I have so many American friends who work at restaurants just to pay bills or because they are in school and could not find an internship or part-time job on campus. As internationals, especially from Asian countries, some of you may not be used to the concept of tipping (leaving certain percent of money of your check or bill) waitress in restaurants. It is very different in America. You have to tip at least 15% in restaurants; it is very bad on your part if you do not tip a waitress less than 15% for even normal service.
In this article, we will review the federal minimum wage for waiters, when they get tipped and how much they make by state, and why you should tip generously when you dine or go for a drink in America.
How much do waitresses make per hour in Restaurants in US? Minimum Wage?
Many of you might not know the truth about how much exactly waitresses make in restaurants in the US…it might be shocking to know the facts (at least that’s how I felt ). In the US, the federal minimum wage for waitress (tipped) is just $2.13 (two dollars 13 cents). In states like Wisconsin, Wyoming, New Mexico, New Jersey, etc, the minimum wage for a waitress is just $2.33 per hour. See the below screenshot from the Department of Labor Minimum wage site
Because they are tipped employees, if no customers show up, they do not make any money. Of course, it varies by state; in some of the west coast states like California, they have mandatory minimum wages of $10. You can check this Department of Labor Minimum wage site, that has listing of minimum wage by state. Majority of the income waitress make is from the tips that customers pay or leave on their table. The majority of the income waitress make comes from the tips that customers pay or leave on their tables.
Why should you tip at least 15% for waitresses in US?
As you have just read above, how much waitresses make, you should tip a certain minimum so that the waitress can make a living. The normal standard or practice for tipping waitresses is about 15% for normal service and around 20% for very good service. Just to clarify, by example, if you spend $100 USD on food, you should at least tip $15 or more. Just do not give a common tip like $5 for whatever you bill for the food.
Please do NOT be stingy or try to act cheap at restaurants by NOT tipping properly. Most waitresses are either students who are in school or someone who cannot find a job. You do not want to hurt them and get bad karma. If the service is bad, people tend to tip around 10% and tell openly that they did not like the service.
If you tip like 10% it means that you did not like the service and directly stating that by tipping less. Also, you can check the bill, some big restaurants include certain percentage like 12% to 15% as service charge, if they already have it, then no need to include any tip., but you can still leave some tip for them..
Do NOT tip less and create a wrong impression about your people from your country, race or religion.
Waitresses think people from certain countries or of certain religion tip less; they just stereotype. In all honesty, you do not want to create that bad impression about people from your country or race. Many people do not tip properly just because they do NOT know the truth how much waitress make and the culture of tipping in the US. If a friend of you do not tip properly, just tell him the truth and teach proper tipping standards.
Read this CNN article on How much to tip in US for more info on how much to tip in other places.
If there are no tips, how can one make a living with $2.13 an Hour?
While the federal minimum wage for employees who are tipped is $2.13 an hour, there are some checks in place so that the waiters and waitresses get at least paid minimum wage. As per current federal labor standards, the minimum hourly wage is $7.25 per hour. If the employees( waiters or waitresses) do not make enough tips to reach the federal minimum wage of $7.25, the employer or company has to pay the difference.
Below is the official guidance Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor on paying fairly to waiters, where they clarify that employers need to make up the difference, if they do not make enough.
What is your experience on tipping waitress ? Did you tip properly ? or not ? share your thoughts.
Image Credits: http://rlv.zcache.com/tip_your_waitress_card-p137655962504630568q0yk_400.jpg
Restaurant owners profit millions of dollars every year! The restaurant business is a multi million dollar a year business. Waiters-watresses should tell their boss they demand more money, more than mini mime wage. Waiters- servers we should not be obligated to tip you one red cent. Tell your millionair bosses to give you a tip because we shouldn’t have to.
As a career long server, doing this 15 years, I would like to correct you. I am not a waitress because I am a student or because I could not get another job. In fact, I have a BFA. I CHOSE to continue to do this because I greatly enjoy it, and the money is better. “Never, ever, ever, ever look down on someone in the service industry when your mouth is full with the food they just brought for you.” I work with my best friends, we go through a war together every day that you have no idea about, we clean restaurants from top to bottom every night, we HELP one another at all times, and we are bonded for life. Plus, we laugh our faces off, enjoy great conversations all day long, and tend to make decent money. Good luck getting that at your “real job”. I don’t deal with condescension in regards to what I do. I am a professional. I know every single ingredient in every single dish on the menu. I know every single thing about every single drink. And I am here to make your date/reunion/parental meeting/work meeting/whatever go smoothly and wonderfully so that you have a LIFELONG MEMORY. Yes, tip me, but not because you look down on me and feel sorry for me. Tip me because you should, because I carry heavy plates of food for you, I take the drink that you didn’t like back and replace it with something you will like, because I bring you whatever it is you need to enjoy your meal.
It all boils down to the fact that it is understood that if you go to a restaurant where you are waited on by a server then you should tip according to your ticket total. Anyone that says differently has never been a server. If you do not choose to tip, then don’t waste my time. Servers work for their tips and unless they are completely incompetent they should be compensated.
There’s a new law this year where if a server puts an automatic grattuity on a check (usually for parties of 6 or more) it will go through payroll and will reflect in your next check. Some servers don’t like that idea because they don’t receive a check because of taxes and some of us live shift to shift some times and need our money the same day we work. the reason it goes through payroll now is because an auto grat is now considered a *service charge* a tip is left up to the discretion of the guest and if that discresition is taken away by it being automatic it’s concidered hourly wage and needs to be put in a paycheck.
i say instead of worrying about makeing a law that servers make minimum wage, every check should have a *service charge* on it. as the one author befor said ” i have plenty of money for the food and am free to not tip all i want” (nasty human) now you will not have that option. your food cost will still be the same and i will make a decent wage from the automatic 18% service charge. the more expensive the food, the higher skill the sever has who takes care of you so you wont be ordering a $100 meal and not getting quality service. restaraunts like to keep their skilled labor and hate to see them go to greener pastures because of too many cheep skate clientel. a good server is worth their weight in gold to a restaraunt who appreciates her. if you have a bad experience let managment know and i am sure they will lift an auto grat and if that same server keeps getting complaints im sure management will take notice because they dont want bad servers driving away their business.
id also just like to say to my fellow servers. before this law some of my cowor kers would feel conflicted about putting the auto grat on a party because they felt they might get a bigger tip if they left it up to the discrestion of the guests but were sometimes hesitant because they didnt want to lose out if they didnt tip accordingly. i say an auto grat will never stop a generous person from leaving more if they would like to leave a little extra but it will protect you from people who dont know any better.
some people want deliscious food, great service, low prices on the menu and not want to tip. you cant have it all.
Cognitive Dissonance: “Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong.
When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted.
It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance.
And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief.”
–Frantz Fanon
This article is erroneous. The actual minimum wage of approx. $7.5 is a federal one – any employee MUST be paid at least this much, including tips.
The author lists a separate figure, i.e. the minimum hourly wage that must be paid to a worker, REGARDLESS of tips – in case of shortfall, in NO STATE in the USA can staff be paid LESS then the minimum $7.5. In many states, the lowest an employee can be paid, excluding tips, is significantly higher – up to $9 in some states.
For historical reasons (before minimum wages existed) this practice still continues, however modern society has simply not adjusted to compensate.
As a result, I often find myself, with basic calculation, realising that the waiter or waitress I’m paying earns twice as much or more than I do.
I have college debt, mortgage and other debts to pay off.
There many other jobs are harder/dirtier/tougher than waiting, yet only pay minimum wage, with no chance of tips at all.
Waiting is easy, accessible, often flexible, and required almost 0 skills. (sure, the best restaurants require more than the minimum, let’s not split hairs..)
For some reason, it’s an extra tax on eating out that everyone just swallows blindly. Enough!
Who cares you choose to goto college…… I need an IPAD how am i suppose to buy an IPAD working a minimum wage job……it’s so un fair i cant get me a new generation Ipad and have to use this piece of out dated technology from last year! Walmart can afford to give me an IPAD they are just to greedy
You might be able to get a new I-pad if you got a job and stopped whining on random sites. The people who choose to go to college do so in order to get an education for a good job so they can buy things like new I-pads, and they don’t go around expecting hand-outs. And if you are working for tips somewhere, you should probably take a long look at how well you do your job, because you obviously aren’t very good at it.
Wow Edward. You obviously are the worst piece of scum to ever walk in to a restaurant. The term TIP means that you are insuring yourself proper service. If we servers make twice your wage then you should not be eating at our pricey restaurant you asshole. If you are making minimum wage then you shouldn’t be able to afford to eat at our restaurant that 15% or less of each of our servers food sales equates to twice your wages. Now listen to me, even those of us that work at higher priced restaurants, make at most average salaries. Working 40 hours a week, at a job that is NOT easy and flexible DOES require skills, and requires a lot of energy, constant movement, and a sharp mind. Maybe you worked at a bandanas or a steak n shake, but real serving jobs to require a lot of energy and a lot of intelligence. Do you really think that we who bust our ass to be your servant deserve minimum wage?? It’s people like you that cause our profession to be a horrible one, listed on the top 10 worst job opportunities in the country. Sure I might make 100-200 in a ten hour weekend shift, working from 3pm until 3am in tips, then 2 hours of unpaid cleanup of the restaurant, then make only 30 dollars in 6 hours when the weekend is over. Meaning in just those two days my average salary went from what you perceive to be $20 an hour to around $12 MAX. Yeah, I’m really making double your wage.
How is a tip ensuring good service? You don’t tip till the end… and that’s exactly the point…..you should tip based on service not tip 15% because if not you’re a bad human being.
That being said your so wrong on why we tip. We tip because when mom and pop shops started up years ago they couldn’t afford to pay someone to wait tables and provide an affordable meal. So they made a deal with waitresses that they could come and “wait” tables in the restaurant and the people eating there would give them money for the extra service. Otherwise service was slow and they had to wait until the mom or pop (or kids of mom and pop ) were available. Which was fine back then not everyone was in a rush like they are today.
But now it’s not the same they are just employees of the restaurant as simple as that.
And i think the history behind WHY we tip has obviously been forgotten.
Speaking of tips based on percentages this is also killing mom and pop stores.. Why? Because they want to sell a hamburger for 3$(they ones in my town still do)… but you’re saying that a waitress working there is only suppose to get a 60 cent tip? Why would they work for mom and pop when they can goto a big chain store where they sell THE SAME HAMBURGER for 6$ and make twice the money.
Tips based on how much someone spends is forcing mom and pop stores to raise their prices just to get a work force in the store.
Again thou Tips use to be needed now they are just ruining the restaurants who are already inflating prices. You’re right we dont HAVE to eat there and when people stop eatting there how much money will the waitresses make with out a job?
I agree.
Plus, the waiting service hasn’t changed or upgraded to reflect the price hikes. I’m from NYC and the prices have sky rocketed in the past 5 years.
For example, I just visited an Italian restaurant on the upper east side this weekend, and the total for 2 people came out to $80.50. I left the waiter (male) a $9.50 tip (approximately 12% pre -tax). As I was walking out the door, he ran up to me and demanded that I leave a tip equaling that of double the tax. The retail tax in NYC is 8.875, which totaled to $6 – so he wanted $12 for the same service he has given all this time!!! I left him a decent tip, in my opinion.
I propose a change in the tip percentages (15-20%) to 10-12%, given the price increases in the North East. Of course, measure accordingly on your location and all.
Take care
ari vederci
=0)
100-200 dollars in tips for ten hours is less than I thought. I like to consider myself a good tipper, I mostly tip 25%. If for whatever reason I’m broke or don’t have the right change, I’ll tip the 15%. If the bill is like $10, I’ll sometimes give them $5 or $10. My barber and car detailer make a lot more money than me, I still tip then over 25%. I believe that if you can’t afford the complete service, don’t bother at all. One thing for sure is that if you are a regular customer, most of the times, the staff will treat you like royalty, you are assuring yourself great quality. Who cares if servers make more than you, people shouldn’t hate because other people are doing better than them.
What a load of rubbish. Why should paying customers subsidize peoples wages, due to a fault with the system which allows RICH restaurants to pay peanuts to it’s staff.
Tips should not be a given, they should be an added bonus on top of a better wage.
Having a given percentage for a tip is an absolute joke. A customer should not be obliged to have to pay their hard earned money out in tips.
At the end of the day employers pay more, staff not reliant on tips, customers not out of pocket from excessive tipping. Simple!!
You should try carrying 40-50 lb trays for 10 or more hours while being pleasant to EVERYONE (assholes included) and then perhaps you can say serving is easy. The work is more physically demanding than most people are willing to believe. Especially if you happen to be petite and 40-50 pounds is close to being half your body weight.
I carry 50-100lbs boxes…easy
Edward you are wrong. There are two types of minimum wages. One is for hourly wages that do not make tips and one is for hourly wages that do make tips. I am a waitress and I do not make $7.50 an hour on my paycheck. I make $3.90 which is the minimum wage for a waitress. We are suppose to make minimum wage with our tips.
I completely agree, here in Cali the minimum wage will be at $9.oo soon catching up to some of the wages of people who have been working in places like retail due to college and such. I do not understand why waiters have to be tipped and not your courtesy clerk at walmart. They both work hard for a living and pay bills and such. Truth of the matter is that they are doing their job and should not expect extra compensation.
I am a fine dining server and I can affirm your suspicion. Stereotypes sometimes are incorrect. I make a LOT OF MONEY. I work 5-6 hours a day and I own my own home. I have a hot wife. I have a brand new car too. Not kidding. I have almost ZERO stress. I went to Private School my entire life, have an IQ of 155 and I work as little as possible to make an amount of money that lets me pursue whatever I feel like doing that day/week. People can refer derogatorally to waiters all they want. They don’t know. They’re the idiot chasing the dream, not I.
You’re wrong. Employers are “legally required” to make up the difference if what they pay plus tips does not meet minimum wage, but few actually do. It’s almost impossible to prove on the employee’s half, so they get away with it. The base minimum wage for servers, can be as low as $2.13 an hour, depending on the state.
In some states, yes, servers do make minimum wage plus tips. In most states, however, this is simply not the case. On average, they make minimum wage, if that, INCLUDING tips, not in addition to.
Ӏt’s wonderful that you are getting thoughts from this post as well ass from
our discussion made at this time.
Just found this link. If you are interested in trying to do something about the root of the problem, here is a link to a petition to raise minimum wage for tipped employees.
Subject: Tell Congress: Don’t Let Food Workers Go Hungry
Hi,
I signed a petition to The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate which says:
“Raising the minimum wage for the benefit of 29 million low-wage workers would only increase food costs at most by 10 cents a day for consumers.
As a consumer, I am willing to pay an extra dime a day for my food so that close to 8 million food system workers and 21 million additional low-wage workers can receive a much deserved raise to help them meet their basic needs.
I ask that you support the Miller-Harkin Fair Minimum Wage Act which would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10/hour over the next 3 years and the tipped minimum wage from $2.13 to 70% of the regular minimum wage.”
Will you sign this petition? Click here:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/tell-congress-dont-let?source=s.em.cp&r_by=9892836
Thanks!
When I first started waiting tables, minimum wage was $4.25. The wage for tipped employees was $2.13, half that amount. This was fair. So, rather than paying servers minimum wage, which I do not believe would be a good option, I propose that the wage for tipped employees should be half the minimum wage. As minimum wage goes up, so too should server wages. (With the exception of buffet-type places. I think the servers there should be paid at least minimum wage, since all they are really doing is cleaning and hopefully, filling glasses. And if they do a good job of that, then a small gratuity should be in order.) I firmly believe that working at McDonald’s is far more menial than waiting tables. After all any server’s job in any half-way decent restaurant is far above the capabilities of many McDonald’s employees. Servers should not still be paid like it’s 1996, even if they do get tips. By raising the wage for tipped employees to half minimum, it would put more responsibility on the employer and there would be less animosity from servers a little less dependent on the whims of their customers. But common decency dictates that if you dine out, and your server does a good job, you should acknowledge that, keeping in mind that servers are people, too, with lives and families and bills, just like you. Thank you’s are nice, and sincerely appreciated, but they don’t pay the bills. Your server is doing a job, albeit not one you would have chosen, but a job none the less. At least they have a job and are not living off the state. –So, anyone with any suggestions as to the best place to try to get this ball rolling?
Educate yourself is where to get the ball rolling.
The people who make your sandwich make minimum wage that is one resaon why it is cheap. If you make your own sandwich that will be even cheaper. The chefs at the *fancy* restaurant get paid more than minimum wage which is why it cost $20 for a ribeye instead of $10 if you bought it from the grocery store. If you dont want to tip, the steak will go up to $30 or more to pay all the tiped out employees because its not just your one server who depends on the tip. I tip out at least 3% of my food sales to hosts bussers and bartenders REGARDLESSE if I get my tip from a guest and servers know if someone they are tipping out did an extrodinary job we will leave them extra because we appreciate the help. Then we pay taxes on the food sales as well. Do you want the kid who made your sand which cooking your $30 steak? You can’t expect great food, great service and low prices. everyone needs to be paid and 20% of a $120 bill ($24) is a much better deal for the guest than a $240 bill for the same meal and i would not expect the same quality service from someone making minimum wage. I break my neck hoping and praying I do everything right to *get the honor* of being paid for my hard work from my guests. It might not be a degree but it does take good skill to be an excellent server and if you want to see want to see what $5 service looks like compared to $20 you would not be happy. If you are so set in your ways and truly feel you are right in not needing to tip, why not the next time you go to your fancy restaurant and the server comes over with a smile on her face and says ” HI! My name is Andrea. I’ll be taking care of you today” Please let her know your views on tipping. Be brave and look her in the eye and tell her that for the next hour and a half she will be coming to you making your experience wonderful but to not expect to be compensated. Will you be able to enjoy that steak when she comes over to make sure everything was prepared well this evening and basically wiating on you hand and foot? I think it is the most cowardly thing to have a server waste their services on people who hide the tip until the very end then stand up to leave like they are running out in shame. Do you know how much it hurts to open that check presenter and find nothing in it? We are people with families who just want to make a living and you are litteally stealing from us. Please just factor in 20% of your food cost when you go out to eat. ts better for everyone that way.
Thank You! These people don’t understand that them stiffing on tips would drive all the costs of their food up above what the 10-20% that they tipping would cost them. And when people tip 10%, they don’t even realize that 3-7% of our sales in food/bevgs already automatically are tipped to the bartender, food runners, bussers, etc! Guys come on and start tipping like you should. We didn’t just keep tipping around as a formality.
Check the laws, it’s illegal for an employer to have you split your tips with bussers or people who are not tipped employees. If your employer is breaking the law dont ask for new laws cause they wont follow them either.
But again this is just another example why we need to STOP TIPPING AS A SOCIETY….. they took a appreciative gesture and turned it into a way to cut costs. It’s no longer serving the same purpose it use to years ago. Get rid of tipping ahve everyone on an hourly wage.
I’m a waitress at a five diamond hotel. After this last two weeks of holiday, I have no check because I made too much in tips. Sometimes your tips are all we have. I’m grateful for my job and I try not to complain about tips. I’ve been in this industry for 12 years from fast food, to cheap restaurants like Fridays (2 for $10). I’ve come to except the $5 standard everyone seems to be doing. I work in California and my current job pays well, but that also had to do with the clientele. Our menu is expensive, so those who can’t afford it simply don’t come. It makes a big difference in bad versus good tips. We have a buffet sometimes and that’s where the not do good tips come in. What I’m trying to say is, good service/bad service I’ll take your $5 because it’s five more than I had when I came in. We work very hard with almost no break in our 6-8 hour day. Your $5 buys me a cold beer after a long day. So thank you.
PS. In large groups of everyone leaves $3-5 per person if their isn’t gratuity is a not so bad tip, but $5 on $150, please do not return.
Tip 101: move the decimal, of the total, one number to the left and double the amount (25.83 = $5 tip, round up, $150.67 = $30 tip) to each their own. But I made at least $6000 for the month of December 2013.
Wow, i’m surprised you make ANY money if you’re telling your customers to not come back just because they don’t want to tip you. With out them you wouldn’t even have a job to begin with
You’re not suppose to tip at a buffet why should you?
5$ per person tip who cares if it’s 150$ get off your high horse did you do anymore work serving someone a 30$ dish than you did a 10$ dish? So why do you think that you should get paid more just because they want something more expensive. Should they have to eat food they don’t like just because they cant afford to tip you.
You sound very ungrateful especially since you start your post by ” I didn’t get a check BECAUSE I GOT PAID TO MUCH IN TIPS!”
you’re really killing yourself… telling people they should tip 20% and you then BRAG about making 6000$ IN ONE MONTH!
And one final thing your 12 years of experience mean jack shit … only your experience since the laws changed in 2008 matter. And only if you are educated on the LAW(which if you didn’t get a paycheck shows you are not)
Even if you get 6000$ in tips if you work 40 hours they have to pay you 40*(minimum wage for tipped employees). It’s not legally possible for you not to get a check.
Unless for some reason they take taxes out of your tips… which they should IMO… then yeah your hourly pay may goto taxes. booo whoo welcome to the real world.
Are you kidding me bitching about working 6-8 hours sometimes with out a break(also illegal thus being your choice to do) there are A LOT of people who do this and DONT make 6000 in ONE MONTH
Obviously, you have never been a server. When your hourly wage runs on average about $2.13, your tips are important. Also BY LAW, employers are not required to give servers a break at any time, even if the shift is 10-12 hours. And the reason you should tip more for more expensive meals is because servers are taxed on their sales. It is legally possible not to get a check because of too many tips, and it happens in most restaurants from time to time. The only time it would not be possible is if the restaurant does not accept credit cards.
When were you a server again all this has changed since 2009. And if you’re letting your bosses tell you it hasnt DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
And if the restaurant does not take a tip credit THEY HAVE TO PAY YOU MINIMUM WAGE! and you get to KEEP ALL YOUR TIPS!
Please stop being a “know it all” and atleast read over the links posted DIRECTLY FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR(which handles the wage laws)
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs15.pdf
If you’re still going to pretend you know what your talking about after reading in black and white that you’re wrong……..i’ll just give up on your mental capacity.
It is certainly possible to get a $0 paycheck. I get 1 paycheck with around $15 on it once out of every 6-10 2-week pay periods. And, the part about not requiring a break on a 10-12 hour shift is completely true. Look up the law in my state of Missouri and you will find that this is the truth.
Why dont you look it up and provide me proof 😛 I’m going to look it up anyway but i think it would be better if you did some research.
But it does seem you’re right and no federal law even fills the gap…. So why is that not the issue instead of “tipped employees should make tons of money!”
That is craziness 😛 your state sucks.
It is also true in the state of New Mexico.
This is how a server gets a $0 paycheck. All sales and credit card tips are recorded in the POS system. The credit card tips are automatically claimed. At the end of the shift, the server is required to enter cash tips collected. All of this goes on the paycheck as income and is taxed. Then, because the tips have already been collected, that amount is removed. So most of the actual paycheck goes to the taxes. If too many tips are claimed, the entire hourly wage is eaten up.
I’m not sure what state everyone else lives in, but here in Oregon the waitresses make $9.10 an hour PLUS tips……So should we have to still tip 20% like the rest of the country??
http://www.nclabor.com/wh/fact%20sheets/Tip_Credit.htmTaken from:
Thus, effective July 24, 2008, when the minimum wage increased to $6.55 per hour, an employer may pay as little as $2.13 an hour to tipped employees, which remained the same when the minimum wage increased to $7.25 per hour on July 24, 2009, as long as each employee receives enough in tips to make up the difference between the wages paid and the minimum wage.
Employers must pay more than the hourly cash wage if the tipped employee earns less than the credit in tips per hour, as it is the employer’s responsibility to make sure that all tipped employees earn at least the minimum wage in cash wages and tips.
its not *extra*. the cost of your meal will go up to pay my minimum wage. pay it in tip to insure proper service or pay it in whole on your check and trust me your food will cost a lot more than 20% of food costs now.
I know that I am only adding to what other servers have contributed to this long list of comments, but I think that something else was missing here. I make $2.63 p/h pay which is okay with me because YES I make tips. I work in a busy restaurant where on a long day of work (11 hours) I average about $180. That is all I make that day… taxes take my entire paycheck. So, just like the server that told you that they do side work in addition to waiting tables I will contribute that the 30 minutes of side work I do in the morning and hour of side work I do at night is work that I will never be paid for.
I have been cussed at by customers who do not read their menus or blame me for things that are out of my control (menu options, prices or portions). I am very attentive and very friendly, but even I have been hit by a customer who could not handle his liquor. For all of the things that nobody knows about that happen on a regular basis (sexual harassment, vulgar language, unreasonable demands and ignorant customers) I deserve to make more than minimum wage. Also, for every table that tips well, there is another that you work equally hard for that stiffs you. Consider your server next time. If they give bad service- tip minimally, that’s what I would do; but if they give great service tip well because that tells them that good service is appreciated.
In the state if California, where I live, all servers make a minimum wage of $8 per hr, not $2.13. I definitely believe in tipping based on the level of service received. Servers ARE being paid to take my order, bring my food to the table and present me with the bill. IF this is the only service I get, which is often the case, then I don’t see any reason to tip over and above what they are already getting paid to do. If, on the other hand, I have an attentive server who is pleasant and gives service over and above the minimum required them I will absolutely tip 15-25% , depending. There are many people out there making minimum wage, working just as hard and, in some cases harder, than waiters and waitresses who do not get tipped for doing their jobs and they don’t complain.
GEORGE, You are WRONG. My friend works in San Francisco as a Server and makes FAR FAR below the state minimum wage, which is the case in every state I have lived. Where I live the FEDERAL state wage is in effect and is currently $7.25/hr, however there is an exception for waiters & waitresses. for these workers the state minimum is less than $2.50/hr. You can look it up online. So many people are under the incorrect understanding that we servers make regular state or federal minimum wage, but we do not. I have had a single table of about 10 people take up an hour of my time. After complementing me and telling me how great the food and service was and what a good job I did, they leave me $5 for a $165.00 tab. This is not an isolated incident. I had another table where a lady acted like she was really doing me a favor by letting me keep the “change” from her $50 tab on a table of 6, where they complemented me 3 different times on what a good job I was doing. The change was $2.23. I am newly single at age 49 after my older husband cheated on me with my best friend and birthed a child with her (after asking me to sacrifice motherhood for him). I took a job thinking most people were like me and understood the tipping system and expectations in our country. The work is much harder than I expected and rough on my nearly 50 year old body, but I take pride in my job and enjoy serving people. I have been tipping near 20% for the last 15-20 yrs, and thought, mistakenly, that other people were as “generous” as I was to servers. WOW! Amazing how many educated people, Christians, and Business people are so cheap!
Let’s think about this for second because I think your hostility is directed at the wrong people. Ask yourself, “Whose fault is it that servers get paid under state minimum?” Is it the customers’ fault for not tipping enough, or is it the employers’ fault for not paying their employees enough?
If you’re underpaid, don’t blame the customers for being cheap because they’re not in charge of how much you make. Blame your boss. Customers should only be expected to pay for their meals. If they tip, it should be considered a bonus, not a mandatory payment.
Or is it the waitresses fault for not quitting and finding a job that pays minimum wage? seriously if i was getting 3.00/hr when i could work at mcdonalds and get double that. Are waitresses that dumb?
but the truth is one week they may make minimum wage and the next they make double the minimum wage. There’s plenty of times i’ve had waitress friends bringing in 20/hr it’s just not a constant week to week thing and they want every week to be a 20/hr a week thing. That’s just unrealistic.
That being said there is a lot of people out there like this poster who are convincing waitresses that this is true. And there are places out there who will tell their employees they HAVE to say they got 15% in tips. And it’s not our fault that these employees wont sue their bosses to keep them honest.
Here’s some sources to start with for any waitresses who want legal help. There’s a number you can call if your boss is making you claim tips you’re not making, or if you’re not bringing home MINIMUM WAGE every pay period. That’s not to say you cant make 400$ in tips one night and then nothing the rest of the week and still only walk out of there with 400$ paycheck. Tips just count TOWARDS your final hourly wage.Not in addition to it.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs15.htm
http://www.boardmanclark.com/reading-room/court-upholds-dols-20-limit-on-tipped-employees-cleaning-and-prep-work/
http://www.dol.gov/compliance/topics/wages-other-tips.htm
TO quote it for everyone who cant do research:
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a “tipped employee” is one that engages in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount, combined with the tips received, at least equals the federal minimum wage.
If the employee’s tips, combined with the employer’s direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour, do not equal the applicable federal minimum hourly wage, THE EMPLOYER MUST MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE.
It would be a really dumb server who quit their job waiting tables to go make minimum wage! Even with crappy tippers factored in, most servers make way above minimum. Most are not crying about not making enough money, they just feel that when a good job is done, there should be adequate compensation. And if a server is taking home less than minimum wage weekly (meaning tips and paycheck together, not just the check) then they probably need to find a new line of work, because they are obviously not suited for this one.
SO WHAT ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT!!!!!!! you just admitted they make minimum wage and the issue is you think they need MORE!
It’s a minimum wage job accept it… you’re not going to live a 5 figure life style being a waitress EVER!
Fuck you. It is not a minimum wage job. If it was we would quit and work at a much easier place like Jimmy Johns and smoke pot all day. Do you not understand the preparation, skill, and energy involved in working as a server compared to just being a cashier??
Just because you and your friend are uneducated on the laws doesn’t change things. If you’re not willing to get a lawyer and sue for what they owe you that’s your problem.
The law states that a tipped employee MUST make minimum wage. The only thing tipping does is lets them make more than minimum wage and compensate employers for having the waitress.
You really need to look up the law and not just rely on what you have heard. These laws are only since 2009. So a lot of old school waitresses didn’t use to make minimum wage. But they are probably doing other jobs now and are only saying that their experiences when they were waitresses. Which are no longer valid and they need to stop spreading misinformation.
So yeah it’s in the restaurants best interest to think you’re doing it for the server.. you’re not. Truth is LEGALLY if their tips don’t meet minimum wage the restaurant has to make up the difference. LOOK IT UP!
Finally, the whole premises of leaving 20% is flawed to begin with you can say someones bill was 165$ and they left you a 5$ tip boo who!
Okay there’s 2 things about that 1. If they weren’t there eating out you wouldn’t even have a job. So be thankful you have a job.
And 2. If i order a steak for 20$ and the guy at the table next to me orders a 10$ hamburger. As a waitress do you do any more for me than you do the guy at the next table? Do you as a waitress have to go across town to get the steak when the hamburger is in the fridge? No.. the amount of work you as a waitress needs to do is equal. So how on god’s green earth do you think i should pay you more than the guy next to me just because i wanted something more expensive to eat? No matter what job you have you will always want to get paid more.
You should be thankful you have a job and not telling people they are bad humans because they don’t want to follow etiquette that’s been changing a lot over the years for what reason? 10% use to be perfectly fine. And you can argue cost of living has went up but surprise surprise so have menu prices. So why should people pay 20% now?
and just to end my rant, tipping 20% is fine if it’s a mom and pop store where they really need the tips to pay employees and cooks etc. 20% for a chain store that all they do is microwave something they take out of the fridge? Your kidding me! I tip more at mom and pop stores because the services is above and beyond and personal in most cases.
Educate yourself and you’ll see how you’re not really helping anyone. And Educate yourself if you’re a waitress making minimum wage. Educate your self on the reasons why a waitress would be a waitress… I hate it when you have someone complain about someone leaving a small tip but they NEVER once mention the people who over tip. That’s the thing about being a waitress some weeks you make well over minimum wage others you only make minimum wage. It’s not the tippers fault that you’re in an industry you cant budget from because you have no idea how much your hourly wage is. But work any minimum wage job you never know how many hours you’ll have .
So again LOOK IT UP! you’re wrong and you should get a lawyer if you’re not taking home minimum wage every pay period.
Your friends a liar.. and if he isn’t lying it’s his fault i don’t feel sorry for him. You can make minimum wage 1000/hr but if people aren’t going to force their employeers to pay them then they are not victims.
Who cares if you have a single table take up an hour of your time and leaves no tip.. then the next table they pay 14$ tip you just made 7$ an hour… not 3$
But that’s irrelevant even if NO ONE tips you LEGALLY have to be paid minimum wage.
Know the law before you tell people they are wrong. If you’re to dumb to educate yourself then why should i tip a moron.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs15.pdf
Hello! We can’t all live in California.
What does California have to do with anything? it’s federal law.
It shows how many people are so disappointed in losing their money in tips. And so much that they wanna save? Common guys, get real when was the last time in our college days or shit we tipped or whistled/pssted the waiters? Carrying a culture is not symbolic. Adaptation to a new one is at least enlightenment. Regardless of whether anyone works for tips or not, honoring a person is the rightful act of gentleman ship. When was the last time any of these guys didn’t get rewarded for a achievement. Is that tipped or pat? And money there makes all the happy. Why do you think the companies do that, coz you deserver? Yes. Why not some one who’s waiting on you and feeds you good, smiles at you, and more. In comparison, who tips the whores for sex refills? A whole lot. Is that a donation then? No, self(ish). That’s exactly where it all boils down to. When the world of cards crashes then what job you gonna have with all the education you have and all the money you’ve got. The tip and the money in your pocket is paper not gold. Get over it and tip well be well. Respect is not a by-word, it should be relished upon everyone regardless of any relationship.
I have no problem tipping. I went out with friends Friday night and the person who paid the bill didn’t tip enough so I made up the rest in cash. What I can’t stand is when I am an ace, that happens to be a black, single woman I get crappy service out the gate based on the server’s own prejudices. I worked in the hospitality field for years. I know how to tip. If you are going to give me substandard service based on your own prejudices, be prepared to suffer the consequences. I tip 18 -20% for good service. Crappy service you get 10% and should be glad for that.
My issue is not with tipping. My issue is with servers feeling “entitled” to a certain amount of tip just because they show up to my table. I do not understand why a server should expect anything if they do a piss poor lackluster job and think I am supposed to dig in my pockets for additional money! The restaurant industry has gone down and service is not what it used to be but I am supposed to pay for that. Please! I start every server at 25% but with each mistake I take the amont down. PERIOD. I refuse to pay what you do not deserve. I have worked as a server so I know its a difficult job but if you cant take the heat get out of that line of business.
Then simply stay at home. The world is hurting and your harsh judgment is a gleaming reflection of that. I would love for nothing more than to have fifty yard line box seats at the super bowl sitting next to some super model, tossing back champagne while she’s winking at me. Guess what, I cant afford it. That doesn’t mean I go around making excuses for why I deserve to be there because I don’t. I go and do the things I can afford as should you Sir: PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lol funnies reply ever…. you’re pretty much saying she should stay home even thou she will tip 25% if the server provides what they are being tipped to provide.
You’re forgetting why we tip… there is no reason to tip if it’s just a set in stone charge for eatting someplace….. in that case we call it a wage.
Are you serious? If he stayed at home, YOU WOULD BE ON FOOD STAMPS.
I agree. I stink the percentage system is out of date – just like realty fees of 6% on a million dollar house!
15% is NOT the average. In the United States (especially in urban areas), any server would be disappointed with anything under 20%.
Just like people at mcdonalds are disappointed with their pay…….and CEOS who make millions of dollars still disappointed because they are not making enough money. NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THEIR INCOME EVERYONE WANTS MORE!.
But let me ask you this, if someone said “Waitresses should no longer be tipped and be paid regular wages” How many waitresses would complain about not making enough money? Guarantee you they will all complain about how much money they would LOSE because tips far exceed the minimum wage.
This attitude has lost the restaurant industry many customers including me. I refuse to buy your bull and I don’t eat out ever. I take out from my favorite places and we have expanded our culinary skills. Your loss, our gain.
how much is a fair to make in tips in an hour ,watresses work 6 tables an hour on average 50.00 tickets thats 70.00 an hour wow .to much money
We get about 4 tables an hour, 20-30 dollar checks. At ten dollars per person per meal, if you can’t afford 1.50 to tip your waiter for them bringing you your food, refills, napkins, condiments, ANYTHING, you don’t deserve to eat in a restaurant with the other human beings. It’s HARD work to be somebody’s servant, and please get some real life experience before assuming waiters make 70 dollars an hour, I made about ten an hour on tips working at a fast pace. When somebody stiffs me for good service, it’s a shame on their nationality because I avoid tables that stiff me, and repeat offenders get the worst service. Karma exists
I really couldn’t care less how little you make. Getting tipped is a privilege for doing above average work. I’m not gonna cough up any extra cash just for good service because that is what a server is SUPPOSED to do. If you don’t like the job, leave. And if you wound up doing it because you couldn’t get anything else, you did something to fuck yourself over and deserve nothing more than a shitty job. Take all your statistics and shove em. The only thing that legitimately dictates wether or not someone is entitled to eat in a restaurant is if their clothed, clean, and can afford their meal.
I’ll bet you make life hell for your servers when you eat out. I was in the business for a very long time, and I know your type. Let me guess–the service is never good enough, you probably guzzle your drinks, and ask for unnecessary things that you don’t really want, just to make your server work harder. It would make it very difficult for you to dine out if there were no one willing to take the shitty jobs and wait on your hateful ass.
For your information, Russell, most servers don’t choose to wait tables because that’s the only job they can get. People choose to be servers for many reasons, mostly because most of the time, yes, the money is good. Also, waiting tables usually provides a more flexible schedule than a “real” job. This can be especially important for parents and students. Of course if you receive poor service, no one is saying you should leave a good tip. But if your service is good, and especially when it is great, you should acknowledge it.
I would comment on your math but, what the hell good would it do, given the argument your trying to make. best of luck buddy.
Wow! Wonder where you live. There are many shifts, where my 6 tables leave me with less than the minimum wage teenagers get working at taco bell, while I run my butt off and make sure their drinks are filled even if I have to go back 4 times. I smile the whole time and after serving their food (as soon as it comes up), check back in a couple of minutes to make sure everything is good, then besides drink filling, come back toward the end of the meal to see what else they might need. Also, in my restaurant there are no busboys, so we bus & clean our own tables, as well as the rest of the restaurant and usually have 30 minutes to an hour of our shift where we do not serve customers, but do “side work” stocking items and cleaning, for which we still only make the standard $2.38/hr.
This is BS! Whoever judge a religion or a country or a race by tips from people of those groups is an a**hole anyway and don’t deserve a tip. You are just encouraging people to tip less!
The tip system doesn’t work too well. I think most people will agree on that. Guilting the customers into supporting the serving staff is ridiculous and convoluted.
But it’s the system America goes by. Waiting tables is hard, legitimate work, and without tips, very unrewarding.
There is no guilt, in America it’s the norm to tip the person being your servant, because it’s degrading work. I have my biases bc if I take a table of six Indians with no mandatory gratuity I could waste an hour of serving loud, needy people and get nothing for it?
I don’t care if they only make a little bit of money per hour it is called unskilled labor. I walked further taking a piss then the waitress walked bringing food to my table. So you walked 3o feet and put food on my table. Am I supposed to be so impressed that I jump up-and-down and clap? Pay you 20% kiss my ass. I don’t need you I can walk 30 feet to the kitchen and pick up my own food. What a stupid worthless job you even have.
wow I hope your not raising kids, you ignorant asshole
I hope your not raising kids for being ignorant of the law.
Tipping is a gimmick to offset costs for restaurants. As simple as that… you’re pathetic to be eating it up. Cost of living goes up every year.. there use to be a time 5% tip was plenty… if cost of food goes up every year then that 5% is STILL the same. why do people want 20% now.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs15.pdf
get back under your bridge troll
then stay home & cook for your self. you go out to eat to have a nice expierience.if you have a nice experience i deserve to be compisated for that. if we get rid of tipping your $30 steak meal which would have cost you $20 to make at home will cost you $50 if restauraunts have to pay servers hourly. we are not the only tipped position in the restaurant. i tip out the host, bar tender and food runner a % of my food sales so when you dont tip enough you steal from me literally because the tip out is automatic. then at the end of the year i pay taxes on my food sales because the government knows that in america we only make $2.13/hr and we live on tips. being a mail man is *an un skilled job* according to you. he just walks around to houses delivering mail. i deliver food. tell your town you dont want to pay for mail delivery any more. no one becomes a server to become rich but it is hard honest work and i am proud to be a contributing member of society instead of a cheap skate theif.
You’re too dumb to live.
And are you also going to clean up the mess when you are done (doubtless all over the floor, the table, and the chairs)? And are you going to get your own beverage and keep it filled? Obviously you have never waited tables or you would not be calling it unskilled labor. It takes skill and knowledge to do the job properly. And most of all it takes people skills, in which you are greatly lacking.
Unskilled means YOU DON’T NEED SCHOOL TO DO IT!
Really it takes school to learn to clean up messes? and fill glasses?
I’d be more than happy to fill my own beverage atleast then it would get filled when I need it!
Please educate yourself more before arguing.
Do the employees cleaning the floors at mcdonalds get tips? they still clean up messes. They just get a HOURLY WAGE.
And before you say waitresses only make 2.13 please do your homework, and “when i was…….” is not relevant unless it was after 2009. In which case i’ll refer you to the department of labors hotline for help getting your money your boss owes ya.
First of all, the California comment was not meant for you. Second, I was employed until 2013 at a major worldwide chain. ( I’m pretty sure they’re required to be conversant with relevant laws.) And finally, there is a bit more to the job than simply hauling food. I was required to clean, make salads, make both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, make trips to store rooms and freezer, serve food, take orders, and many times seat people. All at the same time. For $2.58 an hour. Perhaps these tasks don’t require a degree or special training, but they are still tasks that someone has to do. And everyone, regardless of the training or education required to do a job, deserves to be compensated for that work.
I still want to know what california has to do with anything.
And second, Major chains are among the top of the industry with not paying what people are owed. A lot of them have been sued for this and lost. But the thing is when you’re talking about a major industry it’s more cost effective to pay the 1 or 2 people who sue them than to pay every employee what they are legally required to pay.
As long as people are to dumb to do their homework it’s cheaper. Untill everyone starts making them pay what they are legally required to pay…… but again as with a previous post of yours you pretty much said all waitresses make minimum wage. So you openly admit to just wanting MORE money. So i can see why you’re spewing crap from your mouth about how they sometimes dont make any money at all.
Omg so you mean you have to work?
Hell when i was a cashier in my younger years i had too……
Check people out, re stock shelves, clean up the store, collect carts from the parking lot, help customers find stuff………. and a bunch of other stuff ALL AT THE SAME TIME… it’s true for any job especially today when they understaff like crazy. Does that mean i tried to get law makers to pay me more? no i went and found a nother job that paid me more and i didn’t bitch about it.
Why are you so stupid?
For a racist like you, it will serve you right to make no money at all.
None of you cheap, dirty sand niggers come to America.
Thanx buddy!
We’re sorry to make you upset.
But US businesses invite us to work for them and create jobs for you Americans.
In my company there are two H1B immigrants who do an unpopular job (programming), and then our boss can hire 3 other people to do their jobs: 1 marketing, 1 graphic design, 1 manager.
Since we’re in a small city, our boss just cannot find an American for programming here. But he’s happy to hire an immigrant, create 3 new jobs and hire 3 other americans.
And we’re not cheap, we cannot work for less money than is the market-wide salary.
Wanna Hit LIKE LIKE LIKE!! 🙂 Mike …On ur face buddy
Except in most cases foreigners take jobs from citizens, it’s called outsourcing and they DO work for less in foreign countries
it’s also caused by Americans thinking they need 20% tips and 15$ an hour for doing minimum wage jobs……… Only so much a business can take before enough is enough.
why you in small city you should hit uptown. Cuz the market-wide salary is more there. Oh yeah! forgot….get your experience here, ditch the boss n then move. And i bet with the unpopular programming the business should be a multi-million swoosh minus innovation. cool!
bullshit, paying tips for them is a way to waste my money. why should i pay tips???? ridiculous!!! i am not pay salary for them, i am not the one who hire them. rubbish tipping system
I agree. The tip system is stupid, but it’s cruel reality and unless you are making food or getting McDonald’s then you gotta tip at least 15% of the check total. You don’t have to tip anyways but just remember that servers don’t have to give you good service. Your $0 tip on that $30.00 check will come around real quick.
you don’t deserve to go out to a fine dinner: period. Stay at home and run your own food and drinks, clean up after your own kids, clean and wash your own dishes. you are simply disrespectful but I think you know that already. Respond when you start caring about someone besides yourself.
if we get rid of tipping the cost of your meal goes up. one way or another you will be paying my salary. tipping $20 on a $100 meal is a much better deal for you because that same meal will then cost you $250 to be able to pay the 14 servers on the floor, the 5 bus boys 3 hosts all minimum wage. if you were required to tip before your meal began to insure pompt service you would learn very quickly what $5 service for an hour and a half of my time & $20 service looks like. i try hard to make your evning nice for something you could have done for your self but insted decided to use my services for. please be kind. if you have enough money to go out to eat please factor in your tip as part of your experience.
Cost of the meal wouldn’t go up at all……….
Atleast then i couldn’t blame the service on a shitty server and i would just blame the restaurant for hiring a douche bag and i wouldn’t come back. Then the restaurant gets shut down everyone gets fired …. I win.
And you’re right there are a lot of wait staff who only work for tips. So if someone gives a low tip they become dicks and take it out on everyone the rest of the shift. Atleast if they aren’t working for tips they are working because ITS THEIR JOB!
Don’t you think waiting tables is a job? If it wasn’t a job, why would anyone do it? Most servers will not take it out on other customers if one gave them a low tip. That’s a sure-fire way to get other low tips, and contrary to popular belief, most servers are NOT stupid. It sounds to me like personal experience of how you get treated if you tip poorly. Believe me, servers remember the good ones, and they remember the bad ones. Sometimes the bad ones most of all.
And customers remember the good servers and the bad ones. There are a lot of restaurants i wont even go to just because of the service. So one bad server ruins it for everyone. Rather than “remember the bad” fix your arrogant behavior that you’re entitled to something and you’ll be better off.
I do believe that a server who has done a good job deserves to be acknowledged for it. Of course, if your service is bad you should convey that. No one is saying that all servers deserve to be tipped. I was a server once myself, and have pretty high standards. However, the bad tippers I was referring to are the people who go regularly to certain restaurants, are invariably difficult and demanding, and who refuse to tip even excellent service. It is not arrogance to expect recompense for a job well done. Do you think it is arrogant to ask your boss for a raise when you think you deserve one?
Leaving a tip is totally the patrons want. I agree it goes along with good service and good servers make up for even the lousy tippers. I am one who if the service sucks albeit their refusal to know menu items, leaving drink glasses 3/4 empty for long period of time, rude ill mannered and the list goes on, it is not MY responsibility to provide a living wage for any server or anyone in the service industry. I have found the greatest way to show bad service any time or every time I make a POINT of leaving a single PENNY on the table. It shows thought and is meant as a insult that leaving nothing does not achieve.
Youre just a douchebag
indians are cheap by nature. im surprised you are even surprised by this fact. they are proud to be cheap and they know it. no point argueing
Says a person from a country which rolls out the cheapest products and people day after day. Some as fake and counterfeit as your ego
Good one.. LOL!!
1. Most restaurants only add a gratuity charge to large parties to ensure their servers are not spending an hour waiting on a table, and getting nothing out of it.
2. You cannot pick and choose your customers, and you cannot deny service to anyone without getting fired.
3. If you do not have enough money to leave a tip, you dont need to pay for finer food than a fast food joint, and you dont deserve to be waited on.
4. Servers are at the beck and call of their customers. Nobody would run around like somebody’s dog without expecting good money for it. The amount of the tip should reflect the quality of the service.
5. A waiters job is hard, but if you are a people person, you could make up to 20 dollars an hour on the weekends, more than paramedics make, and they are saving lives. If thats not a real job, i dont know what is.
first of all stop the stupid argument of begging the tips becoz the owners dont pay them well. it does not make sense. the simple solution is to wrk in those restaurants which pay well and dont let u live on tips. u should demand from owner and not the customer. if someone has money to spare then let him give tips. there are people who tip to barbers, cab drivers and anyone they see. u people in favor of extorting the money in form of tip should understand a lot about life. for e.g. there are many people who just visit usa for sometime and eat in restaurants as they dont have kitchens setup. they may have come up from non wealthy backgrounds and may not be in a position to spare extra money. it will be wrong to extort money from them. it reflects poor on usa in fact. the better way would be to keep your prices as you can afford. let customer decide if they can afford or not. its wrong to add so much money later in the cheque.
This is an Easy fix for you my friend. Whatever food you want on any given night, you should cook in the comfort of your own home. You said we as servers should work for a place that offers better pay, well that’s just not the way the system is set up. My response to your careless opinion is this: DO NOT GO TO PLACES THAT HAVE SERVERS PERIOD. If you feel that you don’t have to pay them what they are worth, then just don’t bring your patronage to our establishments. It is a privilege to have someone care about your experience. It saddens me to see people so disconnected that they feel the need to degrade them for trying to support their families.
P.S I would love to sit in box seats at next years super bowl, I cannot afford. So guess what: I don’t go. just like if you cant afford a fine dinner out, tip and all: well then you have no business being there.
luckily we can afford the food at the restaurant and the bill so we can go out and not tip all we like
Do you notice a decline in the quality of the service that you get at the place where you are regulars? Because, believe me, servers remember. Contrary to popular belief, servers are people, too, not just some sub-human species that live in the restaurant and exist solely for the pleasure of their customers. We remember the good ones and we remember the bad ones. Also something to keep in mind, these people handle your food before they bring it to you, and you don’t know what they might do to it before they bring it to you. Some servers can be very vindictive.
And THIS IS WELL KNOWN and people are avoiding restaurants now. You are writing your own death sentence.
Sorry, your simple solution won’t work, unless every server moves to those few states that pay their servers minimum wage. The pay-rate is the same pretty much all across the US. And if you can’t afford to leave a tip, even if you are just visiting, stick with fast food. It doesn’t require a wealthy background to spare a few bucks for the service you receive. Also, you are perpetuating the stereotype that foreign people are cheap.
The blog author got it all wrong. No problem in asking people to tip waiters. But the points on which he has based his arguments is totally flawed – low wage, Karma etc.
Low wage? Yeah, so restaraunt owners make a lot more money per year than their average customer. So, let them start paying their employees little more instead of them having to rely on tips
Waiters are tipped for service and hospitality. If i got paid min wage, i would enjoy being an asshole, but i prefer being nice to people, making them happy, and getting paid well For it
In a developed country, most occupations are service based: A Consultant isn’t getting a tip for a good advice, nor a doctor. Why do waitresses deserve it?
Karma? Exactly, it is a waiter or waitress’s karma that made them get into the job! So, they better live with the perks and perils of it.
Immigrants who aren’t used to tip in their home country will not tip here. People should really get on with the change instead of crying over it.
Exactly. It is like begging only, not by request but by demand !! Why should I contribute to the living of an incapable adult who wasn’t incapable to get a decent job? Is it my duty to make sure such folks are sustained? Instead I contribute that to an orphanage or homes for the disabled.
Being an educated person as you state you are, is it necessary to leave a reply on every comment. Should you not be concentrating on your carreer instead of attacking every person.
I was a waitress while attending school and let me tell you there isnt anything wrong with waitressing. Doesn’t mean youre uneducated or less of a person. Waitressing is a job and a lot of people are well off at least they have a job!!!!!Whether you want to leave a tip or not who cares. Sweety you should get a life because you seem like a low life and your thinking is disguisting. And please reply to my comment cause i would love to hear your thinking. Or hire a shrink of you need someone to talk to. #messed up people #if you have nothing nice to say dont say it at all.
Also, you have a good job, get the governemt tell them to increase the wages and they would not be begging for a tip from you!!! They get nothing and theyre not paid to kiss your ass otherwise make your own food lazy ass. Just because someone does not have the money for school because their family is not well off does not male them lazy. If youre unhappy cook your food or serve yourself. Youre making fun of the helpless peoe you should be making fun of the governemt because its sad how little they pay waiters for working their asses off and do not forget the tips at places are split with kids washing dishes. You should understand coming from nothing how hard it is these days to get a well paid job. Ypire disguisting.
Jasmine, aren’t they already paying for the food they are eating ? Its not that the waiters are serving free food, right?
Come to think of it, if you are really concerned about waiters, YOU are the one who should get the government to increase their wages. Instead you seem to focus on dissing customers of such waiters.
The food is only as cheap as it is (compared to other developed countries) because the waiters are underpaid.
Look, it’s a cultural thing. You are not forced to pay a tip, but most people will because it is a cultural norm, and if you don’t you will look like a cheapskate.
Sure, understand the cultural thing. But hope everyone understands that its vice versa too. If you “expect” (NOT accept) tips, you’ll look like a cheapskate. Can we settle this here then and move on.
It’s not though. If you take the price of the bill and the tip that they expect, then it comes much more into line with others.
Instead of tips just pay the servers a living wage and make the prices clear and consistent. It will stop customers from “stiffing” servers and make servers circumstances much more predictable regarding their pay
It’s the same with tax in shops. The price you see isn’t what you actually
It’s not though. If you take the price of the bill and the tip that they expect, then it comes much more into line with others.
Instead of tips just pay the servers a living wage and make the prices clear and consistent. It will stop customers from “stiffing” servers and make servers circumstances much more predictable regarding their pay
It’s the same with tax in shops. The price you see isn’t what you actually pay as the tax isn’t added until you get to the checkout. Therefore making it look more reasonable than it really is and adding confusion
It’s a ridiculous statement. The food is cheap because it’s heavily industrialized to the peril of the entire nation. It has got nothing to do with the waiters wages. That’s pure capitalist greed American style. The big restaurants can easily pay their staff $15/hour while still providing the same industrialized cheap food (or food like thing I should say).
Noone is saying you should leave a tip and noone is making you leave a tip. But its not fair when people say its not an actual job or that they should get a job or that theyre begging. Cmon at least they have a job.
jasmine, the reason someone said it is not a real job becoz the author has written so badly about this job and almost begging people to leave tips. he is telling us that it will reflect bad on race, country and blah-2. whats all that about? my personal opinion is this – waiterising is also a job like any other. so if the waiter is not getting tips, they should ask the owner to give proper salary. u can demand the customer for that. also, if u were really waiteress then u must knw that many restaurants add the tip in cheque itself. i m surprised u dont even know tht. for me tipping anyone is a stupid thing when i wrk day n nite myslef to survive and no one tips me.
BUT that’s EXACTLY what this article is saying. If I was not blackmailed into leaving a TIP, I would tip more often than not.
As a waitress, I think people should tip at least 15%. Yes the customer is already paying for food, but you eat at a restaurant to be served on, if not order to-go. Every restaurant offers that and the to-go employee makes minimum wage, so there is no necessary act of tipping there. Everyone knows that 15% is appropriate, they are paying for SERVICE!!! The author of the article doesn’t seem to have a full grasp on the topic.
Jasmine,
Look, who is talking!! My posts never are out of decency and it reflects my balance in psyche and intellect. You advise me not to say anything if I have nothing nice to say; and just by looking at your 2 comments above, I and anyone who read them clearly knows, who is talking “nice”, who is “messed up”, who went to waitressing while “schooling” (are u educated? Because ur posts do not show that up), and lastly, who’s “disgusting????”
Btw, if u had minimum brains, u might’ve understood my comment above. I ask people again, is it my duty to sustain people like you? LOL, remember that you earn at my mercy (and at the mercy of other tippers).. so you have to “care” whether I tip or not, as long as you cannot get a decent job.
IMPORTANT: I replied to an idiot like you only to teach you not to argue standing on a wrong side! Don’t ever reply to me in a language of your standard!
Clearly, you don’t understand English very well. Let me explain this simply for you, so pay attention, because I don’t want to have to repeat myself.
People who work as waitresses and waiters do because for some reason they cannot find work elsewhere. This could be from any number of reasons but the most prevalent ones are; the person is a student and does not have any specialty training yet but needs a job to pay for school to get a better job, or the individual cannot find work elsewhere because they live in an economically stagnant area. There IS no other work available. It’s always better than no work, and is a decent job if you’re good at it.
Waiting tables is typically something students do, so the staff changes seasonally and frequently. It’s a field in which people can easily come and go, so it’s always available for those who are having a hard time or just need a job for some reason. Working as a waitress does not mean that you are a bad person as you stated above, it just means that you have a job(thank god for that) and are willing to base your pay on how friendly and hard working you are. Stacey is correct. When you eat at a quality restaurant, you are paying for the service. For the experience of being waited on and eating in a nice atmosphere.
Because people normally tip in the states restaurant owners usually expect some low tip from each table and factor an expected tip into their worker’s wages. If they didn’t, they would presumably being getting robbed for overpaying staff. It’s because of this that the official pay is so low. Some few restaurants do take this expected percent tip from the check itself, but most don’t. If you would like to find out, you can ask any employee and they’ll tell you.
This is indeed a cultural thing, just like holding the door for someone. If you hold a door, it’s polite but expected. If you don’t, it’s considered very rude, and means that you either didn’t see or were raised with poor manners. It’s not begging to expect someone to hold a door instead of letting it shut in your face.
Do you understand now?
Once again, you are spouting off about your education, Mr. Gupta, and your post is barely intelligible. Apparently none of the money for your expensive education went into basic grammar. Oh, and I am one of those “incapable” people you so despise.
He is not good at English writing but I can guarantee you he is making 6 figures in IT.
Never come to america. Things are a lot different here than whatever hole you crawled Out of.
Yet, you trust these incapable people to serve you. I happen to know several people with degrees who prefer to wait tables. Also, for all your so-called education, your grammar is deplorable.
A consultant or a doctor is getting paid. And what has karma got to do with someone trying to put themselves through school? Or someone trying to support a family? If there weren’t people willing to do the job, you would have to do it yourself. Kinda makes the idea of dining out not so wonderful doesn’t it, if you have to wait on yourself.
Some of you people are idiots. A lot of you like that Gupta person who keeps commenting needs to spend some time as a server, and I bet their tune would change. Even the idiot who said that if the server is making minimum wage they shouldn’t tip is clueless.
Ramone, By reading a comment, I can understand a little, whether if I reply to a person, that person should be of a threshold intellect to understand my comment, so I generally do not reply such folks and ignore them. But in your case, though you too are in that “ignorable class”, I am replying you because you used my name in your comment. Here’s my reply to you. **I have worked my ass out in schools to get highest grades and admissions into the best possible schools of my interest, and to make sure that my parents or any others never spend much money for my quality education and in pursuing my dream profession. And now I can afford what I and my family requires in a respectable manner through my hard-earned money and respect. So, the question of even considering an option to work as a waiter is ruled out. The question to a person of your intelligence and capability (considering the fact that you support waiters) no wonder, wouldn’t be able to differentiate an idiot from a pool. So, my sympathies with you, for your incapabilities. All the best for your job which expects tips from others for your bread and butter!!**
The rule of thumb with tipping is..If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat there.
That is an old and tired saying. Tipping has gotten way out of hand in the U.S. It is not mandatory. What I find so offensive these days, is that there is no gratitude anymore, just expectation. And watch out if those expectations are not met. This is wrong any way you try to slice it. I have been stiffed many times over the years, but then again, I have been over tipped too. It all evens out and if you can’t handle that, you need to find another line of work. Tipping is a private CHOICE and it is not up to the serving industry to deem who has enough money to dine out.
Good. That’s what I exactly mentioned when that waiter laughed at them who returned to the same restaurant after checking the prices. That’s so cheap, gratitude is much big thing to expect from them.
We just can’t help these dogmatic people dogged with their obtuse losers 🙂
You can put your thumb where it deserves to be
I am not sure it’s a matter of affording as much as why should I have to. We do not tip the cashier at a store – they ring up our merchandise. We do not tip day cares every time we pick up our children – they look after our children every day. We do not tip our teachers – they educate our students. There are many service providers who do not get tips. I believe that they should be paid a decent wage, and tipping should be abolished . I do not believe that I should have to pay extra for someone to do their job.
Ramone,
I just wanted to clarify, in the event that the idiot you just referred to was me. What I said was,”make sure you know how the servers are paid in the state that you are in. It’s not necessary to go crazy on tipping, if the servers are making minimum wage”. I never said DON’T tip. I was trying to point out that in some states, the servers are paid much better than in other states. Isn’t the point of this thread to educated non US citizens of our tipping practices here? If in fact, I am that “idiot”, please re-read my comments. You will find that I am also not clueless about tipping (after approximately 15 years in the biz, in numerous states). Now, in the event that it was not me that you were referring to, well than, I guess I just reiterated my point. You and Jasmine could make much more compelling arguments if you got a handle on your emotions.
I have spent over 15 years in the restaurant biz. I have worked in Illinois, Wyoming, and Minnesota. I have done just about every job including cooking, dishing, bartending and management. Most of my experience comes as a server. I was shocked when I moved to Minnesota and found out that servers here make minimum wage. Today that equals 7.25 and hour, not too shabby!! I have always been extremely careful in how I tip, usually too much 🙂 However, yesterday as a group of family and I finished our dinner out, and I was filling in the tip amount, I realized that there is no reason to tip so much when our server is making 7.25 an hour! Their state mandated higher rate of pay gets passed on to the consumer and who ends up paying more for that dinner. Hmmmmm, this is what finally dawned on me: I am paying more for my dining experience, while my server is getting paid more per hour AND, I’m expected to keep tipping 15 – 20%???? Huh? I figured the girl who waited on our group of 8 people made $36.00 an hour on us. Wow, I don’t make anything close to that at my desk job that I got a college degree to get. My point is, make sure you know how the servers are paid in the state that you are in. It’s not necessary to go crazy on tipping, if the servers are making minimum wage.
That they stiffed me And had the balls to lie about i to my face, after i had thanked them for the opportunity to Serve them and sincerely wished them to have a good night, and to Drive safe if they were intoxicated. I felt betrayed as A human being
Hahaa, Bad Karma?? good one! 🙂
On a bad day i make more than the 8.25 min wage in illinois, but The people who stiff me for good service, i would very much like to Slash the tires of. Worst part is, some say on Their way out that they left it on the table. It hurts my feelings more than it does my Wallet
Means what?? Couldn’t get the last part!!
They left a tip on the table or they lied about it without leaving? Or it hurts you because they disrespected you by leaving the tip on the table instead of handing it over directly into your palm along with some rose petals?
No saying that they left tip on the table but they didn’t.
This is funny because tonight my last customer (an Indian couple in their 40s) tipped me $1 on a $40 tab…They were well-dressed seemingly business type who had come to the restaurant (Indian) and basically stood up and looked over the menu while the man was talking non-stop on the phone. Basically after 10 mins they approached me and said that they were going to “get their friend and show him the way here” I had to roll my eyes out at that because a) we’re located in the main street and easy to locate 2) I am pretty sure they wanted to check out the other restaurants and “price-check” for comparison. After about 15 mins they returned and I coyly said “oh your friend is not with you?” and they looked embarassed for a moment and said “they got busy” LOL! The street we’re located at has 3 other Indian restaurants (all of them much more expensive). In fact the whole street is lined up of expensive restaurants as it is in Downtown Toronto and rent is very high. Of course they returned later at night after seeing what others have to offer.
In fact I’m seeing this as a trend with Indians. There are banks nearby that employ IT folks from India on periodical assignments and they are usually the worst tippers out there. I even get asked for “discounts”. If I do get a tip, it’s usually $1 or $2. Forget 15%, I’m lucky to get 5% (I am not kidding!)
On top of all of that I regularly get asked to bring green chillies, lemon (which I slice up), red onions (again I slice them out in the prep room), chaat sauce, hot water – all free of charge.
One time this younger Indian couple came, they ate around $45 worth of food. They asked for the check and paid $0 in tips. They insisted on a booth intended for a group of 4-5. After they paid, they just hung around as if everything was normal. Even though I am complaining about instances, I never show my frustration out on customers. The couple hung around after they paid their bill to chat without even looking embarassed. Of course I felt bad but there’s nothing I can do.
It may not be so cheap on the part of the customers who do not tip. It’s their choice after all!! If pleased well, no one stops anyone from tipping.. One should EARN it. Not expect it by default. But it is really cheap on the waiters/waitresses who make fun of them who do not tip.
Mr/Ms Geets, did anyone told you that you are such an annoying person? It seems you live exclusively on tips (because of the tipping trends u made over time; permanent staff?), it clearly shows the standard of your thought also!! It’s very annoying because, it’s natural that anyone will look for a best deal, what’s wrong in checking other two-three restaurants before throwing an order at your face? Humiliating them with such questions after they came back was an example of your sadism! After all, you might not afford even what they spend for a dinner, can you?. Is it not shameful to laugh (you said LOL) on them, on whose mercy you make money/living? Hospitality is not smiling with lips and laughing with ass!
Reg the couple case, it’s their right to insist on anything they like, but it’s your duty to offer the rightful, isn’t it? Why did u allow a couple in a 4x booth? Just for a TIP, isn’t it? In which the management gains nothing, of course.
Moreover no one is forcing you to wait in a restaurant, resign that job and join a job where you need not keep thinking how much might u be tipped, while they finish their desserts. Although no one can help you raise your standards!!
geets first of all u look racist as u r telling that its only indians who dont tip. if its true than u can stop taking indian customers and serve other nation customers only. or may be no one cares about ur restaurant other than indians. so u shld be thankful to indians taht u r having ur business becoz of them instead u r writing bad about them. you must read abt india as your knowledge is not good as per ur comment. in india one is not required to tip. so it is normal there. its not a big deal or greatness to tip a waitress if u think that. there are many ways to spend ur money. i m sure u dont throw ur money where u dont like. all the best and try not to be racist.
It is true. Trash comes in all colors. I was a waitress for 20 years, and have been stiffed, even after giving excellent service by representatives of nearly every race.
DO NOT EXPECT tips, period. Without the Indian people, there are no Indian restaurants and you don’t have a job. Get off the high horse. Work in a different restaurant if you want more tips.
the guy who wrote this is an idiot! guess no one noticed the comment that” most waitresses are people who couldn’t find a job”. it is a job! if it wasn’t there wouldn’t be anyone to wait on your cheap lazy asses! its ok for someone to run around for you, give up their holidays with their families to wait on yours, but you don’t think you should leave a tip? stay home and cook your own dinner if you can’t leave a tip.
I’m from the US. It’s so disgusting that servers make so little money.
I think the thing that gets me most about knowing that my server gets paid $2.13 an hour is that there is an OBLIGATION to tip. You are thought to be a rude / bad person if you don’t tip. I don’t understand why it’s my job to make sure a server has enough money to live. They have a job, man. It should be the restaurant’s responsibility to pay their employees, right? Not the customer’s. I mean, you don’t go to a grocery store, pay for your groceries, and then pay the cashier for cashing you out, right? That’s their JOB. Someone is paying them to be there, hence why they’re there. How audacious is it for a restaurant to expect you to pay for food and then also pay for customer service?
Things need to change in the US. QUICKLY.
On the plus side, this is an informative article, so is it okay if I chime in?
20% is standard for tipping here. That’s basic for having decent service. 30% is a “Thank you for doing a great job.” If you’re in a party of 5 or more (I think? It might be 6?), then a 20% tip (“gratuity charge”) is automatically added to your bill.
A common saying here is “If you don’t have enough money to tip, then you don’t have enough money to eat out.”
I tip well for great service. Okay-but-could-have-been-better service, I leave the smallest acceptable tip. Terrible service, I don’t tip. By terrible service I mean a server who is rude, gets everything wrong, doesn’t check on you at all or refill your drinks… A lot of people blame servers for issues with the food. That’s not their fault. Being a little slow when juggling a bunch of tables during a dinner rush is also kind of understandable. I guess just use your best judgement when deciding how much money to leave on the table.
Also — cash is best. Tips added to credit card payments are on record, and therefore, have to be accounted for when servers do their taxes. Cards are more convenient though, because when you sign your credit card receipt, you have to fill out ‘tip amount’ and ‘total’. If you leave cash on the table but are paying with a card, I usually write ‘cash’ on the ‘tip’ line or strike it out.
Not sure about how other countries handle tipping in other places – but you are expected to tip for beauty services as well. Nails, hair, waxing services, etc.
A common saying here is “If you don’t have enough money to tip, then you don’t have enough money to eat out.”:
Actually it should be changed. I have enough money to eat everyday; I just don’t see enough value in tipping. And 20% is 20%. It adds up. I could have 6 dinners instead of 5 without tips. Economics and the flow of money is a closed system (without the consumer debt that is). If you force people to tip, very few will come out to eat and you will need to reduce your staff and/or throw away a lot of food in waste.
Not sure about how other countries handle tipping in other places – but you are expected to tip for beauty services as well. Nails, hair, waxing services, etc.:
As a result of this, I started doing my wife’s nails and she started cutting my hair, and our hair salon lost our business forever. And we are not alone in this. Mind you, we are a well off family with our own house in a major city, 2 other rented out houses and I have a very well paying job. I however need value to be delivered for every dollar I spend and I view tips as a form of extortion. I prefer not to do business.
Why does this website assume that only women work in the food service industry in the U.S.? The use of the term “waitress” is offensive, given that half of “servers” (that’s what we call them here) are male.
u r right, agreeable !!
It should be up to the restaurant to pay their employees’ wages, not up to the consumer.
Tipping should not be relied upon and this whole concept needs to be changed. The US government is failing their citizens for having such a low minimum wageor allowing states to allow this. Tips should be a bonus for good to exceptional service and not mandatory. It’s not the customer’s responsibility to supplement someone’s wage.
I just started serving while being a host. Hosting i made 8.25 an hour minimum wage, and got The occasional dollar or two for A carry out. My first two Days serving in illinois, i walked out with 50 dollars working 5 or 6 hours each day. I LOVE serving. I provide good service for decent tips, and get around ten dollars an hour, cash in hand at The end of each shift.
Move to Autralia. Lots of great beaches. Waitsaff get $20/hr (but we don’t usually do tips)
So if my company pays me to be a waiter, where is my incentive to give you great service? That’s the reason tipping is a tradition. The reason that the percentages are as they are is to accommodate for the cost of living.
You do realise that the same can be said for any job in the service industry, don’t you? Do you think cashiers should be tipped too then?
no. the cashier does not spend an hour and a half checking me out, and doesn’t provide me a service i can do at home like cook my own dinner. also, i will not patronize a grocery store because the cashier was so amazing. nice for 5 minutes yes but i have plenty of regulars who i take care of because they know they will have a good time with me and have a good memory of a nice experience.
Not so, since because we are obligated/socially pressured into giving you that tip, you’d get that same amount anyway. So where’s the incentive?
That and tipping encourages destructive competitive behaviour between servers that can be detrimental to overall service.
Also, why should only the servers get the tip, when my enjoyment also comes from the good cooks that made the food, the cleaners that made the plates nice and clean and the rest of the team?
It’s not like you’d get less money if nobody tipped but it was included in the price, and not like I’d be less likely to buy anything since effectively the price remained the same.
The cooks and the rest of the staff don’t get tipped because they get paid. In some restaurants, even the dishwasher can be making well-above minimum. Servers are still being paid the same wage as 1996. And despite that, most still manage to make good money. And it is always your option at a restaurant to tip whoever you feel deserves one. It was not uncommon for the cooks where I worked to receive tips from customers, or for a manager to split a gratuity for a large take-out among whoever worked on it.
The tradition actually got turned around somewhere. Originally, the tip was placed on the table at the beginning of the meal, then, if the service was bad, money was taken away. Things would probably be different if it were still this way, because money on the table would be a great incentive to do a great job. And also, if you put a bad tip on the table at the beginning of the meal, you would probably get the service you deserve, and no one to blame but yourself.
I am a newly hired waitress and I believe that I should be tipped on my service. If you spend $120 on your dinner just leave a decent tip to show that the service was good, if it was. We do have low wages, but if we don’t make at least minimum wage with our tips the employer has to make up the difference. If I give terrible service I don’t expect to be tipped. However, I have tipped waitresses that were a little slow because I could see the restaurant was packed and I saw them running around like a chicken with their head cut off. From working other places in the food industry I know that it is not always the server or the drive-thru lady’s fault when your food takes forever, it’s usually in the kitchen. You can be rest assured if your server gives you good service and you tip that the kitchen receives none of those tips even if they do a pool for tipping out. Only tipped employees are eligible to get the tips from the tip pool (bartenders, some places hostesses, bus boys, etc.) So, if your waitress gives you exceptional service please don’t strip their tip because your food took a little longer. If you come back they might not be so timely on everything else. Also, the service charge that appears on your bill, if you have a large party or order a lot of food, goes directly to the employer not the server. So, that is not considered a tip as most think it is. If you pay the service charge thinking it’s the tip as well then you are tipping $0 for the server who served your large party (Usually 6 or more)
It’s better to change ONE problematic unfulfilling job than to change MANY problematic unfulfilling customers !! Just food for thought 🙂
I am a newly hired waitress and I believe that I should be tipped on my service. : then you are completely, utterly, obviously, unfailingly, unquestioningly, without question WRONG.
Your chosen line of profession is going down. People realize that tipping is not an obligation any more. Things are tough out for everyone. Forget about tipping by 2020.
nice article….most of us are not aware why people expect tips here…not only in resto but also salon and other services etc…
i would also like to add one thing that i noticed if their is a group larger than 6 people in resto they add 10% to the bill for that service….
Well I simply cannot agree with a 15% or even 20% tipping policy! Here is why; say you buy just a sandwich and soda for 10-15$, then I would leave about 2-3$ (20%) tip. Say I go to a fancy restaurant with my wife and the bill comes to 120$, including a 40$ bottle of wine. I would typically leave about 10% (on total before taxes), sometimes more (if I was very pleased with the service) and sometimes less (if displeased). I am a retired Professional Engineer having worked more than 35 years after completing a graduate degree and even at the top of my career had every trouble making 50$/hour (as a senior associate of a large consulting engineering firm). Even at a zero wage from the employer, a server working a 1.5 hour sitting of only 3 customers (tables), spending 120$ would make 54$ in tips or 36$/hour at 15% tip (plus any employer wages). I consider this excessive given that the average national wage (all industries combined) is about 23$/hour! I am certainly not here to subsidize or compensate my server given his particular financial situation and I leave this up to governments (via student bursaries, loans, unemployment etc.), government that taxes me heavily on my revenues whereas often tips go undeclared and untaxed. Also I do not see why I would tip somebody 15% or 20% on a 250$ bottle of wine as the service or effort required is not going to be substantially different. I consider this tipping policy an industry/employer fabrication to entice people to join their ranks (case in point: cruise ships) and many times I have suffered from very poor service given the long waits because the kitchen was lagging. Yes this is indirectly the server’s responsibility as he is the restaurants representative/intermediary and will have to suffer his employer’s inadequacies. Lastly and not least in the present economic situation we try to support the restaurant industry by visiting their restaurants (which is not the case any more for many). Yes we enjoy the visit and in return the restaurant owner/server profit (win/win situation), but we will not make up the 20% plus in industry activity decline by paying excessive tips and occasionally even suffering bad overall service because of cutbacks. And that is the way I see it.
You have no real idea of how little most wait staff make. My wife is a waitress and when you consider the total time on the job she is lucky to get the 7.25 minimum wage which is what they are taxed on. The employer is supposed to make up the difference between actual $2.13/hr min wage when tips are lower….after they take out all the required taxes. So in our current poor economy the uninformed customers, maybe taking out their general dissatisfaction on the undeuserving waitresses who are also feeling the pain.
Apparently you have never worked in the service industry. Maybe you should try it and maybe then you will see how wrong you are.
WHY SHOULD HE TRY IT? Can you try to be an Engineer? How about a pilot? What an utterly stupid thing to say.
And I completely agree with you. Well said! This whole idea of tipping has gotten completely out of hand.
So the answer is to have a government mandated minimum wage of $15/hr so tipping is not required.
Kumar,
If the employee does not make more than the federal minimum wage for non-tipped employees, after summing up the minimum wage for tipped employees and the tip the employee made for the week, the employer has to compensate for lack of the tips and pay the minimum wage for non-tipped employees. This cannot even be grounds for termination of employment is some of the states.
Please refer to “Basic Combined Cash & Tip Minimum Wage Rate” column in http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm.
I personally feel a tip is to show that you enjoyed their service. I have tipped a bar tender 25% for making us comfortable and giving proper attention, and I have tipped some people 0% (some which I wish I could give a negative tip).
So tip if you feel like, and feel free to refuse to tip if you feel like too. If dont tip though, never visit them again, because there is a very good chance that they would spit in your drink/food :).
I totally agree with you! we should tip only if we feel like and if we don’t tip, it is better not to visit that place again.
Who is said waitress do not pay taxes ? Yes they do ! Doesn’t matter how much tips they make , but they are have to pay 15 % of tax on total customers ‘bills . So , even the waitresses they don’t make money on tips they still have to pay taxes for government , baby .
If you fall in low income category, you do not pay any taxes, period. Half of America does not pay taxes. There are many exemptions that can lower your taxable income. Please don’t spread nonsense about how people pay taxes on minimum wage.
OMG, I expected so.. I’ve seen in some movies too that they spit or rub on to their ass before serving (for non-tippers) but how correct is this on the part of the waiters. Though it answers it, when they weren’t able to get a job, which means they had no sufficient education/maturity! Both are in a vicious circle!
I have worked in the restaurant business for at least five years. I am also a Registered Nurse. With that said, I am a female in the service industry with a degree and continuing my education. Just how i don’t approve the author of the article to point out internationals as clueless on tipping, I don’t approve you claiming that every server is uneducated. I liked being a waitress. Making people happy giving them a night off out of the kitchen or even a short break from work. I get tipped well most of the time, and I appreciate it every time. I have also learned not to expect tips from everyone. You go to a restaurant for SERVICE. To be waited on, to have someone get everything you need to enjoy a meal. You pay the restaurant for the food, but you tip for the service you receive.
I also have never seen a server be unsanitary to someones food or drinks. Like everyone else in the world, servers go out to eat too.
It all too true that these things happen even in the best restaurants, Mr. Gupta. But, just like you cannot base a person’s willingness to tip on any physical appearance, you cannot base your opinions of a whole workforce on the actions of a few undoubtedly immature individuals. And it is also incorrect to say all servers are only waiting tables because they are unable to get any other job. That statement makes you just as prejudiced as the people who say you are cheap because you are Indian.
I like the bad karma thing too. It is sad the the countey does not offer these employees full salary benefits instead of making them rely on tips.
Do not agree for Tip
Hello,I’m going to USA on h2a visa(farm worker).plz tell me that how and can I. take admission there in BE(mac. Engg.) in a university (change status to f1).plz. Reply me I’m very confused. Thanks.
Roop, After you come to USA, schedule an appointment with local school in US, they will help you with the whole process.
liked BAD KARMA thing 😉
This is all very interesting but tipping a percentage is simply out of date. In years past, there were no such things as $200 meals (excluding the very exclusive restaurants). Now, that can happen fairly easily in almost any place that calls itself a “real” restaurant. If I have a less expensive dish and house wine my bill might be $100. But if I choose up the menu and have a bottle of good wine, my bill might be $200. I really need to know why I have to tip 2X AS MUCH FOR THE $200 DINNER AS THE $100 DINNER? It makes no sense. The server comes to the table the same number of times. That is why I pay a “dollar” amount. At breakfast, I will leave $10 on a 5.99 meal – a 60 – 67 % tip, depending how you do the math.