A Rant About How Tipping Has Gotten Out Of Control

Don't let the server sob stories of "not making a wage" fool you. I worked in the industry for 15 years in High school and after college. I never saw a check from my employer but I was making $65,000 every year working 25-30 hours/week. I averaged $50 an hour and didn't have to claim it on taxes especially if customers tipped in cash. I personally didn't do this next part, but one of my coworkers did. He claimed to be making low income when he was, in fact, making at least $50K/yr and was receiving government assistance. At the end of the day, servers don't want to be paid hourly because it would be a huge cut to their pay. It's an entitled industry and it's unfortunate because I was making way more than the people I was serving. Take a look at Initiative 77, no server wants to be paid $15/hr by their employer. But they will never tell you the real reason why.

The restaurant owners should be paying their employees a descent wage. Owners and stock holders are becoming greedy, especially if they are a large national chain. Ultimately the customer is paying and TIPPING is a cheap way the restaurant owner puts the pressure on the customer. This practice generates an uncomfortable relationship between the server and the customer. There are a few chain restaurants I refuse to go to anymore. The owners will say their prices will go up if they have to pay the servers a livable wage. Well, for the customer we're already paying that higher cost. Why not stop trying to hide this practice and remove the comfortable relationship tipping generates between the server and the customer. I feel bad for the server and religiously pay 15%. Inflation is making it more and more difficult to pay a huge tip. If I found a restaurant that paid a good wage and eliminated tipping I would visit that facility often. In the end: Employers, pay your employees (servers, waitresses and/or waiters) a reasonable wage.

Tipping is absolutely out of control. As restaurant meals for an entree and pop/coffee hit $20 a person for an average quality meal and lets face it the average person doesn't eat alone so that's $40 for lunch. There is no way in hell I am going to tip 20% or $8 for a 45 min lunch especially when the waiter/waitress has probably 6-8 tables, thats up to $64 tax free (because we all know they don't claim it on their taxes that is just a fact). I am inclined to tip MAX 10% and that is only because its in our culture, I might even tip a flat $2-3

Now I was in a cab in Boston recently and headed to the airport. The terminal gave me tip options starting at 15%. 15% or $6 and all the guy did was drive and help with the luggage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I begrudgingly gave him the 15% because he deserved something, but next time I will hit the no tip button

I looked back as to when I worked min wage jobs in my youth. None paid tips with the exception of a short term job I worked as a valet (most people never tipped btw) and me and my friends did just fine, we could live, have a social life and do just fine. News flash if you want to make more money get an education and get a better job don't complain that the customer didn't leave you 20% for doing your job

For those people who tip 20% congratulations. I often tell people I know who bragged about their heavy tips and then I asked them did you tip the Fedex or UPS driver for dropping off your package? What about the mailman for a great year of service at Christmas time? The guy who mows your lawn? The guy who cleans your windows? The gas jockey who fills up your car at the gas station? The person who bags your groceries at the grocery store? The staff at McDonalds, Subway etc who got your food? Why not I asked I thought you were a big tipper!!!!!!

I worked my way through college waiting tables in the mid 90s when it was 15%. I was glad to get 15% tips because I could make way more money than folding jeans at the Gap, which is pretty much the only other job someone in their late teens, early 20s without a college degree and who needed flexible work hours could get. Because I had experience on how hard waiting tables can be, I became a very generous (or so I thought) tipper, always tipping 20% after tax.

But then I ran into all the articles, blogs, etc. written by everyone from famed restaurant critics like Jonathan Gold to Wordpress blogs by unknown servers insisting that 20% after tax is the bare minimum, anything less than you're a cheapskate. Their reasoning for this was specious ("inflation!") and overall, their rants came across as entitled. I read servers ranting about how they DESERVE 20% every time, while at the same time railing against servers who make them work a little harder by asking for substitutions, or even recommendations on entrees. It all made me feel taken for granted as a customer, ill-used even. So I went back to paying 15% pretax for average service.

The inflation argument? As Lance already touched on, menu prices go up with inflation, therefore, if your tip is a percentage of the menu price, your tip already goes up with inflation, so there is no need to adjust tipping percent.

Pretax vs posttax? You're not doing any work related to the tax, so you don't deserve any compensation for it.

Waiters who demand 20% yet are put out when you say "how's the sea bass" or ask for a recommendation, or are lazy and say "everything is good here"? They justify it by saying "do you really expect me to know what your taste is" or "do you really expect me to badmouth one of my employer's products?" That's a BS copout. No, I don't expect you to know what my taste is, or badmouth a product, but I do expect you to have a decent grasp of which menu items were well-received by your previous guests, and which weren't so well received. One of the restaurants I worked at had beef fajitas and buffalo fajitas. The buffalo fajitas didn't taste different from the beef fajitas, but were tougher, stringier, and cost more, you were paying for the novelty. When my customers asked about them (and sometimes when they didn't), I steered them away from the buffalo fajitas, towards the regular. We also had a catfish enchilada. It was just a bad entree, made with frozen catfish and often tasted fishy. If anyone ordered that, I would say "if you're in the mood for seafood, might I suggest the fish tacos instead?" that were made with better fish and tasted better, for around the same price. I almost always got a very nice tip when I made these suggestions, because the customers recognized I was being straight with them and going out of my way to make sure they had the best food they could.

In my view, people who do what I used to do, automatically tip 20%, are contributing to the problem, and aren't being helpful to people in service industries long-term. We are just enabling restaurant owners to continue to shirk their responsibility to pay their employees a consistent reasonable wage, foisting it on the whim of the customers' generosity. If we scale back our tips, restaurant owners will have to start paying more for decent employees, and maybe will just raise their menu prices to cover it. I would gladly pay $21 even for an entree and not deal with the $17.99 plus tip game (and while we're at it, let's do away with the childish $*.99 psychological pricing gimmick and just put whole dollar amounts on the menu like a lot of better restaurants do anyway). Incorporate an extra 15% into the cost of each entree, and let people who think their waiter did an extra-special job throw in a few extra dollars, turning tips back into the gratuities they are supposed to be, rather than the service fee they've become. 15% would be more than adequate, because nobody would be able to stiff a waiter with a bad or no tip. How much of that extra 5% you 20% tippers give is getting eaten up offsetting the true cheapskates who tip little to nothing?

I am considering going back to a 10 percent tip on anything that exceeds a 7.00 tip at 18 percent. When a server can earn 20.00 tip on a 100.00 meal times 4 tables per hour, that's insane money. How many people who have master degrees make that kind of hourly pay? With meals costing more today, it just doesn't make financial sense. I believe a tip of 3.50 to 7.00 is fair for their work for 1-3 people at a table. Higher end restaurants would equate to double that amount. Just my little personal opinion. Things have gotten so far out of control! I am not biting into it anymore. I prefer to have a little in reserves. Forget these tip jars too as they are paid a decent wage already. Ridiculous if you ask me. Former server & delivery driver myself. Delivery drivers deserve a 20 percent tip at minimum because they foot the maintenance of car, insurance and gas... hello people? Think about it. Why give a server 20 to 25 percent and a delivery driver 2.00 who only gets 1.00 to deliver your food?