My philosophy as well. I tip, fairly well, but I hate it. And what I really hate is that I tip amounts keep creeping up, which means fewer people tip, which means waiters want more from me to make up for getting stiffed by someone else. I think tipping is Liberatarianism in Action - we get to choose to pay or not to pay and how much to pay for service, and some people choose not to pay and let those of us who feel an obligation pick up the slack.
At the same time, I dislike listening to waitstaff and delivery drivers gripe about people who don’t tip - don’t like the setup, go to work in an industry that isn’t so tip dependant. Yeah, I know it isn’t always that simple and sometimes sloshing coffee around Perkins is the only job you can find. I also know that when asked “well, why don’t you find another job” occationally the retort is “no way, I made $200 in tips Friday night, cash - I can’t make that anywhere else, I just don’t like working Tuesdays.” OK, then, stop bitching.
In the USA, non-tippers are either ignorant or assholes. Or both.
Since this seems to be a pizza-delivery thread: I generally pay the driver $3. More for bad weather, etc.
My neighborhood pizza place doesn’t charge for delivery. The guy at the phone always gives me an approximate delivery time–45 minutes to an hour. But the pizza often comes sooner.
I’ve worked in food service. For “nicer” self service places, I’ll tip a buck or two. And maybe leave a bit of change on the table for the guys doing the bussing.
Well said, though you could have left out the ‘cunts’ remark.
I find it amazing the number of people here who insist that one should tip every type of service worker. Do you people tip supermarket cashiers? Do you tip the mailman? Do you fucking tip airline pilots? (“Thanks for getting us here safely pal, here’s a grand!”) Hell, why not send a tip to the President? Seriously, why the fuck not? He is after all, working for us and providing a service. :rolleyes:
Hey, if you’re well off financially, that’s fine, blow your money, but I’m not rich and I refuse to be goaded into thinking I should have to tip everyone for every little thing (usually by superior-minded folks). And I WORK in the food service industry.
People I will tip:
Waitstaff who make less than minimum wage (depending on their service of course - I WILL tip big for great service)
Pizza delivery guys (I’ll tip them a little something, but I refuse to give them a $5 tip for delivering a $10 pizza, especially in my relatively small town where the max drive time is probably 20 minutes round trip)
Bartenders (I usually just have a couple of beers and let them keep the change after paying for each beer (which would generally be .50 to .75 - not bad for what amounts to handing me a bottle of beer))
Barbers (generally $2 for a $10 haircut)
Prostitutes (really nice blowjob tonight baby, here’s an extra $10)
Also, I’d tip hotel porters and grocery store baggers who help me take stuff to my car (rare instances for me in either case so it’s not really an issue).
Thanks for getting that out there. I get really sick of going down this road all the time because someone thinks that an American newspaper knows more about the customs of a country than the people living there. (Admittedly, I think Sydney’s working hard at becoming Little America and may well go into tipping as a standard eventually, but elsewhere it’s definitely business as usual.)
I don’t tip, though if I’m dealing direct with a cashier (supermarkets, fast-food places, etc) I’ll often just keep the notes from my change and leave the shrapnel with a “That’s okay; keep it for the ‘unders and overs’ jar for the next till reconciliation.” Having worked tills before I know how rarely it actually exactly balances from week to week, and it’s usually out just by a matter of a few cents to a couple of dollars.
Rest easy, though, American-type peoples! Having been thoroughly primed by my experiences here I shall not be the Ugly Australian who stiffs the poor service folks. I shall tip generously and always err on the side of caution. It is far more likely that I will tip people who don’t even expect it, but nobody’s gonna say that *this *Australian stiffed them!
Actually I don’t “see the world” as a Black and White image. That’s quite the generalization. I do however see the guidelines of pizza delivery as pretty black and white:
Go to pizza shop.
Punch in.
Get pizzas from on top of the oven, already-boxed.
Drive to delivery locations.
Deliver pizzas.
Oh wait, you’re right, there’re all sorts of areas to be gray there.
Not obsessed, but angry with the issue of people demanding things from others for doing absolutely nothing. Tipping is just a small piece of that. I also don’t care for people bitching when they don’t get what they want.
Good on him, but if you’re even thinking that he is the norm, you’re flat-out insane.
That’s crazy. There are a couple of pizza places within a 5 minute drive of my house. If I call it in, by the time I get my shoes on and get to the pizza place, I’ll usually wait around for 5 minutes and the pizza’s ready.
This isn’t true. “If an employee’s tips combined with the employer’s direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference.” So says the US Government’s Department of Labor Website.
Agreed. He’s the “the customer is always right!” type, who is hostile against those he perceives as his inferiors. I think this thread is fairly evident that his perception is that service workers basically deserve being treated poorly; after all, since he doesn’t work in service, he must be a better person.
Except for that whole being a tightwad, freeloading douchebag thing, of course.
Nothing i said is incorrect, and nothing i said is contradicted by your cite. I was well aware of that rule when i made my post.
Remember, YOU are the one who initially made the assertion that “restauranteurs are guilty of short-changing their waitstaff, and the burden rests on the public’s shoulders to compensate.” I assumed, not unreasonably i think, that by this you meant that restaurants are allowed to pay less than minimum wage, and that the public is expected to supplement waiters’ income with tips.
I simply responded:
There is not a single incorrect statement in that quote.
If by “short-change” you meant “pay less than regular minimum wage on the assumption that tips will make up the rest,” then it is a simple fact that this option is open to restaurant owners due to the actions of American legislators. Hell, your own cite shows this to be the case.
That there are “specific exemptions in the minimum wage laws for tipped employees” is also a fact. The employers, as you have noted, do have to make up the minimum wage if tips are not sufficient, but this doesn’t change the fact that the minimum wage laws treat tipped employees differently from other employees.
That the exemptions in the minimum wage laws “rely on the assumption that tips will make up the difference” is also a fact, as demonstrated by your own citation from the Department of Labor.
And that “the American people bear the burden of responsibility for these laws” should be obvious to anyone with a third-grade education. If you haven’t yet reached that point, i apologize for assuming otherwise.
Former pizza guy here. TokyoPlayer nailed it in one. Where I worked, the owner knew that it would adversely affect drivers’ incomes, but didn’t care. She did it because she didn’t have to pay meal tax to the state on a delivery charge. And no, we didn’t get any of the charge. Bitch.
Obviously your pizza place must not be as busy as mine or must have bigger/more ovens than mine. If there were absolutely no line, it would take about 12-15 minutes to make a pizza here: Roll out the dough (1 min) , stack on the ingredients (1-2 min), stick 'em in the oven (10 or so min), box 'em (1 min). Some places may take longer to cook, and if you get a deep dish, forget about it. This assumes you’re at the front of the queue. During busy times, it’s not unusual for my pie to take at least 20-30 minutes before it gets to the oven.
I know that I’m not the dickface in question, but it is pretty fucking rude of you to be making all these assumptions about people who work in the service industry.
Similar to CynicalGabe , I have a couple graduate degrees. I delivered pizzas for a while so that I could give my entire focus to my music career (such as it was), not have to deal with other people’s schedules and routines, and still make a decent living. We’re not all mouth-breathers, you know.
You don’t seem like a mouth-breather, no, but CynicalGabe was the first to introduce the “dickface” moniker. Just making that clear – at no point in this thread did I attack anyone first.
I can understand someone who’s going through graduate school delivering pizzas, and I can also understand someone who falls on some bad luck doing it to make ends meet – but you’d think those with Master’s degrees (especially liberal arts based graduate degrees) would understand the burden the customer bares to make up for cheap restauranteurs. You’d think someone with a Master’s degree would understand the potential for their wages being truncated due to our tipping system, and would probably avoid it.
It’s the high school drop outs with their hands out who often raise the biggest bitch flags when they don’t get the tip they think they’re entitled to.
See, the thing is, though - those restauranteurs you deride as “cheap” operate with in an economic system in which any individual actor does not have the power to alter the system. What are they supposed to do? Unilaterally raise their wages and forbid gratuities to their drivers? In a culture where there is a widespread perception that it is appropriate to tip for food delivery service, your drivers will still get tips from those who choose to do so. However, with the higher wages you offer, your prices you charge the cutomer will also have to increase. As such, your sales will inevitably suffer. Meanwhile, the really cheap bastards who refuse to tip will call your competitor to get a cheaper pie, and stiff the driver. Over the long run, as I’m sure you’re aware of, your pizza place will eventually go out of business (most restaurants operate on thin profit margins).
Look, I understand you and many people don’t like to tip. Fine. But that is the system we have in place in the USA. As others have pointed out to you, if you order food and don’t tell them that you won’t tip, you are undertaking a petty fraud, as one who accepts the rights of the customer but refuses to acknowledge the concomitant responsibilities.
Not that it will make a difference to you, but this list constitues maybe one-tenth (or less) of the typical daily duties I had when I worked as a delivery driver. We were also required to perform a lot of food prep duties, take orders, often participate on the makeline making the orders, take them from the oven and cut and box them, and do a lot of closing work (dishwashing, cleaning floors, etc.).
Of course, the only part you actually see is the driver walking from his car to your door while you stand in the threshold with your stopwatch and your expression of severe constipation.
It seems that someone watched Reservoir Dogs and found a personal hero in Mr. Pink.
Gosh, but you’re an asshole, Dudley. Why all the hostility toward people working shitty service jobs? They didn’t personally invent the concept of tipping, they’re just trying to make ends meet working a difficult job, made significantly more difficult by the fact that they have to deal with douchebags like yourself.
Feel free to opt out of doing business with establishments that are set up around tipping, but don’t stiff people. You may technically have the right to, but only because you’re taking advantage of social customs without regard to the consequences to others.
