1% tip, on expensive lunch. **and my rant on pay, gratuity, and salary jobs**

[4play]

To use figures already mentioned for the tip scale it seems to range anywhere from 15% to 35%

Get a cheap meal and spend $50, get excellent service and tip 35%. Tip = $17.50
Get an expensive meal and spend $150, get crappy service and tip 15%. Tip = $22.50

So you decide to eat an expensive meal and received crappy service you still ended up tipping more for the crappy service than you did for the cheap meal with excellent service. This is one reason why I dont think tips should necessarily be based on a percentage scale.

 

[Danny Tanner]

To use figures already mentioned for the tip scale it seems to range anywhere from 15% to 35%

Get a cheap meal and spend $50, get excellent service and tip 35%. Tip = $17.50
Get an expensive meal and spend $150, get crappy service and tip 15%. Tip = $22.50

So you decide to eat an expensive meal and received crappy service you still ended up tipping more for the crappy service than you did for the cheap meal with excellent service. This is one reason why I dont think tips should necessarily be based on a percentage scale.

I hate the idea of tipping based off the cost of the food. Tips should be based off the service received, not the cost of items received, that's what the check is for.

I tip any where from 0-50%, depending on where I eat and the level of service. I like to think I'm the perfect customer. I ask politely for my meal (it pisses me off hearing somebody say, "yeah, get me a ribeye and garlic potatoes" rather than "Could I have the ribeye with garlic potatoes, please?"), I say thank you after refills, after getting checked on, plates cleared, etc. We typically don't slam our drinks, I can't remember the last time we've ever sent our plate back, despite getting side item A instead of side item B like we ordered, and we've rarely ever had to flag down our waiter. We also pick up after ourselves when we're done eating. We don't bus and clear the table, but we do stack the plates and silverware together and make sure there's no out of ordinary mess left behind.

I also like to think I'm a generous tipper. I used to have a serious addiction to Sonic's Ocean Water fountains (not the slush) with no ice. I'd drink one every day. They were a couple of bucks and I'd hand the carhop a $5 and tell them I don't need any change.

One of my favorite causal restaurants to go to is Chelino's in Edmond (besides the Midwest City location, Chelino's sucks). Those guys all know what my drink is and after they confirm with me "Dos Equis Amber?", it's sitting in front of me within the first few minutes of us sitting down. Their food is standard Mexican fare, but I go for the service. I tip about 35% every time we go.

 

[JD8]

I hate the idea of tipping based off the cost of the food. Tips should be based off the service received, not the cost of items received, that's what the check is for.

Generally speaking, serving lets say a $10 burger and a coke is considerably less involved than serving a number of other foods that cost more. Consider restaturants that prepare steak, seafood, Italian, sushi, etc, where there's usually alcohol, and starters involved. There will be more product knowledge and preparation required and there is by far and large a higher amount of special instructions.

 

[neginfluence04]

****** service = 10%
good service = 20%
amazing service (which is hard to find) = 30-50%

 

[Robert871]

Karma is *****. Go do that job for a while and deal with the rude horses' asses and cheap douchebags whose only tiny sintilla of power in their miserable lives is to go to a restaurant and order a server around.

I always tip 20-35% unless the server is completely incompetent. The only way I will tip less than 15% is if they have a bad attitude and then I usually say something to them about it.

I do see the insult in what the banker wrote on the ticket, but what i am saying is there is no further detail on the circumstances of the thing. It just seems like it was written with the intent to incite rage and class warfare, because that is exactly what it is. sure, it sounds like the guy is a bastard, and he probably is, but fair journalism should at least have made an effort probe out if there were other factors at play, maybe get the guest of the banker to comment on the service...? maybe he did, but the article did not specify on that instance. and so what if he is just an elitist prick? what is the point of the article? are we to think that EVERY person who makes above x amount of dollars is like this guy? That is what i felt like the article was saying, how about you?

I am not worried about karma, and my theory of using my tip to round of the waiter/waitress's pay for their time i took up,so that they made what i make; makes sense to me. I don't feel i am being an outrageous diner. i do not walk into the establishment and snap my fingers and demand they wipe my ass for me. I do not bark orders, and ***** about the wait times, or look down on them for their job. I do not even complain, or send my food back when its not cooked to my satisfaction, or they get my order wrong; because the truth is, i am not there for the food. i only go out to eat to spend time with the people i came there with. I don't drop crap on the floor and make a mess of the table.

I realize that their job can be difficult and it has its struggles. but i think every job has its issues. trust me, as long as my posts are (and i am aware of my wall-o-text style, sorry, i am working on it, and clearly i am not a good poster... i get it.) i actually cut out a paragraph explaining the crappy jobs i have held thus far in my short time as a working adult. I guess i did not feel i needed to tell you how many jobs i have worked my arse off for less than 10 bucks an hour. or how much more nasty the jobs got the closer to 17 bucks i got, like changing linens and mopping feces off the floor in an old folks home, or breaking open floors and digging ditches only to crawl around in dirt saturated with human waste.

i tried to split my initial post into two, so the people who cared about the linked article could choose to not read my rant.

my feelings are unchanged. and in my mind, even the argument about the wait staff during non peak hours only reinforces my idea that if they establishment paid their staff a fair wage, instead of relying on the guilt trip tip method to pay its employees, then it would only serve to improve the pay of those who work non peak hours. i did not mean this as a means to eliminate tipping, i feel it would bring it closer to its true meaning, a reward for making a persons day, for going above and beyond, not just because its expected and if you don't leave a socially acceptable percentage of your check, your a bad person because their hourly wage is crummy.

i was simply tying to say, gratuity is not gratuity anymore, somewhere it mutated into this pity pay because the food industry does not have to pay them as high a minimum wage.

 

[JD8]

my feelings are unchanged. and in my mind, even the argument about the wait staff during non peak hours only reinforces my idea that if they establishment paid their staff a fair wage, instead of relying on the guilt trip tip method to pay its employees, then it would only serve to improve the pay of those who work non peak hours. i did not say i was going eat someplace and then if that place paid them even 15 bucks an hour on top of tips, that i wouldn't tip them for taking care of me.

It doesn't really reinforce anything when it comes to the real world outside of your opinion. Just curious if you've ever been on the other side of a restaurant? In terms of what it costs to run one? Your insistance that they pay their staff a "fair wage" shows a considerably amount of ignorance to how thin the margins really are. Do you want "cheaper" food and the option to tip? Or do you want service baked into the price? Or we could just be like Europe where they add a service charge. Because I'll tell you the owners here and especially in OK aren't going to eat the reduction in margin.

i was simply tying to say, gratuity is not gratuity anymore, somewhere it mutated into this pity pay because the food industry does not have to pay them as high a minimum wage

According to whom? In who's mind? Most of the real world doesn't tip on pity I assure you. It's honestly obvious that you have a chip on your shoulder on how much you have made relative to how much food industry people make because the comparison is constant here. Again, please boycott places with 2.13/hr employees and please don't try to pick up the tab for your friends.......it seems that you need the money more and the judgement isn't needed.

 

[Robert871]

According to whom? In who's mind? Most of the real world doesn't tip on pity I assure you.

http://www.wisegeek.com/why-do-we-tip-for-some-professions-but-not-others.htm
"One reason we tip certain service employees such as waiters or bellhops is to help compensate for a gap in wages. Employers are legally permitted to pay less than minimum wage to certain employees who routinely benefit from tipping."
"A waiter may also be responsible for tipping other employees such as bussers and bartenders. Without regular tips, waiters and barmaids may not even earn the legal minimum wage."
http://www.tip20.com/why-should-you-tip/27
"* Hourly wages are typically significantly less in the service industry, because tips are considered part of the servers income.

* Your server does pay income taxes. In absence of proper documentation of tips, the government will look at the servers food and beverage sales and base their taxable tip income on a percent of it. So if you do not tip the server, it has actually cost the server money to serve you. See the IRS tipping tax laws."

those just kind of stuck out on the first two sites that popped up when i did a yahoo search of "why do we tip"
seems like its kind of the big reason. sounds to me like we are not tipping so much because they did their job well, but because their job relies on it.... i am not going to start taking surveys to kindle my opinion.
I do not expect this to matter to you, you see me as wrong, disagree with me, and unless i bow to your superior intellect, you will just trash me and my words because you are right, and i am wrong; and the further i argue, the more you will be out for blood, and slander me questioning my intellect and upbringing, or insulting my wealth (which you have already taken a stab at). Yes, i would rather have the price of food be higher at an establishment and know that the waiter is being paid a wage by the establishment that is competitive for a similar level position that shares similar training requirements; that way, when they are exceedingly good at their job, the tip is actually gratuity. gratuity, a world from the origin of gracious, meaning pleasantly kind, benevolent, and courteous. i would rather it be a reward for enjoying the service someone did for me, than expected because of situation. just like i said.

and why does my opinion bother you so? you have gone to great lengths to out right try and insult me and label me, over some words i typed. sounds to me like you are more the one with a chip on your shoulder. I have said nothing to provoke the hatred and blatant insult you have selected to reply with. and nothing i have said, is something i felt i could not say to my friends and have them understand where i am coming from; regardless if they agreed or not.

FYI (not that it matters). no i have not been a waiter, already said that. no i have not owned a business of any kind let alone in the food industry. I have washed dishes, and cooked in one. closest i have been is to know the owner of a rons hamburgers. i am aware they have expenses, that is a given. i am aware that they have to pay for everything that walks in that back door. and no, that does not make me an authority on the subject, but that is the magic of an opinion, and free speech, i can feed it and voice it wrong or right, educated or not. still changes nothing in what i have said.
by the way, any "judgement" on my part, is implied by you. i am pointing out that people feel obligated to tip because they know their waiter relies on it as their wage, not so much because the service was exceptional and the staff made them feel pleasant. i am not judging people or looking down on people for the jobs they work.

 

[MoBoost]

"It's not tipping I believe in. It's overtipping." My Blue Heaven.
"Don't f**k with people who handle your food." Waiting...


You tip for the service. If you don't want service - go through a drive through.

Tip is proportional to the amount of service tendered - yes, that's your bill. You want someone to work at a "flat rate" - hire a maid.

Service people remember those who tip well, and those who don't - if you are planning to enjoy yourself during the service - tip well EVERY TIME.

 

[aestus]

I always tip 35% minimum. If the person is an asshat, then it's 15% or lower. I almost never stiff anyone, but I do recall leaving a ********* of a waiter 3 pennies as his tip.

FYI, not all waiting jobs are low paying. The wait staff up in the restaurant in the space needle all make an average of 6 figures. The list to get on there is long and the average waiter is about 38 yrs old. I know waiters who work in higher end establishments in OKC who make close to $70k.

 

[dugby]

Don't worry Robert. I believe your conlcusions about the journalists intent are correct.

I think the restaurant's influence on getting an exemption to the minimum wage law is the original sin in all this. I suppose we could go further back to the whole notion of minimum wage itself being the culprit. The restaurant situation further exemplifies the folly of a minimum wage.

JB makes a good point on people that use the waiter or waitress as their chance to be the tyrant. It is painful to see those people do that. I guess we all have a little tyrant in us if we admit it. Crap rolls downhill.

Some people are really good at not falling into the tyrant piece of whatever authority falls their way. Others, not so much.