Personally, I rather like the European model with “service included” - hardly surprising, I rarely encounter anything else. I can tip if I want to - and I do, if the service is good - but there’s no obligation to do so, and lots of people never do. The waiters are paid at least a minimum wage, and a well-run restaurant will obviously hire competent waiters. I LIKE the idea of a waiter providing good service because he’s a pro and it’s a matter of pride to him, not because he hopes to gain an extra 5%.
There is, however, one serious drawback: The places that try to stay in business by selling you one overpriced meal and not expect to see you again. If enough tourists pass by a restaurant every day, the owner is practically guaranteed a minimum number of gursts - and if he doesn’t expect to cater for the locals, he can hire rude staff and sloppy cooks (or vice versa) and stay in business practically forever. In such cases, I would like to be able to withhold a tip in the most aggressive manner possible.
Whizbang, do you remember what issue contained that article? I would be interested in finding it, to help me bolster my arguments against the “underpaying waiters to make them rely on tipping” system.
From all the stories I hear about waiters being stiffed on tips, I don’t understand where the incentive is supposed to be. I mean, if I’m a waiter, I don’t know ahead of time whether or not the people ahead of time are going to leave me a good tip or not, so where’s the incentive to do a good job?
As a New Yorker (and, by definition, frequent restaurant-goer) I have pretty strong feelings about this:
In my poorer days, at least once I walked out of a restaurant when I realized I didn’t have enough for a tip.
I only leave a small tip when I’m sure it’s the waitstaff’s fault.
Tipsplitting systems are evil. Even more abusive is forcing the waiter to tip the busboy, etc., so the restaurant can hire illegals for those “lower” jobs at $1.50 an hour (which these workers can then use to pay off the $30,000 they owe their smugglers – but I’m not going to go down that path…)
20% is totally normal if you’ve got really good service (rare in New York, where truly “professional” waitstaff are few), or with a party of more than 4.
I don’t mind the European system, but I don’t think it will ever make it here except at top-end restaurants, or for large parties. It requires a level of professionalism that waiting tables just doesn’t carry here (again, except at the real top places). Especially in NY, it’s something you do while you’re trying to do something else – acting, writing, grad school, etc.
It has been my experience that the only people who complain about having to tip are cheap or ignorant. (My current boyfriend never tips enough and it gets on my nerves, so I always leave a little more. We won’t last long cause he doesn’t seem to have enough sense to be embarrassed about it. I’m thinking maybe he doesn’t understand that this is customary and based on the fact that these people don’t make a decent hourly wage.) If you feel you shouldn’t have to tip your waitress, hairdresser, or yes…even your mechanic (I’ve seen my mom do this.) then fine don’t. It is true that people in service industry jobs do not make what they are worth. How nice to sit down and have someone bring you dinner! Or wash your hair, comb it out, cut and dry it, 20.00 bucks seems cheap to me. Maybe I see this all differently because I have waited tables (making .99 an hour back in 74) and one of my sisters did a 3 year stint as a beautician. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman and I have cooked and waited on several men and children in my lifetime and never got a tip! Hell, I usually didn’t even get a thank you, while I stood there doing the dishes.
If tipping really causes you so much consternation, may I suggest the drive-thru.
JOHN: Why is “tipsplitting” evil? A good, attentive busboy can boost the servers tip, so he should share. It is hard to leave tips for the busboys, but one time we got poor service in Vegas, but the Busboy almost made up for it by his apologies, and keeping our ice tea & bread filled, so we searched him out & tipped, and let the MGR know…
I just wanted to make sure you read all the posts above. Many people (or at least I) are not against tipping, but object to the fact that waiters are paid very low wages, thus forcing them to scramble for tips.
I’m interested in knowing if the percentage offered as a tip is based on the total bill including tax? (the tax here in California I believe is somewhere around 8% of the bill) or is the tip paid on the bill NOT including tax? When the bill is sizeable, the tax alone could be considerable.
I know that some people pay on the total bill, but I still do not see the reasoning behind paying a tip on tax. Is ther a standard for this?
I think that many times the best tippers are from the people who work as servers and so on who understand how hard it is to make a living doing work for tips.
If I worked as a server in some trendy hollywood resturant I may not worry about getting payed at least minimum wage but as it is most places people are not going to tip like that even in high volume places like perkins,denny’s and the like.
another point to address on the flip side is how come I feel blown off somtimes at finer resturants because of my age. (I am 26 but look 20). When my wife and I go out with the inlaws we are fawned over but yet when the wife and I go alone I feel blown off somtimes.
A survey was done, dammit why can’t I find it, and it was discovered that the worst tippers are Doctors and Lawyers. I also know this from personal experience
