Tipping is an abomination!

[DontSayBanana]

I've done unpooled as a delivery driver.  I dropped all money I collected in a lockbox and paid the house's take when I clocked out.

That way was bullshit, though- the accounting burden is on all tipped employees to make sure they make enough to cover wage at the end of the week.  Tips really should have been reported to the house at the end of the night, just to cover the house's liability in case of a short week.

[garbon]

I didn't read all that. But I agree. Add $2 to my meal, pay the watiress well, and get that over with.

Even when I am eating at a place where the tip is included I still give my server a tip they can keep for themselves.

Sure, but over here it would be between 5 and 10 percent depending on price of the meal and quality of service.

20% baby!

You're not all bad, garbo.  Though I do like to tip at least $5 if I'm eating by myself or if 20% would not be equal to $5, which I consider a minimum table fee.

Well waitstaff gotta eat too. Also, generally in New York when alone 20% is at least 5 bucks.

[merithyn]

Here, the normal custom is to tip 15% for ordinary service and 20% for really good service.

I agree that tipping in restaurants is a strange custom, but once ingrained it really can't be eliminated easily; people feel it is a moral imperative to tip regardless of what they are told about the fee structure.

There's a new Chinese restaurant in town (been here about a year or two) that has signs all over saying not to tip. The cost of the food is comparable to other Chinese restaurants, and the service is excellent, but they strongly discourage tipping, period. To the point that I would feel really uncomfortable leaving a tip.

An article in the paper had the owner explaining her reasoning. She said that she charges what the food is worth, and pays her servers what they're worth. There's no need for her customers to supplement their income. It's a really popular restaurant, especially with the local Chinese population, of which we have a fair few.

I'd think something like that would be fairly quick to be understood and accepted.

[derspiess]

20% is my baseline.  I go slightly higher or lower depending on service. 

I go way higher than that when I take my kids out for chili on "kids eat free" nights (all chili parlors here have table service).  Our check ends up being like $10, if that, and I'm always needing more napkins, crackers, refills, etc.  Plus the kids always manage to make a mess.  So I'll leave $5 on the table.

[merithyn]

Maybe American bars are very different to ones I'm used to...but surely you typically order more than once at a bar? For every beer you give a tip?

My brother will tip the barkeep $20 up front, with his first order. Then, if he's still at the bar after four hours or so, he'll throw another $20 onto his bill when he settles out. Generally, that rounds out to around 20-30% of his bartab since he usually pays for others. Means the bartender is quicker to come to my brother when he comes up to order, and my brother doesn't have to bother with keeping track as he goes.

Also, in the US, it's not uncommon to hand over a credit card at the start of the night for a tab, and then settle up at the end. Adding the tip, then, is fairly easy.

This is another annoying thing in tipping discussions. Often Americans will bitch about foreigners being cheap. That our culture of tipping is obviously exactly the same, we're just tight.
The American system really is very strange to people from most countries. It is very hard to actually grasp the intricacies.

No, I think most people recognize that foreigners have a different system. That doesn't help them much when they've spent 1.5 hours working your table and walk away with $5 to show for a $75 tab.

Nobody is suggesting a law against tips. The issue is employers being allowed to steal people's tips to cover what they should be paying them.
Waiters should get minimum wage and a tip which depends on how good a job they did.

No, I think the OP is strongly suggesting that we abolish tipping all together, and that servers should be paid a fair salary for the amount and type of work that they do.

[garbon]

I've yet to go to the US I must admit (really considering a Hawaii or Guam trip in the not too distant future...) but from American style restaurants...I really don't like the intrusive American service style. That is not good service in my book.

New York is more like Europe in that the waiter checks in like once and if you don't flag them down for the check, you could be there forever. We also eat later too.

[merithyn]

Cheap fucks.   I've found the best tippers are generally people who work/have worked in the service industry, and the worst tippers are wealthy people. 

As a former server, I will always leave a tip no matter how bad the service was. My base is 15% regardess of service provided. From there, it only goes up. However, I'm also one of the first to ask to see the manager if the service is particularly horrible. I know how hard the job is and I recognize rushed, busy service vs. shitty service. I'll complain in a heartbeat at the end of my meal if I feel like the server was just a shitty server.

While in theory raising prices to increase wages for employees sounds great, it would never be a direct translation in terms of money made to price increase.  The workers would inevitably lose out in the exchange while the top dogs made even more money.

That's my concern, too.

Also, tip pooling is fucking wretched.  I hate the concept with a passion.  It fails for the same reason Communism does.  Who wants to bust their ass and end up making the same at the end of the shift as the dumbfuck who did nothing all shift?  Fuck that.

Abso-fucking-lutely.

[merithyn]

That's bizarre.  Pooling tips is very rare in my experience.  Who else here works/has worked for tips?  Pooled or unpooled?

Though I don't think it's entirely accurate to describe Starbucks supervisors (who are just the poor schlubs slinging coffee that get to lock up) sharing tips as "management often dipping into it."

Unpooled only, though we were supposed to give a set percentage of our tips each night for the hosts and bussers. I usually gave the bussers extra so that they were quicker to help me out when I needed it. Hosts got the straight percentage.

I rarely tip at places like Starbucks. They have to seriously go above and beyond for me to throw something into their jars.

[garbon]

Seems the trend is setting in to tip 20%, in major US cities.

Here, it is still presumptively 15%. In fact, those little electronic billing machines have two settings for tipping: "15%" and "other", which then has to be entered manually.

Actually I think it is still 15. Wasn't till I moved to New York that I started tipping 20 /I think is sort of the standard here.

[merithyn]

20% is my baseline.  I go slightly higher or lower depending on service. 

I go way higher than that when I take my kids out for chili on "kids eat free" nights (all chili parlors here have table service).  Our check ends up being like $10, if that, and I'm always needing more napkins, crackers, refills, etc.  Plus the kids always manage to make a mess.  So I'll leave $5 on the table.

The general rule of thumb is to tip on what your bill would be if you paid for everything that you got. So, if the manager gives you a free appetizer, you tip as if you'd paid for it. Same with free kids meals.

[Admiral Yi]

At a restaurant I usually leave 20% unless they stick a fork in my eye.  Completely different ballgame at a bar.  Start at 20 then add the hottie bartender sweetener, the serve me quickly sweetener, the showing off sweetener, and the I'm buzzed sweetener.

As a waiter I really hated getting large parties that qualified for the automatic 15% add-on.  First because your average tip is more than 15%, and second because most customers figure tip on the gross (including tax).  Machine does it on net.

I've always said that how a person tips is one of the surest measures of a person's character.  I also tell people that tipping is the only time an extra buck is the difference between being a stud and being a chump.

[frunk]

As a former server, I will always leave a tip no matter how bad the service was. My base is 15% regardess of service provided. From there, it only goes up. However, I'm also one of the first to ask to see the manager if the service is particularly horrible. I know how hard the job is and I recognize rushed, busy service vs. shitty service. I'll complain in a heartbeat at the end of my meal if I feel like the server was just a shitty server.

Only once have I not tipped.  The server intentionally ignored us for half an hour before we ordered and after we paid (and were waiting for a credit card back).  He was chatting with a table a little away from us both times, and the place wasn't that busy.

[sbr]

20% is my baseline.  I go slightly higher or lower depending on service. 

I go way higher than that when I take my kids out for chili on "kids eat free" nights (all chili parlors here have table service).  Our check ends up being like $10, if that, and I'm always needing more napkins, crackers, refills, etc.  Plus the kids always manage to make a mess.  So I'll leave $5 on the table.

FWIW, you should always base your tip on the value of the meal BEFORE any coupons or discounts.  The free meal doesn't mean any less work for the restaurant staff.

That said a 100% tip like you would be talking about is probably a bit much, though I have done it.

I am a past restaurant worker though, I almost always overtip, but I also have no problem leaving 0 if the server is bad.

[sbr]

Cheap fucks.   I've found the best tippers are generally people who work/have worked in the service industry, and the worst tippers are wealthy people. 

As a former server, I will always leave a tip no matter how bad the service was. My base is 15% regardess of service provided. From there, it only goes up. However, I'm also one of the first to ask to see the manager if the service is particularly horrible. I know how hard the job is and I recognize rushed, busy service vs. shitty service. I'll complain in a heartbeat at the end of my meal if I feel like the server was just a shitty server.

As I said as a former restaurant worker (i have done everything there is to be done in a restaurant) I have no problem not leaving anything if I think it is the server's fault that the service was very bad.  I wold always talk to the manger in those cases though.

[merithyn]

I've always said that how a person tips is one of the surest measures of a person's character.  I also tell people that tipping is the only time an extra buck is the difference between being a stud and being a chump.