Tipping Advice from former waitgirl!

[Jimdvc]

First of all most servers at a decent TS could ever turn over 4 tables an hour. And also all classy TS have a limit on tables per server at one time.....usually 2 or 3.

So let's use your "classy" example.

In a "classy" place the bill per person will run 50 dollars each.

How many people would you think a server waits on in an 8 hour shift?

 

[sjaakie]

Try being a cashier, or working at McDonalds, or stocking grocery shelves. They are all thankless jobs where you deal with rude customers, pushy magangers, no respect, and very low pay. Once you factor in tips, waiting tables is far more profitable. Far more.

That's surely not the truth for every McDonalds.
My BIL owns one and his staff is more than satisfied with there jobs.
No lady waitress goes home alone after dark. A taxi brings them home.
They have several staff party's and dinners in a year time and the wages are more than good even without tips.

 

[TLSnell1981]

That's the world upside down.
The waiter is there to help me and I'm not in a restaurant to please the waiter

 

[TLSnell1981]

I just did my math also.
Room at the Grand Floridian 800 dollar.
30 % tipping is 240 dollar.
Eating at Narcoossee's 400 dollar ,thats 120 dollar tipping.
Total tipping is 360 dollar per day.
I'm sorry but with that amoud of extra money I must stay at home.

Come on now....we know you are getting a huge discount.....being on the euro and all!

You know if you look at it this way.....even 20% is still $240 a day. Wow! I guess that would pay for a nice hotel room! What gets me are the servers who feel they deserve 20% just for showing up to work that day.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Few jobs are, that don't require an investment of time and money in a college education.

With that being said, I do agree with you that most waitress or waiters work very hard for very little.

But I have no doubt that a waitress at a WDW resort eating place that may have $2000.00 in reciepts a night, does quite well, and in fact makes as much if not more then many of the guest they are waiting on

 

[sjaakie]

Come on now....we know you are getting a huge discount.....being on the euro and all!

You know if you look at it this way.....even 20% is still $240 a day. Wow! I guess that would pay for a nice hotel room! What gets me are the servers who feel they deserve 20% just for showing up to work that day.

With this tempo of inflation I'll have a vacation for free next year. but I'm still saving money for the Grand Floridian.

 

[java]

30%! I was a waitress and no way would I expect 30%. That is nuts. Putting your average meal well out of price for being possible.

We tip 20% if the service is adequate- if excellent then more- horrible - less. My tip is not the only wage a person is getting so if I am sitting there for an hour and end up tipping 30% on my $100 bill. The waitress is getting $30 an hour? Just from us?
As for tipping out- I only had to tip the busboys and the bar- and it was up to my discretion(the bar wanted 10% but I said when they started carrying my drinks to the table they would get it)

Really tipping has gotten out of hand. People earn a wage for doing a job. Tipping a waitress back in the day was because they were paid less now most are making at least minimum wage from their employeers- plus tips.

I used to easily walk out on a Saturday night with $300 in tips alone. If you are a good waitress you are not hurting. imho.

 

[morgy827]

WOW...30%. I tip 20%...and only for good service. I think tipping has become expected in many places and I believe it should be a bonus for a job well done. I also don;t think that because another table may have messy children or someone else didn't tip that I should tip 30%...Honestly, when you apply for a job you know what your salary is. I didn't apply for my job and then rely on bonuses to pay my bills I rely on my base salary. I don't want to sound mean. In the end I think that tipping is entirely a personal preference...that no one should feel obligated to tip a certain amount and that it should be based on good to excellent service.

 

[TLSnell1981]

:

I used to easily walk out on a Saturday night with $300 in tips alone. If you are a good waitress you are not hurting. imho.

Having been in the restaurant buisness, I strongly agree with your statement. I beat this one to death on this board. The only whining we hear (IMHO) are the ones that are not suited to the restaurant buisness. Again...IMHO.

 

[toesmom]

Hello All! Not trying to be rude or pushy but I used to be a wait staffer and manager, as well as a bartender.

Now days, 18 to 20% is the norm for regular service. I know that when I take my children, who I make be as neat as possible, I start at 30% and go down, depending on service and messiness of my children.

I do understand that many people are on a budget, but can you imagine how many non-tippers and parents with messy children are at DW places on a regular basis? Remember, many of these people work there for jobs, not for fun! (Hard to believe not everyone loves DW, huh?) Also, they have to split tips with the bartender and the clean-up crew, and many times the hostess that seats you. And they take the brunt of frustration about bad food, or just bad day in general.

As a former waitstaff, please be generous to them as much as you can. It is a lot easier to get great service when you tip well, and are considerate to the server. I always say thank you and please, and try my best to keep neat because the work is hard and you would be super suprised the quality of the service you can get most of the time.

Just some advice from someone who knows!!!

Just my opinion here, but why do I need to subsidize a waiter's salary. Restaurants should pay their employees properly so they don't depend on tips to survive. I know many restaurants do very well; they should pay their staff properly.

This is one of the reasons we don't eat out often, because it's hard to justify a 20% tip. I think patrons are subsidizing a restaurant to do well by basically paying part of a waiter's salary. I expect someone who is serving me food (since I can't obviously get it myself) to be polite and helpful as needed. Do I have to tip for that? Sorry it's just my opinion, but I"m not rich, so maybe that would make a difference in my opinion.

Our office employs a number of staff who are paid properly and I never expect any client to tip them for the work they are supposed to do. Somehow restaurants have been permitted to pay low wages and expect restaurant patrons to pay the difference in salaries. I don't like it, sorry.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Just my opinion here, but why do I need to subsidize a waiter's salary. Restaurants should pay their employees properly so they don't depend on tips to survive. I know many restaurants do very well; they should pay their staff properly.

This is one of the reasons we don't eat out often, because it's hard to justify a 20% tip. I think patrons are subsidizing a restaurant to do well by basically paying part of a waiter's salary. I expect someone who is serving me food (since I can't obviously get it myself) to be polite and helpful as needed. Do I have to tip for that? Sorry it's just my opinion, but I"m not rich, so maybe that would make a difference in my opinion.

Our office employs a number of staff who are paid properly and I never expect any client to tip them for the work they are supposed to do. Some how restaurants have been permitted to pay low wages and expect restaurant patrons to pay the difference in salaries. I don't like it, sorry.

In the states, prices are stuctured to anticipate some sort of gratuity to bring the server's wage to a least minimum wage. If server's were paid a fixed hourly wage....menu prices would increase. It would also be difficult to have motivated employees. A good server works hard to earn a good tip.

 

[sandym718]

I do not feel bad for servers. They make good money. My best friend has a college degree in social work but waits tables because the pay is better. She comes home with a hundred plus dollars in cash after a 4 hour shift.

Yep, I'm in social work and I know lots of people who leave the field and wait tables, at least for awhile, instead, to make more cash!! Or waiting tables is their "2nd job" - in which they make more money working part time!! Social work is another job you definitely do not get into for the money, and it's not physical work, but trust me it's stressful and demanding - and NOT just during job hours. When I worked full-time before kids, I carried a pager 24/7/365 minus any vacation weeks. And I made only a few hundred dollars per WEEK! But that was OK, b/c I loved what I did!

Now I'm a total clutz, so I could never serve! And I do acknowledge that it's hard work - but so are lots of jobs and lots of people are "underpaid" for what they do. You want to make money? You go into a money field! You go into a field that pays just decent (and I think both social work and serving fall into this), then you know what you're getting into. I don't complain about what I make (I work part-time now), it was my choice! Oh, and as someone else mentioned - no education required to be a server - that's a biggie. College degrees sure aren't cheap these days!

 

[sandym718]

It would also be difficult to have motivated employees. A good server works hard to earn a good tip.

This I don't understand. Doesn't most of the world work without direct tip reward? Are people not motivated to work hard 1)as a moral thing 2) to keep their job 3) to get a good review/merit raise?

Why would servers not work well if they were paid a salary/hourly rate that was their total income? What does that say about servers if that's the case? (I don't think it is).

 

[crisi]

In the states, prices are stuctured to anticipate some sort of gratuity to bring the server's wage to a least minimum wage. If server's were paid a fixed hourly wage....menu prices would increase. It would also be difficult to have motivated employees. A good server works hard to earn a good tip.

I hear this alot, but I've traveled to countries where tipping is not the custom, and I've gotten service just as good (and just as bad) as here. Most of us work in non-tipping professions, and I doubt we are all a bunch of slackers because of it.

Here's an idea....pay people a living wage. Raise menu prices to do so. And if they can't do the job politely and adequately, FIRE them. That's how the rest of the world works.

 

[sandym718]

I hear this alot, but I've traveled to countries where tipping is not the custom, and I've gotten service just as good (and just as bad) as here. Most of us work in non-tipping professions, and I doubt we are all a bunch of slackers because of it.

Here's an idea....pay people a living wage. Raise menu prices to do so. And if they can't do the job politely and adequately, FIRE them. That's how the rest of the world works.

 

[nikinicole13]

30% wow.

and $300 on a Sat night?

where are you people living & working, bc I might move there!

 

[Quiksilvr]

Aren't tips just incentive-based compensation that is paid by someone other than the employer? How is that really any different from a salesman who is out selling copiers to an office or pharmaceuticals to doctors or cars to everyone else? The only difference is that in those cases, the incentive compensation (a.k.a., commissions) come directly from the employer and don't rely (necessarily) on the consumer's approval. At the end of the day, the cost of that commission was built into whatever you or your company bought.

I know there is a difference between bringing food to a table and selling an MRI machine to a cancer center. The incentive for the salesman is to sell, while the incentive for the server is to serve well, turn tables over, and try to serve as many people as possible in order to maximize tips (which usually equals more sales for the restaurant). It's all incentive-based.

I'm a lawyer. My firm pays me a big fat bonus if I bill lots of hours in a year. It's the same darn thing. Guess who ends up paying the bonuses? Our income stream only has one source: the clients. The bonus is just a tip coming from the employer.

I don't understand the beef with this system... don't hate on it because it's different. I would rather keep things this way and at least have some say over the incentive than have the prices raised and the waitstaff paid more money regardless of how well they serve me.

 

[Tricia1972]

...I know there is a difference between bringing food to a table and selling an MRI machine to a cancer center. The incentive for the salesman is to sell, while the incentive for the server is to serve well, turn tables over, and try to serve as many people as possible in order to maximize tips (which usually equals more sales for the restaurant). It's all incentive-based.

I believe that it's incentive based too. Which is why my feathers get ruffled when I hear from servers that they are entitled to 20% just because they came to work that day.

Their job is to serve the customer and provide the best service possible. Doing the bare minimum, to me, does not constitute a generous tip.

Doing their job well and providing my family with timely refills, having a pleasant attitude, making sure my food is served warm, making sure that my food is to my satisfaction after it's served, and checking on us at the end to see if we'd care for dessert is what earns a bigger tip from us. 18%-20% is where we'll start on this end.

Showing up, obviously not caring, bringing drinks but never offering refills, dumping our food at the table, dropping off a check - that'll get 15% or less from me.

I do NOT feel that servers are entitled to more than the bare minimum standard (15%) for just showing up, which is what the server did in scenario #2.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I hear this alot, but I've traveled to countries where tipping is not the custom, and I've gotten service just as good (and just as bad) as here. Most of us work in non-tipping professions, and I doubt we are all a bunch of slackers because of it.

Here's an idea....pay people a living wage. Raise menu prices to do so. And if they can't do the job politely and adequately, FIRE them. That's how the rest of the world works.

I don't disagree with raising prices so you can pay employees a living wage. The problem is many servers can make a lot more under the current stucture. It wouldn't be as attractive if you didn't have the opportunity to make $200 or more in a shift. Especially, since some servers do not claim all their cash tips as wages.

 

[mom2my3kids]

I don't disagree with raising prices so you can pay employees a living wage. The problem is many servers can make a lot more under the current stucture. It wouldn't be as attractive if you didn't have the opportunity to make $200 or more in a shift. Especially, since some servers do not claim all their cash tips as wages.

Most servers don't make that kind of money unless you work at disney or a high end restaraunt. I worked 8 hours today and barely made 80 bucks and I ran today we were very busy at IHOP.. I had 4 tables to rotate.. This was a decent monday some days I don't make that.