Tipping (not cows, and not just restaurants)

[Tallulah]

I always tip 20%, more if it's some spectacular service, or if I just feel like it. I don't really run into horrible waiters that often. In groups, I usually end up tipping more than my share. I hate people who don't put enough in and make us all look cheap.

[disregard]

Originally Posted by Wolf

Anything that high or above, unless due to rounding, I reserve for people that spend radical amount of direct attention on me, like hair cutting people...

I gave the girl a $20 tip for my last hair cut.



She was good company.

[LucrativeSid]

I always tip very high, but this isn't very helpful because I only eat in a restaurant like once a year.

[Spartacuss]

Tipping guidelines

RESTAURANTS/BARS
Waiter/waitress: 15% of bill (excl. tax) for adequate service; 20% for very good service; no less than 10% for poor service
Headwaiter/captain: often gets a cut of table server's tip; so tip your server extra to reward captain, or tip captain separately
Sommelier, or wine steward: 15% of cost of the bottle
Bartender: 15% to 20% of the tab, with a minimum of 50 cents per soft drink, $1 per alcoholic drink
Coatroom attendant: $1 per coat
Parking valet or garage attendant: $2 to bring your car to you
Washroom attendant: 50 cents to $1

[JivinJeffJones]

We don't tip in this country. Frankly, I find the practice vaguely offensive to my egalitarian sensibilities. Rewarding people for effective fawning? Punishing them for insufficient fawning? Fuck that. Small wonder wealthy Americans tend to think so highly of themselves.

[EffEmDoubleyou]

Originally Posted by JivinJeffJones

We don't tip in this country. Frankly, I find the practice vaguely offensive to my egalitarian sensibilities. Rewarding people for effective fawning? Punishing them for insufficient fawning? Fuck that. Small wonder wealthy Americans tend to think so highly of themselves.

Well that's awfully self-satisfied, isn't it?

1. Fawning has little to do with it. Getting your order correct and timeliness do.

2. Exactly how is it egalitarian to refrain from tipping someone who makes less than minimum wage?

[Recoleta]

My own personal thoughts: I expect at least 18%-20% out of my tables because I know I give good service and by nature I am a perfectionist. I do screw up at times, but when I do I make sure it gets fixed as quickly as possible and I apologize for it. I hate people that tell me I did I good job, and then leave me 15%. Honestly, 15% is pretty cheap, and if you give me 10% it really is an insult. When I go out, 20-25% is baseline (I usually round up a dollar like you mentioned, Wolf), and only drops to 15% if the service was rude or horrible.

Originally Posted by Samuel De Mazarin

poor 10, decent 15, good 20, excellent 25
[I factor workload into the valuation. Also, the more expensive the food and fancy the restaurant, the higher the standards I use to evaluate service. So, if it's a $20 bill, a decent waiter might walk away with $4... but if it's a $100 or $150 bill, he/she's going to have to work much harder, be much friendlier, and be that much more professional in order to get a higher percentage. I think it's perfectly reasonable to hold waiters at more expensive restaurants to higher standards. Plus, a waiter could do a pretty poor job on a $100 meal and still get $10, which ain't too bad.]

Fair enough. I work at a fairly work-intensive environment though, and I'm sure most of my tables have no idea about the work I'm really doing when I'm not standing in front of them. I have to run hot food on trays for other tables and run apps and soups/salads for other servers too. Plus, sometimes another server needs help with something, or I'm getting things for my other tables, so it is very rare to see me just standing around.

Originally Posted by Samuel De Mazarin

The waiter would have to be an outright asshole or the food tainted for me to refuse a tip... someone who's merely a bit cool but does the job doesn't deserve, in my opinion, to get no tip... which some people I know feel about it... this people are waiters... no matter what, the job is not the first on most people's lists..

I would say I agree, but this kinda goes both ways with a customer. I really can't make good conversation or even small talk with all my tables because I have to take cues from the customers. I always make an effort to be open and friendly, but there are times where the customer is not open to conversation (as in they don't say "thank you"...which in my mind is common human courtesy...or they refuse to make eye contact when you are talking to them...or sometimes they just stare at you without saying anything). Now, if the customer is open to conversation and humor, that is another thing entirely. I'm just saying, it takes 2 sides to have a conversation. If I feel no attempt on the customer's end I will give them quality service and call it a day.

Originally Posted by Samuel De Mazarin

waiters get criminally low wages because owners assume they'll make most of their wages in tips...

$2.13 an hour...and I never even see it. It goes strait to taxes. Also, another thing to factor in is that I have to tip out to the bus boys, hostesses, and bar tenders 3% of my total sales (which really sucks because it's not based on how much I make that night). So if my sales are $500, I'm immediately giving up $15 of my own tips to help pay them. So if I get shafted by enough tables it can become possible that I actually have to tip out more than I make.

Originally Posted by Samuel De Mazarin

Also, I always tip in cash... credit card tips are often taxed or cut into by unscrupulous owners... and the payment always comes late. If you don't have a 5'er or a 10'er and you're in a restaurant... but you have a credit card... you're either a callous but silly businessman or a college kid wrassling debt...

Mmm, depends. The payment does not always come late (at least not in my restaurant). I go home with my tips every night...credit card tips do get automatically taxed though, so being tipped in cash is preferred, but it's really not a big deal at all.

Originally Posted by EffEmDoubleyou

What always truly confounds me is what to tip delivery drivers for pizza/Chinese, etc. I tip them 15% if there is a delivery charge and 20% if there isn't one. But I'm really just guessing.

That sounds reasonable, FM.

[JivinJeffJones]

Originally Posted by EffEmDoubleyou

Well that's awfully self-satisfied, isn't it?

Not at all. Just vaguely offended.

Originally Posted by EffEmDoubleyou

1. Fawning has little to do with it. Getting your order correct and timeliness do.

So waiters/waitresses don't suck up that extra bit more to people they suspect could tip extra-generously? And are getting the order correct (not hard) and timeliness (little to do with the waiter) the only criteria for how much you will tip? Because that isn't what I hear.

Originally Posted by EffEmDoubleyou

2. Exactly how is it egalitarian to refrain from tipping someone who makes less than minimum wage?

It's egalitarian to pay them minimum wage or better in the first place, and not leave them dependent on the uncertain generosity of customers. Especially since (from what I hear) obviously-wealthy customers will often get preferential treatment from staff in the hopes of larger tips. How could that not offend my egalitarian sensibilities?

[Falcarius]

Well I am not from the Americas so it is quite a bit different. Unlike in America there is no percentage perceived to be 'correct' when tipping in Britain. If the meal tasted disgusting one would not pay for the food let alone the tip, what of course one is legally untitled to do. Generally, I never give a tip for anything else other than when I am in a restaurant, but I suppose if I ever had a lot of luggage I would give a taxi driver a tip.

Say my order came to the equivalent of $48 what is around £24, most places these days in my experience have a 'service charge' of about 6%, I would normally give about 10% (including any service charge) at most if it was good service, but I would never give any more.

I would never give someone a £.16 ($.32) as I don't see the point if I thought they were that bad. Also, 20% or 25% seems crazy; I would rather give the money to a real charity than a waiter.

[Samuel De Mazarin]

Well, I guess I'm not going to London to wait tables... plus, everything's so bloody expensive there.