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Tipping: How do you feel about tipping servers?
How do you feel about tipping?
I know this may piss some people off but I do not tip. I believe one pays for service when they dine out in the cost of their meal.
I am not looking to hear how ignorant I seem to be, I am looking for opinions.
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Well A lot of people get pissed off because tipping is what feeds them at night and gets them around, and pays the bills(servers at least. A lot of people in the restaurant business that are either servers or hosts get paid way under minimum wage; I'm a hostess and i get paid $4.25.With those hours that we work we barely get enough...i'd say if i worked a good two weeks i can get like maybe 100...but tips give us most of our pay, i made 105 in about a weeks worth time recently from my tips and i only get %2.5 of the servers' tips. So it's really not that we are being money hungry, its just that we get paid the same lousy 4.25 and hour no matter how hard we bust our asses. I agree that if you got really bad service that no, they shouldn't be tipped...but if you actually have a good server that cares about serving you and making sure that you're happy, at least cut them some slack and give 15%, 20 if they really deserve it. I'm just hoping that i gave you the other side to things...It serves a purpose.
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I dislike tipping. It's part of a broken system. but I do it, and I do it for two reasons that have already come up.
Unforcunately, you are suffering from some ignorance if you believe that service is included in the cost of your meal. In the vast majority of situations, it simply isn't.
Minimum wage for servers can be as much as 70% less then the minimum wage for any other labor. Although some states do pay their servers the actual, minimum wage, many pay them only $2.13 an hour - the federally mandated legal minimum for 'tipped' workers.
Under that system a 'tip' isn't a tip at all - a tip actually makes up the vast majority of a server's salary. We aren't giving servers a bonus for good service - we are subsidizing their wage because their employer, and the goverment, have determined they do not need to be paid a actual living wage.
It's worth it knowing what the situation is in your own state.
The primary beneficiary are this system of tipping isn't the servers - it's the restaurants who get to pay an artificially low hourly rate - and push the true cost of employing servers directly onto their customers.
The end result is that if restaurants were actually covering the cost of paying a living wage to their service staff - your meal with cost several dollars more.
The second reason I tip is a little less straightforward - This is my community. I live here and so do most of the service staff. I tip them 'cause I come to some restaurants regularly, and I get some of the perks of being a regular. Since I'm not prepared to have the principled, legal discussion which each of them about why the wages they are getting are unfair - I tip.
Not tipping doesn't change the law, or the culture. Its doesnt create a better system for servers or diners. It just punishes the server and makes you look like an asshole who values their time and effort at far below a living wage.
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Your thinking is off. The cost of the service worker is not included in your meal. They work mostly for tips.
Service workers such a wait staff at restaurants, Bellmen at Hotels and Skycaps at Airports are exempt from the Federal Minimum wage laws. This means they are generally paid far less than the federally mandated hourly wage. Most servers are paid about three dollars and change an hour; counting on tips to make up the difference between what the restaurant pays and a living wage.
The generally accepted tip for a sever is 18% of the untaxed total of the dinner check. If the service is excellent you can add to that amount to show the sever your appreciation for good service. If the service is poor you can show your displeasure by reducing that amount. You should take in to account how many tables the sever has to care for. If the sever is caring for more than six tables at a time the restaurant is under staffed and poor service may not be the servers total fault.
If the food is not to your liking that is not the servers fault. The server only serves they do not prepare the meal. Ask to see the manger and voice your complaint to the manger. The manger may adjust the check for that part of your meal you did not care for. You would still base your tip on the total of the check prior to the adjustment. I have had managers void checks in total for a bad meal asking me to just take care of the server. In those cases I usually over tip to show the server it was not their fault.
With Bellmen and Skycaps the accepted tip is two dollars a bag. For all other situations there are several good books you can read on proper tipping.
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Its a system that was set up and put in motion all across the world. Service person like waiters or even bellboys at a hotel are usually all paid a minimum wage. They count on tips to really help make ends meet on their budgets. I believe people should be able to pay what they can afford. I don't like paying 20 % which I have heard is the going rate when i have splurged to go out to a very expensive restaurant for say a birthday or some other special event because we are paying for the atmosphere there, the view perhaps, the choice of foods. By time I have run up a bill with expensive meals, two glasses of wine a piece, coffee and dessert, I can barely afford the bill let alone add on any tip at all. I agree with you on tipping on places that are high end expensive places.
However it is rare we go to such places because we can't afford it. We look for the moderate to inexpensive places where we have had a wonderful equally well made, classy meal, just the restaurant is more old worn shabby but clean. At those places if my meal was only $8 and a wine at $6., they are not bringing in enough there to pay the employee a big salary, you know they will be earning minimum wage. As long as the service is great, I will tip at places like these because I can afford to and they need it. If you become a regular at such an inexpensive place and still won't give some tip, they will remember you. You run a chance of getting worse service in the future. It's up to you. Your conscience.
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