Just for fun...
Do you tip your mechanic? They provide a service and making sure a vehicle is safe is more important (IMHO) than how your hair or nails look. Perhaps they need tips too...
Actually, I have done this in the past and I don't think it's all that out of the ordinary.
I can't afford BMW, so I don't drive one.
By this example I mean to say I don't follow what this has to do with this thread? If your implying I can't afford the activities I listed like going to restaurants, buying coffee, staying at hotels and getting massages, I'm afraid your incorrect.
I "can" afford to give 200% tips, however if I started living like that I would be a fool and you know what they say about a fool and their money.
If they started charging 7 dollars a gallon for gas I could afford that to, but i would be writing a thread about how outrageous that is and wanting to hear what others have to say about it.
I'm not picking on you at all , I'm glad you shared your opinion with me and thank you! I just want to understand more what you mean. I'm talking about what I think the cost of something should be ( the something is gratuity) not how much of something, I ,you, or anyone else can afford.
You know you are right, my original response did not make a ton of sense so for that I apologize. I guess it is difficult for me to wrap my head around someone not tipping or not tipping customary amounts if they can afford the the service and the tip. I guess I come from a different frame of mind because in my head I just think of the tip as part of the total cost of the service I am willingly choosing to have done.
I guess if someone just automatically thinks of the tip as part of the total cost then it doesn't cause any feelings of resentment towards the service provider or their employers the way so many in this thread feel (not directed at OP).
Constantly having this discussion where I work... there are those in the office that continually harp on the fact that I don't give 20% or more like they do when they take clients out... I always hear the rationale that the waiter isn't making minimum wage... and I always explain, that if the waiter was willing to take a job that paid less than minimum wage then that was his decision. I didn't tell him to take the job and by tipping I'm enabling someone to make a dumb decision. You want more money, work hard in school and get a good job that pays well... but when you look at the amount of money a waiter in some places would make if everyone tipped 20%... well I'm sorry but no one simply hauling food and drinks back and forth across a 50 foot distance should make that much.... and for those upset with the 18% gratuities that place like to tack on for large groups. You don't have to pay them. I've had them try to pull the BS on me before and I've always had them removed.
I guess you never thought that many of those servers are working hard and putting themselves though school? I guess you also haven't realized than many new college graduates cannot find jobs that pay well in this economy so they may have to stay at the job that put them through college for longer than expected?
Why not do away with tipping and just have the business adjust their prices accordingly and have them pay the salary for their employees?
I have considered this and am not against it personally but I do think it would cause many dining establishments to close down because they would have to raise their prices by at least 20% and price increases in this economy are not going over well so they would lose customers with such a price hike.
I agree that teachers and LEOs are underpaid. However, nurses aren't highly paid either. In some areas, they are even very underpaid. I'm a nurse in a hospital & I'm not severely underpaid, but I'm not highly paid either.
I could move, travel or work strikes & make a six figure income, but that's not conducive to my family's lifestyle right now. That's my choice. Just like others choose their employment based on their skill set & lifestyle needs.
I think that teachers, nurses, LEO's, and emergency personnel deserve respect and hazard pay in certain situations. However, around here I wouldn't say they are underpaid. Those are some of the better paying jobs here. My BFF is a nurse for 2 12 hour shifts a week and makes the same as my other BFF that's a teacher. It's decent money. They deserve it. My DH is police officer and of course I would love it if he made more but I wouldn't say he is underpaid. I would say that some customer service professionals are underpaid especially for the crap that they have to put up with.
As a server I can tell you that the attitudes seen here aren't the norm. 99% of my customers are extremely nice and tip within the expected range. I love my job. Every once in a while I get rude customers and/or customers who don't tip well - that's life. But don't think for a minute that I don't remember them, and if I'm busy and have to choose who's going to get the best service between someone who tips well and someone who doesn't, well, who do you think I choose?
I am so glad that you do not see have to deal with these types of attitudes on a regular basis. It is nice to hear that your customers have better attitudes about their service providers. I am sure you are a great server!
I just got back from a hot date with my awesome husband
For dessert, we swung into Cold Stone, which we love but don't get very often.
As we're paying, I look down and lo and behold, there's a tip jar next to the register.
A tip jar. At Cold Stone. And I'm thinking, "This is a bit too far."
I always tip at Cold Stone. They sing a song and my son likes it, lol.
It is a fallacy that servers do not recieve minimum wage. Yes their "base" hourly wage is sub-minimum and tips are expected to make up the difference. BUT if for whatever reason the server does not make enough in tips to bring them to minimum wage their the employeer MUST pay the server the difference to bring them to minimum wage.
Now I live in California and servers are paid at least minimum wage so any tips they are given are above and beyound this.
Not exactly. Many restaurants have ways around this. For example, some restaurants have the computer systems automatically set so that a server has to claim at least 10% of their sales. If someone had a really crummy night with poor tips and then had to tip out to others in the restaurant that server may not have made 10% of their sales but the system says they are so the restaurant does not have to pay anything. I'm sure other restaurants have other ways around it as well.
I have been trying to avoid responding to this post because of the way some of you feel about first time posters in a subject like this, but as I was driving around delivering pizzas tonight, thinking of some of the previous responses, I felt the need to respond.
I do not care if you tip or not, you will get the same service from me regardless. I do take issue with the thought that people take these jobs because they are unskilled and cannot do any better. I work at a well-known pizza delivery place. Everyone with the exception of a couple of high school kids have College degrees and at least one other full time “educated job”. I choose to work there because I enjoy it most of the time and I earn enough money to take my family to fun places like Disney World 3 or 4 times a year without dipping into our savings or emergency funds. There are 2 teachers that I work with, 1 Postal Worker, and various construction workers and other skilled laborers. They supplement their incomes for whatever reason.
As far as delivery fees, at the place I work they charge $1.99 per delivery. Drivers get .75 of that. I tend to agree with others that it should not be charged if it does not go to the drivers but those decisions are made at a cooperate level. It is my understanding that the saying on the side of the box, “delivery fee is not a tip”, is due to a class action law suit brought about by drivers from all over the country because people assumed the drivers were getting the whole fee.
The purpose of this post is not to judge anyone for their choice to tip or not. Please, just do not judge your servers without knowing their situations. It could be your kid’s teacher, your Mailman, or the nurse at your local hospital.
Thank you for posting. It has been my experience as well that many servers and delivery people are working that position as a second job and are well educated hard-working people.
ok, so i'm curious. why do people take jobs where they Have to rely on someone tipping them to make money ? i know times are hard but, even when times were better, i don't see how you do it. never knowing what you'll make or not make or having to smile and kiss butt all day in hopes of getting a nice tip. i'm not trying to offend anyone i'm just curious as to why you do it. i'm not much on tipping cause the way i look at it is i have to pay the high price for whatever i am having done to the store, and then its expected i give the stores employee some money also.
It is a difficult job and not everyone is cut out for it. It can be rewarding or when you come up against people with certain attitudes that make you feel like you are beneath them it can be a degrading position. Some choose the job because they enjoy it (many outgoing personalities), some are working their way through school and being a server offers a bit more flexible scheduling to work around classes. Others do it because they can work the opposite shift of a spouse and reduce child care costs. Some get into it because they think they will make a ton of money and do not realize how difficult the work is and how you do not always get paid an amount that you think yo deserve given the amount of hard work put in. There is a very high turnover rate in restaurants.
Actually the faulty philosophy is on the servers side. Don't take a job unless you are willing to accept the pay and feel that it is fair with no tips at all. To take a job and know that you will only make enough money if everyone tips is foolish.
Servers have to assume they will make their money from tips or no one would become a server for $2.13/an hour.
Well, I can only answer for my self, but I wait tables because I love it. I don't have to wait tables - I actually have an engineering degree. But I hated engineering.
Waiting tables, I get the chance to meet new people every day, and forge relationships with my regular customers. I love that my schedule is fairly flexible and allows me to be spend time with my family. The best part for me, though, is the fact that - to a large degree - I'm in control of how much money I make. Since we don't pool our tips where I work, the servers who work harder make more money than those who don't.
At my last job, we all made basically the same amount whether we worked hard or we spent all day talking to our friends on the phone. I just got tired of it. Now, if there's a server not pulling her weight, she's only hurting herself.
As far as the pay being unpredictable, you're right - it is. But I generally have a good idea of how much I'll make in a night. Every once in a while, you give someone great service and they give to a terrible tip. It sucks, but you just chalk it up to them being jerks and get on with it. And before anyone freaks out, yes, we're all aware that some people just don't know any better, but don't think for a moment that we can't tell the difference. And yes, sometimes people are just plain rude, but fortunately those people are few and far between. I've only had one table in the last year that was truly awful.
I will say that in real life I have never encountered the elitist attitudes that I've seen from some in this thread. Every single one of my customers seems to understand that we are just regular people trying to earn a living. They know that we aren't uneducated or unskilled. We are professionals who deserve to be treated with respect.
Thank you for giving a voice to the servers out there and doing so in a kind and intelligent way.
It's the same thing as taking a position where most of your salary is on commission. Yes, it's a gamble, but many people in sales make a lot of money, yet some don't. Where I live, servers don't make much more than $2 an hour (and we have a VERY high COL). We have tons of restaurants, and therefore, many servers. I've done it, and it's hard work, but usually the generous tippers will compensate for the cheapskates.
Does anyone think $2.13 an hour is a fair wage? In this economy, good luck even finding a waitressing job here.
I think it is very similar to those working for a commission.
Sorry but a commission is completely different from a tip. From the buyers standpoint he is given a price for a product, he doesn't care if the bulk of the money goes to the company, the salesman or the gardener, doesn't matter. From the salesman's perspective he knows exactly what he gets off a sale. If he knows or believes he can make sales he knows what percent he is going to get. Now a server is going work period and has no right to expect anything when they serve a table... the key difference is that a tip is completely arbitrary, a commission is a known amount with only the actual sale being unknown.
Consumers do not care about commission when they are buying a product? Why do consumers haggle with salespeople to get the price down then? They are essentially lowering the salesperson's commission by doing that. So it is not always a known.
And I thought I multi-quoted someone else who mentioned that those that work on commission are also making a base salary of around $30,000.00.That is not the case. Off the top of my head I can think of two instances where it is definitely not the case. One is travel agents. While some that work for the big chains are making a small salary, the large majority of travel agents make absolutely no salary and work solely on commission. Another instance is real estate agents, no salary just commission.
