A 15% tip on a $5.00 meal is $0.75. By the time inflation doubles the price to $10.00, the tip automatically doubles to $1.50. Changing the tip to 18% means that the tip has gone up 140%, even though the price of the food has only gone up 100%. I think the notion of increasing tip percentages came from people who don’t quite understand how percentages work.
Not necessarily: it may be that you don’t quite understand how the economics of menu pricing works. Generally, restaurant menu prices don’t track inflation as closely as some other food prices do (e.g., at supermarkets).
For one thing, menus in non-fast-food restaurants tend to be more physically durable so it’s not cost-effective to reprint them with new prices every time inflation changes the cost of ingredients. For another, demand for restaurant food is softer than demand for supermarket food: people will keep buying groceries after they’ve given up or cut back on dining out.
So it’s by no means clear that menu price increases have actually kept up with inflation over the time period it’s taken for the customary tip percentage to rise from 15% to 18%.
It’s clear to me. I’ve seen average entree prices at middle of the road restaurants go from around $2.50-$3.00 in the mid 80s to $7-$9 now. In the same time span a gallon of milk has gone from around $2.00 to about $3.50- $4.00.
Looking around, I don’t see a number for that anywhere. They may have some number in their head if they decide to audit you, but you are simply supposed to record your tips and pay tax on all of it.
I would go to such a restaurant, but whether it would be successful would depend on other things like the type of food, the quality of the food, the quality of the service, location, hours… the usual suspects.
Are you referring to pizza delivered to your house or pizza that you order and then pick up? If it’s the latter, I’ve never tipped for that; is it expected?
In Canada, the standard tip remains 15% (for now). Higher tips are for outstanding service. My understanding is that in the US it is not uniform - some places you have to tip 18 or 20%, like New York, and others remain at 15%. Though I could be wrong in that, or outdated.
I’ve never really understood why or how tip percentages creep upwards, but they do. 40 years ago in Canada, the standard was 10%.
No-one here tips for take-out - though they do for delivery.
Yeah, I’ve never tipped for customer pick-up of any sort. If paying by credit card, that tip line shows up (of course), but I just cross it out and pay the original amount. There’s no necessity to tip for pick up orders.
If I had my preference, it would be no tipping and waiters paid fair wages and food prices set appropriately.
If the waiters are actually being paid minimum wage instead of being paid $2.70 + tips, then that way is via wage laws.
Tipping at a topless joint isn’t really tipping, it’s paying for a brief spot of personal attention, shorter than a lap dance but more personalized than just sitting in your chair and watching the show. It’s a “transactional fee” where the transaction duration and quality varies within some undefined limits and the fee is unspecified but set by custom and expectation.
It’s a vague transaction but more specific an exchange than merely “good service”.
It should be, but in practice it’s become an expectation. Thus the automatci tips calculated on larger parties, and the parade of explanations in this thread about how if you don’t tip you’re ripping off the waistaff, the restaurants, the other patrons, and the world.
For tip to be a true act of kindness and gratitude, it should be fully optional and not engender risk of spitting in your food if you don’t.
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**Besides: isn’t it Federal law in the US the Restaurant is required to make up the pay to ensure the waiter gets minimum wage if they don’t make enough in tips?
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Yes, per the link by Doug K., employers are required to pay waitstaff $7.25 an hour. They are allowed to take the first $5.12 an hour in tips and apply it toward that $7.25, but must pay at least $2.13 an hour themselves. However, if the actual tips received to not equal $5.12 an hour, then the employer must make up the difference.
Tip pooling muddies that, because one employee can make a bundle and another make nothing, and the pooling averages that out across both employees.
I’m not quoting you to pick on you, but since you quoted me, I’ll return the favor.
There is a thing, called class. Class. It’s a word that is really inadequately explained by dictionary definitions. The particular “class” to which I’m referring, is a condition, albeit hard to define, that is easy to recognize. It’s more than style … it’s more than elegance.
James Bond has it, and so does the “most interesting man in the world”. Classy people know which fork to use and when to use it at a seven course meal, and when to applaud at the opera. They are worldly enough to be at home in a biker bar or at Midnight Mass at the Vatican. Classy folks tip waiters, cab drivers and the corner paper boy.
I realize there are people out there who revel in their philistine existence, and their dim pragmatism must seem like good solid judgement to them. Really, it marks them as cheap, small minded and unsophisticated. The sad news is, most of them don’t realize this and will never understand it. They think they’ve arrived at some logical insight when in fact, they are just being provincial. Arguing with them is strikingly similar to stubbornly trying to explain equal rights to a bigot. Words fail you, they just don’t get it.
I would go to a no tipping restaurant in a flash. In fact, tipping being mandatory and the attitude of Americans who defend it makes me want to not eat out in the US, and I tried not to when I was there. Which is a pity, because I loved the burgers.
" I think the notion of increasing tip percentages came from people who don’t quite understand how percentages work. "
Is that lack of understanding why you find 15% acceptable? As noted in a subsequent post, a standard tip was indeed 10% at one time. That 50% increase was far greater than the increment now sought as standard.
Nothing has that certain je ne sais quoi of true class and sophistication quite like properly tipping one’s topless dancer.
Though I tend to agree that knowing the local custom and conforming with it is always the best idea - when in Rome etc. This means tipping in places and under circumstances where tipping is expected and not tipping in places where it is not.
As for myself, I think it is neither good nor bad - the culture changes. I’m not sure why it does, but it does.
To my mind, tipping is simply ‘about’ knowing and following the local culture. In countries where tipping is not the norm, do not tip; in countries where it is, tip, and attempt to know how much one should tip. This varies a bit from place to place, seemingly.
What I don’t know, is why percentages in places where tipping is expected tend to creep upwards. Not that it matters much - it isn’t my position that there is any one “right” way to tip that is universally applicable. All is local context.
