Tip Jars on Store Counters

[mom2rtk]

I don't put money in tip jars. I have no idea how that money is being allocated.

Of course, you also run into the problem, where some restaurants don't provide tips to their waiters that you write on your check as well.

The whole tipping system is broken. Pay people a proper wage and get rid of it.

My daughter works at Starbucks. They actually divvy up the money from the tip jar between employees weekly based on the number of hours worked. It's a fun little extra that feeds her parking meters around campus.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I never use gig-economy vendors for services like these, but I guess it really never would have occurred to me to tip someone working as an independent contractor. That comes from my Dad, who was one; he got really insulted if customers tried to tip him on top of his job rate.

I can understand separating it out based on what type of contractor they are but not a general independent contractor.

For one companies can and do purposefully put employees on 1099 independent contractors to avoid paying benefits depending on the company

For two some of these are just like other services one uses that it is customary to tip.

Uber/Lyft act like taxi's. Yes regulatory-wise they don't often want that but the services they provide are just like a taxi. And any other ground transportation service, you normally tip there so I would expect to tip Uber or Lyft.

For food delivery it's customary to tip as well. Plenty of times we order from a restaurant directly but they contract the delivery out to DoorDash. Well you'd tip the delivery person normally so you end up tipping an independent contractor.

But your appliance repair guy who does his own thing? Sure that's different. Honestly I'm not certain how the services the PP mentioned in the comment you quoted relates to your dad and him being insulted on top of his job rate. I can only assume you're talking about someone like a repair person who has a set rate for their labor. That's not at all related to Uber/Lyft or deliver for Uber eats, Doordash, Instacart because that's not how those occupations work.

 

[NotUrsula]

I can understand separating it out based on what type of contractor they are but not a general independent contractor.

For one companies can and do purposefully put employees on 1099 independent contractors to avoid paying benefits depending on the company

For two some of these are just like other services one uses that it is customary to tip.

Uber/Lyft act like taxi's. Yes regulatory-wise they don't often want that but the services they provide are just like a taxi. And any other ground transportation service, you normally tip there so I would expect to tip Uber or Lyft.

For food delivery it's customary to tip as well. Plenty of times we order from a restaurant directly but they contract the delivery out to DoorDash. Well you'd tip the delivery person normally so you end up tipping an independent contractor.

But your appliance repair guy who does his own thing? Sure that's different. Honestly I'm not certain how the services the PP mentioned in the comment you quoted relates to your dad and him being insulted on top of his job rate. I can only assume you're talking about someone like a repair person who has a set rate for their labor. That's not at all related to Uber/Lyft or deliver for Uber eats, Doordash, Instacart because that's not how those occupations work.

I didn't actually say that I was right, you might note; I just said that it never *would* have occured to me to think that way. I think that the average person who has never done that kind of work has no idea how a free-lance delivery driver is paid.

When I actually considered the situation in hand, I decided that in this context it probably is reasonable to tip -- but IMO only in cash, so that the worker gets 100%, 100% of the time. (However, as I don't use services like that, it's probably never going to come up for me IRL.)

FWIW, the last restaurant I went to locally had a tax rate of 11.3%. In that case, tipping after tax and rounding up means that the actual amount of the tip tends to go up by about 50%. (When I tip servers I generally tip on the pre-tax amount, and give them about 2% over typical because of rounding.)

To digress a bit, DH has almost entirely stopped carrying cash, and it drives me bonkers, because any time we're out somewhere he's always begging change because he knows I have it. He's a grown man who drives on his own and keeps a wallet in his pocket; he can find his own dang ATM.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I didn't actually say that I was right, you might note; I just said that it never *would* have occured to me to think that way.

No you didn't say you were right. I just genuinely didn't understand your logic when you compared it with your dad's occupation (whatever that may be).

 

[sam_gordon]

FWIW, the last restaurant I went to locally had a tax rate of 11.3%. In that case, tipping after tax and rounding up means that the actual amount of the tip tends to go up by about 50%. (When I tip servers I generally tip on the pre-tax amount, and give them about 2% over typical because of rounding.)

I agree with tipping on the pre-tax amount, but even tipping after doesn't make the tip go up anywhere CLOSE to 50%.

Going back to the $100 (pre-tax) bill.

Tipping on Pretax amount
Subtotal: $100
20% tip: $20
11.3% tax on subtotal: $11.3
TOTAL: $131.30

Tipping on Posttax amount
Subtotal: $100
11.3% tax on subtotal: $11.3
New Subtotal: $111.3
20% tip on new subtotal: $22.26
TOTAL: $133.56

 

[sasywtch]

This may sound mean but I never put a tip in a jar where the people make min or above wages with exceptions. McD's, Starbucks etc was never meant to be a wage to rent a house/buy a car and support yourself. People keep putting the jars out for doing their job because people put money in them. I tip well with waiters/waitresses, the ones at the cafe at the casino love us (we usually tip 30% or more whereas others don't tip anything especially on 2 for 1 nights. I just tipped the pizza guy $10 for delivery since gas is going up (should have been 7). But, for some reason, putting a tip in a jar because someone made me a coffee where they are getting 15 an hour, I just can't do.