4 ms·

I think that tipping as a percentage of the meal cost is absolutely idiotic. I have never gotten good service at an expensive restaurant, and yet the receipt g

I think that tipping as a percentage of the meal cost is absolutely idiotic. I have never gotten good service at an expensive restaurant, and yet the receipt gives you the math for 18%, 20%, and 22% tips. I have gotten good and bad service at cheap restaurants (something like Steak and Shake), and tip accordingly. The "work" is not anything different between the two jobs. Just take my order, bring me my food, and refill my water glass (heck, leave me a pitcher of water and I'll be much happier and do the refilling myself!). Why does the expensive restaurant expect a $10.00 tip for this service, while the cheap place is happy with a $2.00 tip for the same amount of work?!?

lostphilosopher 10y ago
This! I have never heard a compelling explanation of this. It gets doubly weird with alcohol in the equation. A group of 4 shares a $60 dollar bottle of wine with dinner. The waiter/ress brings a bottle and pours 4 glasses. If that doesn't kill the bottle they leave it and often the guests refill on their own. = $12 tip A table of 4 gets 4 glasses of pop $2.50 each, each a different kind. The waiter/ress brings 4 full glasses to the table, and then goes back and forth filling them for each individual. = $2.00 tip What?!
- greedo 10y ago
  Because tip culture helps the restaurant owner make money. If you incentivize your wait staff to push expensive specials and high priced wine by the bottle, then both they and the restaurant make more $$.
Draiken 10y ago
Wholeheartedly agree. I feel like these numbers were just made up. Who decided 10% is good? or 20%? Why is it a percentage? This whole system is absurd to me. If we follow the same logic then why don't programmers get "tips" when they do a nice commit message? or deliver on time? why are servers so different? Just saying it out loud makes me giggle because of how silly it sounds.
- cr0sh 10y ago
  > This whole system is absurd to me. If we follow the same logic then why don't programmers get "tips" when they do a nice commit message? or deliver on time? why are servers so different? Because they are making below minimum wage (something like $2.00 and change per hour, iirc) - and tips are to cover the rest. So maybe, if you were in the same situation as a software developer, you would want a good tip for good service. But you're not. We're not. We're are typically salaried, or work on some other contracted rate. It is fairly fixed, and perhaps if we do really good work, and the employer is generous, we'll get a bonus. Sometimes. But don't pretend that we need tips. We don't. Typically we make several times the amount of minimum wage, and in most cases we are in the top 10% or more of wage earners (at least here in the United States).
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - Draiken 10y ago
    And that's exactly my point. Why do they make less than the minimum wage? Why do laws allow it? Why are they treated as a "special case" instead of just having a set wage like all the other professions? I never meant to say we (software developers) need tips or anything like that, it was just a hyperbole to show how ignorant this "special" system is.
    - cr0sh 10y ago
      > Why do they make less than the minimum wage? Why do laws allow it? Why are they treated as a "special case" instead of just having a set wage like all the other professions? It probably has something to do with history or tradition - around the tipping model in the US. Basically it was the case (and still is generally) that if you did your job exceptionally well, and made the customer feel genuinely that you did an exceptional job at handling their needs and wants, they would tip you - and in many cases, the tip would be very favorable. This worked great if you were the one getting the tip directly; if you were so lucky and so skilled, you could easily make much more than what you would have gotten as a "fair wage" (indeed - for example for bartending you can make a lot of money as I understand it). This doesn't work well, though, in cases where you have to do tip sharing - because then you, as an exceptional service provider, are now potentially supplementing others who give average or even sub-par performance (though it can be favorable if everyone was doing exceptionally well - but this is rarely the case). It also doesn't work well if you have customers not upholding their end - ie, tipping appropriately for the level and value of the service they receive. I personally adhere to a tip rate of 20% for standard service; if you do better, you get more, if you do worse, you get less (but I tend not to go below 10% - unless you really deserve it). However, I'm increasingly seeing myself as being an outlier; many people either tip poorly, or not at all.
bhandziuk 10y ago
I like the idea of tipping based on time at the table if you need some metric to go by. Which also usually means a bigger tip at a more expensive restaurant because you usually stick around for longer. But at least if you take 20 minutes to eat at a cheap place and 20 minutes at a pricey place you could pay the same tip.
veridies 10y ago
It's a progressive charge. If you have more money to spend, a lot of the time you'll end up spending more on desserts, drinks, etc. Then you pay a greater amount of money for the service. If you have less to spend, you'll buy fewer things, and pay a smaller charge.
- hayd 10y ago
  It's a tax on generosity.

lostphilosopher 10y ago

This! I have never heard a compelling explanation of this. It gets doubly weird with alcohol in the equation. A group of 4 shares a $60 dollar bottle of wine with dinner. The waiter/ress brings a bottle and pours 4 glasses. If that doesn't kill the bottle they leave it and often the guests refill on their own. = $12 tip A table of 4 gets 4 glasses of pop $2.50 each, each a different kind. The waiter/ress brings 4 full glasses to the table, and then goes back and forth filling them for each individual. = $2.00 tip What?!

greedo 10y ago
Because tip culture helps the restaurant owner make money. If you incentivize your wait staff to push expensive specials and high priced wine by the bottle, then both they and the restaurant make more $$.

Draiken 10y ago

Wholeheartedly agree. I feel like these numbers were just made up. Who decided 10% is good? or 20%? Why is it a percentage? This whole system is absurd to me. If we follow the same logic then why don't programmers get "tips" when they do a nice commit message? or deliver on time? why are servers so different? Just saying it out loud makes me giggle because of how silly it sounds.

cr0sh 10y ago
> This whole system is absurd to me. If we follow the same logic then why don't programmers get "tips" when they do a nice commit message? or deliver on time? why are servers so different? Because they are making below minimum wage (something like $2.00 and change per hour, iirc) - and tips are to cover the rest. So maybe, if you were in the same situation as a software developer, you would want a good tip for good service. But you're not. We're not. We're are typically salaried, or work on some other contracted rate. It is fairly fixed, and perhaps if we do really good work, and the employer is generous, we'll get a bonus. Sometimes. But don't pretend that we need tips. We don't. Typically we make several times the amount of minimum wage, and in most cases we are in the top 10% or more of wage earners (at least here in the United States).
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- Draiken 10y ago
  And that's exactly my point. Why do they make less than the minimum wage? Why do laws allow it? Why are they treated as a "special case" instead of just having a set wage like all the other professions? I never meant to say we (software developers) need tips or anything like that, it was just a hyperbole to show how ignorant this "special" system is.
  - cr0sh 10y ago
    > Why do they make less than the minimum wage? Why do laws allow it? Why are they treated as a "special case" instead of just having a set wage like all the other professions? It probably has something to do with history or tradition - around the tipping model in the US. Basically it was the case (and still is generally) that if you did your job exceptionally well, and made the customer feel genuinely that you did an exceptional job at handling their needs and wants, they would tip you - and in many cases, the tip would be very favorable. This worked great if you were the one getting the tip directly; if you were so lucky and so skilled, you could easily make much more than what you would have gotten as a "fair wage" (indeed - for example for bartending you can make a lot of money as I understand it). This doesn't work well, though, in cases where you have to do tip sharing - because then you, as an exceptional service provider, are now potentially supplementing others who give average or even sub-par performance (though it can be favorable if everyone was doing exceptionally well - but this is rarely the case). It also doesn't work well if you have customers not upholding their end - ie, tipping appropriately for the level and value of the service they receive. I personally adhere to a tip rate of 20% for standard service; if you do better, you get more, if you do worse, you get less (but I tend not to go below 10% - unless you really deserve it). However, I'm increasingly seeing myself as being an outlier; many people either tip poorly, or not at all.

bhandziuk 10y ago

I like the idea of tipping based on time at the table if you need some metric to go by. Which also usually means a bigger tip at a more expensive restaurant because you usually stick around for longer. But at least if you take 20 minutes to eat at a cheap place and 20 minutes at a pricey place you could pay the same tip.

veridies 10y ago

It's a progressive charge. If you have more money to spend, a lot of the time you'll end up spending more on desserts, drinks, etc. Then you pay a greater amount of money for the service. If you have less to spend, you'll buy fewer things, and pay a smaller charge.

hayd 10y ago
It's a tax on generosity.