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Then actually BE GLAD you have a job and get tips. No one owes you anything in life. It's up to you to take care of yourself. I don't take pity on someone because they're a student and paying their way. That's called being an adult. I don't take pity on the garbage truck driver, the tractor trailer driver, the power company meter reader guy, the UPS guy, etc. These thing are called jobs. Who said it was supposed to be easy? You want money? Earn it!
In many parts of the country 20% is not standard. It's still 15% where I live and in many places I've lived and visited. You can tip all you want.
Yes, I have been stiffed as a server. It happens. There's nothing I can do so I let it go and try to figure out what I can do better next time. It's pretty rare to be stiffed. Low tips aren't uncommon. Some people just don't tip much.
At some restaurants, you rarely see the server. You enter your own order on the tablet on the table. Someone brings your drinks. Someone else brings the meal. You pay on the tablet on the table. Why does that deserve 20%?
Once again, where are these places where 15% is still the norm?
There is a big difference between "tak[ing] pity" and having empathy. I don't pity anyone who does honest work. However, I do have empathy for them. Doing any form of work that requires dealing with the public isn't always easy. Having done such work, I do have empathy for those who do those jobs and make sure to always treat them well. If they are having a rough day, doing something that makes them smile or laugh, in my book is always a good thing.
Hiya BOS2IAD....... I make fun of the whole situation, not just the servers themselves. You have to be an outsider to see how ridiculous it looks. Americans are brought up to it, and can't really stand back and see how absurd it is. I say this accepting that it is what it is, and nothing is going to change the tipping system in America.
Honest, I'm just having fun with it. Remember, I don't start these tipping threads. There have been plenty of them before this one. I have met plenty of servers, and they are real nice folks. My wife and I have gotten fond of a few in Las Vegas, and always bring them a gift from England when we visit.
I remember my first visit to NYC back in 1988. I had read that servers in eateries expected tips. So, I dutifully did so. I didn't know workers in bars expect tips. I ordered a beer, and paid for it. I went to order a second, and the barman ignored me.......... just refused to acknowledge my request for another beer. I was so embarrassed, and left the bar............ In England, if you left money on the bar as a tip, the bar staff would shout after you, "Oi......... you've forgotten your change!!".........
Servers in England get paid by the owner, not the customer. Well, you say, the cost of the workers is built into the cost of the meal. Well, that's the same with everything isn't it? The cost we pay for anything has the cost of paying the workers wages. In America, the cost of the worker is paid by the customer directly. Sometimes, they get stiffed because tipping is voluntary. Is that fair? I don't believe so. That's why the business owner should pay the staff wages, not depending on the fair nature of the customer.
It'll never happen of course. Servers make more from the tipping system than they would working for wages, and customers like to think they get better service by tipping. All I can say, is that in England, the food isn't thrown in front of me, and I don't get ignored by the server. No tip expected. To tell you the truth, I can do without the so called 'service' in America. I am not keen on having my eating interrupted with by constant, "everything all right here?".......... Honestly, no offence meant........ just how I have observed things when visiting America.
Yet...this seems to stick in your craw as you are drawn like a moth to a flame when it comes tipping threads It is what it is and as you say, it's not about to change anytime soon. So, to use an old expression, you just continue to do in North America do as the North Americans do.
Then actually BE GLAD you have a job and get tips. No one owes you anything in life. It's up to you to take care of yourself. I don't take pity on someone because they're a student and paying their way. That's called being an adult. I don't take pity on the garbage truck driver, the tractor trailer driver, the power company meter reader guy, the UPS guy, etc. These thing are called jobs. Who said it was supposed to be easy? You want money? Earn it!
In many parts of the country 20% is not standard. It's still 15% where I live and in many places I've lived and visited. You can tip all you want.
Yes, I have been stiffed as a server. It happens. There's nothing I can do so I let it go and try to figure out what I can do better next time. It's pretty rare to be stiffed. Low tips aren't uncommon. Some people just don't tip much.
At some restaurants, you rarely see the server. You enter your own order on the tablet on the table. Someone brings your drinks. Someone else brings the meal. You pay on the tablet on the table. Why does that deserve 20%?
That does not warrant 20%, IMO. That's half self-service. Haven't encountered a tablet "server" yet.
Maybe where you are it's 20%, but it's not 20% everywhere. And exactly who decides what's proper for the tipping percentage? If servers don't like the amount they are tipped, they have 2 choices: 1. become a better server or 2. find a new job. It's that simple. I've worked as a server and in the restaurant industry for years. This whole tipping nonsense has gotten ridiculously out of hand. Tips are not required by law so if someone doesn't want to leave a tip, oh well. Don't like it? Don't be a server. That's not hard to comprehend either, is it?
People in this thread neither represent nor speak for the entire USA.
Fact remains tipping is VOLUNTARY.
People love to come on the Internet and brag about being big tippers, paying off
their credit cards every month, and working out every morning at the gym.
yes, tipping is voluntary.
You know what else is voluntary? Thinking that people who don't tip or are excessively stingy with tips are jerks.
You know what else is voluntary? Thinking that people who don't tip or are excessively stingy with tips are jerks.
So are you OK with knowingly taking away part of someone's paycheck?
Yes, admittedly it is a flawed system and many cheap states have run with it, still paying servers only $2.13 an hour. I worked as a server in UT and TX and they still adhere to that absurd pay level. Some pay nothing at all and the servers work under the table. Or expect the server to do hours of janitor work at $2.13 an hour. Not the case in CA that paid a full $7.50 and had paid janitors!
With the prevalence of the table-top ordering and the advent of "food-runners", the waters are further muddied. I can see the customer being confused as to who is doing what work. I was opposed to the food-runner concept for that reason. The thing is, those "runners" were paid full-wage, as was the hostess who occasionally helped out with the tables. As the "official" server, we got the $2.13 while they got $10 or $12 where I worked. But the customer does not know this. Plus, tips were split with the other help, on top of their full-pay.
The system could definitely be changed, and pay servers like they do at fast-food. The guest/server dynamic would shift dramatically and it's not hard to imagine how. But if fast-food places can afford to pay that, I guess full-service places could. And you'd see the same caliber employee at both....
I don't know the answer. But with the system the way it is, the moral person will tip fairly.
Considering the hourly wage waiters make in the US, you surely should tip them.. I'm not sure about other professions (taxi, barber).
What i don't understand is the ritual 15% percent. Why should their income based on my fancy taste (or lack of)? If I drink water they get 0$ tip, if I drink Dom Perignon, they get 20$ for pretty much the same work.
Since I rarely go to expensive places, I tend to overtip, because 15% of my bill would be such a tiny amount.
The 20% us just a figure some pull out of the air. I saw 40% upthread!! What a JOKE that is. Dream on. Social contract.......yeah, riiiight.
All the blather and pearl clutching and circular "logic" doesn't change the fact that tipping is VOLUNTARY.
The 40% was someone who took up a table for several hours, so they tipped as if they had been two separate parties, which IMO is a fair thing to do.
You can keep shouting VOLUNTARY as much as you want but it doesn't change the fact that tips are how servers are compensated in the United States, and anyone who chooses not to tip is hurting people who are just trying to earn a living in an unfair system that they didn't create or control. That makes them a cheapskate, period - no different than the person who takes the cash off the table that someone else has left because at the end of the day, the server isn't getting paid for their time and effort either way.
All I can do is hope that the next paycheck you get, your boss shaves some off the top because your customers have declined to contribute towards your salary.
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I make fun of the whole situation, not just the servers themselves. You have to be an outsider to see how ridiculous it looks. Americans are brought up to it, and can't really stand back and see how absurd it is. I say this accepting that it is what it is, and nothing is going to change the tipping system in America.
In England, if you left money on the bar as a tip, the bar staff would shout after you, "Oi......... you've forgotten your change!!".........
It is what it is and as you say, it's not about to change anytime soon. So, to use an old expression, you just continue to do in North America do as the North Americans do.
