It’s payment for services rendered. And, it’s not to a “listed non-profit org”. It’s also not a “gift”. Although, if you gave a fave waiter a $20 for Christmas, that could be argued as a “gift”.
Or we could get rid of this entire tips minimum concept and just make employers pay a living wage instead of letting him make his employees depend on the generosity of strangers.
This is one thing I do not get. I have friends that do this, too-- tip 15% in a casual dining-type place, and then 25-30% in a fancy restaurant for the same (or worse) service.
Why is this? I know several servers in fine dining, and for the most part their tip-out procedures don’t differ much from those at casual places. I tip out 4% at my casual tex-mex place, and my friend over across the street at the place with $100 steaks does too. If we both sell $500 (far more difficult to do in a casual dining setting), I make about $65-70, and she makes about twice that.
Do people think that because the food is more expensive and the tips are better, the waitstaff must be working harder? If anything, I’ve seen the opposite-- expensive restaurants often have people who bring bread and water to the tables and keep them refilled, and sometimes even clear the table of dirty dishes so the server doesn’t have to, but at casual places, the servers do all that. On top of that, people at expensive restaurants are never in a hurry, so the rush-and-coordinate factor is just about halved. Seems like they’re getting tipped a higher percentage for the same or less work, and I really don’t understand why.
As for the OP, I’ve never been to a fancy restaurant where the waiter did not suggest and serve my wine. If my waiter brought it, I tip on it. And yes, I tip on the after-tax amount, because that’s included in our total sales, from which we calculate tip-out. The day I discover a situation in which the waiter has nothing to do with my wine/alcohol/whatever, I will ask whoever serves it to alleviate my ignorance of the appropriate tipping procedures, and I am sure they will be glad that I asked.
Kaiten Sushi places are like buffets. Pay $1-2 for whoever serves your drinks and I usually leave a few bucks for the sushi chef if he notices that the fat guy down at the end seems to like eel and yellowtail. If I go to Olive Garden, then I tip on the whole thing even if I order wine.
I just learned a different tipping protocol when going to fine dining (think of the sort of place where a jacket is de rigeur and you would just not be seated for dining if you wore sneakers of jeans). You can never go wrong overtipping but I always felt that overtipping was a disguise for ignorance or insecurity. On the other hand, I didn’t realize that these places now had systems that would leave the waiter holding the bag if I didn’t tip 20% on the entire bill, honestly this entire tip out concept is new to me. I was always under the impression that the waiters shared their tips with the busboys and bar staff on an honor system.
We could make them pay Minimum wage, but many waitstaff make whaaaaayy more than that. I doubt if those waitstaff that take home $300 a nite (and report half of it 
) would want to switch. The restaurant owners don’t want to switch (moer overhead, more taxes) the waitstaff don’t want to switch (more taxes, less over all $$) and the customers don’t seem to care all that much. We *should, * maybe, but we don’t.
In any case, Tipping does tend to reward good quality service, and thus those who can’t give good service move to anotehr career (or stay at the bottom) while those who give excellent service are “headhunted” and are in high demand.
Getting rid of a very long-standing custom is not going to be easy. I do accept that there are major problems with the custom of tipping (particularly “tipping-out” a fraction of the server’s total bills rather than a fraction of the server’s total tips), but I don’t believe it is something you can just turn off in an equitable fashion. Do you propose big signs in restaurants that say “Tipping is verboten! Violators will be prosecuted!”?
Thanks. 
You are under an incorrect assumption. Even a Tip of 10% wouldn’t leave the waiter “holding the bag”. Rigamarole’s example shows 20>25% of his gross TIPS going to the other staff. Rigamarole adds in another 10% of the gross SALES going to the bartender for $100 of drinks. Weird example, and outside the normal purview of dining. The IRS will assume 8% of the Gross to be a Tip. Thus, on a $100 bill, they will assume the waiter got $8. The tax rates on that $8 will vary but Rigamarole’s example of 20% ain’t far off. Let’s say 25%. So, if you tipped $10 on a $100 bill (excluding the rare example of that $100 being a bar bill which wasn’t tendered through the bartender), Uncler Sugar would want $2.00 (no matter what the tip really was)and the Waiter would have to cough up $2 or so on “tip outs”. If the restaurant assumed 1% of the gross for each share of tip-outs (not uncommon now), it’d still be about the same. 15% on the entire bill (excluding tax) is fine, outside of a strange case where you had expensive drinks and the bar/restaurant had an odd policy. Don’t worry, although 20% is nicer, no one is “losing money” on 15%. :dubious:
However, also note that if you left $25 (in cash) the IRS would still only assume that the tip was $8, and thus that lucky waiter would get $17 tax-free. YMMV, and I’ll point out that in certain large high-end restaurants, the IRS can & has gone in, audited the CC receipts, and calculated a much higher “assumed” rate. So, your waiter may have the IRS assuming a 16.5% tip rate, for example. Rare, but it does happen.
I do the opposite, I tip higher at places that charge less for meals, less at high end places.
Um no, I can’t accept it, it is. The service is included in the product and the tip is optional.
Ok, I can accept this one, but why don’t they qualify, they (someof them at least) are paid below minimum wage, so are in need of charity.
Well it if it given after the meal it appears to be a gift, if given before it appears to be a bribe.
No donations to any individual, no matter how deserving- are “charitable contributions”. They must be to an Organization. That’s the Law.
Sure! Good idea.
But until that happens (which it never will), tip appropriately. No use arguing over “what ifs” and hypotheticals and “what would be ideal”. The current situation is that you ought to tip properly. Please do so.
But nobody else seems to be able to remember when you didn’t tip on booze. I have never heard of such a thing, and I’m not someone who’s about to say you should be tipping 20-25% as a routine; it’s 15% for standard service in most places, 20% in downtown giant cities like New York or Chicago. If everyone tipped 15% for decent service waitstaff would all do well.
The fact is that whatever you might think about it, your waiter has to tip out to the rest of the staff on the entire cash value of your purchase. A $60 tip on a $700 bill means he’ll see, at best, ten or twenty bucks of that. You ripped him off. He worked his ass off and you basically gave him nothing.
And if a frog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his ass when he hopped.
I have, and I said so. Back in the days when sommelier’s were common, they were tipped separately. And, it was more common “back in the day” for your drink to be ordered at the bar- where you paid and tipped the bartender or cocktail waitress- then you carried your drink to your table.
Well, yes, IF SOMEONE ELSE SERVES THE WINE, of course you’d tip them separately. But that was apparently not the case in the OP, so it’s not relevant in that case. And it’s almost never the case anymore except in very few restaurants and so is irrelevant unless ou’re in a very select restaurant with full sommelier service.
Or you could realize that the cutomer is going to pay the waitstaff either way.
I do tip 20% when I run a tab. 
I suppose I should be better about tipping on individual drinks. I wasn’t aware that a dollar-a-drink was the standard. I’ll be better about it from now on, I promise.
I honestly think tipping is the hardest part of US culture to get used to. I know that servers get paid shit, and I don’t grudge them the extra cash, but I’m just so not used to paying more than the actual price of the food/drink. Some irrational part of me feels like I’m being had. On the other hand, I get the feeling that there’s some kind of stereotype about Asians being cheap tippers. I despise people who are cheap. Not to mention I hate being a stereotype.
And pretty much every Aussie in the thread came in and said the cites were crap and that we weren’t expected to tip.
No it isn’t. Admittedly, I don’t live in Melbourne or Sydney, where it wouldn’t surprise me if a tip was hoped for by the staff at restaurants patronised by said cash-flashing Rich Wankers- but as a general rule, the price on the menu is the price you pay, end of story, and staff do not expect a tip since they’re pretty well paid anyway.
Which were all aimed at Tourists, who are accustomed to tipping in their own countries anyway. As I repeatedly said in the last thread, no way are we going to turn down free money from Americans who want to give the waiter another $15 or $20 for just doing his or her job anyway.
I am doing my best to avoid language that might get this dragged into the pit, but the last time I checked you don’t live in Australia and have never even visted the country, which means you’re talking out your ass. Kindly refrain from making Bold Statements Of Fact about subjects that you do not have any first-hand experience with, and more specifically, kindly refrain from telling those of us who live in a particular country “How things actually work”, especially when you’re basing said information on a Google search which has already been discredited by the people who actually live here. TheLoadedDog, for example, has already said tipping isn’t expected here (in this very thread!).
You are, of course, more than welcome to visit our fair country and see how we do things here. I can guarantee you that the service you receive as a tipper will be identical to the service I receive as a non-tipper.
In a high class big city restaurant (and I’ve dined in a few, BTW), the food and drink costs are substantially higher than in a standard sit-down restaurant- often by 25% or so. Sure, it’s Silver Service, but no tip is expected, since the cost of the meal is higher to accommodate the superior service. (AFAIK, the staff get paid a lot more, too).
Which has less to do with “tipping” and more to do with not wanting a wallet or purse full of coins to carry around. Throwing money into a tip jar is not “tipping”, it’s disposing of unwanted change. A lot of places have collection tins for charities on their counters, and I often throw my change into those, where at least the money can help disadvantaged kids or something along those lines.
same here. I never go below 20% for good service no matter where I am (excepting buffets), but I am far more likely to go above it if I’m not already tipping $20+.
heh, don’t worry, you’re not the only one being stereotyped. anyone who’s not white and/or speaks with an accent is assumed to be a lousy tipper by most waitstaff. and to be honest, 75% or more of the time the stereotypes are true even if the service is perfect… which, sadly, leads many servers to give substandard service to minorities and foreigners, so it really becomes a bit self-perpetuating.
honestly, every single person at some point in their life will be assumed to be a lousy tipper. when I go into fancy restaurants, because I am young and obviously not well-monied, I’m sure my waiters are dubious. if they let it show in their service they are proven right. at some point you just have to stop caring what a waiter thinks or doesn’t think and just let them be your waiter. at any rate, how they feel about you as a customer does not necessarily translate to how they feel about you as a person… I know many friends of mine I would absolutely HATE to wait on, but I love them to death as people.
and if it makes you feel any better, your waiters aren’t groaning nearly as much about waiting on you as opposed to a black person or a Hispanic person. but it probably doesn’t.
[/slight hijack]
Just to expand on what Martini Enfield has said…
His tipping experience and mine differ slightly (different parts of the country), yet I would implore DrDeth or any other American reading this to take Martini Enfield’s advice over that of some dodgy tourist handbook. What he’s saying is basically correct.
Australian waiters, bartenders, and others in the hospitality industry might not expect tips, but they ain’t stupid either. If an ocean liner full of wealthy American retirees docks in Sydney, and said retirees repair to the nearest upscale, tourist-oriented restaurant, and proceed to speak in an American accent, then of course the staff will be angling for a tip. I would too. However, if you were to somehow hide your accent, and go to an average bar or restaurant, then walk out without so much as tipping a cent, you won’t have the staff looking daggers at you as you leave.
Tipping in Australia is a matter of practicality, as Martini Enfield touch upon. If I go to a restaurant and the bill is $46, I’ll give them a $50, and the two $2 coins go to the staff - usually. On the other hand, if I had two $50 notes in my pocket, and needed change for the train fare home, I’d pay the $46 bill, and rather than ask the poor bugger at the station to break a fifty, I’d take the coins and leave the waiters absolutely zip. And this wouldn’t be insulting to them, because the next time I go there I might tip them better, and on this occasion I’m looking after the guy at the railway station. It all works out. Tipping is generally just a matter of rounding up, and in some cases even rounding down. It’s fairly common for, say, a $21 taxi fare to result in the cab driver saying, “Twenty’ll do, mate.” It all averages out.
It is…sort of. The real question is, “why do restaurants refuse to pay a fair wage for a day worked?” Would you do YOUR job every day for $2.13/hr? I think not. It should be illegal.
You actually believe this? Perhaps if you don’t plan on going back.
Doesn’t take a lot of imagination to picture who I would be more eager to keep pleased as a server/bartendar: a person who I knew would be appreciative and pay me accordingly, or someone who would pay the same bill regardless of the service.