Tipping....wot do u reckon??

[SPUNKY]

Had a debate with the lads last night and I would value some intelligent feedback. My mate went to a buffett style place at lunch with a few work mates. Bit of a non-story really but then he said he tipped the bloke ?3.

I asked what for as its a buffett place it is self service anyway. He said as you "have to tip waiters". I asked why and he said they get sh!t money so its up to us to make up the difference.

I am morally opposed to tipping. For my mind you get a set wage for you job and if you dont like that wage then get another job.

I also hate the double standard eg You tip a taxi driver who is charging you an extorionate rate for a lift yet you dont tip a bus driver who is getting you there as cheaply and efficently as possible.

Personally I dont buy this exeptional service b******s either. You should give exceptional service at all times hence why you are a waiter.

Only person i tip is my hairdresser as it makes sense to as you want to keep her sweet for a good cut next time.

Just to make it clear its not that I am tight I just dont think tipping is right.

Thoughts please.....

 

[anythinggoes]

Sorry your post reminded me of this i always tip normally 10% i also tip my hairdresser but she still does shit job 

WAITRESS
Can I get anybody more
coffee.


JOE
No, we're gonna be hittin it.
I'll take care of the check.



She hands the bill to him.

WAITRESS
Here ya go. Please pay at the
register, if you wouldn't mind.


JOE
Sure thing.


WAITRESS
You guys have a wonderful day.



They all mutter equivalents. She exits and Joe stands up.

JOE
I'll take care of this, you guys
leave the tip.
(to Mr. White)
And when I come back, I want my
book back.


MR. WHITE
Sorry, it's my book now.


JOE
Blonde, shoot this piece of shit,
will ya?



Mr. Blonde shoots Mr. White with his finger. Mr White
acts shot. Joe exits.

NICE GUY EDDIE
Okay, everybody cough up green for
the little lady.



Everybody whips out a buck, and throws it on the table.
Everybody, that is, except Mr. White.

NICE GUY EDDIE
C'mon, throw in a buck.


MR. WHITE
Uh-uh. I don't tip.


NICE GUY EDDIE
Whaddaya mean you don't tip?


MR. WHITE
I don't believe in it.


NICE GUY EDDIE
You don't believe in tipping?


MR. PINK
(laughing)
I love this kid, he's a madman,
this guy.


MR. BLONDE
Do you have any idea what these
ladies make? They make shit.


MR. WHITE
Don't give me that. She don't
make enough money, she can quit.



Everybody laughs.

NICE GUY EDDIE
I don't even know a Jew who'd have
the balls to say that. So let's
get this straight. You never ever
tip?


MR. WHITE
I don't tip because society says I
gotta. I tip when somebody
deserves a tip. When somebody
really puts forth an effort, they
deserve a little something extra.
But this tipping automatically,
that shit's for the birds. As far
as I'm concerned, they're just
doin their job.


MR. BLUE
Our girl was nice.


MR. WHITE
Our girl was okay. She didn't do
anything special.


MR. BLONDE
What's something special, take ya
in the kitchen and suck your dick?



They all laugh.

NICE GUY EDDIE
I'd go over twelve percent for
that.


MR. WRITE
Look, I ordered coffee. Now we've
been here a long fuckin time, and
she's only filled my cup three
times. When I order coffee, I
want it filled six times.


MR. BLONDE
What if she's too busy?


MR. WHITE
The words "too busy" shouldn't be
in a waitress's vocabulary.


NICE GUY EDDIE
Excuse me, Mr. White, but the last
thing you need is another cup of
coffee.



They all laugh.

MR. WHITE
These ladies aren't starvin to
death. They make minimum wage.
When I worked for minimum wage, I
wasn't lucky enough to have a job
that society deemed tipworthy.


NICE GUY EDDIE
Ahh, now we're getting down to it.
It's not just that he's a cheap
bastard--


MR. ORANGE
--It is that too--


NICE GUY EDDIE
--It is that too. But it's also
he couldn't get a waiter job. You
talk like a pissed off dishwasher:
"Fuck those cunts and their
fucking tips."


MR. BLONDE
So you don't care that they're
counting on your tip to live?



Mr. White rubs two of his fingers together.

MR. WHITE
Do you know what this is? It's
the world's smallest violin,
playing just for the waitresses.


MR. BLONDE
You don't have any idea what
you're talking about. These
people bust their ass. This
is a hard job.


MR. WHITE
So's working at McDonald's, but
you don't feel the need to tip
them. They're servin ya food, you
should tip em. But no, society
says tip these guys over here, but
not those guys over there. That's
bullshit.


MR. ORANGE
They work harder than the kids at
McDonald's.


MR. WHITE
Oh yeah, I don't see them cleaning
fryers.


MR. BROWN
These people are taxed on the tips
they make. When you stiff 'em,
you cost them money.


MR. BLONDE
Waitressing is the number one
occupation for female non-college
graduates in this country. It's
the one jab basically any woman
can get, and make a living on.
The reason is because of tips.


MR. WHITE
Fuck all that.



They all laugh.

MR. WHITE
Hey, I'm very sorry that the
government taxes their tips.
That's fucked up. But that ain't
my fault. it would appear that
waitresses are just one of the
many groups the government fucks
in the ass on a regular basis.
You show me a paper says the
government shouldn't do that, I'll
sign it. Put it to a vote, I'll
vote for it. But what I won't do
is play ball. And this non-
college bullshit you're telling
me, I got two words for that:
"Learn to fuckin type." Cause if
you're expecting me to help out
with the rent, you're in for a big
fuckin surprise.


MR. ORANGE
He's convinced me. Give me my
dollar back.



Everybody laughs. Joe's comes back to the table.

JOE
Okay ramblers, let's get to
rambling. Wait a minute, who
didn't throw in?


MR. ORANGE
Mr. White.


JOE
(to Mr. Orange)
Mr. White?
(to Mr. White)
Why?


MR. ORANGE
He don't tip.


JOE
(to Mr. Orange)
He don't tip?
(to Mr. White)
You don't tip? Why?


MR. ORANGE
He don't believe in it.


JOE
(to Mr. Orange)
He don't believe in it?
(to Mr. White)
You don't believe in it?


MR. ORANGE
Nope.


JOE
(to Mr. Orange)
Shut up!
(to Mr. White)
Cough up the buck, ya cheap
bastard, I paid for your goddamn
breakfast.


MR. WHITE
Because you paid for the
breakfast, I'm gonna tip.
Normally I wouldn't.


JOE
Whatever. Just throw in your
dollar, and let's move.
(to Mr. Blonde)
See what I'm dealing with here.
Infants. I'm fuckin dealin with
infants

[blaqktiger]

I usaully tip a waiter/waitress about ?2.50 if I have been happy with the service.

Taxi drivers shouldn't be tipped... As you said.. they charge enough as it is!

What pisses me off is when a place adds a service charge to the bill!

[Melrose Chick]

I always leave a tip.... always.  I saw a programme once that featured some waiters/esses in America who basically got the shittiest pay ever and if they didnt get a tip they couldnt afford to live..... so yeah I always tip... usually about 5% of the bill.......

[monkeychow]

In Australia we don't really have much of a tipping culture. I dont like the idea just cos i think the price should be the price. Like i'd rather pay more for the coffee and have the store pay the waiter a decent wage in the first place....

But it also sounds like the first poster hasn't had to work too many service industry jobs! 

[Decadence]

I always leave a tip.... always.? I saw a programme once that featured some waiters/esses in America who basically got the shittiest pay ever and if they didnt get a tip they couldnt afford to live..... so yeah I always tip... usually about 5% of the bill.......

Are you in the US though? ?I think it goes without saying that pretty much everyone in the US is expected to tip their waiters and such like because that's how they make their living.

However, in the UK, it's a completely different story. ?It's not really the norm here, or at least where I'm from. ?I'll tip if it was really good service and the waiter/waitress went out of their way for whatever reason. ?But then again (probably because nobody tips over here!), the service is frequently quite dire, so it is rare that I feel a tip is warranted. ?It's not that I disagree with tipping for moral reasons, I just won't give one unless it is deserved. ?

I think in the US, there are probably more people who are actually dependent on their tips to live, so if I lived over there, I'd probably tip more frequently.

[pasnow]

You have to tip waiters & waitresses EDIT: at least here in the US we do. There's a difference between 'low-paying jobs' and jobs where it is factored in you will get tips. Waitresses make about $3-$4/hr, which is nearly half of what minimum wage is in US. Kids working at the mall make $7-$8/hr. It's basically assumed that customers tip, you can disagree with it all you want. ?The tradition started something like 100 years ago, just caught on. Now, if the service is horrible, it's ok to short the tip, or stiff them if it's that bad.. But otherwise, if the resturant owners paid the servers a salary, the prices on the menu would have to rise so people like you who don't tip would be the only one's paying more, as everyone else is already willing to pay extra.

But for you to say to them "Get a new job" if they don't like the pay, I say this "Cook your food yourself" if you don't want to tip.

Also some jobs, pay very well. Bus Drivers here in US have a strong union, and get paid very well, whereas cabbies do not. And with rising gas prices they are not allowed to just raise their rates, because they are regulated and can only increase every so many years.. So I have no problem giving them $3 or $4 bucks extra, what else would I do with that money, but if 20 people give him $3 or $4 bucks that a good days pay for him. Same thing, if you say "Get a new job" I say "Drive yourself" if you can't fork over $3 bucks, or 10% extra.

Maybe it's different in your culture, or not as mandatory to tip, but I wouldn't plan on visiting the same bars & resturant if I were you.. They start to catch on to people like you.

[Kujo]

I was a chef at an italian restaurant. If all the staff got paid a reasonable rate, the costs of the meals would have had to be so high, nobody would be able to afford to eat at the restaurant. So I have a slanted perspective on this.

If the service is shit, they will get like  a dollar just so they dont think I forgot. Decent service 10%. If the service is really good, then 20-25%

[anythinggoes]

If the service is really good, then 20-25%

whats that take you round the back suck your dick

[Kujo]

That gets 50%

[monkeychow]

I was a chef at an italian restaurant. If all the staff got paid a reasonable rate, the costs of the meals would have had to be so high, nobody would be able to afford to eat at the restaurant. So I have a slanted perspective on this.

People always say that....but in Australia the staff are paid a proper wage and people still go to restraunts.

[pasnow]

I was a chef at an italian restaurant. If all the staff got paid a reasonable rate, the costs of the meals would have had to be so high, nobody would be able to afford to eat at the restaurant. So I have a slanted perspective on this.

If the service is shit, they will get like? a dollar just so they dont think I forgot. Decent service 10%. If the service is really good, then 20-25%

I always heard Florida's notorious for being bad tippers.. HAHAHA, j/k Kujo.

[Kujo]

I got it

But you're actually correct. Especially down in the Boca Raton area

[Lisa]

typically 20% if the service is good(restaurant) as well 20% at the hair salon....and I ALWAYS tip Taxi drivers due to the fact that I drive part time as well as my regular job and I make 40% of the total take when driving...that can be very good or a bad night can be very bad. If I take them the best possible route in the least amount of time safely, or load and unload luggage at the airport, load and unload groceries, I expect a tip or I may not be so accomadating next time. I get paid to drive, not babysit your kids, take your ton of groceries to the door or get yelled at for the traffic congestion/red lights etc....you would not believe what people expect for nothing
SO TIP your Taxi drivers! ...

[Guns N RockMusic]

I always tip at least 15% in a normal restraunt.  If I eat at a Chinese Buffet or any buffet for that matter, it depends on the waiter.  Normally I toss em a buck.  If the waiter/waitress is an asshole, then their tip reflects that/  BUt as someone already posted, in America at least, their wage is derived around the expectancy of tips.  To not at least throw a few bucks their way is nothing short of being a cheap bastard.  Whatever happened to the liberal compasion many of you tout.

[SLCPUNK]

In America you are going to pay one way or the other.

I hate the argument that ?waiters only make 3 bucks an hour, so you should tip.? To me, that is absolutely irrelevant. That pay goes to taxes anyway (unless you are working at a Denny?s type place and your tips are so low that the check actually comes into play.) The breakdown for waiters generally ranges from 10/hr (not counting the hourly rate, tips only) in Mac Grill type places, to 30-100 bucks an hour in higher end Steakhouses with big wine lists. Breakfast joints (ironically the hardest and most demeaning job) usually averages the worst, and is much closer to min wage, or less.

Few waiters are going to work for minimum wage, and if they did, more than likely you service would be atrocious. What kind of person would do that work for min wage? If you switched it around and paid a more polished and knowledgeable waiter 30 bucks and hour to decant wine, serve multi-course meals and discuss the intimate details of a veal stock with a food nerd, the food cost would surely sky rocket to mirror the bottom line. Most people do not understand the delicate balance a restaurant runs day in and day out between operating cost and profit. Labor cost is a BIG DEAL to any merchant, and even more so in a restaurant. Paying 15-20 percent tip is much cheaper than what you would pay if the wait staff were all making 15-30 bucks and hour. It also is an incentive for the waiters to do a good job.

I get many people who disagree with me on this claiming that waiters in many states make 7 bucks an hour plus their tips and the food prices are not that outrageous. Trust me, the markup is there, and the cost is also deferred among employees. They may mark all salads, sides, desserts, up a buck fifty, and then bump the waiters tip out to 30 percent of gross tips (maybe adding the hostess to that list) to account for that hourly wage. Also 7 bucks an hour may not kill a place, but paying a waiter what they truly make (well over 7 bucks an hour, especially in nice places) would make running a business and making a profit nearly impossible with high prices. Waiters in LV Nevada are union and pay 14 or so an hour PLUS their tips. The price reflects this a tad but more importantly the cost is able to be absorbed into the huge capital the hotel/casino pools on a daily basis. Many waiter are making well over 100k out there pretty easy.

There was a one dollar an hour markup for tipped employees in the state of Fla a while back ( I year or so, I don?t recall.) This along with the min wage increase was fought by Outback and Publix grocery stores. They ended up losing and the min wage was raised one dollar for tipped employees (now 3 bucks and some change.) Outback raised the prices on most all of it?s menu to reflect that miniscule raise in pay. It now costs more to eat there because of it. This was for one dollar per hour more.

Another important thing to point out is that no place sees their waiters as??..waiters. They see them as sales people. Pure and simple, the focus is on selling as much food and wine as possible. The incentive is that they will get a cut of that daily or weekly. That is their incentive to sell. To me, it is not unlike any other business that you ?tip? in all the time: When you buy a home, when you buy a car, buy furniture etc. That person is getting a cut automatically of that sale, and there is not even a line to write in the ?tip? they are getting a cut if you like it or not. Some things like home loans/sales you can negotiate that, but most things you can?t, it?s in there. And that is how restaurateurs see a waiter, as a salesperson driven to do a good job, creating their own salary, based on what they sell and the service they provide. The argument that these people make no money (even though it is ?pro waiter? ) is load of crap. The response is usually ?they should get a better paying job.? Which is still irrelevant and has nothing to do with why you are tipping in the first place.

People who have not been in the business may be surprised at where profit comes from in a restaurant. In a high end steakhouse (Say Morton?s of Chicago for instance) the profit is coming mostly from liquor, wine, sides and desserts. The price of prime steak is usually so high (even for the merchant) that the profit is minimal at best. Lobster too is often something these places break even on. You have to pay for employees, insurance, and all the many costs with maintaining a well oiled machine (countless moving parts in appliances inside the kitchen, electricity, food cost, advertising etc.) Mark up a side of mashed potatoes to 9 bucks? Glass of Merlot for 15 bucks? Eggs and sugar (cr?me brulee) for 12 bucks? That is where the profit is coming from; that and keeping the operating cost low.

If the service sucks (and I will make a million excuses for a lousy waiter) then I tip 10-15 percent. Rude? Ten percent. Usually walking in the door the waiter is going to get 20 percent, and it is up to him/her where it goes. On the other side telling a waiter ?your tip depends on it? ain?t really going to get you much more than a laugh in the side station from the other waiters. It is a threat that most waitrons could care less about. Not getting tipped, or a lousy tip isn?t going to make that much of a difference to their take home pay that day/week/month. Mainly because there are higher tips (sometimes well over 30 percent) from other tables that make up for the poor ones.

[jazjme]

IVe had this discussion before with people , and many friends abroad. I work here in the US, in NYC at a restaurant. I am a waiter at the restuarant. They was the customary tipping goes here, and it is based around the fact that mostof the income you make is dirved from tips.

15% = average, run of the mill. OK service
18% = very good service you were happy
20% or greater= excellent ,superiour service, you had an outstanding expirience

now if I spilled something on you or you felt I was a ass or the expiericence was sub par, most will leave 8-10%, and some will even just flat out stiff the waiter.


Personally I usually range in avg, 20-30 % tips pretty consistantly, and I dont work in places that the local people are ignorant, or frankly ghetto. And by saying that its a blanket statement.

Now just a bit more info cause I think alot of people arent aware.

When you eat out dine at restuarants, the tip that is left is not what exactly the waiter you tip actually gets. We as servers are required to pay out a portion of the tips we recieve to the servive bartender, the guy or gal who make the drinks for us, the porter, bussboy server assistant, and a portion to the host. so to put it simply. if across the board, I earned 15% . her eis how it breaks down

Customer tables bill is 100$, at 15% just avg service 15$ tip. 3% of that goes to the thre catorgories I listed. thats 3 $ for every hundred. now if I ring up 1000$ in sales and jsut did avg , and people all payed what esentially is the min for avg service tht would net me 150$ and 30$ would have to go (tipped out) to the bar, bussers, and host. leaving 120$.

So if someone got good service, and I ran my ass off , and there was no problems, and they left 5$ on 100 check, in reality I only make 2.00$. PErsonally, I would just say whatever, I do however have the right and have excorsized it , that if the same party was to dine again, and it was in a section of mine,  I would refuse to serve you, and let you deal with someone else. No sweat of my back, its my right. Why would I want to work my ass off for people who are either clueless, to ghetto, or ignorant.

BUt like I said I dont usualy encounter those incidents often at all, they happen yes her and there once in awhile , but at the end of the day, doesnt phase me.

And to end, pay for waiters, here in NYC $4.35. And I have to declare my tips for they are taxed. So when I get a paycheck, every 2 weeks, for 80 hrs worth of work, they usually are only bout $70. Cause besides the base pay per hr, the wages I made in cash are added in and then taxed.