for overall good service, i tip 20%. if it’s excellent service (my definition of excellent service: food brought out pretty quickly, a good attitude from the server, and an honest impression of, “gee, wasn’t that a really nice girl? she was personable and really sweet”, etc), i tip anywhere from 25% up to 40% (40% if it’s a relatively small meal and hence, pretty cheap anyway).
although it’s not uncommon for me, if i spend, say, $6 on a soup/sandwich, to tip $3 if the service was good. and when i go out with a large group of friends, we often tip up to 50% because of having to put up with us (a lot of times we want separate checks, and also a large group can be hard to deal with).
and hell, i make at best $80 a week and commute to school (meaning i buy a lot of gasoline), so it’s not like i’m made of money. but i know how it is to not get paid a lot (and i * always* sympathise with anyone having to deal with customers :D), so i try to tip generously.
Myself and two of my friends have been going to the same applebees once or twice a week for the last two years. We ensure we get the same waitperson each time. We’ve actually become fairly good friends with this person, and we party together on occasion. But back to the topic. We regurally tip her 45-50%. I sware we must be putting her through college.
It should be noted that we recieve exceptional service at this applebees, from any of the waitstaff. We are known as this one particural waitress’ regulars. If she is not there for some reasion and someone else waits on us, they take excellent care of us. We tip them the usual 45-50% as well.
Yeah, this will definitely get you excellent service.
I think my last post was lost on this subject. My brother and sister used to work for Applebee’s. They’re one of the places where the servers had to tip out at the end of the night. That means that part of their tip money went to the greeters (who were usually not old enough to serve alcohol, therefore not old enough to serve), bartenders, cooks, etc. So, if they did not make at least 20% on all their orders for that night, they actually lost money.
Just thought someone should support the OP. I’m only in my 30s, but when I was first learning about tipping from my folks, 10% was the standard, sometimes 15%.
I don’t know if 20% is the standard now (and I’m a bartender saying this). At my hotel if your party is over 6 people we have the option of adding the gratuity of 18%. I assume that this is the standard in the Dupont world (the hotel I work for). Now if I have given good service to a group of 6 or more, I always add gratuity. 18% is pretty a damn good tip and unless the guest is a dick and demands that it be removed, it’s almost guaranteed.
Now don’t get me wrong, if people want to tip me 20% I’m not going to stop them. And if everyone does it then I guess that means it’s now the new standard. But I’m sure as hell not getting 20% from the majority of my guests and if my hotel is telling me that they think 18% is standard, I’ll go with that.
And for all those who are going to complain about not being able to or not wanting to figure out 18%, there’s a simple solution. Give me 20% (and if your still to stupid to figure that one out, just give me double of what the check is and we’ll be all set).
I think that if the employers of people that receive tips would pay their employees a fair wage, then there would be no need for tips at all. We would all pay with the increase in prices, but it would be more fair. I for one don’t like paying a 20% tip for a $20 meal when the guy sitting in the next table pays 10% for the same meal or one of lesser cost. That, is not fair. Enough said!
Tipping out-is that legal? I seem to recall hearing that if the other employees make minimum wage, to make the servers share their tips with them, is against labor law.
I don’t think it is illegal, as long as the less-than-minimum earner ends up with at least minimum [I[after* the tip-out. Besides, the servers are “voluntarily” giving a “thanks for helping me” gift to the busboys, bartenders, captains, etc. If a server REFUSED to participate in the tip-out, I don’t think the restaurant can force him to do it, but he’d have a fine time getting his tables bussed, drinks made correctly and on time, etc.
Hubby and I will typically tip 20%. He’s a former food service employee (primarily pizza delivery) and saw too many good workers get shafted by people who thought it was cute to tip a nickel.
In any case, for truly horrendous service we’ll go down to 10%, but for really exceptional service we’ll go up to 30/35%.
(a lot of times we want separate checks, and also a large group can be hard to deal with).