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> There is universal agreement about tipping at restaurants. Tips of 15% (or 20%?) are definitely customary, expected, priced-in. People who don't leave tips af
by iLoch 10y ago
> There is universal agreement about tipping at restaurants. Tips of 15% (or 20%?) are definitely customary, expected, priced-in. People who don't leave tips after experiencing decent service are definitely not paying their fair share.
Is this a joke? Not only is it not universal, it's not even customary. The agreement you have with the restaurant is this: you sit down, are served, eat food, and pay. Baseline service is free, that's what you're paying the restaurant for. If the person waiting on me has a problem with me not tipping, they're welcome to take their wage issue up with their employer. I can only say this as someone who supports fair wages for service industries though. I believe a lower minimum wage for restaurant/bar services is a problem. But absolutely under no circumstance will I provide a compulsory tip. It's not my job to pay the employees.
There is a secondary agreement you have with the waiting staff: if you go above and beyond your job description to provide excellent service, you may be rewarded as recognition. Even then, many countries believe that excellence to be part of the job, so tips are not accepted.
Tip if you're provided with above standard service, don't if you're not. What's hard about that?
- tlrobinson 10y agoWhere are you located? 15% for average service is definitely customary at sit-down restaurants in the United States.
- bitwize 10y agoDo you know anyone who actually works in food service? I do, and they'd be pissed if everyone skimped with a 15% tip. It's 20% for adequate service, 25% for excellent.
- iLoch 10y agoThis is hilarious, and sad. What a broken system.
- dorfsmay 10y agoMore proof that tipping is wrong, local variances with no way to find the local standard!
- tlrobinson 10y agoWell that's news to me. I generally tip 20% and thought I was being generous...
- defen 10y agoI agree that 20% is the new normal. 10-15 years ago, it was 15% for adequate, 20% for excellent (that's my memory of major US cities on both coasts). Tip inflation is real.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- ukd1 10y ago25% is crazy.
- rdl 10y agoDepends. 20-30% if you are dining solo and not drinking in a place which is normally couples and with some wine, seems fair, since what actually matters to the waiter is total tips at the end of the night. My check is probably $40 vs $120.
- rhino369 10y agoYou are also less work for them. I'm not sure why you feel obligated to make up for the fact that you aren't blowing 120 dollars at the table. I'll tip 30% at like an Ihop when my bill is 11 bucks because "total tips" is what matters.
- rdl 10y agoThey get a finite number of tables in an evening.
- Canada 10y agoYeah I do, and of course they claim everyone should give them more money. Since I frequently heard that the new standard is 20% I've reduced my tips to 10%, pretax. If a bill helpfully prints calculations and the lowest option is greater than 15% I will leave less than 10%. Taxi drivers get $1 no matter the fare. The gall of that industry to even ask... And even the slightest infraction of protocol and I leave 0. I used to overtip all the time. I got absolutely nothing of value for doing it, so forget it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- falsedan 10y agoI got a tip for ya right here: it's your money, do what you want with whatever's left after taxes, fees, fines, and mandatory contributions.
- iLoch 10y agoWhen I was in LA recently I was tipping 15% for good service. Hope the waiters can make rent! /s
- Lazare 10y agoThat's a good description of how some parts of the world work. It might even be a good description for how the US should work. It is not even remotely a good description of how the US does work.
- blahedo 10y ago> it's not even customary This is thoroughly false. It is so customary in the US that it has been baked into the minimum wage laws: in general, the federal minimum wage is $7.25, but for waitstaff and some other "tipped" jobs, the minimum wage is less than a third of that, at $2.13. The whole system is completely appalling, but that doesn't change the fact that in a lot of places the waitstaff is effectively subcontracted out and paid for by the patrons rather than by the nominal employer.
- hueving 10y agoYou left out the part where they are still guaranteed minimum wage if they don't get enough tips.
- seanp2k2 10y agoTry working at a restaurant and actually getting them to pay you that. They don't.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- test1235 10y agois the minimum wage not legally enforced?
- mcbits 10y agoSurely it is if $2.13/hour leaves enough left over to hire a lawyer, or the employee is confident that the payout will be greater than a decade of lost opportunities as "someone who sues their employer".
- sf_rob 10y agoThey did at my crappy small chain (in a Southern state without as many worker protections). It was automatically done in their payroll software based on declared tips/hours (where most servers didn't declare cash tips and were thus more likely to make the non-server minimum wage).
- swift 10y agoPerhaps it's different where you live, but you may want to consider how not tipping will be perceived by those around you. Giving others the impression that you're selfish and lack empathy has very real costs, even though they may not be as immediately obvious as the cost of paying the tip.
- UweSchmidt 10y agoIt seems customary enough in the US that in the movie Reservoir Dogs hardened criminals berated one of their own because he "didn't believe in tipping" the waitress. This brilliant scene is on Youtube, in case anyone needs Steve Buscemi's take on iLoch's comment as a relief from this subthread.