How Much Do You Tip At Restaurants?

[blackpayman733]

I prefer 10% tip

 

[HoNeYBiRD]

i always wondered where you, Americans compensate the low fuel prices (50% of EU prices)
at least i know now , you tip 40% or more (75%, really?), which is madness from EU perspective regardless the salary of the serving staff

 

[CoyoteAssassin]

you tip 40% or more (75%, really?), which is madness from EU perspective regardless the salary of the serving staff

Here's the point that you and many others may be missing.

Some of us tip more than we know we "should". Not because we think we have to, but because we know that we are financially better off than most servers and want to give back and help make a difference for them if only for the day.

There are several places I eat at weekly and tip well. The service we receive is great. They know us as soon as we walk in and are very quick with the refills and service. That alone is worth the extra tip that I add.

 

[PandaDomo]

It really depends. Most of the time, we just time whatever the extra balance comes out to. For example, if I went to eat with 3 people and the bill came out to be let's say 40$, each of us would just throw in a 20$ bill and let the waiter keep the rest as a tip. It's more or less just pure laziness However, if the server really, REALLY sucked, then the tip would be like two bucks. Just because waiters have a low salary, they still have to work on customer service anyway. No reason to just throw my money at them like that all the time.

 

[Roparadise]

i always wondered where you, Americans compensate the low fuel prices (50% of EU prices)
at least i know now , you tip 40% or more (75%, really?), which is madness from EU perspective regardless the salary of the serving staff

But the fuel affects American consumers more then it does EU consumers,since the cars sold here get an extremely lower mpg then the ones in Europe. And alot of cities things are built more around cars then public transportation,so you have to use a vehicle more here.

 

[Aegroeg]

I dont tend to count the percentage but I always tip a large amount. I always tip taxi drivers and takeaway delivery drivers too.

 

[mikeads66]

This is one of the few hot and often debated subject on the internet which unfortunately illustrates just how poor of a an understanding people have of how restaurants work. This is especially ironic due to the business nature of this forum that people are posting on, you would expect everyone here to understand it. Everyone wants to be special and go against the "norm" and "social pressure" of tipping because they think that they're unique or something and will save themselves money by not caving in. This was all most likely made popular by the shit movie Resivour Dogs in the opening scene where one guy says a bunch of stupid crap about tipping and everyone in the audience bought it.
--------------------------------------

This is how it works. Being a waiter (also called a server in some places) is not a minimum wage job. At all. Nobody is going to be nice and serve you food for minimum wage, i don't care what stories you have from what country you're from or you've visited. Either the service there was shit, or the waiters were not paid minimum wage, or the minimum wage is higher there than it is in the states.

Lets imagine a world without tips:

A manager opens a restaurant, and he needs to hire people. He offers minimum wage for anyone who wants to be a waiter at his restaurant, but during the interview process he realizes that the only people he's getting are lazy and bloated illegal immigrants. Those are the only people who will serve food for that little money. He realizes that the service at his restaurant will be horrible if he hires these people, and he would like to offer more money but he can't afford it. So he increases the price of food&drinks at his restaurant, and makes enough money to pay his waiters more. And the more he offers for the work, the better quality of employees he attracts, until eventually finds the optimum wage: $16. He gets young, bright, energetic waiters that make the experience great and the customers become loyal. Business is great.

Then some customers realize that if they "bribe" their waiter with a little more money, say 5%, their service gets much better. Everyone quickly catches on and starts doing this. Waiters are now making $20 per hour. This is a little more than the waiters deserve to make, and there becomes a HUGE supply of people who want to be a waiter since it's such a high-paying job. Because of this huge demand, the employer can now lower the offered wage. So he decreases it by a few dollars until wage+tips again equals $16 per hour. By decreasing the wage he pays his servers, he now can now reduce the cost of food. Attract more customers, and beat his competitors.

This cycle loops and continues. People increase their tips, everyone wants to become a waiter, employers reduce the wage, but wage + tips always ends up at around $16 per hour, because if it went lower than that waiters would no longer be willing to do the work, and if it went higher then there would be a huge supply of people trying to become a waiter. Food prices decrease, more customers come to restaurants. Everything balances itself out each time, just that the flow of money is changing.

Eventually tips become half of the salary. Minimum wage is $8. And the other $8 comes from tips. Some people tip more than 8, others tip less, but the average ends up being around $8. Everyone is happy. Waiters are getting their deserved salary, managers are paying little for their employment, customers have control over how much they have to pay. Life is good.

Enter the elietist assholes who think they're special and unique by going against the system and who refuse to give into the "social pressure" of tipping. Tipping is stupid. Nobody should do it. Waiters don't deserve the money. Blah blah. Bunch of dumb twats.

Lets see what happens when everyone stops tipping:

Suddenly waiters find themselves only earning $8 per hour. They no longer have tips. They're no longer being paid their fair wage for their work, for minimum wage they would rather get a job working nights at blockbuster watching TV and sorting DVD's. Not dealing with carrying food and dealing with people's shit. Since they're no longer being paid their deserved wage, they go to the manager and demand an increase in pay. From $8 to $16.

Manger says "lol fuk that". He can't afford to pay any more. He doesn't have the money to pay $16 per hour. So he refuses, and all the waiters quit and go work at Blockbuster. Now the manager has no employees, his restaurant is shut down, he has to hire new people. So, like he did before, he puts up want ads for new waiters. He is again offering $8. Again he gets fat, lazy, bloated illegal immigrants. These are the people who WILL spit in your food. These people don't give a flying shit about giving you good service. They take their time. Talk down to you. And the manager can't fire them. Because they will just be replaced with more lazy workers, because he is only offering minimum wage.

So the manager is in a dillema. Nobody is going to his restaurants because all his new waiters are worthless lazy shits who yell at the customers, fuk with their food, and slack off. His reputation is going down the shitter, he needs to get his old employees back. But how? He can't afford $16 per hour, and people now refuse to tip because they're retarded dumb cunts.

HE GETS AN IDEA!! Raise the price on all the food. Charge an entrance fee. That's the only way that he can make enough money to start hiring $16 per hour waiters again. So he does it. All the food is marked up even more. Entrance fees are imposed. And he gets his waiters back.

See where this is going? Now all the retarded cunts who refused to tip are forced to pay more money anyway. Because they WANT good service, but didn't want to pay for it. So now they're forced to pay for it by being forced to buy over priced food.

Can you see who the loser is here? Not the manager. He made back the $8 by increasing the price of food. Not the waiters, because again they're making the $16 they want. It's the customers. They no longer have the flexibility they once had with their tips. The customers are now the losers, and they probably deserve to be. Because the entire tip system originated from the idea to empower the customers. But it only works when the customers are not retarded dumb twats who think they're some kind of special kids because they refuse to tip.

 

[Ljupche]

I never really go to reastoraunts. And when I go I never tip.. I only go with the amount of the thing I want to eat/drink so I don't have anything extra.

BTW In my country (I'm from Macedonia) only the rich guy (anyone who have something extra to give) are giving tips.

 

[Roparadise]

Illegal Immigrants are far from lazy,they are some of the hardest working people.

 

[mikeads66]

Illegal Immigrants are far from lazy,they are some of the hardest working people.

If that's directed at me, then yes i know that all illegal immigrants are not lazy. I used "fat and lazy" as a way to explain why illegal immigrants would be bad waiters at restaurants.

Replace fat and lazy with uneducated. Probably can't count the money properly, don't speak the language, have poor mannerisms, and so on.

 

[Adam718]

If the service is bad-average - My tip is double what the tax is, which is about 17%.

20%+ if the service is above average.

 

[HoNeYBiRD]

@mikeads66: interesting..., but how come that it's working on other parts of the planet (e.g. Australia), but not in the US? it's still a fucked-up system you have over there if you ask me

and you forget one important thing: a tip should be a VOLUNTARY ADDITIONAL payment or it's not called a tip

i'm not against modest tipping, anything between 10-30% is a go, but - like many other posters above already said that - i don't think that the guests should pay the salary of the serving staff, the tip should be extra money above the ordinary salary which is paid by the owner at least that's how it's done in other places than the US where tipping exists

not talking about the fact that tipping is economically inefficient and it's a good way of tax evasion, despite it's required by law to report 100% of the tip income on the tax return

 

[mikeads66]

@mikeads66: interesting..., but how come that it's working on other parts of the planet (e.g. Australia), but not in the US? it's still a fucked-up system you have over there if you ask me

I'm not quite sure what you mean. The tip system in the US is working fine. I spent a few years working in restaurants and everything goes smoothly.

I don't believe that people in other countries magically are willing to do the same work for less money, there's always a trade off somewhere. Either they make more than minimum wage, or their minimum wage is higher, or their money has more buying power, or they have some sort of benefits, or the service they provide is worse. There is no magic here. People are only going to work if they're paid how much they deserve (plus minus some), and the money has to come from somewhere. That somewhere can only be the customers.

Being a server is by no means an easy job. You don't get to relax, daydream, space out, think about your life...etc. You're on your feet for 5 hours running around carrying food on trays above your head praying you don't drop it on anybody, getting yelled at and whistled at by customers who think they're entitled to everything. Oh and once you're keeping up with everything and you do everything right, one asshole is going to refuse to pay for something because he "forgot" that he ordered it and will blame it on you. Then he'll call the manager and tell him that you're a bad waiter.

There is a reason everyone who works in the restaurant industry smokes, or starts smoking soon after getting a job. Because it's one of the most stressful jobs you can get short of diffusing bombs in the military.

EDIT: If you want to know whether you should tip or not, just ask your waiter how much his manager is paying him. Minimum wage or not. Ask this question next time you're at a restaurant, depending on where you are in the world you might be surprised.

EDIT2: A tip is voluntary, to an extent. Lets say you get a waiter who is absolutely trash. Total garbage, doesn't care about you, talks back to you, makes your experience awful. As a customer, the only thing you can do is not leave him a tip, and he will only get minimum wage for serving you. That's all you have the power to do.

Next time you get a waiter who isn't bad, but he isn't good. He gets you everything, but it's not great, nor is it awful. You received average server. How much do you tip then? Not tipping at all is reserved for the awful waiters, so how much do you tip normal waiters?

Well, somewhere between 0 and 20%? 10%? Thus there is a mandatory tip that you have to give for average non-exceptional service. By not tipping for average service, you're giving average waiters the same money you can give awful waiters. It's not fair.

For this reason, tipping isn't ONLY for exceptional service. It's for any service that isn't awful. This seems counter intuitive because you feel like you're giving waiters "extra money" for average service, but you're really not.

 

[sleepdegree]

I don't tip at all. It's responsibility of the restaurant to pay it's employees not customers. Then when you tip anyway the restaurant takes a cut of it. I think it's really unacceptable so I don't do it at all.

 

[mikeads66]

It's responsibility of the restaurant to pay it's employees not customers.

Sure. And they'll do it by raising the price of your food. And suddenly you have no way to reward servers for exceptional service, nor do you have a way to punish servers for awful service. You're stuck paying for their salary anyway because you're the customer, you're where the money comes from. But now you just have less flexibility.

Sounds much better.

 

[MaverickonRoids]

You are joking - right? If not, it shows how uninformed you are.

Allowing tips is the only reason you get decent service at any sit-down restaurant.

If the business was forced to pay the full salary of minimum wage, there would be less servers per shift and more tables to care for per server. Therefore, you would get less service and a worse experience.

If you do not like the tipping system, eat at McDonald's.

Have you ever owned a retail business? Unless us IMers, they have insurance, rent, salary, stock, and other overhead expenses. That is why so many go out of business.

Actually, the question should be posed to you, are you joking?

You saying tips is the only reason why people would receive good service at a restaurant is a joke. It has to be, if not, then whatever system you are talking about is extremely flawed. There are many service jobs out there that pay minimum wage, or something just above that, yet ask good customer support from their people. And they deliver. Not perfect, but at least it's focused on the true balance of it all, which is the relationship between the employer and the employee.

As you can see from many of the replies here, there are many eateries around the world that are doing just fine without having a tipping system in place, so for you to say the shit would all pretty much crumble if this tipping setup would be abolished, is just plain ignorance on your part. Really.

And once again, you say an ignorant remark by telling people if you don't like tipping (insert, being a part of a flawed system), then go eat elsewhere.

Lastly, someone doesn't need to have owned an establishment that is setup like this. It's pretty much common sense to look at how things are done, and see if it's the right way to do things, or the wrong way. I will let you decide which is the correct answer in this situation.

 

[MaverickonRoids]

But the fuel affects American consumers more then it does EU consumers,since the cars sold here get an extremely lower mpg then the ones in Europe. And alot of cities things are built more around cars then public transportation,so you have to use a vehicle more here.

Do you even do research? Do you know how lucky you guys are in the US to have fuel prices the way it is? Have you even checked to see what the petrol prices in Europe are?

Once again, plain ignorance fuels this post.

 

[MaverickonRoids]

This is one of the few hot and often debated subject on the internet which unfortunately illustrates just how poor of a an understanding people have of how restaurants work. This is especially ironic due to the business nature of this forum that people are posting on, you would expect everyone here to understand it. Everyone wants to be special and go against the "norm" and "social pressure" of tipping because they think that they're unique or something and will save themselves money by not caving in. This was all most likely made popular by the shit movie Resivour Dogs in the opening scene where one guy says a bunch of stupid crap about tipping and everyone in the audience bought it.
--------------------------------------

This is how it works. Being a waiter (also called a server in some places) is not a minimum wage job. At all. Nobody is going to be nice and serve you food for minimum wage, i don't care what stories you have from what country you're from or you've visited. Either the service there was shit, or the waiters were not paid minimum wage, or the minimum wage is higher there than it is in the states.

Lets imagine a world without tips:

A manager opens a restaurant, and he needs to hire people. He offers minimum wage for anyone who wants to be a waiter at his restaurant, but during the interview process he realizes that the only people he's getting are lazy and bloated illegal immigrants. Those are the only people who will serve food for that little money. He realizes that the service at his restaurant will be horrible if he hires these people, and he would like to offer more money but he can't afford it. So he increases the price of food&drinks at his restaurant, and makes enough money to pay his waiters more. And the more he offers for the work, the better quality of employees he attracts, until eventually finds the optimum wage: $16. He gets young, bright, energetic waiters that make the experience great and the customers become loyal. Business is great.

Then some customers realize that if they "bribe" their waiter with a little more money, say 5%, their service gets much better. Everyone quickly catches on and starts doing this. Waiters are now making $20 per hour. This is a little more than the waiters deserve to make, and there becomes a HUGE supply of people who want to be a waiter since it's such a high-paying job. Because of this huge demand, the employer can now lower the offered wage. So he decreases it by a few dollars until wage+tips again equals $16 per hour. By decreasing the wage he pays his servers, he now can now reduce the cost of food. Attract more customers, and beat his competitors.

This cycle loops and continues. People increase their tips, everyone wants to become a waiter, employers reduce the wage, but wage + tips always ends up at around $16 per hour, because if it went lower than that waiters would no longer be willing to do the work, and if it went higher then there would be a huge supply of people trying to become a waiter. Food prices decrease, more customers come to restaurants. Everything balances itself out each time, just that the flow of money is changing.

Eventually tips become half of the salary. Minimum wage is $8. And the other $8 comes from tips. Some people tip more than 8, others tip less, but the average ends up being around $8. Everyone is happy. Waiters are getting their deserved salary, managers are paying little for their employment, customers have control over how much they have to pay. Life is good.

Enter the elietist assholes who think they're special and unique by going against the system and who refuse to give into the "social pressure" of tipping. Tipping is stupid. Nobody should do it. Waiters don't deserve the money. Blah blah. Bunch of dumb twats.

Lets see what happens when everyone stops tipping:

Suddenly waiters find themselves only earning $8 per hour. They no longer have tips. They're no longer being paid their fair wage for their work, for minimum wage they would rather get a job working nights at blockbuster watching TV and sorting DVD's. Not dealing with carrying food and dealing with people's shit. Since they're no longer being paid their deserved wage, they go to the manager and demand an increase in pay. From $8 to $16.

Manger says "lol fuk that". He can't afford to pay any more. He doesn't have the money to pay $16 per hour. So he refuses, and all the waiters quit and go work at Blockbuster. Now the manager has no employees, his restaurant is shut down, he has to hire new people. So, like he did before, he puts up want ads for new waiters. He is again offering $8. Again he gets fat, lazy, bloated illegal immigrants. These are the people who WILL spit in your food. These people don't give a flying shit about giving you good service. They take their time. Talk down to you. And the manager can't fire them. Because they will just be replaced with more lazy workers, because he is only offering minimum wage.

So the manager is in a dillema. Nobody is going to his restaurants because all his new waiters are worthless lazy shits who yell at the customers, fuk with their food, and slack off. His reputation is going down the shitter, he needs to get his old employees back. But how? He can't afford $16 per hour, and people now refuse to tip because they're retarded dumb cunts.

HE GETS AN IDEA!! Raise the price on all the food. Charge an entrance fee. That's the only way that he can make enough money to start hiring $16 per hour waiters again. So he does it. All the food is marked up even more. Entrance fees are imposed. And he gets his waiters back.

See where this is going? Now all the retarded cunts who refused to tip are forced to pay more money anyway. Because they WANT good service, but didn't want to pay for it. So now they're forced to pay for it by being forced to buy over priced food.

Can you see who the loser is here? Not the manager. He made back the $8 by increasing the price of food. Not the waiters, because again they're making the $16 they want. It's the customers. They no longer have the flexibility they once had with their tips. The customers are now the losers, and they probably deserve to be. Because the entire tip system originated from the idea to empower the customers. But it only works when the customers are not retarded dumb twats who think they're some kind of special kids because they refuse to tip.

A world without tipping exists in many parts of the world, and is doing just fine, thank you. Don't spread your doom and gloom thoughts without doing some research.

 

[mikeads66]

You saying tips is the only reason why people would receive good service at a restaurant is a joke.

No, it's not. The quality of service employees (waiters) are willing to provide to customers is proportional to how much effort they're willing to exert. Oddly enough this effort is also proportional to how much money they make. Who would have guessed right?

There are many service jobs out there that pay minimum wage, or something just above that, yet ask good customer support from their people.

There is no magic "service job" out there somewhere where people exert the same amount of effort and just get paid less. It doesn't exist, you're talking out of your ass.

As you can see from many of the replies here, there are many eateries around the world that are doing just fine without having a tipping system in place, so for you to say the shit would all pretty much crumble if this tipping setup would be abolished, is just plain ignorance on your part. Really.

And like it has already been said, there is a trade off everywhere. They either don't provide good service, don't provide any service, pay their employees more, the minimum wage is higher, they give their employees benefits...etc and so on. There is no magic.

If the tipping system was abolished nothing would crumble. The employers would just be forced to pay their employees more, and the only way they'll do this is by raising the price on your food. So you end up paying for their salaries any way, it's just significantly less flexible for you. You are the person who gets hurt, nobody else.

And once again, you say an ignorant remark by telling people if you don't like tipping (insert, being a part of a flawed system), then go eat elsewhere.

You should. If you don't want to pay for the service you receive at restaurants where you're expected to tip, then don't use that service. Go stand in line at Burger King.

Lastly, someone doesn't need to have owned an establishment that is setup like this. It's pretty much common sense to look at how things are done, and see if it's the right way to do things, or the wrong way. I will let you decide which is the correct answer in this situation.

If it's so common sense, then why do you have so much trouble understanding it?

 

[MaverickonRoids]

@mikeads66: interesting..., but how come that it's working on other parts of the planet (e.g. Australia), but not in the US? it's still a fucked-up system you have over there if you ask me

and you forget one important thing: a tip should be a VOLUNTARY ADDITIONAL payment or it's not called a tip

i'm not against modest tipping, anything between 10-30% is a go, but - like many other posters above already said that - i don't think that the guests should pay the salary of the serving staff, the tip should be extra money above the ordinary salary which is paid by the owner at least that's how it's done in other places than the US where tipping exists

not talking about the fact that tipping is economically inefficient and it's a good way of tax evasion, despite it's required by law to report 100% of the tip income on the tax return

Great post. I forgot about that "under the table" money angle for this thread. My ex-gf was one of those people who was more than happy to not declare all her tips to the Fed. So yeah, that is a great add to this thread, for sure.