Tosh. Why the special pleading? There are plenty of jobs done very well by people who aren’t tipped. Usually simply because their employers impose standards. There’s nothing special about serving staff that they must be tipped to do their job well. Further, service standards are as high or higher in countries where there is no or no significant tipping.
Substantial tipping is just a relatively recent US tradition that has now become entrenched.
So Penny makes good money? 
I just Googled the minimum wage in Australia; it’s $16.37. No wonder you don’t tip.
At least you will be served a meal whether you tip or not.
Unlike some other places where you have to tip beforehand to get anything done, only then I think it’s called a bribe.
Of course if all you want to do is speed up the action it’s called facilitation money.
A very important distinction as one will get you arrested and the other won’t.
At least you aren’t being asked to tip cows. You think calculating 15-20% of a bill is bad, try tipping a cow sometime.
Don’t forget you have to tip taxi drivers, doormen, bellhops, the maid, the shampoo girl, the barber, the hairdresser, the pizza delivery person, the paper person, bartenders, and don’t forget the strippers. One should always tip the strippers.
Fact; It’s customary to tip service workers in America. No statistics are needed, everyone over the age of seven knows you tip the waiter, bartender, dealer, etc., etc.
Fact: You claim to be nervous and anxious regarding tipping, especially figuring out the proper amount to tip. I gave you a set of facts to help you make the computations.
Reason we tip in this country: we have big hearts and we appreciate a little extra effort that makes a meal or a drink experience special and enjoyable. We’re grateful … that’s why it’s called a gratuity.
Glad to help.
I love the American tipping system. I make more money, doing very easy work, than I could make in any other field available to me, considering I have zero formal education.
Seriously, on a good night, I will walk away with $300 in cold hard cash. That’s half my rent. Of course on a regular night, I make $150, but that’s not bad for showing up at 4pm, staying til 11, only having to work in earnest for three of those hours, and eating food for free. And no, I don’t have to flirt or otherwise demean myself to do so (I wouldn’t, and never have) - I just give prompt and professional service, and if you have decent check averages that 10-30% from every customer adds up quickly.
ETA: I recently moved to Chicago, and as a bonus, I get $5.05 in serving wage here, which is much better than the $2.83 I was getting in Philadelphia. Also - it’s easy to get work almost anywhere as an experienced server. I moved with no job and got the 3rd job I applied to, same day. It gives you a lot of freedom.
Right, because that’s what happens in the rest of the world where they don’t tip?
Good for you, I’m on your side.
Why, I say why do Americans need to concern themselves, realistically, rhetorically, or even sarcastically with what folks do in other countries? Immigrants, legal and otherwise, aren’t tripping over each other to get here because life is so much better wherever they came from. If a tourist from overseas can’t get the hang of tipping … well, I guess they need a visitors’ pamphlet of some kind … but once you become a resident, you may as well learn that there are certain things that we do bigger and more proudly here, like express gratitude and appreciation for a job well done and attention well given by opening up the wallet.
Isn’t that what I said? It’s what I meant.
I think this also really varies by location in the United States. Like I said, in California, they have to pay at least minimum wage (and in San Jose, CA, minimum wage is $10.00/hour). So maybe in California/Bay Area waitstaff are not getting burgled by restaurants since their job is at least a minimum wage job with tips.
However, in a place where they give less than minimum wage on the assumption that tips will offset this, I think its bad. I feel like it has a lot of potential for abuse on behalf of the employer.
People may bristle at the concept of tipping, but I’m sure there are lots of employees that WISH they were allowed to receive tips. I think the reason tipping culture is so prevalent in the United States is because Americans want to feel like they have some control over a product or service ‘voting with dollars’. They see leaving a bad/no tip for bad service and a good tip for good service as a way of influencing the kind of service they get. I know that many restaurant ‘regulars’ who frequent a restaurant and tip well get greeted by name and are given a lot of mundane little accomodations (maybe they always get seated in their favorite booth when possible, maybe the cook will make some substitution they would not normally waste time with). If the restaurant didn’t permit waitstaff to accept tips, then the staff wouldn’t have as much of an incentive to go the extra mile for a specific customer. I know the staff at McDonald’s aren’t busting their ass to get my order of a “Quarter Pounder with 1 1/4 slices bacon no pickles extra onions BBQ sauce instead of ketchup and please pick all the sesame seeds off the bun” correct because because there isn’t any direct benefit for them to do so. But if putting that kind of effort meant they would make significantly more money that day they certainly would.
I guess I misunderstood what you meant by “Most employers in the US cannot seize a tip as a wage…” I thought you were disagreeing with the idea that they were effective seizing the tip
Really, we tip because “we have big hearts and we appreciate a little extra effort that makes a meal or a drink experience special and enjoyable”? It has nothing to do with the fact that many of the people who get tipped make less than minimum wage? People don’t feel obligated to tip the surly waitress something even though she did anything but make the experience enjoyable ? You said “reduce the tip if the waitress insults you date or forgets your food entirely” - why am I tipping anything? I’m not grateful for being insulted and there was no extra effort involved in forgetting my food…
You can reduce the tip to “zero” if you like. I’ve successfully demanded and received a couple of free meals after receiving horrible service. Who said you have to tip for bad service?
That means they’re seizing tips IMO. The fact that the physical cash stayed in the employee’s pocket is irrelevant to the fact that the employer got a huge cut (up to 100%) of the actual money. The tip went to relieve the employer of a financial obligation, not to enrich the employee. Having an obligation written off is a form of income.
Here’s a scenario:
An employee works 40 hours in a job where tips are customarily received, but customers give him no tips. 
But the employer, being a law-abiding employer, pays the employee the $290 that is legally owed, as that is the minimum wage for 40 hours of work.
Next week, the employee works 40 hours and gets $204.80 in tips. That happens to be the exact maximum tip credit for 40 hours of work. The employer pays out $85.20, which is the minimum cash wage for 40 hours of work.
In each case, the employee went home at the end of the week having earned $290, but the employer ended the second week with $204.80 more. The employer got the tips. If you go above $204.80 in tips, the employee starts to receive money from tips, but the cut taken by the employer is starting at 100% and can never fall all the way to zero.
That’s one way to look at it, but why did the server get no tips in the first week. Presumably because he was not doing the job he was expected to do. But the employer paid him anyway. So one could equally argue that for the first week, the server was overpaid. The premise is that if you are not earning your $204.80 in tips for 40 hours of work, you either can’t or won’t do your job and probably will be released as the employer has to continually make up this difference.
Here’s another fact: no one here has said anything to the contrary. There are various lines of discussion going on here about tips, but precisely no one is denying it is customary to tip in the US. When people make points about tipping, your reaction is to provide no reasoning but just blindly assert irrelevancies. Like I said, not very convincing.
Before you say “Fact” so boldly, you might like to check who said what. Actually, I claimed nothing of the sort: that was njtt.
Sorry, I was toying with you when I pretended earlier to accept this explanation as correct. I’ve read post upon post upon explanation upon blog article by Americans which says “you should tip in the US because servers don’t get minimum wage and rely upon your tips to earn their basic living”. You can believe and be motivated as you like, but I doubt your opinion is even that of the majority of your countryfolk, let alone the definitive view.
Firstly, you don’t show any signs at all of understanding the point people have been making regarding other countries. The point isn’t that the US should be like other countries. You’re just blindly asserting irrelevancies again. The point people have been making regarding other countries is that it is incorrect to say that US tipping practices are the only or best solution, because other countries don’t have US style tipping practices and they work just fine. In other words no one is saying the US shouldn’t have its tipping practices, they are saying overseas examples show the US doesn’t have to have its tipping practices. I’m sure you’re smart enough to understand this distinction if you try.
And your whole schtick about immigrants tripping over themselves to get to America so America must be exceptionally great is cute but ignorant. I don’t know if you’ve noticed (I’m guessing not) but pretty much every 1st world country has immigrants, particularly refugees, clamouring to get in. The whole of Western Europe, Canada, Australia. All of them. Get over yourself. And most of those countries don’t have US tipping practices.
Income from gifts is generally taxable. Its just that most gifted amounts are petty in nature or are exempt gifts between family members. A “gift” to the waitstaff would not fall under the narrow criteria for exemption.
Or you get REALLY good service the next time you go in.