I waited tables in college and for us, it was all the money we got...I hated obnoxious, drunk or other wise rude customers... Having said that, if the service sux, there shouldn't be a mandatory tip, regardless...Also, why still have the food service industry given a break and not pay employees a fair wage and let tips truly be tips...
That was not what my original post about! All I said was people is making this tip percentage up as they go along ... 10% back then was considered good, people'd praise you for being a good tipper, (sic.) ... now 10% is considered "cheap" ... This is partly in response to the person who questioned that the tip % is too high in the States. You came along and called people cheap and liar for something you don't know about and now you are slippping the issue. BTW, I just talked to a co-worker of mine. He thinks the 10% was still the standard around 1990. According to him, you would be a liar if you said it was 15% 20 yrs ago. Did you really pay your tab 20 yrs ago?
1990 was the first year I took someone out and paid the tab on my own. 15% was definitely the rule then.
I started dining on my own in 1987. In the city of Houston, it was, and still is, 15%. Your co-worker is either cheap, or not from here.
Sounds harsh, but is true! And they can make even more. I don't mind, I am just saying why would a waiter have the right to be as aggressive as some of those here in the thread have been...with the kinds of tips they expect, they would probably be able to make more than a teacher! Or what about nurses...a waiter would surely make a lot more than a nurse, right? Do you see nurses getting all aggressive because they are not getting tipped? I think it's a problem because everyone (myself included) ends up tipping at the upper end of the recommended scale, if only to avoid feeling cheap! Thereby, the expected % for tips goes up and up! And yes, I remember that most travel guides ten years ago said 10-15 %. If you guys read some frequent traveler message boards, you could see that the rest of the world is kind of mad at traveling Americans, because they spoil the staff in other countries, so they start expecting much higher tips, even though they have a good base salary compared to American service staff.
Don't earn their pay?! You obviously have never waited tables. BTW, teachers generally aren't good tippers. It's not a knock, it's just how it is a good percentage of the time. Again, you obviously have never waited tables. There are guys that only carry food from the kitchen to the table. They're called food runners and I've only seen them make that kind of money working HUGE parties and holiday events. Your waiter does more than you'll ever know to EARN that money.
Dude, you're comparing $10-15 per hour(what most waiters make...sometimes more) to minimum wage(what you're proposing the restaurant pays). Plus you're ignoring the fact that the waiter does not keep all of their tips. Some goes to kitchen staff(cooks, dishwasher, food prep guys, busboys, expo), hosts, bartenders(yes, they get a portion of the waitstaff tips) and sometimes food runners. Once everyone is accounted for, you could easily expect a 20% price increase.
Blah blah blah... I am getting so tired of reading that. I have waited on tables and I don't agree with mandatory tipping or tipping for poor service. Lazy waiters do exist, and I don't think they should be rewarded for providing inferior service. On the other hand, the fact that restaurants are allowed to pay an hourly salary less than minimum wage is equally stupid. I'm amazed that this is even legal in the US. It's a messed up system.
You think waiting tables is easy? It's not the most difficult job in the world, but believe me, there are alot of people that aren't cut out for working as waiters. Waiters earn every dollar they make.
And I'll say it again when someone spews nonsense and clearly has no clue about the business because obviously they didn't read it the first 999 times I typed it. I don't believe in tipping for poor service or rewarding lazy waiters. Mandatory tipping for large parties(the disputed subject) protects the waiters income against issues not related to service. If the service was truly poor, you could bet that in 99% of the cases, management would not make the patron pay the gratuity. In the case of this thread, the patron is accused of being a general a-hole. I have no problem with the restaurant standing behind the grat. They probably could have taken the food that the guest did not like off of the bill, but they still should be expected to pay the grat if the service of the waiter is not the issue and there is nothing implying that it is an issue.
I've waited tables before.. and I wasn't allowed any tips.. just minimum wage.. but that's a diff story... just so I don't get jumped on immediately.. what I ask is is the % on food.. food & drinks..... food drinks & tax? I'll admit.. I take the last line and do my calc.. so it's food .. drink.. and tax... so am I over or under tipping?
Let me start by saying that I've once had food that came out not cooked at all (you read right, raw), even then I've never paid under 20% tip. In fact, after this party we had (10 people) I paid $2,000 in tips (you read correctly, 2 thousand), so don't go around labelling me cheap when I say demanding tips is ridiculous. As people already mentioned, I already paid for the goddam food, why the hell am I made to pay more???!!! So some cheap restaurant owner can milk some more? Don't give me this "oh we waiters are only paid 2 bucks an hr" crap. Which waiter actually makes under minimum? A very good portion of waiters get paid over $10 per hr. Besides, why the hell 15%+? I mean, let's say I'm a cheap b*stard and I only buys 10 bucks worth of food and only tips 10%, that's 1 buck of tip on top of your $2 per hr. Are any of you waiters honestly going to give me the crap that you only wait one table? To get to min. wage you only have to serve 3 tables an hr and as a matter of fact, you never serve any table a full hr, but only a fraction of it. Aside from the bad food/bad service, now we moved on to sueing people for not tipping 18%? Then drop the who "tips" crap and just call it price, because that's exactly what it is. And even more ridiculous, "boohoo, you don't know what it is like to serve rude obnoxious people." Well, I once worked 3 jobs 18 hr work days and didn't complain. There are plenty of people working MUCH harder getting MUCH less. The bottom line is, YOU MADE THE FREAKIN' CHOICE TO WORK AS A WAITER, YOU PAY THE CONSEQUENCES. Don't like it? Get a real job. As Bill Gates said: "Life is not fair; get used to it."
Yeah, waiters don't need to make 15 bucks an hour. They aren't aren't performing brain surgury. Waiting tables is really no more difficult than many minimum wage jobs. So I have no problem with waiters making that much money, nor would most everybody else (not counting waiters of course). The other people would get paid minimum wage too, or whatever amount the market would bear. I think restaurants could get by with a 5-10% increase in menu prices, and that would still mean that the average customer is saving 5-10% on their meals. Waiting tables would not draw the same interest that it draws now, so people who wanted to make $15 bucks an hour would probably have to do a much different job, but that is the breaks. There is no way that paying all of the employees minimum wage would raise menu prices more than the average tip amount, because the restaurant is required to get the employees to at least minimum wage with their tips included. Since the waiters, by your own admission, are actually making three times minimum wage (approx.) there would only need to be a 15-20% increase in menu prices (average tip) to cover what they are already making. Tips don't magically count as more money.
Maybe you're having a bad experience when you work as a waiter because maybe you were a crappy waiter? Ever thought of that?
I guess I don't know why its based on the bill total.. I see the waiter doing the same amount of work for me whether I order a 5 dollar meal or 50 it seems like... Someone on here said something about a 2,000 dollar tip.. .. I tip and waiters should get some tips.. but I don't care how hard they work.. they never have done 2000 worth of work in a dinner
I just want to know why tipping should be mandatory for horrible service... Been many a times my order and meals were screwed up my waiters .. and it WAS their fault... the ones who instead of writing it down think they can just remember the order and it comes out wrong etc.. sometmes its not the waiters fault, but their have been pl enty of times the waiter has been the ones offering me horrible service.. If I get my food, and then the waiter doesnt show up again until check time and I get no drink refills etc.. I should have the right to be upset with my service... and dont say.. they are loaded down blah blah. that may be the case but many times my worst service is when t he place isn't full. .and they are on the other side of restaurant talking to each other instead of serving me
I am amazed by how aggressively some of the waiters try to defend their turf. I think fadeaway and StupidMoniker [edit: and Rocket Fan ] have completely nailed it. And just because you scream louder or repeat it a million times what a poor chap you are just because you sometimes have to serve a few people who don't tip enough in your opinion or who are obnoxious doesn't make it more right. $ 15 an hour seems like more than enough, compared to teachers, etc., doesn't it? I also don't really see why the same job should "cost" so much more in tips - carrying the plates is the same thing, whether a person eats for $ 10 or $ 200? Yes, some adjustment, but why would it be a linear 15 %? Should be more like a decreasing percentage, the higher the price for the food or drinks.
