What do you think of restaurant tipping.

1 is a must.. seriously.. you have a pen and pad, it's impossible to **** that up

3 is also very important.. i need to be drinking when i eat.. nothing worse than sitting there with a plate full of food that i can't eat because i don't have a beverage

2 is optional but if the server is obnoxious they're losing points :)

At this point I'm guilted into doing it because I know they aren't getting a proper hourly wage because of this expectation of tips and the loopholes in the law. I'd love to only tip based on merit but don't feel like someone should be getting less than minimum wage if they're having an off night. It's a pretty messed-up situation.

personally, i almost never tip

largely because i don't give two shits about the waiters/waitresses financial situation

What exactly is a living wage though? That can vary in many places, depending on cost of living. And many restaurants are either too cheap or too poor to pay all their employees a good hourly rate. And if servers get a "living wage", then shouldn't fast food workers, retail workers, and other minimum wage/near minimum wage workers get that same wage?

Hell, if the restaurant I work at was forced to up everyone's pay to $15/hour like in Seattle, I think it would just end up closing. The restaurant is so cheap that we have napkins that are stained yellow and look like they've been in use for years. If the restaurant can't (or won't) get new napkins, I doubt it could (or would) pay us all fifteen bucks an hour.

Waiter shows us the table, hands out menu, asks if we want to order something to drink right away or just shows up with water. Comes back a few minutes later to ask if we are ready to order. Normally shows up in a minute or two with what we ordered to drink. Refill as necessary, or asks if we want something else...

Honestly it gotta be really busy place or a large group of people for it to be too much work for one waiter.

The cost ends up being the same for you. The meal cost more, but you drop the tipping. If it means that my 20$ meal suddenly costs 24$ then so be it. That's what I would pay for it anyway according to society.

Tips are a form of appreciation. If you are going out to eat you are paying for luxury. If you don't tip then have a call with the restaurant owner and arrange to see if your significant other/family/kids/etc can grab the food from the cook. Or say a food joint is open later than all the others and youve got no food at home and there are no grocers open. In this case you tip them out of appreciation alone, even if the place is something as simple as a standup. Or, let's say you find someones wallet and return it to them--the person will often offer a tip.

It is common courtesy.

@horgen: So basically in there the restaurants have as many waiters as there are tables?

They don't tip have to in Europe so I'm not sure what he's arguing about it for then.

I'm answering the topic title, stating my opinion on the matter based on my experience. Or is this thread exclusive to Americans and their broken tip system?

I tipped $3 on a $20 meal since I found hair in my food. I didn't complain but the waitress gave me a look for only leaving $3. I should have said "what you want more? I found hair in my food."

You tip for the service of the Waiter/Waitress do to make you feel welcome and appriciated since they are the ones engaging with the customers.

If all they do is take down your order quickly and then bring the food for you, and then the bill. Then I see no reason to tip for the service as that is the very bare minimum of service.

If they engage with you, Makes you feel welcome and ask how you are, is polite and even just smile and compliment the customers even after they're served, Being helpful when something isn't they way you wanted it and overall make you feel like your visit mattered and made you want to come back also for the service and not just the food. Then you tip.

I am aware that it's a fools dream. There are reasonable arguments to be made there, I'm just saying If I had my way, they would be working for tips, but not getting one wouldn't break them.

If you tip even when you get bad service what's their incentive to step up their game? If I had found hair in my soup I would have sent it back.

That sounds painful...

@korvus: no. Do you need a waiter every minute?

@horgen: No, but when I do need one it's nice not to have to wait for the one who talked to me first to be available so he can come back by my table again.

@korvus: well I would call someoene if it took too long for the first waiter to return. So far I haven't had the need to do so.

@horgen: That makes more sense; I thought you were stuck to just the one regardless of how long he was taking. I like the fact that I can call any of them...I prefer not to be constantly interrupted by someone asking me if I want anything else or if I'm ready for the next course or hovering by until the plates are clean.

Me either.

I hate tipping. I'm from Canada and I tip based on the service. If I can find any reason not to I won't. I am currently living in Australia and they don't tip here. I love it.

Paying waiters more would push up the restaurant's overall cost so they would have to make it up somewhere. You may be right though about them hiring less workers rather than raising the price of the food though, raising the price may deter customers so perhaps hiring less workers makes more sense.

Just had a thought. Don't servers usually make more than minimum wage in the form of tips? Wouldn't that mean if a restaurant started paying servers minimum wage that would ultimately cost the customers less than the tips that they pay directly to the servers? That would mean food costs would rise, but ultimately not 20% higher.

Also if servers suddenly started making close to minimum wage I would be less happy to see this happen.

In the US where most of the actual wages servers get comes from tips if you don't then you're a cheap ass. Unless the server was exceptionally rude or just bad at their job you should tip. Also, if you frequent a particular restaurant and don't tip there's probably a good reason your food tastes funny. I agree with those that servers should be paid a decent wage but restaurant owners aren't going to do that unless they're forced to by law.

@comp_atkins:

I mean if one of those requirements aren't met, then all bets are off?

@PSP107: nah, they'll still get a tip but just not as much. they'd have to really **** things up or be a complete asshole to get nothing at all. i think i've only ever once never given a server a tip at all

Can I actually ask what people's PROBLEM with tipping is? This isn't a criticism of your thoughts on tipping, I'm just wondering why people think it's actually a problem. I mean, it's not as if most restaurants are raking in huge profits. Their profit margins are pretty slim. This means that in order to ensure the same level of service (because good workers will gravitate away from the industry if their pay drops too much), doing away with tips would NECESSARILY require increasing menu costs. So...customers would still ultimately be paying approximately the same, only now the price is incorporated into the actual menu price, instead of being part of a VOLUNTARY "payment for service" gratuity. In other words, people would still pay approximately the same, only now they don't have the OPTION of stiffing the server on a tip if the service sucks.

So yeah...I don't think there's necessarily anything WRONG with simply incorporating payment into a set wage. That's fine. But the fact that people keep demanding that system over the current system indicates that they find something grossly wrong with the current system. And...I'm just not seeing what's the big problem. Either way, the customers end up paying and the servers end up getting paid. The result seems to mostly be pretty much the same, so what exactly is so broken about the tipping system? If paying the waiters and bartenders a set wage equivalent to what they would have made in tips is the solution, then what is the PROBLEM that is being solved? Best I can see is that it's a case of "both systems are just as good as the other".

I'd argue that if you're not okay with how payment for services rendered is handled at an establishment, then you shouldn't go to that establishment.

You can talk all you want about how it's shitty that tips are shared, and that someone who doesn't deserve a tip might get a cut. That's still no excuse to NOT tip, because then you're holding back payment for services from anyone who DOES work their ass off to deserve it. If you don't like the system, that's fair. Then never go to that restaurant ever again.

The system is what it is and even if the service is terrible you should still tip. that money goes to pay more than just your server and just because one person does a poor job doesn't mean the rest deserve to suffer for it.

I think the system is dumb, and they should get paid hourly like everyone else but just because I feel that way doesn't mean I'm not obligated to tip. The workers should be happy about it though, most get paid way more with tips than they would hourly.

^^^^No way, if the waiter does a poor job he ain't getting tip (or a low tip), even if it means not dinning at that restaurant ever again.

Let me also point out that if a waiter or a bartender does such a shitty job that he doesn't deserve a tip, then you should ask to speak to a manager and voice your complaints to the waiter's boss.

Again, at least as far as how it goes in the USA, tips are payment for services rendered. It's not a bonus, you are literally paying for service. If you think that a waiter's service was so shitty that he/she doesn't deserve to get paid for it, then you ABSOLUTELY complain to management about it.

@Master_Live:

The waiter only gets part of the tip... usually the bus boy gets some, the host, the bartender if there is one. If you live in America, the only excuse not to tip is if the entire staff was rude to you.

I never tipped mainly because its unheard of around here. I remember hearing a story about some foreigner who attempted to tip a waiter in a local restaurant and the latter made a scene as he took it as an affront to his dignity.

Nor have I been to the U.S; but I've been frequenting this forum for several years and I've seen this topic being made-and explode with the inevitable heated discussion that ensued-a gazillion time. To this day I still can't get my head around the passion this matter evokes in people and this is just by reading comments on an internet forum. I can only imagine how intense it must be in real life; it is flabbergasting.

I think TC wrapped it neatly. Tipping should definitely not be the norm, and waiters' wages should be adjusted accordingly. With little luck this will take care of the entitlement problem and the act will be reduced to a genuine response to genuine satisfaction.

i almost always tip, only if i was not happy with their service i don't.

aaaand sometimes i might give the waitress a little more because she has a pretty smile... (damn you male hormones...)

Technically you don't have the issue then. It's not a part of your culture. But hey make superfluous comments all you want....just mention that in your post so we know it's of no actual value.

Broken tip system? Meh...it keeps the cost down so more people spend money eating in restaurants which helps the economy. Do we have to remove everything that benefits the employee and the customer?

I think decent wages are better than a partially tip based salary. If a model is only sustainable by band-aid, then it's a bad model. Same deal with including fines in your annual budget.

In England waiters and waitresses are paid minimum wage but people often tip for good service. I was always told 10% is a polite tip for good service. The restaurants here survive paying their waitresses and waiters minimum wage so it seems illogical to assume restaurants in America would.

I tend not to tip in chain restaurants unless the service was very good.

Sometimes il tip if the waitress is pretty just because im fickle.

It's not a band-aid, it's "paying for service". Either way, the customer pays and the waiter gets paid. Again, what problem is actually SOLVED by using the company as a middle man? Model A: money goes from the customer to the waiter. Model B: money goes from the customer to the restaurant, then the restaurant gives money to the waiter. Explain to me the actual PROBLEM with model A, and how Model B actually solves that problem.

@MrGeezer: A company is in no way a "middleman," it's an employer. A persons salary should'nt depend on luck/chance, just because it allows the employer to pay less and lower it's prices. It's (used for) wage-gouging as far as I'm concerned. Tipping is the real "middleman," if that term even applies to scenarios such as this.

For one there's the stress factor involved and any job that pays in commission is stressful by design. An employee that can work without the added stress and worry of whether or not they'll take home a decent paycheque is a happier and more productive employee. Also, the restaurant is still the "middle man" because they dispense tips and the employee MUST track them. Model B is better for the simple reason that you are guaranteed to take home money no matter who you are.

You act as if tipping allows the restaurant to pay less. But even if they paid more, that extra money just comes from what the waiter otherwise would have made in tips. It's not like the restaurant is stiffing the employee to rake in big profits, their profits margins are gonna be low as hell regardless and the employee still gets paid either way.

The waiter is still guaranteed to take home money no matter who they are. Any waiter or bartender who doesn't suck ass is gonna easily make enough in tips to guarantee more than minimum wage. And in the event that the waiter somehow doesn't make the equivalent of minimum wage, the restaurant has to provide the difference. Now granted, THAT increases the restaurant's labor costs substantially, so any waiter who frequently makes that little money in tips is quickly gonna get fired. That is, unless the reason the waiter isn't making any money in tips is because the restaurant just plain isn't doing any business. But the point is, unless the restaurant deserves to fail or the waiter deserves to get fired, they're gonna be taking home a decent paycheck. Now, granted, tips vary and the waiter has to budget for when tips aren't as good. But that's the price they pay for making $40,000+ a year while working only 30 hours a week. Pretty much every waiter I've ever known has been okay with that, the most common complaint I've heard is that customers treat them like shit (and that's gonna happen regardless of whether or not they're getting tips).

@MrGeezer: Sorry late reply, I guess it often creates an undue awkward situation. Not to mention there is always the debate on whether it is a proper form of compensation. Also a lot of people still tip even when they have bad service because they feel socially obliged.

I don't tip at all.

I feel good about the money I save.

I don't mean to sound cold but, if I was going to a restaurant by myself and ate there, I don't think I would get the motivation to tip anything, just seems like I don't need to do it.

Yeah whatever, call me a penny pincher.

No they don't (well they sort of do in a needlessly complicated way). For some stupid reason the minimum wage for servers in the USA is a measly $2.13 while the minimum wage for everyone else is $7.25. However they are expected to make up the difference through tips and if they don't then their employer has to pay them extra to make up for what they're missing. So really when you tip you aren't actually helping the server but instead you're helping the employer get away with drastically underpaying his staff.

They should just get rid of that silly system and make minimum wage consistent

Actually they're trying to raise the 7 $ minimum wage to 15$ , at least, I think so, stumbled upon it somewhere online recently. (IMO that there's definitely a step in the right direction if it goes through.)

$15 is too low, minimum wage should around $30.

Restaurant staff in the US deserve to make a full wage regardless of tips.

In Canada, I tip under 15% for poor service, 15% for service as expected, and will tip as high as 30% for service that exceeds my expectations.

I think the idea that people should make their living based on their ability to provide excellent service is unfair. Some people have an off day, and restaurants don't have a habit of keeping people around who normally provide poor customer service.

I pay with cash (not a terrorist). If I get the right change back I tip if not, f*** that b****! lol

This topic comes up all the time. Obviously tipping culture -IN AMERICA- is kind of fucked up and restaurants should just pay a fair wage. But unfortunately that is not the case, so tip your damn servers so they can survive.