Wow, surprised so many people tip less than 15%. If the service is terrible, I'll double the tax. If its good service, I give 20%. If the service is great, then I'll give closer to 25%. However, if Im in a large enough party where the restaurant includes the tip in the bill, then I usually just leave it at that.
I usually tip 5 bux. My bill isn't usually bigger than $40. I have a lot of friends who have that little card with tip percentages that they carry around to restaurants. cheapo's.
20% if the service is decent, 10% if it's just straight up horrible but that's only happened a couple of times. 25% if the service is great, or I'm at a place where I'm a regular and they take care of me.
Why would you tip anything for bad service? Thats just doesn't make sense to me. If you're awesome, I'll give you a lot. If you suck, you'd better be happy with your $2.50/hr salary.
Nope wasn't even my intention , it was just cuz i have been spending a lot of money lately at bars/clubs etc . I was just wondering how much each person tips generally.
May I ask - why tip 15 % or double the tax or even 10 % if service was lousy/terrible/horrible? If service was lousy/terrible/horrible, then why reward them at all?
Given the double-barrelled guilt of being a party of one and from a purportedly low-tipping social group, I tend to give in the 25 - 33% range. If my dinner costs more than $30 I have a hard time doing less than $10. And I always tip on take-out, but only because here in Omaha I'm usually able to get it in 15 minutes tops; which is clearly some sort of added value.
I was a terrible a tipping before i worked in the service industry. Now my norm is usually 20% for decent to great service. i will tip 10% if the service is non-existent, and this is only bc i understand things come up as a waiter.
Dude im sure that you've never worked as a waiter before. The pay is bad without counting the tips, many waiters/waitresses depend on tips to survive. But we have cheap assholes out there that even if we give them good services, they'll tip nothing or like 5 cents. I'd take those 5 cents and shove it up their ass if it were legal.
I usually double the tax, which usually comes out to about 16%. If they were really good and nice than I will give them 20-25%
You probably know this, but just in case... tax in Texas is 8.25%, so doubling the tax is an easy way to calculate just over the customary 15% tip. As to why tip for bad service, I'll normally leave something... you never know what is actually going on with your waiter. One time I can think of when our waiter was most of the time no where to be found and food/drinks where extremely slow coming out, we started getting annoyed until the waiter came out, apologized for the slowness and explained that they were so short staffed that day due to no shows that he was both waiting tables and cooking in the back. ATW can speak for himself, but he is from Germany and as he mentioned earlier in the thread (and in many other tipping threads)... things are different outside the US.
The only good reason I can think of is to avoid the uncomfortable scenario where you revisit the restaurant later and the wait staff doesn't like you.
That's the thing, people tip even when service was horrible because they want to avoid the "uncomfortable situation". But that actually achieves the opposite effect, as it reduces the incentive for waiters to make sure they provide great service...they get paid anyway. I am like that myself. I even tip when service was bad because I would feel bad/uncomfortable otherwise. But then I get mad at myself because I feel like I shouldn't have.
I tip 20%, but I hate the whole tipping system. Just pay waiters minimum wage (or whatever wage you want to as the owner above that) and scrap the tipping system. The idea that you are going to be punished for not giving someone money would be criminal in any other situation, but we just accept it in service industries.
Because they dont get paid crap...and since they have that job, Im sure they could use the money. An extra dollar or two out of my pocket wont even be noticed...but a couple dollars here and there can add up for someone that is waiting tables. They need it and I'll pay for their service...depending on their service, I give them what they deserver. Not tipping completely is stupid, because they are at least doing something.
than get it to go. dont have someone wait on you, someone who gets paid 2.13 an hour and has to tip out as much as 3.5% of his sales, that means everytime someone stiffs a waiter, the lose money on the table. seriously, if you are low on cash, don't eat out.
I usually tip 10-25%, really depends on the service and location..... There have been occasions where I`ve tipped $0, only for terrible service though....... YET I understand people having bad days, so I sometimes give them a break with a buck or two :grin: ..... I don`t need to be on the recieving end of your bad day. All I ask for is a fake smile
Never less than 20 percent outside of terrible service because I know how little these people are paid without tips, how much they have to tip to people that are paid even less than them, and how much it costs to eat out in other countries that you're not supposed to tip in because server salaries are part of the cost of the (expensive) food that you order. Amazing how self-righteous people get over the difference between 15 and 20 percent -- that is to say, sometimes, a few bucks -- when they have absolutely no clue how this system works, and how much, much crappier it could be for them if it were changed and servers wages were actually included in the cost to have someone buy, cook, and serve food to you in an establishment that they own and pay money to sustain.
