studmuffin is apparently from a different culture outside of the U.S. where waitstaff are paid a normal salary or wage and tipping is not expected. This is very common outside of the U.S. The amount of a tip in different locals vary from no tip at all to just leaving the coin change of the bill. I’ve seen many American travel to different countries and leave a 15%-20% tip with the bill only to be chastised by their local hosts for overpaying. It’s just not the custom in many places out of the US.
Also a culture where arguments must be posed in as obnoxious a manner as possible, apparently. I’m just sayin’.
As do I. My favorite experience was going in to a high end restaurant wearing my old army jacket and looking like the typical undesirable. But I was recognized as the the guy who leaves the big tips. I got right to the front of the line and given choice seating, in front of the stunned gaze of the guys in their fancy suits who couldn’t bribe their way in. Tipping works.
On top of that, my greatest fault is pride. But in this case it’s not a fault. If I’m going to cheap out on something, it’s not going to be a few bucks for a tip.
Well if studmuffin is here in the US of A, he’s going to have to go along with our stupid customs, and he shouldn’t be complaining about it. I don’t go to England and complain about the excessive courtesy.
If you are in the US, tipping is part of the cost of going out. If you can’t afford to tip, then you cannot afford to go out.
I know what you mean. But when I do the same thing to police officers and politicians (in order to get continued excellent service, plus a smile), people look at me as if I’m the bad guy!
So is it ok to not tip in California?
But there’s no rhyme or reason as to why certain food/drink employees make a set wage (fast food) vs. those who don’t (bartenders, waiters). Age? The kid assembling my bananna split is putting forth more effort that the guy twisting a cap off a bud. I’m sure a DQ owner would love to cut overhead and pay his employees les than minimum and have customers make up for it in tips. But the system isn’t set up that way.
Oh, and Best Buy guys don’t get commissions. Not since 1989.
Well, some people do tip cops! An old friend of mine was a tattoo artist. He told me he had never charged a cop for ink. He was always gracious, saying that he wanted to give them the freebie as a way of showing his appreciation for the great job they did. He said that with a straight face, yet he walked a bit to the side of the straight and narrow path.
He never got speeding tickets, and when he died dozens of cops volunteered to help with traffic control for the funeral.
I take it you don’t live in Chicago.
This is disingenuous. Are you talking about tipping in general, or tipping in this specific situation?
I stand corrected then.
We always complain about the decline of old fashioned jobs where a diligent but relatively unskilled person can make enough money to keep their family afloat. We pine for the days of the middle-class job at the factory.
Well, serving is the very last bastion of this. Serving is the last place that a, say, single mother without a degree or specialized skills can make more than minimum wage. Every other service job has become a race to the bottom, with a high-turnover disposable workforce of people making not-quite-enough to survive and supplementing their meagre wages with food stamps.
I’m all for keeping serving that way.
These responses are based on a factually incorrect claim that all a bartender does is open a bottle of beer. As I mentioned before, they have to stock shelves, clean glasses, clean up the mess left by customers, and clean and maintain the rest of the bar. They are often de facto managers and have to make decisions about who to serve, as well as stop fights, call cabs, serve food, and try to keep everyone in the bar satisfied with what’s on the TV or the music playing, or how bright the lights are. If a bartender is doing nothing but opening bottles of beer, they are extremely lucky (or good looking, which is also luck).
I have always felt that the American predilection for tipping is a side effect of not having a class system. We feel uncomfortable with the idea of just ordering someone around. The tip is a way to make it feel less like ordering a servant and more like employing a short term assistant. Hence people who we give direct orders to (like waiters, bartenders or taxi drivers) get tips, but people we buy a product or service from (like fast food workers or plumbers) don’t. The fact that they tip in Canada (which also lacks a class system), but not England (which does have one), seems like it suports my argument.
No. We have a class system, it’s just based on how much money you have, and it’s not generational by intent. The American class mobility helps keep us tipping, because many of us remember what is was like to when we were in the minimum wage (or below) class. Fast food workers don’t get tipped mainly as a matter of policy in the establishments, and plumbers are not lower class here. They are very well paid professionals.
I think there’s an additional aspect that hasn’t been mentioned. Waiters and waitresses have tax withheld for a minimum of 10% of the check, unless the tip amount is reported. So, if you’re paying in cash and not leaving a tip, the server will have tax withheld on money he or she didn’t even get.
At least, that’s how it worked back in the '90’s.
This would be, of course, offset by lots of tip income that’s never reported, but if everyone started leaving sub-10% tips, then servers would pay taxes on money they didn’t receive.
On the surface that sounds reasonable, but I’m guessing that servants in the UK actually do get paid. It isn’t as though being a lower class means they become slaves.
According to some prior posts, some states are making employers cover that gap. But it is still the practice in my state and others. Admittedly, the tips are often under-reported also, and taxes are avoided.
But if the owner of said DQ expected his employees wages to be supplemented in tips he would have to lower the menu prices (or risk losing business to other businesses). The lower income would probably balance out the lower payroll (or something close to it).
I don’t see how this is relevant to the issue of tipping, though. If all I’ve done is ask for a bottle of beer, the bartender isn’t doing any of these things for me. When you tip someone, you’re tipping them for what they’ve done to serve you, not for the other parts of the job they have to do for other customers or to keep the establishment running smoothly.
If I’m deciding whether/how much to tip a bartender for giving me a beer, all those things you mentioned are irrelevant to me. If the bartender serves food to me, or cleans up a mess I made, or gives me any sort of extra attention or service, I’ll tip him for that.