Another Easy Post With A Good Chance Of A Good Number Of Comments
And this one shouldn’t have a difference between male and female commenters.
And the subject is:
Tipping.
I read a number of “papers,” NYT, AJC, LVRJ, LATimes, Washington Post, Creative Loafing (Atlanta free weekly, “alternative”). Not all every day. I have a thing for reading restaurant reviews, though I’m not sure why. I’m not a big restaurant patron; and, when I go to a restaurant, I tend to go to the same ones. I’m a big believer in the “Cheers” rule of patronage: go where “everyone knows your name.”
That said, I’m always interested in articles, and the resultant comments, that talk about proper tipping.
As in my last post that elicited comments (blissful food), I’ll throw out some thoughts and ask you what you think. But first a story.
Three years ago, I went with about ten friends to a restaurant in December for that year’s annual meeting of the “Pampalona Blood Brotherhood.” (A group of friends that once a year have dinner together just before Christmas. That’s it, there are no other requirements for membership, no other meetings. But all of the attendees have membership cards. It’s a guy thing.)
So, we went to an Atlanta steak house. It is well known and has great food and good service; and, both were in evidence the night we were there. Several of our “members” like wine. The group of ten had a bill of about $1,500. About $800 or $900 of that was wine, in the form of maybe five or six bottles. When you are out with guys you don’t parse who had what. You have a sense of what you had and you throw in. I was the collector of the throw in. Some threw more than they should have, others were a bit short. With some quiet discussion we evened it out and left about a 16% tip on the total including tax. One of the other guys had made the arrangements. As we filed out to the parking attendant, the waiter followed us out and asked what had been wrong with the service. My friend, the arranger had not been involved with the payment and asked why the waiter asked. He, in so many words said we had left a lousy tip.
There’s more to the story (including me sending an Email to the General Manager and receiving a response from him apologizing and telling me the waiter had been fired, for this incident and several others, just before Christmas).
So one of the things I’m fascinated by is what should you tip?
I don’t tip at McDonalds, Starbucks or the like. I do tip at any place that pays its servers restaurant minimum wage. At those places, I tip plus or minus whatever is a “round” 20% of the cost plus tax. At a bar, I tip more like 25%.
Is this the right thing to do? On a $10 lunch or $20 or $30 dinner, probably. But, why does the server get $6 if I have a more expensive dinner, and the poor server that waits on me with the less expensive dinner gets only $4? If I have a $5 breakfast, the server probably does as much work as either of the other two. Why am I only tipping a $1 or so?
Now it’s your turn. What’s right? Am I cheap? Or in my father’s mind years ago when I left a 20% tip for a waitress who had waited on me, my parents, my brother, sister-in- law and baby niece (who spilled her milk twice) was he right when he told me “you’re going to spoil her.”
20 comments:
I usually tip 20% for good service, 25% for extraordinary service. 15% is it was just "okay". The wait staff make their dough on the tips, not their wage.
At the cheaper breakfast meals or lunches I agree with you on "they worked just as hard serving me" thinking. On a $5 meal I'd give at least $2 and maybe more if the service was above and beyond.
Someone told me a story about a woman whose tipping policy was very unique: If she had bad service at a restaurant, she wouldn't tip at all. But she'd remember it, and for the next person at the next place who gave exceptional service, she'd pay the tip forward. Pretty neat. I'm a 20% person. I tip at Starbucks but not McDonald's. I make a point to tip cab drivers HUGE just because they're so under appreciated and the look on their faces is OUTSTANDING. I also scale up the tip on the cheaper meals.
We tip at least 15%, but the service has to reflect it. In other words if the service is less than parr, you will get 15%. Otherwise we tip more.
I never tip for fast food or carryout. I do tip the pizza delivery guy, usually $2 or $3. I do occasionally tip at Starbucks, if the service is good, but no more than throwing a buck in the tip jar.
I tip my nail tech, my hair dresser and my tattoo artist, all of whom own their business. Mt mom says you shouldn't have to tip the business owner, but I feel that they are still preforming a service for me.
I generally overtip. But you know me, I tip at toll booths so my opinion really shouldn't count too much.
I think tipping is demeaning. They should do away with the practice and require employers to pay their employees a fair wage.
Thursday night, when my daughter and the grandkids and I dined out, we had a discussion for the benefit of the 16-year-old about tipping. I worked many years as a waitress in a truckstop so the tips were generally on the lower end of the scale. My daughter Mandy works at a "fine dining" establishment now and the older daughter has worked "fine dining" much of the time over the past 20 years. Our policy is if the service is good, we try to tip at least 15 percent, usually more around 20 percent. Excellent service and we will go over the 20 percent mark. Fair to middling and we drop back to 10 percent but even if the service is poor, we tip 8 percent then because no tip means the server is paying taxes on no income at all. Servers are taxed on the food/beverages sold to the tune of a flat 8 percent, whether they received a tip or not. Supposedly, this then evens things out for those who tip over and above and those who don't tip at all. I agree that the server's minimum wage is rarely a fair rate -usually runs around half of what minimum wage is and the work involved can be very grueling at times; also very frustrating too. Extra should be included for pain and suffering for the wait staff that often are biting their tongue or chewing the inside of their cheek to keep the frustration from spilling out on some customers too -especially those with small children who allow the kids to make royal messes by throwing (not just dropping) food all over the place.
Consideration of the server should also be given for things that can go awry with a meal that are not that person's fault too - sometimes things get mixed up in the kitchen that are beyond the server's control and you can't always hover around a table the way some people expect either. One thing that used to frustrate the heck out of me was when people come into the place, see that it's really busy and can't understand why it takes "so long" for their food to arrive because after all, they just ordered "bacon and eggs" or a simple sandwich but they don't realize the grill only will accomodate x-number of items at a clip for the people who arrived before they did! The girl who waited on us Thursday night was friendly, efficient, fast with delivery and also with removal of empty dishes and kept the beverages refilled in a very timely fashion. Our bill was $60; the kids had been very well-behaved so no extra mess for her to clean up and we left her $15.00.
OH and a side note here, it was always my experience that any customer who raved to me about what excellent service they'd received, how good the food was, etc., I could pretty much feel it then and there that I was gonna be stiffed when the time came to leave a tip.
Years ago our family (around 12 - 15 people) had reservations at an upscale local resturant. We still waited 30 min to be seated. Our waiter appeared 15 min later and took our drinks order. 20 min later drinks arrived and dinner orders were taken. Everyone ordered the house speciality. One hour later dinner arrived. Never between those times did we see our waiter - no "need more drinks, here's some bread, I'm sorry for the delay, etc". I noticed other tables being seated and getting prompt service by other waiters. My husband was so mad (he gets mad very slowly and then simmers to a boil) that when we got the check he left a penny tip. You would not believe the firestorm in the lobby agter that one. The manager took our side after we told our story and it was confirmed by other partons observing us.
Bad service gets bad tip. Good service gets 20%.
I don't tip. Am I mean? I don't think so, I think at some places there is a 10% mark up anyway filtered into the price as a service charge. (regarding eateries)
My mum used to always tip at hairdressers, and the window cleaner. I just don't agree with it. Now if I was in a position to rely on tips myself as a 'wage filler' I would perhaps think differently.
On principle, I'm opting not to comment.
It never occurred to me that tipping might be demeaning. I guess we're all a bunch of superior a**holes for talking about how much/little we tip here. Honestly, I thought it was all about showing appreciation for good service. Idea: Next time we're on the receiving end of truly excellent service, I'll just say "We'd like to leave a really good tip but we don't want to demean you." I'm sure that'll work out well. Sure.
Dave,
20% +/- depending on service is good for restaurants. Since 95% of my meals are reimbursed for travel, I don't have much personal interest in it. In general I do not care to eat out when I'm spending my own money. I recently realized that I should be tipping the housekeeping personnel in hotels so I did a Google search to see what the standards are for that. Little did I think about the fact that the chambermaids should be tipped for their efforts.
Now, all that being said, I REALLY REALLY enjoyed my trip to Singapore, where the service charges are figured into all prices, so there's NO tipping ANYWHERE. It makes it very easy, simple, fast. I wouldn't mind a system like that in the US.
Eric
I overtip breakfast waiters and bartenders. For other servers, I will leave at least 20% unless there was bad service from the waiter, in which case I leave less.
I usually tip 20% but if it's a cheaper meal, like a 10$ tab I will tip more. One of the restaurants I frequent has the tip added to the bill, ususally 15%. Much easier that way.
I tip 10% (bad but still okay service) to 20% (I was really impressed) and tend to default towards 20%. There is one exception. If I'm somewhere like a Waffle House, I'll tip 30% or more. And why not? Often they worked as hard - it's not their fault that the prices are low.
By the way, I've invited you to participate in a "what are you reading?" meme. Feel free to play or pass.
I tip well - over 15% but tend to go way over 20% for a large group or when we have stayed at the table for a prolonged amount of time. I also over tip when the meal is cheaper. I never feel obligated to tip except Taxi drivers. I hate tipping the taxi guy. It is as if they not only expect it but do not appreciate a higher tip. They are rude one way or the other. It could be a DC area thing.
I dislike the idea of tip being included in the bill simply because it rewards the bad service as it does the good. When people realize that they need the higher tips, one would hope that they would provide excellent service.
Well Ladies and Gentlement, pretty much evenly divided six guys and nine girls, as I predicted. Hedy skewed it by responding to Thomas. I'm going to go into the inviting post business. Throw something out and see what you have to say. At 15 comments, this one holds the recent record.
And, I've got to go more to Hedy's than Thomas's side in the don't have a tip system. I think we all get paid in "tips." What is valued gets paid.
Finally, Exception, it isn't only in DC. Cabbies are for the most part surly people, where ever they drive, and whatever you tip.
Dave - you and me had this discussion before, on my blog. Yup. This is one hot topic.
Because our minimum wage is $8 an hour, I feel slightly different than you. I only tip for exceptional service. If it's 'okay' then they're just doing their job. They're already being paidl for that from their employer. Plus benefits.
Sadly, I think too many servers expect tips. And too many patrons get bullied into tipping by confrontational waiting staff. Get off your high horse. You don't automatically get a tip cause I've sat at your table. Do your job, do it well, bring a smile to the table and some extra napkins, and you've got yourself a tip.
Not hard at all, is it now?
Tax comes to a little over 8% here, so, to start, I usually double the tax and then round up to the whole buck. If the service is really good, I may add another buck or two. So, usually, in the range of 16% to 20%.
A long time ago, a waiter chased me out of a restaurant because he thought I stiffed him. I'd left a couple Susan B. Anthony dollars--they had recently come out--and he thought they were quarters. He actually grabbed me by the arm!!! I can't remember if I complained to the management or not, but I don't think I ever ate there again.
Ah, you should read waiterrant.net. This is a very popular discussion. I generally leave 20%, although I understand that a single woman the wait staff does not expect me to tip that well. Which pisses me off. Especially as I generally drink water - also, supposedly, a sign of cheapness, instead of perhaps being healthy and not drinking pop or being sensible and not drinking and driving.
Oh, definitely overtip at breakfast type places that aren't overpriced (like IHOP - which I still love). I remember when I was in college (a million and half years ago), I stopped at the Big Boy on Telegraph & Plymouth for a malt late one night after studying. The malt cost about a buck, maybe a buck fifty - told you it was a long time ago - and I tipped a dollar. The waitress came up and thanked me. It just seemed exceptionally cheap to leave a quarter.
I never go to Starbuck's.
Ah Kat, Big Boy Hot Fudge Ice Cream Cake. Goooood Stuff. Haven't had it in decades.
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