Tipping

[Andrewski]

Depends on the restaurant, some of them rake in a lot of cash. This guy I know opened a small one off a highway mainly to attract truckers, travelers etc. His operating expense including employee wages was roughly 15k a month and he was bragging how he made 24k revenue in the previous month.

[Joshjrn]

Depends on the restaurant, some of them rake in a lot of cash. This guy I know opened a small one off a highway mainly to attract truckers, travelers etc. His operating expense including employee wages was roughly 15k a month and he was bragging how he made 24k revenue in the previous month.

Sure, some have higher margins than others. At the risk of sounding elitist, I'm not really looking forward to the day when every restaurant fits that mold

[Andrewski]

Depends on the restaurant, some of them rake in a lot of cash. This guy I know opened a small one off a highway mainly to attract truckers, travelers etc. His operating expense including employee wages was roughly 15k a month and he was bragging how he made 24k revenue in the previous month.

Sure, some have higher margins than others. At the risk of sounding elitist, I'm not really looking forward to the day when every restaurant fits that mold

[Iruleuall4]

In my opinion, it should be on the employer to pay their employees, not the consumer.

You're tilting at windmills, to be frank. Customers always pay employees. If they didn't, there would be no employees. Whether "you pay" because you tip or "you pay" because the price of your food goes up to pay higher wages, you still pay.

At this point, if tipping were disregarded altogether, I don't seriously think companies would raise their prices by 15% to accommodate for the higher wages they would have to pay their employees. It might eventually reach a point to where the prices have been raised enough to accommodate, but if it raised noticeably over a short span of time I believe that many people would stop eating at those restaurants.

I don't know, I'm probably being stupid. Though there is the fact that the average waiter probably makes way more in tips than the employees would pay them in the first place, meaning that the "annihilation" of tipping would probably lead to overall cheaper meals (assuming that you actually tip).

Your reasoning is flawed on several levels.

First, you're right that restaurants would have a hard time raising prices over night. But that doesn't mean cheaper meals for you. It means cheaper meals for you until they go out of business, which they will, unless they raise their prices dramatically. Restaurants don't have a high profit margin per customer figure to begin with.

As for your second argument, yes, you might pay less. You will also get shittier service because your "good servers" will no longer be servers. If you've never worked in a restaurant, trust me, it's a shitty job. They do it because they make more money than working somewhere else. If they didn't, they'd stop, because I promise they don't like their job.

Yeah, not really sure where I was going with the first argument.

As for the second one, though, I'm not so sure you're right. Like I said, I mostly only tip for exceptional service. I feel like *this* should be the norm, giving the workers an incentive to actually do their job well. And even with this, I feel like the maximum tip should be like 15% (not by law or anything, but by social norm obviously), or I feel like it would slowly deteriorate back into the system we have in place now.

Also, I agree that being a waiter probably sucks, but so do most other low-skill jobs. It's just a fact of life.

[Mike]

Just the tip.

[Houston Coog]

yes usually 10-15% based on how good/lazy they are, common courtesy of course

[Hobdog]

I tip too much, even for take out. I don't know why, really.

As far as bars goes, I generally only go to bars now that my friends/people I know are working at. I usually over tip there too because of that.

[Power20024]

10% if they're doing their job, 20% if they are fantastic

[Damin]

I always tip, and I never do it based on percentage.

If I go out with me and my friends, and we get half price happy hour food, and the bill is $15 rather than $40, I don't do 18% of the 15, I just leave $5 or w/e. Its all about the service. If they suck, I'll leave less, if they are good, I'll leave more.

For pizza and stuff, if they deliver, I'll tip like $3 or whatever.

Waiters and Waitresses make like $2.50 an hour, you gotta tip them, if you don't its pretty fucked up.

Edit: there was a time or 2 where I only tipped like $2 for eating out because the waiter never came back to break my $20, so I figured if he didnt care enough then I didn't care enough to wait, so I just left.

In my state they aren't allowed to count wages as a base wage + tips so they make the flat rate min wage for the state ( over nine dollars/hr) then tips on top. I tip based on how service goes, like you said 3 bucks for pizza etc. Just depends how they were/how fast etc.

Wait, so if they get paid that much, why would you still tip? I thought the main cause of tipping was from that the waiters and waitresses are underpaid and the tips make up for that. If they are getting paid min wage, then they are doing no more work than your wal-mart greeter. In that case, I would never tip.

I think it's more that they're guaranteed minimum wage. Whether the restaurant pays that or the tips pay that is irrelevant. Any tips made beyond minimum wage are theirs to keep.

I think some restaurants do it like that but the majority it's min wage + tips. I tip that much because I know the stress of the job personally and especially if it's like more than two of us eating then I like to make it worth their while because minimum wage doesn't last long here cost of living is through the ass.

[Chewy]

Speaking from the standpoint of someone who is a server, that's how people make their money. Fucking mexicans don't know how to tip tho

BTW standard tip should at minimum be 15%, but when I go out I ball so hard I drop 25%-35% depending how good they were.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Chewynicka

[Emeraldwpn]

Speaking from the standpoint of someone who is a server, that's how people make their money. Fucking mexicans don't know how to tip tho

BTW standard tip should at minimum be 15%, but when I go out I ball so hard I drop 25%-35% depending how good they were.

why should it be standard?

[Wilson]

I only ever tip when I get a taxi and the taxi driver is white and not a twat

Which is rare where I live

Of course I'd tip if I was in the presence of someone who I planned on fucking, a date etc!

[Matt Wah]

Speaking from the standpoint of someone who is a server, that's how people make their money. Fucking mexicans don't know how to tip tho

BTW standard tip should at minimum be 15%, but when I go out I ball so hard I drop 25%-35% depending how good they were.

Every delivery guy and server that I know always told me it was black people that never tipped them.

[Joshjrn]

Minorities and young people have that reputation.

[Ronnie]

i usually tip 20-25% depending on how the service was but my family always tips a lot.

[Muse]

I tip for a service.

When a waiter/bartender serves me I tip him because he is providing me a service that I am not paying for (I am paying for the food, drinks, and applicable taxes). The better the service the greater the tip. I've tipped 20 dollars on a single pair of drinks because of the service I received along with them.

When a pizza delivery guy USED to deliver to me, I always tipped for the same reasons as above. However, now virtually every pizza chain has decided on delivery fees as the standard. I no longer receive a service I do not pay for, thus eliminating my obligation to tip.

And so on.

I don't even want to meet the sap who would tip for take-out food. The thought of it amuses me. I know it's pretty cliche to throw out the word "sheeple," but boy does that fit.

[Stunner]

I never tip someone for a job i could do myself.

[Ethan]

How do you guys feel about gratuities added into the bill?

I went out to a Japanese restaurant with a bunch of friends last night. We had reservations at 7, yet we didn't even order our food until 7.45, or sit down until 7.20. Shit happens, but that's kind of ridiculous when I'm paying ~25$ for my meal. My urge to tip our server was going downhill. I wanted to tip our chef, as he provided us with great entertainment and went above and beyond in my opinion, so I did. But then I also payed this 18% gratuity to my server, who didn't do a whole lot real well. I was in a euphoria, so I didn't bother asking about it, but there's no way that you're obligated to pay that added on gratuity, are you?

[Emeraldwpn]

How do you guys feel about gratuities added into the bill?

I went out to a Japanese restaurant with a bunch of friends last night. We had reservations at 7, yet we didn't even order our food until 7.45, or sit down until 7.20. Shit happens, but that's kind of ridiculous when I'm paying ~25$ for my meal. My urge to tip our server was going downhill. I wanted to tip our chef, as he provided us with great entertainment and went above and beyond in my opinion, so I did. But then I also payed this 18% gratuity to my server, who didn't do a whole lot real well. I was in a euphoria, so I didn't bother asking about it, but there's no way that you're obligated to pay that added on gratuity, are you?

If there's a gratuity, i don't pay tip.

[Joshjrn]

Muse, the driver doesn't get any of the delivery fee.