From my own experience as of two years ago, no. And I doubt things have changed. As someone who used to wait tables, the American system is annoying for the reasons laid out in the OP article. And indeed, white people are noticeably better tippers than black people(or Hispanic or Asians for that matter). I don't really discriminate against minorities if it's a group I don't know. But it's pretty depressing when bad-tipping repeat customers come in. And you more or less want to just get them the hell out of there asap. If restaurants don't want to encourage discrimination from the waiters, they really should just implement a salary system. Like every other country in the world.
This is a very obvious conclusion that most waiters/waitresses arrived at a LONG time ago. It's not PC to publically state it (mainly because criticizing AA's is not socially acceptable due to white guilt), but it's basically a universally accepted truth. Of course there are exceptions here and there.
Isn't this mostly a cyclical type thing at this point, i.e. low tips = bad service = low tips = bad service, etc. ? I'm black and me and my family are great tippers (usually ~30%). We generally get pretty good service wherever we go, and this in mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. I guess we've just been fortuanate, for the most part.
Probably shouldn't turn it into a white/black thing, because it's not just African Americans. When I waited tables (not too long ago), senior citizens and teenagers were also regarded as pretty stingy, and I imagine that's still the case. I've heard it said about Asians too, but that wasn't my experience (the fact that I worked at a pretty high-end Japanese restaurant may have contributed to that).
I try not to be biased when I wait tables. I know all about self-fulfilling prophecies and try not to get into that. Just in my personal experience, whites do tend to tip a few percentage points more than other races. But then again, during lunch hour is when all the businessmen in the area (mostly white) come in and they normally tip 18% and up. At night I got mostly black families and the tips were lower. Of course this was in the Greenspoint area so for the most part the population isn't the type to spend anyway (of all races). It's just funny, or sad, when even the black waiters clamor for the white tables and get pissed when they get sat black women at the booths. It's kind of unfair to the patrons and hurts you, obviously, to have these preconceived notions on who will tip and who won't because you'll just probably give bad service and they'll leave you a crappy tip for it.
Is it fair to criticize somebody for something they do not know? My white mother will still get upset for me for leaving $5+ tips saying it is too much. I'm not saying that all black people do not know how to tip properly but a combination of things, even those that are not the patrons fault, may lead to poor tipping and the article mentioned that.
I double the ten spot and round the numbers off to an even amount. Always comes close to 20%. $42.34 total before tip = $8.66 tip = $51.00 total bill you go above and beyond and I'll drop an extra $5 or so.
Fine dining waiter here. Yes, there is validity to the stereotype of black people tipping poorly. There's a reason it is a stereotype, after all. By the way they are referred to as Canadians (ie my station looked like a blizzard tonight. Nothing but Canadians). Like any stereotype, it is not 100% true. I have several regular guests that are African American and excellent tippers. I would not say that African Americans have the lowest percentage of good tippers. It has been my experience that on average the worst tippers are Europeans and foreigners -- not Asians (who typically tip very well), just the white folk with accents. They are ignorant of the process, unaware that waiters make 2.13 an hour and actually subsidize the rest of the restaurant's staff with their tips -- so if you don't tip the waiter actually has to pay money for waiting on you. They just think "huh. My bill is 25% less than it would be in Europe," and never think to ask why.
Thank You!!! For gods sake just charge the full amount and get rid of tipping. it works just fine everywhere else in the world.
Think of it this way. Take the part of tipping that is expected ALWAYS and make that a service fee. That goes to the waiter. This would ideally be 8% of the total bill. Whatever you leave on top of that (open ceiling) encourages service which is above average. Also, allow customers to waive the service fee if they can show that the service was poor. This is less likely and more difficult to implement.
Also, I don't think this study has been adjusted for income. IMO, a better study would be what % of your disposable income do you use for tips on average. For me it's quite simple. I'll take a few factors into consideration: - Was I an above average customer? Was I rude, annoying, etc? - What is the average tip? - Was the service below or above average? - How much disposable income do I have? I don't take the actual food into consideration as long as our waiter did not make it. I do not give a tip when the service is intentionally poor. I think that's fair.
I have to admit that the first racial slur I ever found to be funny was the use of the term Canadian for blacks. FWIW, it's not a racist type thing for blacks to tip white servers bad...black servers that I've worked with will readily admit that other African Americans are generally bad tippers. A few anecdotal stories: I had a manager that formerly worked at a restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi where the wait staff was predominantly black. According to her, they had their own slur to refer to tables of black people: "darkies," as in, "oh no, not another table of darkies." My best friend used to work in a town where whites and blacks each roughly comprised 50% of the population. One day, while hosting, he sat a middle aged black lady three tables in a row of African Americans. She came up to him and proclaimed "I don't know why you think I want all these n----- tables just because I'm black. You know n------ don't know how to tip!" Having said that, I've waited on plenty of tables of all races that are both good and bad tippers. Just like every other negative stereotype attributed to certain races...It's more about education and economics than anything else. People of all races are going to tip better (in general) if they're more educated, wealthy, and frequently go out to eat at sit down restaurants. I do think that there is an element of self-fulfilling prophecies when it comes to the stereotypes of good/bad tippers. I always took the approach that I'd give the best service to everyone because I'd rather get a 10% tip than a 5% tip.
Whaaat, just work the tipping into prices, hourly wages and SALARIES? Thats like, socialism...cuz it just makes everyone even and takes away invidividualism. Keeps people from having healthy competition against each other and it takes the "creativity" and ingenuity away from the more talented, resourceful servers to earn MORE based on "merit"... So its blacks, hispanics, seniors and teenagers who dont tip well. Which indicates, generally speaking, that the demographic which tends to not have the most disposable income would actually be the lesser tippers? Oookay lets just say what we already "know" is going on...if they'd stop putting their money into their cars and frivolous material possessions, they'd automatically be better contributors to society and better contributors to servers' take-home pay.....We must turn teenagers and seniors and ethnic groups and foreign visitors into better functioning members of the capital system to help restaurants razor-thin profit margins.
Not really. I usually try to find out what the custom is with regards to tipping before I visit someplace.
yeah, major. why did you force space ghost to post in this thread? i mean, what did you expect him to say when you forced him to post in a thread the he admits he can't even weigh in on the argument? hell, i've done that thousands of times, but i've never blamed anyone else for me doing that. weird, did they teach that at katy or something? that's exactly what i do.
Quoted for truth... When I waited tables, I used to work tipping into my conversations with Europeans if I could. Many, MANY of the people I talked to were simply unaware that I made $2.08 per hour as waiters in Europe make great hourly wages and tipping is more of a bonus for great work. For the record, the only time I ever got stiffed was by a white couple who had very obvious sticker shock when the menu came (Willie G's isn't cheap), but I did notice that on average, African Americans did tip less. Never heard the Canadian reference before today, though...
I generally get good service, I generally tip 15%, this is a silly subject, the only people who get riled up about who don't wait tables are people like trader who are always trying to justify racism
