I used to tip in cash. Then I met a lady who had been a server all of her working life. She used her cash tips for her day-to-day expenses and under-reported them on her taxes. Carrying heavy trays of food around all day, every day is hard on people and she really wants to retire.
She can’t retire, she doesn’t have enough savings and by not paying taxes on her tips, she also didn’t pay into Social Security and is only eligible for around 600 a month if she retires now that she is 70.
She says she really wishes more people had tipped on their cards to stop young and foolish people from doing what she did.
Completely agreed. And, since I patronize certain restaurants (both for sit-down meals, and delivery) often, it’s nice to be recognized as “he tips well” by the staff.
Thats the thing , though, it’s hard to know the expectation. It seems that I am expected to tip a barista at Starbucks and not the server at McDonalds. But suppose I get a latte or cappuccino at McDonald’s or a plain brewed coffee at Starbucks ? Neither place pays the sub-minimum wage that is allowed for servers. What about Dunkin’ Donuts - when I worked there so long ago that there was counter service only those served at the counter tipped , not those getting take-out orders. When did things change?
I remember one tipping guideline being that the owner of an establishment ( whether a restaurant or a hair salon ) doesn’t get tipped because he or she has the ability to set the price. Is that still the expectation ? I have no idea.
Yesterday I went to a snack bar at a bowling center . They didn’t take cash and the machine was going to automatically add a 20% tip- I could remove it but if I did nothing it would be added. For handing me a bottle of water and a can of seltzer that didn’t require even taking a step. I would never not tip someone who is being paid sub-minimum wage - but I have no idea why I am “expected” to tip furniture delivery people when I paid a fee and they make $25-30/hr , especially since I’m not expected to tip UPS even if they are delivering a piece of furniture.
As for the OP, you will tip servers in restaurants , hotel housekeepers , cab drivers, and most of the people who handle your bags ( bellhops , if you use curbside check-in at the airport , porters if you are getting on a cruise ship). Most of the other situations don’t apply to visitors.
I do give our Fed-Ex driver a nice tip at Christmas. He always puts our heavy Chewy boxes on our front porch instead of leaving them at the base of the steps like other delivery drivers.
To the OP, if you choose to visit a dispensary, the budistas have a tip jar. They are paid normal wages so you only need to tip if you liked the service. Most folks just stuff a few bucks in the jar, but I like to give them more because when I’m at the dispensary, I’m in my happy place.
You do realize that whether the waiter’s compensation comes from his or her salary or from your gratuity, it ultimately originates with your wallet? The only difference is that a tip is more likely to go directly to the waitstaff instead of used to pay the meat guy or the electricity or whatever.
People act as if the restaurant is this magic money machine and by deferring part of their staff’s comp to tips, the evil greedy restauranteur is keeping all that cash to himself.
Tipping isn’t the same as robbery. If you’re paying $100 for food at a restaurant, how ridiculous is the argument over whether you should tip $20 or $15 or $25. I’m 99% sure that 99% of the time the five dollar differences make no financial difference to you.
Where to tip is a legitimate argument. I agree that fast-food places shouldn’t insist on tips. Take-out from sit-down restaurants is harder to place. Do the tips get shared with the cooks? Do tips only go to the waiters who didn’t serve you? Shouldn’t the overworked person at the counter who is continually being yelled at get a little something? When we don’t know the pay structure of the business, tipping gets weird.
When we do, then tip. If an extra dollar tip is meaningful I’ll understand. But for most people most of the time, tipping is a nothing, a small bit of money whose denial is denial of people at the lower end of our crazy money values in America. There is no moral value in not tipping, except in truly egregious moments, and large moral value in tipping as much as you’re able to.
Sure, but you’re disregarding the fact that a tipping culture with increasing percentages is a way for the business owner to make their prices appear lower. If there were no tipping and a higher normal wage, the true cost to the consumer would be more transparently reflected in a higher price, without this add-on cost. It’s conceptually no different from any other bullshit add-on charge - the “resort fee” at hotels in Vegas, the “documentation fee” in car purchase or real estate transactions. Market forces generally work better when all this kind of stuff is made illegal and consumers are shown a transparent total price for what they are buying.
OK, now that’s fine and proper if I’m getting a latte and salmon bagel at a street cafe in Greenwich, Manhattan.
But if I’m taking a break for refreshments at a roadhouse whilst refueling 3 hours out of Albuquerque, NM or on the I90 south of Pierre, SD en route to Custer SP, do the same rules and conventions apply?
Anywhere that you are paying by credit card and where it’s conventional to tip, then it’s normal and expected to add the tip to the credit card charge, and you will be given the opportunity to do so. It’s vanishingly rare for any sit-down eatery or bar not to take credit cards, and if so they would prominently display “cash only” or they would have constant problems. Even “street food” places usually take credit cards now. People just don’t routinely carry a lot of cash these days.
You need a few small bills only for situations where the tip is not just added to a CC bill, like a bell hop or a housekeeper.
I tip 18-20% for a sit down meal. If it was substandard , I tip 10 to 15%. I tip accordingly, a dollar or two, or five, or ten, even as a poor person, depending on what they ‘did’ or profferd unto me. I’m sorry, but I got no bags for the bellboy to take advantage of me. But the Bellboy will, take you, Everywhere.
Yes, but as I stated, it is an inequitable system because poor tippers are skating while the rest of us are over burdened. Some restaurants have addressed this by adding a mandatory gratuity to the bill. Wu’s House adds an 18% gratuity to every bill. I can live with that. It forces the cheapskates to pay their fair share.
It’s a smart idea with food delivery people as well. Our local pizza delivery people both remember and share who tips well, and as a result we always end up with our pizza being hot (sometimes almost too hot!) and before the slated time.
I generally agree with the “personal service” threshold for understanding where tipping is appropriate. Considering that, nobody has mentioned tipping at buffet restaurants. At some you get your own food, but you still have a waiter/waitress who brings you drinks and clears your plates, and at others they may not do anything more than show you to your table and bring the check. So adjust the tip down accordingly. I’d say 15% is the absolute maximum under normal circumstances.
Same here. There are two pizza places, and a Chinese restaurant, from whom we order often enough that they know my name now, and they nearly always beat their delivery time estimate by a fair amount. The drivers from one of the pizza places, in particular, always make a point of thanking me for the tip, so it’s clearly being noticed.
I buy pizza from a local place and always throw some cash into the tip jar in appreciation of the sign on the tip jar: WE KNEAD THE DOUGH.
A friend bartends weddings, parties, etc. His tip jar says, JUST PUT THE TIP IN, IT"LL FEEL GOOD. I always wonder about that one, especially for family events.
Here’s a tip: Give those guys something before they start - “Here, get yourselves some lunch” - giving a hint that there will be more to follow if the jobs a good un.
I know this because I did removals way back when, and even here in England, we expected some appreciation for our efforts. An advance made it a lot more likely that your glassware wouldn’t be ‘accidentally’ dropped.
The drivers from one of the pizza places, in particular, always make a point of thanking me for the tip, so it’s clearly being noticed.