Tipping when will it be too much?

[EMom]

Maybe where she lived, but it was definitely 10% for a looooong time where I lived. At least until the early to mid-80s, when it began to edge up to 10-15%.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Keep in mind tho that if server wages increase, so might the price of the meals. As I understand things (and someone correct me if I am wrong) the restaurant business has a pretty small profit margain when all is said and done. They can't let that evaporate by paying more for their help w/o recovering the cost.

 

[gina2000]

Keep in mind tho that if server wages increase, so might the price of the meals. As I understand things (and someone correct me if I am wrong) the restaurant business has a pretty small profit margain when all is said and done. They can't let that evaporate by paying more for their help w/o recovering the cost.

And I do think people forget this. In Europe, where waitstaff are treated as professionals, patrons leave a sweetener on the table....usually the loose change after paying a bill. Prices in restaurants, however, are considerably higher than in the US. Also, many restaurants (in the Caribbean in particular) charge a 15% breakage fee. It is used to clean linens and replace old and broken dishes. None of that goes to the waitstaff. Restaurant prices there are also much higher than the US, some of which can be attributed to the vast variety of food that must be imported. Nonetheless, you are expected to tip the waitstaff in the Caribbean as you do in the US.

We have a pretty good deal in the US....affordable dining AND discretion in tipping. In other parts of the world, dining out is a treat, not an everyday event.

One last thing....do California restaurants post that tipping is not necessary? I'll bet there are a ton of US tourists that don't know this and tip according to what most of the US does.

Also, in my lifetime (I'm 50), I don't ever remember 10% being the standard tip. It may have been when I was a child but by the time I was a teenager 15% was standard. I live on the east coast, however, and that may make a world of difference.

 

[The Sweetness]

I tip 20%, and if I feel like I received extrordinary treatment, I will leave an extra $2/3 or so Thats pretty generous, IMO

 

[lexmelinda]

I waited tables when I was in college in the 80's and was paid $2.02/hour. I now help my DSIL in the office at her restaurant and those waiters make $2.13/hour so the wage here has not risen substantially in the last 20 years here in KY. These wages aren't even enough to cover the waiter's taxes.

But...I still think a 20% tip is enough for good service...maybe a couple bucks more if the service was really extrordinary. I think 15% is plenty for average service and I think a 10% tip is only merited by an obviously thoughtless, lazy or rude waiter. BUT....

RE: bad service...sometimes it's hard to determine the source. Maybe the kitchen staff is really slow on a particular day causing the food to be delayed or as happened to me many times, the manager (whose bonuses are based on the profit margin) sends most of the wait staff home to cut labor costs and then the restaurant gets slammed. The poor waiters just can't keep up...not their fault...but something to consider before you stiff your next waiter.

 

[The Sweetness]

I think tipping min wage for all employees is a great idea. Then I wont feel pressured to tip. Unless I get superior service, I could feel comfortable with that

 

[estherhead]

One poster mentioned they tip more for dessert. I have to say, that though I do percentages, I also try to tip according to how long I've sat there chitchatting & how much work I've caused. For example, if I go in & take up a table for an hour to meet up with a friend & chitchat, I have tipped MORE than my entire bill. Buy a $2.00 drink, tip $2.25. Cause it isn't fair for me to take a servers table up & then them not make any $. Also, when I go with all my kids & we spill stuff & there is a big mess all over the floor I will tip up to 25% if the server makes no big deal about it.

However, if I get bad service, the server has an attitude or never fills our drinks up, 10%. Maybe not even that.

I've said it on here before, and I'll say it again. If a server is terrible they should not be making any money because then they will QUIT! And isn't that what we all want? The good servers to stay servers & the bad ones to quit.

 

[tomerin]

as i have said on another closely related thread you will get a tip accordng to how the level of service is. great to excellent service will get the server a nicer tip. vice a versa . period


on occasions i have had a waitress tell us to pease dont get mad if i do not see her as much as i should because they were really busy and shorthanded. so when it came time for our check i took that int consideration when i gave her the tip. she was very appreciative as i was with her effort

 

[bluejaygirl]

For amazing service I have gone over 25%, or as others have said, if its a really small bill the percent may be high.. I dont feel right leaving less than $2.00 on the table.

The 18% on the Dining plan only seemed ok once when we had a "bipolar" waitress at LTT. She went from hostile to super talkative in the blink of an eye. It was rather alarming. Anyhow, she didnt really deserve the 18%. Every other TS waiter or waitress was fabulous and I left extra to make it at least 25%.. they deserved it.

I try to not judge slow service ( which can have many causes) so much as the personality of the person. You can tell a bad attitude, and I am a very smiling, friendly, easygoing person so I always feel very taken aback by rudeness. I seldom get that though. I think you usually get back what you put forth...

 

[just another guy]

My question is this: Why can't the restaurants pay their servers a reasonable wage? IMHO, tips should be at the diner's discretion based on service. The restaurant should pay enough for the job and diner's tip for excellent (or above average) service. Restaurants are adding gratuity to the bill now. That, to me, is not a tip. It's part of the bill, which defeats the whole purpose, doesn't it? Personally, I think the whole tipping thing is outdated. But, until it's "fixed", I'll pay my 20 percent.

In a short answer, because american's are stupid. I served through college to pay the bills. Lets say apple bees decides to properly pay their servers,I don't know, maybe $14 an hour. Guess what, your 8.99 burger is now going to be 11.99. At the same time, chilis next door is still paying their server $3 an hour, and their burger is 7.99. Where do you think the average Joe is going to go for a burger? See, the only way for the industry to change would be all at once, and that will never happen.

Grat is easy to explain as well. Lets say Joe is always thirsty. When he dines with just his wife, he downs his coke while ordering, and the server says he/she will have another one out in a second. Once getting the order to the kitchen, Joe will have his coke. It shouldn't take more than 1-2 minutes MAX. Now lets say Joe is dining with his office crew of 11. The server delievers all the drinks(giving Joe his drink first), and Joe downs it in 30 seconds. The server still has to hand out several drinks, take 12 separate orders, ring them all in, and THEN get Joe a refill. Plus in this make believe story, the party of 12 is the servers only table. So, Joe has now waited 6 minutes for his refill, and thus rules this out as crappy service, and doesn't want to tip. Did the server really give bad service? No, its just Joe hasn't been in the industry, and can't see the severs side of view. Things take longer when in a large group, and some less than smart people rule that out as bad service. Thats why grat is included.

 

[GusT]

We tip by service only, not how much our bill is, and I don't really understand why you should tip by how big your bill is. Because if I go into a really expensive place where the bill for my DH and I is close to $100, but we have a crappy server, then that server isn't going to get as much from us as a server at a regular steak and shake with a $30 bill and an excellent service!!!
For us, it's all about how you treat us, and we are very understanding of other factors that are weighing in on our service.

 

[cafetao]

My biggest problem with tipping, the way it is done now, is that it doesn't act as an incentive, like it should. If I receive poor service and leave a low tip say 10% the server will write me off as being a cheapskate. Conversely if I leave a large tip the server wont necesarilly know why I left a large tip. The server should know why you tipped the amount that you did. This will encourage good to excellent service and those who won't or cannot give that level of service will find a different job. So if you get bad service and don't want to tip at all, don't, but make sure the server or manager knows why you left what you did.

Just another guy, your example is maybe a bit of an exageration but in principle is right on. However I think the consumer would save money by going to that system instead of paying alot more. You only need to wait on one table of four in an hour to make up for the wage increase. An entree would not need to raise in price that much to allow for a higher wage.

 

[Uncleromulus]

But don't the servers wait on that many tables (or even more) now? All they get from management is $2.13 and hour. The rest they get from us. If management pays them 4 or 5 times as much (and still keeps the same # of servers employed) the menu prices would have to go up.
I ran this by a restaurant manager just last night. Without really taking time working up all the numbers exactly, she "guessed" that if server wages quadrupled (that is, went to just $8.75 and hour) menu prices would need to rise about 15%. Make the wage higher, the menu price goes higher as well.

And then she figured that restaurants would probably try and trim server numbers down to the bare minimum to recover even more of the wage increase.
I know there are restaurant owners/managers on these boards. I'd like to hear from them as to why we still keep the current tipping system in place and what might likely happen (to menu prices and service) if we paid the servers a good and fair wage.

 

[eliza61]

So we have worked our way upwards from 15-20%, but I swear I am not going above that as a standard tip. Now I have, on occasion, tipped more for very good service. Or if we come in for dessert only, I tend to tip a higher amount. Things like that. But if I hear that it's morphed into 20-25%, I'm feigning deafness.

You and me both.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

10% if the service is particularly bad
15% generally
20% if the service is particularly good

And then there's my husband who always tips 20% because he's too lazy to do the math in his head for 15%.

 

[kcrew]

What I will never understand about tipping is the whole percentage concept. Can someone explain it to me? So I go in to a place a drink water only and order the cheapest thing on the menu and my bill is $20. The patron next to me orders a $10 martini and then has lobster at market price so the bill climbs to $50. Has the server done anything more for the 2nd diner? Why do they suddenly deserve $10 instead or $4? I mean I do it because its the custom, but why? However don't even get me started on buffets....you know what, let my plates pile to the sky because you're not going to see 18% from me!!! Heck for that I'll bus my own table!!! I refuse to buy into that!

 

[Lisa Hale]

Keep in mind tho that if server wages increase, so might the price of the meals. As I understand things (and someone correct me if I am wrong) the restaurant business has a pretty small profit margain when all is said and done. They can't let that evaporate by paying more for their help w/o recovering the cost.

I'm fine with the price going up. That lets ME decide if I want to spend that much right from the beginning without feeling compelled to add a tip for so-so service. I don't believe in tipping just to do so regardless if service was lousy or not. When I waited tables, good service meant the difference in keeping your job or not, not just getting better tips. I've actually worked with people (post college days non-restaurant jobs) who were afraid not to tip for fear that someone would do something horrible to their food the next time they came in a restaurant. That's crazy! Tell me up front what a meal costs and pay your employees a decent wage - that's how the rest of the business world works!

Oh, and we did once leave without tipping - we had to talk to the manager after not getting the right food orders 3 times (plus underdone chicken is just nasty!) and then there was a nasty long blonde hair in the salad, then there was food crusted in the bottom of a glass, AND the server was pissy about replacing the glass, didn't bring a new salad only removed the hair and returned it - I knew because I had already added salad dressing and there was still some on the salad when it came back. After all that, and talking to the manager, she followed us outside wanting to know where her tip was. Trust me, I gave her a tip she could use the rest of her life - do a good job, get paid well!

 

[IwasatWDWforamonth]

My mom evens things out she will not tip more than 10% if the waiter has done any thing wrong, wait to long, food missing, rude etc if its too bad she leaves nothing, thats rarely happened though.

My mom is not afraid to do this she thinks that waiters shouldnt be awarded for poor service.

on the other hand if a waiter has done an excellent job, or done something out of the ordinary to make our day "magical" she tips 40%

 

[rotlex]

My average is 20% for what I consider good\normal service. 15% if I'm a bit annoyed, and yes, nothing if the service stank. Would I ever go higher than 20%? If the service was exceptional of course, however, NEVER on a regular basis.

 

[halld6479]

I understood the tip was included in the purchase price through this year, I called to make reservation for our family, some are using the DDP and the rest are not, I was told at each place I reserved they would automatically add 18% for a tip since 10 of us were in the party. if they add another 18% above the one included in the DDP that would come to 36% tip. Am I not understanding the figuring on this tip?