Why you should tip in North American restaurants

[G-Lexington]

I ordered a pizza, and told the restaurant that I was only going to pay $2.15 for it...but I would tip based on how delicious it was. I told them this would ensure that they would make my pizza as tasty as possible, and they had the potential to make up to $40 per pizza on average, if they were really good at it.

Their pizza was quite good, but I only tipped a dollar. I didn't want them getting complacent.

Lex

 

[Alnitak]

If you don't tip, he or she has basically served you for free.

The wage for a waiter is a pittance, but a fraction of the minimum wage.

 

[eastofeden]

If you don't tip, he or she has basically served you for free. The wage for a waiter is a pittance, a fraction of the minimum wage.

Unless it has changed since I quit...a waiter will actually have to pay 8% of the total bill to wait on the person who does not tip. So...if the bill was 75.00 and you don't tip...6.00 will automatically be deducted from the waitperson's wages. I almost always got a bill for what I owe instead of a paycheck. It was infuriating to think you have to actually pay to wait on someone.

 

[MakeDigitalLove]

Don't most places in the U.S. have a automatic 15% tip in the bill?

No. Some places will do it at a party of 8, though.

I would not dine at a place that automatic tips, because then you are forcing me to pay your employees wages regardless if they did a good job or not.

Which did actually happen at a place that automatically tipped on a 6 party without informing you. Unless you count the small fine print in the back of the menu.

Our server was hardly attentive and got several orders wrong. My friend crossed out the automatic tip and left his own. And they actually took the amount he put.

 

[Alnitak]

Unless it has changed since I quit...a waiter will actually have to pay 8% of the total bill to wait on the person who does not tip. So...if the bill was 75.00 and you don't tip...6.00 will automatically be deducted from the waitperson's wages. I almost always got a bill for what I owe instead of a paycheck. It was infuriating to think you have to actually pay to wait on someone.

My guess is that it is an incentive where you worked, but it just adds to what I am saying; tips put food on your waiter's own table. You wouldn't screw with someone's basic needs because the service might not have been excellent, but quality of service does affect whether I give 15% or 20%.

 

[star-warrior]

Refusing to tip because you didn't like the meal is horrible. That's not the server, that's the cook and/or manager. I tip based on the quality of service, nothing more, nothing less.

Sure it's not the server's fault. But having to fork out for bad food is guaranteed to make you loose custom. Overhaul your labour compensation culture by giving workers proper wages, and better working conditions.

If New York's Sushi Yasuda can ban tips, and pay good wages to its employees, then any and all food retail businesses can do the same. The only thing that is stopping you is your reluctance to change the culture of exploitation of workers.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/06/nyc-restaurant-bans-tips/

Advantages:

1. You don't get staff chasing people down the street for unpaid tips, it is degrading when they are literally begging to be paid
2. Workers know they're getting a predictable wage so they can budget for their everyday living and savings
3. Tax accountability where payslips detail actual wages and the business's ledger books have clear definitive income and outgoings for proper taxation.
4. Proper costing of food mean any problem with it means blame bypasses the server, but goes directly to the cooks.
5. Customers can still have the option of giving tips, so long as it is optional. People can be quite generous if they aren't required to tip, but in having received great service the appreciation of the staff can be expressed. You can guarantee that that someone will visit because they've had a good experience.

 

[Alnitak]

In European v. American there seem to be a lot of differences.

Americans like to dine quickly. We expect the check and boxes when we are close to finishing. The wait on processing payment affects my likelihood of tipping. I saw my waitress once eating at the bar when I expected my check and I had to ask for it at the register. I left 10%, the lowest ever I've given. Wait staff that takes two minutes to leave the check to signing the merchant slip will get 20% from me.

Europeans seem to be supremely insulted if they are rushed by the wait staff, for instance if the check is left without asking for it.

 

[zoltanspawn]

Workers earning tips are not "exploited" by restaurateurs. Instead, they are earning a premium wage that is almost certainly GREATER than what they would earn if the dictates of the market allocated the cost of their labor in the prices of the menu. If anything, servers would earn less money if tipping was done away with. Do our clients want $11-$12/hour service? No. But that substandard payscale would most likely be the outcome of doing away with tips.

Tips incentivize good service (in much the same way that profit of any kind incentivizes good business). I don't understand what is degrading about having a concrete incentive to earn: this is what motivates whole economies, isn't it?

Unanimously, our (local) customers enjoy the custom. In decades of restaurant work I don't think I've encountered a single real-world complaint about the habit. It takes the den of internet crankery for this topic to come up. Crankery.

 

[Telstra]

What if the customers are stingy or poor?
I don't like the tipping system.

 

[Telstra]

I'm curious,
do other service people get tips like:
bank tellers, car sales people, electronic sales people ... etc?

I still think tipping is like begging.
Just say the price about much the food and service cost instead of tipping.

 

[LilBit]

1. Your server's wages is your boss's business. Change the law.

Easier said than done. We're having enough trouble with changing the regular minimum wage in this country. The restaurant industry spends enormous amounts of money to ensure that the tipped minimum wage doesn't change. People who earn $2.13 an hour can't afford that kind of political clout.

 

[cgymike]

Aussies are cheap stingy fuckers who don't tip...

quite right as well....


simply pay the waitstaff a proper wage.

Sorted.

gggggggggg

 

[zoltanspawn]

There is always the problem in this discussion of wildly varying minimum wage laws domestically here in the states, and of course internationally.

Washington State pays its servers the highest wage ($9.32) and tips are earned on top of that. Oregon, where I work, pays the second highest wage, $9.10, again with tips in addition.

Here's a chart showing the variety of relevant U.S. wage standards.

 

[Alnitak]

What if the customers are stingy or poor?
I don't like the tipping system.

It is what it is at least in the US where federal law and most states allow restaurants to pay wait staff well under the minimum wage. In my state, waiters make half the minimum wage. Some states pay the absolute minimum $2.13.

 

[dpnice]

If I am correct tips are not part of a waiter's salary here in France, even though there is a service charge added to most bills in the restaurants I eat in.

I generally tip anyway to both show my appreciation for the service and hopefully to be remembered the next time I frequent the restaurant.

I do believe that waiters should get a decent wage and don't accept that tipping should be a means of making up their salary to a decent level. I don't understand the idea that the food would be more expensive as if you feel obliged to tip you are already paying the supplement that the restaurant would put on the prices if they paid a decent wage to those working there.

 

[Telstra]

Aussies are cheap stingy fuckers who don't tip...

quite right as well....


simply pay the waitstaff a proper wage.

Sorted.

gggggggggg

ummm we are not a tipping culture.
Just imagine beggars asking for tips every-time you eat in a restaurant ...

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

'Cause Billy Joe (who lives with Bobby Joe) will probably 'fall down the stairs' again if she doesn't bring home enough money...

 

[SLOPPYSECONDS]

cause sum lands run econmic slavary polite like
so if ya no tip olite like theys shoot ya or
invade ya land cum from cause ya no help slavary continue

or

ans etctc or not

woteva

pick nose

thankyou

 

[johaninsc]

cause sum lands run econmic slavary polite like
so if ya no tip olite like theys shoot ya or
invade ya land cum from cause ya no help slavary continue

or

ans etctc or not

woteva

pick nose

thankyou