Why do we tip waitpersons, especially in restaurants which we will never return to. After all, we suffer no direct negative consequences for failing to do so. Do we do so because these people are underpaid?
I’m sure there are people out there who pay their employees crap wages, but consider it wrong not to tip.
Also, why are employees of McDonalds prohibited from accepting tips?
What handy said was not always true. When I was a waiter, enough was added to my pay to make it minimum wage for tax purposes; the pay was taxed and the extra taken out. I got way more than that in tips. I know the law has changed since then, but I don’t think most people tip because they are thinking about how the IRS treats tipped employees.
It is a good question. Why do we help others at a cost to ourselves when we have already gotten the service and, if we don’t return, there is no benefit to us? Habit, maybe. I think the golden rule applies. What we do to benefit others indirectly benefits us.
We tip because we’re aware that the owner of the room isn’t paying the help what they’re worth.
The problem lies in the practice of telling us how much we should tip.
Some of the older diners,who are on fixed[low]incomes, can only afford to eat out on special and rare occasions.
I don’t feel it’s right to ,practically,tell them to stay home because they’ve only managed to scrimp the cost of the meal–and it’s their annivetrsary.
Demanding a fixed rate for tipping is like demanding that we subsidize the owners payroll.
Bad,rude or attitudinal service doesn’t deserve a tip----unless it’s the tip of ones boot!
But don’t we subsidize the owner’s payroll anyway? Where do you think McDonald’s (say) gets the money to pay their servers? From all the money we consumers pay for Big Macs.
Apparently that’s not what you meant… Could you clarify?
I kind of think that this is because tipping is an established expectation that we’re aware of when we go to a restaurant. It’s such a pervasive institution that we’ve impicitly bought into it just by eating there.
So, when the restaurant and waiter uphold their end of this “contract”, the idea of not tipping gives me the feeling that I’m welching on a deal.
I tip in order to keep the price of beer in bars down. I magnaminously tip one dollar for every beer I buy if it is between one and four dollars. But my ceiling is five bucks for a beer–total. So if some greedy dive-owner decides he can get away with charging $4.50 for a pint of Guiness, my friend the bartender quickly realizes that he’s getting pocket-change tips from me for now on.
I’m an asshole, right? Why am I passing this misfortune onto people who arent responsible for the price increase?
It works this way: if I do this to some poor clod in a bar in another city, he says, “what a cheapskate,” and forgets about it, maybe, until someone just like me that he knows brings up the fact that the beer is too damned expensive. “Hmmm… That’s why I’m only getting fifty cent tips. I gotta come up with a solution to this problem.”
Meanwhile, I’m at my favorite bar here in the Playground of the Damned, enjoying ten or eleven pints of Uncle Earl’s Severely Over-Hopped Panther Piss at the exhorbitant price of $4.50 a pint. My bartender knows that I’m not a cheapskate, but that I have principles (well… something like them, anyway) when it comes to the price of a glass of beer. My tab comes to me, listing eight Panther Pisses instead of ten… well maybe eleven. I dutifully lay down fifty-five clams, feel more sober than I would have had I paid for eleven beers and a tip, and elect to make it out the door to a taxi under my own power instead of asking for the bouncer to roll me out on a dolly. The bartender gets a nice, fat tip. At the end of the night he tosses a fistful of quarters from the night’s tip jar into the register in exchange for a ten-spot. Everyone’s happy.
Everyone, that is, except the owner of the bar. A few months down the line, Mr. Chisel notices something strange: he’s buying more beer every month, but selling fewer pints. And it seems like everyone is paying for their beer in quarters. “Maybe I should consider raising the price of beer to five bucks,” he thinks. Then, hopefully, he remembers the parting words of his best bartender after he fired the guy for leaving drinks off of his buddy’s tab. Beer goes down to an unreasonable yet manageable four bucks a pint, and harmony returns once more to a dive in the Playground of the damned.
Well, I like the current system of tipping. And I have only been a tipper, never a tipee. I figure that if tipping was abolished, prices of stuff would be raised to make up the difference. And I would lose to ability to influence the incomes of folks who serve me. I tend to be a generous tipper… 20% in my norm with a one dollar minimum. But get me angry and that can drop to a single dime.
To answer the OP’s original question, I tip someone who I who never see again because I like the current system. If everyone failed to tip, the tipees lose the incentive to provide great service. Especially to folks who are just passing though. I would hate to get crummy service while traveling because all travelers suddenly stopped tipping.
And when in doubt, I tip. People always seem to forgive over-tipping much quicker than under-tipping.
I can see where the bar owner /tender probably would do
better in tips if the price is near an even dollar, either above or below. If it’s $3.90/pint, the customer is apt
to pull out another whole dollar (or leave the change from the $5 bill that he gave the bartender). If it’s $4.10,
the customer’s still likely to leave all the change on the bar. Sure it’s just a buncha dimes and nickels, but still
it’s almost a dollar.
When I first moved to DC, there was a club that charged $2.61 for beers and wine coolers. Add 15%, and that’s exactly $3.00.
A tipping card I once had said waitresses should be tipped 15%; bartenders 10%. (I guess since they don’t have to traipse through the crowded room.) After I read that, I stopped at a dive bar after work. I ordered a draft beer, and it was $0.90. When she gave me the dime change, I just slid it back towards her. She thanked me like it was gold (it was only 11.1%). Then the old-time patrons got on my case for tipping so much. I guess I made them look bad.
Since I have a part time job in a restaurant, as well as my regular full time gig, lemme 'splain.
Your server is probably the only person you’ll get to see, but s/he relies on the other staff (kitchen, bar, host/ess) to ensure that your experience runs smoothly. For example, if you get your food and it’s cold, it may be that your server let it sit too long, OR that the kitchen put it out that way. Remember, we don’t stick our fingers in it to make sure.
One thing not too many people realize is that at the end of the night, the server has to “tip out” the other staff. This is usually a percentage based on the server’s final sales (including tax!). In the restaurant I work in now, that amounts to 3% of my final sales. If I have $1000 in sales, $30 goes to the other staff. That means if one of those fixed income couples comes in for dinner and spends $100 and leaves me no tip, they’ve just cost me $3. Congratulations on your anniversary and all, but hey…
This is not to say that you should tip for bad service. I’ve walked out of restaurants and left exact change, and I’m in the business. Just remember, your server is human too, and mistakes happen. Our job is to please all of the people all of the time, and I think we all know how that usually works out.
having worked in the food indistry for about a decade now, i know a little bit about tipping. there are meany reasons why people tip. i think that the biggest reason is becouse it’s expeted. that’s just the way it is. joe smow probuble doesn’t even know that his server isn’t being payed minim wadge, yet he tips 20% just becouse. another reason poeple tip is becouse it makes them feel good. people don’t want to leave the resteront or bar thinking the the server now hates them becouse they were under tiped. there are a few little mind games that servers know to make there guests feel that way.
i don’t think that tipping started out this way, but evolved into the current system. being a bartender at the hotel dupont, i see alot of people from other countrys and have found out through first hand experince that it’s not like this every where. i find french people the worst tippers (no offence) and japinese among the best.
for me when i go out i would like to think that becouse i work in the indestry that i tip for all the right reasons, but i have to admit that sometimes i through a few extra dollars down so i feel better about my self.
quick rundown for those who don’t know
bad service - below 15%
medeocare service - 15%
good service - 17-18%
great service - 20%
superman service - above 20%
remember that your tipping on service only. if you found a fly in your soop, it’s not your server’s falt, it’s the chief’s fault and manigement should be notified. if the server said “so what” and scouped the fly out with there hand right in front of you and walked away, that’s bad service.