This comes to you courtesy of my sister who has worked her entire life as either a waitress or a bartender, and in honor of my mother who raised three children while working as both a waitress and a bartender.
I have only ever once forgotten to tip my waitress. It happened the night of my prom, while eating at the restaurant my mother was working at.
Our waitress was her best friend, and somehow between three couples none of us remembered to leave a tip, even though two of us were working as busboys at the time.
The next morning my mother burst into my room and started yelling at me, telling me that I had made her friend cry because she thought she had done something wrong and that I was mad at her.
I was both horrified and embarrassed.
Needless to say she got her tip, and it was quite generous, I have NEVER once forgotten to leave a tip since.
And I never will.
Oh, Jesse! How embarrassing!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, though. Tipping is critically important. I, too, worked as a bus boy (at a great, popular restaurant on Cape Cod) and I believe I have rarely worked as hard. And I also was able to see how hard the waitresses worked as well.
There are fewer jobs as tough. The constant moving when it is peak time is so tough that most of them NEVER even considered an exercise program! They didn't need to!
Since that time I have always tipped well. I am currently at a minimum of 20% and sometimes more than that if (usually) the waitress (or waiter!) was attentive and friendly.
Of course, if you do that every time you go to your favorite restaurant you will find over time that the service gets even better!
Wait staff have fantastic memories and they use them!
My mother worked as a waitress when i was very young. I remember a trip to a new restaurant and my mother explaining how to tip. Her rule was if you can't afford a 15%tip don't go out . I still remember my first date with my husband and being horrified that he didn't tip. I left a generous tip and gave him a lecture on their salaries and working conditions. He tips well now ( probably to avoid another lecture) .
ReplyDeleteHhhmmm. I'm surprised you stayed with him!
Deletejust yesterday I was at a bakery in Burlington Vermont, and realized after I was driving home that I had forgotten to tip our server.
ReplyDeleteI called my son who lives there, and asked him to walk over next chance he gets and give her $20.00
I think the way you treat others who do personal services for you is a REALLY good litmus test of your true character.
Seems to me that I've heard that Granny Grifter is a truly awful tipper, which would support my theory perfectly.
I think it's odd how much we can piss away our money all day but when it comes to tipping people act like they only have a nickel to their name!
ReplyDeleteIf you are out eating then tipping is part of the meal and part of the price tag.
20%.
My husband and I are both former food service, and we always tip well. Even when the service is less than stellar, we tip 15%.
ReplyDeleteIf the service is truly so poor that you feel the need to stiff a waiter, you should speak to manager.
With the rethugs taking over its going to get worse. I never knew that in DC the waitstaff only get $2. something a hour! How they skirt the minimum wage laws I don't know? People don't know and think they are getting paid the minimum wage? We have a 9.5% tax here so a easy way to tip is double the tax and leave that. I wish some could explain WHY these people aren't paid minimum wage? If the place "Can't afford it" they shouldn't be in business! I will not patronize rethug places like papa johns and places you know are owned by them. You know they aren't paying the staff right.
ReplyDeleteI hope some waitpeople can tell us WHY they aren't paid minimum wage? What law is that that, the owners can get away with NOT paying the minimum wage? And BTW the Rethugs are trying to do away with the minimum wage...and labor boards! Do you know FedEx pays its drivers by the piece!? Illegal. You have to take them to labor court to get $/hr then of course you lose your job.
If they abolish the minimum wage this $2. hr bullshit will be commonplace. Slave wages or piecework. Read the book "The Jungle".
It'S a law. Tipped workers only have to be paid $2.2O. It is all over the country.
DeleteI ate out one night with my husband, and realized in the car that I had totally miscalculated the tip. I called the place, and took an envelope in the next day for him. I am always treated well there, and the service is stellar.
@5:28 It'S a law.
Delete******
What law? How does it "Get around" minimun wages laws? That is the question.
I can't advocate for the workers unless I know what "law" your talking about. All over the US there is a "minimum wage law" the wage varies from state to state.
How is it tipped workers are "exempt" from that law? If they didn't receive tips would they fall under the minimum wage law? Maybe it would be better for them to be not tipped?
Also bartenders get tips yet they have a hourly wage?
The assumption is that with tips, the server (or other tipped employee) will make more than min wage. It's just a way for restaurants to make more money. I worked as a hostess for a short time and made $5/hr, as we were 'tipped out' by waitstaff for the help we gave them.
DeleteSo if all the wait people complained to the labor board...?
DeleteThey would get paid more?
1) My mother, never rich, would slide a very good cash tip under her saucer, even if she'd only had a cup of coffee. "Cast your bread upon the waters...." she'd say.
ReplyDelete2) Once in a while, I go to the gas station here that still has attendants who pump gas. Usually, I do it when the weather's so cold or wet I don't want to get out of the car myself. I always try to give the attendant at least a dollar tip, and I give a small Christmas gift (gift certificate to the next door Burger King, or to the Friendly's in town) to the older man who's out there in sun, rain, snow or near-hurricane, earning money to supplement his tiny pension.
There are always ways to show appreciation to those who hellp you, and -- why not?
Another side to this story is to always tip in cash instead of just adding to your credit card. The journalist Connie Schultz (who is married to Senator Sherrod Brown) looked into this and found that many restaurants keep a portion of the tips if they are on credit card saying it is to pay the credit card fee. Since I read that I have asked wait staff and found that is common practice.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter waitressed while in college and she said that was one reason she stuck it out...that she did not want to do that the rest of her life. Very hard work. Did give her iinsight into people. Often those who looked the poorest tipped the fairest while "big wheels" took up valuable table space for long times while they wheeled and dealed would leave little. (That reminds me of another thing....if you linger after a meal chatting, give a tip that reflects the loss of the tip that server would have gotten if that table had "turned" )
Just this past Saturday night, I met a good friend for dinner at a popular chain. Although we got there before the dinner crush, we had a lot to talk about and would have lingered long after dinner. The waiter was very friendly and told us to stay as long as we wanted, but we went to a local coffee shop instead so he did not lose the use of that table on a prime dining night.
DeleteHe got to seat another customer at our table and we had no pressure to cut our conversation short so we talked until almost 10:00. Win, win for everyone!
In Canada all provinces have minimum wage laws and no wait person would be paid slavery wages such as you describe. Our minimum wage is not great but it is better-in my province it is 10.00 per hour. We also tip as most of us remember working in restaurants and gas stations or have family members who do. The first time I heard this 2.13 an hour I thought it was about a third world country. I hope that this situation is not allowed to continue.
ReplyDeleteI was just about to post almost the same thing!!!! I too cannot understand this, as our service workers make a half decent wage plus tips.
Delete{the $2.20 per hour thing actually made me sit with my mouth hung open :O}.
We have a minimum wage law her too! I'm trying to find out why "tipped" people are not covered but no one can give me a answer. :(
DeleteThe only time I have stiffed a waitress was about 30 years ago when I went with a group of friends for some pizza, and it was very intentional.
ReplyDeleteThere was one person in our group who was African American and the waitress pointedly ignored her, brought plates for everyone except her, forgot her drink and was blatantly rude to her. We left a penny on the table and one of the other members of our group stayed to talk to the manager, explaining what had happened and telling him we would never return.
I was always embarrassed when I was younger and went to restaurants with my mother. Although she left the appropriate tip on the occasions that she paid, she was always rather rude to the wait staff.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I never worked in that field, I have many friends who have and I know how hard the work is. I always made a point to be extra nice to our servers and would try to sneak a couple of extra dollars into the tip when no one was looking.
I have never understood why the amount of the tip is based on the amount of the check. If I have coffee and toast at the diner and the bill is $6, I basically get the same service as when I have a couple of steaks and a bottle of wine and the check ends up being over $100. I get the same exact service in both places but I am expected to tip $1 at the diner and $20 at the steak place. I would like to tip based on the number of people at my table but everyone I know considers that cheap. Can someone explain this to me?
ReplyDeleteBreakfast servers are notoriously under paid because of that fact- breakfast is the cheapest meal of the day.
DeleteThink alcohol and dessert and the dinner shift is what you want! !
I have always tipped generously because I think that those who serve us should be thanked. I overheard a mother explain to her child that one should tip 20% in their little town but one needed only to tip 15% in the nearby larger town (pop. 16,000). I thought her reasoning was truly bizarre. The question is service, not where the service takes place.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
The problem is not the clients who don't tip. The problem is the laws that make possible those slavery wages in the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteThe communist party helped us get those laws in the 20th century. Because capitalists were so afraid to lose all their money, if communists were elected into power, that they made deals with socialists, and thos deals gave us awesome social progress after WW2. But your country hunted down communists and everybody there has been brainwashed into hating socialists. That's why you still have slavery wages.
When are you voters going to elect people who will commit to getting rid of those laws ? Or who will force the restaurants to advertise exactly how much the staff is paid ?
Or when is a restaurant going to challenge the slavery wages ? Is there no restaurant in the whole of your country, that will have the courage to pay their staff decent hourly wages, and get rich by advertising on that very fact ? Boycotting unethical restaurants ?
I am realizing that I don't know how to tip a gas attendant who washes my windshield or a fast food worker where there is no tip jar or going through the drive through. Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteI believe it is not customary to tip either of those positions. That's why you can't find guidance on it.
ReplyDeleteSo the people in gas stations and fast food have to be paid the prevailing minimum wage? What about barristas?
DeleteUm,
DeleteAppreciate the concern but these " minimum wage" workers make well above minimum wage of they are tipped each hour.
There are plenty of minimum wage jobs that don't get tips.
A quick Google search turned this up. It's from the US Department of Labor.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm#DC
It's disgusting!
Well then what they have to do is get their asses out and tell their elected people that they want to be a STATE that:
DeleteSTATE LAW DOES NOT ALLOW TIP CREDIT
Minimum rate same for tipped and non-tipped employees
THIS IS WHAT YOUR STATE CONGRESS PEOPLE ARE FOR TO ADVOCATE FOR YOU. MAKE SURE YOU ELECT GOOD ONES NOT ASSHOLES.
I always tip when I dine out. I like to help those who are out there working and trying to help themselves and their families.
ReplyDeleteThe irony in that clip is what those people ordered is probably treated MORE ethically than the people who prepared and served it to them.
ReplyDeleteWe were raised to respect people who gave us service. My parents always advised us to watch how the people we dated treated wait staff, their parents and animals.
I worked as a waitress in five star restaurant in center city for a few years in college, and it was one of the most challenging jobs I ever had.
One of my biggest pet peeves: stiffing or shorting the wait-staff. There is NO EXCUSE.
ReplyDeleteFor the first time ever, I tipped a server $20 at a Old Country Buffet restaurant. The food was pretty bad (even for OCB!), but she was great, coming to my table several times with a great attitude even though she was clearly extremely busy on that Sunday morning. Even though she said, "You made my day!" when I handed her the $20 bill, I think I got more out of it than she did.
ReplyDeleteI wish the US would do it like they do in Europe.
ReplyDeleteWhy should I have to pay the restaurant's employees?