Tipping and the Minimum Wage (school, calculator, move)

[jimj]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

I eat out every single day. Here is my approach to tipping.

Assuming decent service. I calculate after tax (not before tax) which officially rounds it up some.
- $10 meal, $3.
- $15 meal that is involved (water or soda refills) ==$4. But normally $3.
- Takeout: depends. Normally a buck or 2 unless there was a lot of running around. Then $3-$4. Never ever 10%.
- A $50 bill: $8-12 depending on how much effort (refills, apps, etc). Less for spendy drinks. More for soda refills.
-$100 bill: $20-$30 depending on the time I tied-up the table, quality of service, caliber of place, and amount of refills. A little less of a percentage if it is a bottle of wine that I am pouring myself or if I ordered a $25 rack of ribs.
-$200 bill: Same math as above. But I error on a few less percent unless it is higher end. If there are more than one server (big table) a little more.
-Buffets: 10-20%. Again, refills and a lot of plates that need to be taken away, a higher percentage. If I see the plates stack up and I also fill my own glass at a machine, 10%.
-Bar service drinks only: $1 a drink if they are mixed. A top shelf spot. 10-15% while sitting at the bar. 20-25% if just one drink. If I get one beer at a time, $1 tip at a time. If I get 5 beers and walk away, then $2-$3 tip total. Rude/fast paced bartender that barks at you when they are busy, I give cash or a $1 tip total for multiple drinks and find a better tender at the same establishment and overpay him/her.
-Giftcards. Zero. Maybe a couple bucks if it is the front hostess.
-A server waiting for me to sign the bill in front of him: 15% tops. I want the courage to stiff him or her.
-A built in gratuity? NEVER more than on the bill even if they were awesome (they gambled).
Also, the places that we frequent a lot and that know us, I tip at least 18% even when the service is "challenging". You don't want to be "that guy" even when it is warranted. I try and request specific wait staff to avoid those situations.

For me, I don't care if someone is swamped. If they are swamped, I won't get mad. But that doesn't mean I should tip them 20% for trying hard. Work the math. If they have 10 tables each producing 20% or $10 for an hour of semi-fast dining, that's $100 an hour. I'm not rewarding them for ruining my meal because someone didn't schedule right or someone called in sick. Maybe 15% for a hard working that was understaffed. That same math still pays them $75 an hour when they are too busy. After all, I could have cooked and stayed home. The concept for me going out was to enjoy myself not try and make eye contact in order to flag them down. If I don't get refills, have to rot to get my bill, cold food delivered at the table, etc, etc I will pay cash and leave a 10% tip. Maybe less. RARELY do I stiff someone. If I do (once a year), I ONLY pay cash.

You've never fully experienced life until you've had a waiter/waitress chase you outside berating you for not leaving enough of a tip or embarrassing you in front of your family/friends while preparing to leave your table to go home.

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by jimj

You've never fully experienced life until you've had a waiter/waitress chase you outside berating you for not leaving enough of a tip or embarrassing you in front of your family/friends while preparing to leave your table to go home.

No because I leave tips

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by jimj

You've never fully experienced life until you've had a waiter/waitress chase you outside berating you for not leaving enough of a tip or embarrassing you in front of your family/friends while preparing to leave your table to go home.

As I mentioned before, I eat out at least 365 times per year. To put that in perspective, that's 10-20 years worth of eating out for some people. Last year, we spent about $20K eating out (I log everything in Quickbooks). With that said, about 1 time a year the service is so bad, I stiffed them. At the point of zero tip, I'm angry because they ruined my experience. I'm talking about a combination of messed up orders, no refills, not clearing the plates, MIA when it is slow, short or rude, forgetting to place the order, no sense of urgency, letting me rot after I asked for the bill, etc, etc. So when 4 or 5 of these happen at once they officially ruined my dining experience. That's when I view it my job to starve them out of their career. Saying that, there have been times a wait staff has come to the table, apologized ahead of time and gave me a complimentary (fill in the blank). The tip just went to 25%; screw up or no screw up. To err is human.

So if someone came out and berated me for not leaving a big enough tip, I'd be happy to engage. I'd welcome the opportunity to explain why they deserved zero and how they are out of line for not realizing when they completely pooched it. I'd then return in the restaurant to professionally chat with the manager and garantee to go out of my way to discuss his or her servers incompetence with the owner as well.

With the advent of Yelp and other review sites, I'd also be writing a convincing review of that experience and naming the server. The great news is top performing/busy restaurants also have competitive staff that make a lot in tips. Usually, the worthless wait staff are in a tier 2 or 3 caliber place. With the help of Yelp, I do my best to stay out of those places. Whenever I get a star server at a restaurant, I go out of my way to tell the manager how much they should appreciate their fantastic server.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by FirebirdCamaro1220

You are right that this is technically the law, but employers abuse this all the time

As do the workers that don't report tips, you know, taxes.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

As do the workers that don't report tips, you know, taxes.

In all fairness, that is not completely accurate.

I have had some clients who declare their tips to the penny and keep excellent records that only an accountant could appreciate. .

Then there are those who, well, declare what they need to meet the minimums and only report a minimum to their employer. This has become a lot more difficult over the years as more employers accept credit cards for a larger amount of their sales. These are also the folks who cry bloody murder when 30 years down the road they find that they have a social security check that is about half of their coworkers.

[asufan]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

As I mentioned before, I eat out at least 365 times per year. To put that in perspective, that's 10-20 years worth of eating out for some people. Last year, we spent about $20K eating out (I log everything in Quickbooks). With that said, about 1 time a year the service is so bad, I stiffed them. At the point of zero tip, I'm angry because they ruined my experience. I'm talking about a combination of messed up orders, no refills, not clearing the plates, MIA when it is slow, short or rude, forgetting to place the order, no sense of urgency, letting me rot after I asked for the bill, etc, etc. So when 4 or 5 of these happen at once they officially ruined my dining experience. That's when I view it my job to starve them out of their career. Saying that, there have been times a wait staff has come to the table, apologized ahead of time and gave me a complimentary (fill in the blank). The tip just went to 25%; screw up or no screw up. To err is human.

So if someone came out and berated me for not leaving a big enough tip, I'd be happy to engage. I'd welcome the opportunity to explain why they deserved zero and how they are out of line for not realizing when they completely pooched it. I'd then return in the restaurant to professionally chat with the manager and garantee to go out of my way to discuss his or her servers incompetence with the owner as well.

With the advent of Yelp and other review sites, I'd also be writing a convincing review of that experience and naming the server. The great news is top performing/busy restaurants also have competitive staff that make a lot in tips. Usually, the worthless wait staff are in a tier 2 or 3 caliber place. With the help of Yelp, I do my best to stay out of those places. Whenever I get a star server at a restaurant, I go out of my way to tell the manager how much they should appreciate their fantastic server.

I've never completely "stiffed" a waiter or waitress but I have left only a $1 tip once, when the service was really bad. Was at a restaurant in Payson with a friend, we were both hot and thirsty after being outdoors for 5 hours. She brought our drinks, took our order and brought our food out, then WENT HOME without telling us or telling someone to take care of the table. We had to get up and go into the area where the drinks were and refill our own drinks, got our own napkins, etc. It is when we were up that we told someone that our waitress disappeared and we were then told "Oh her shift ended and she went home". We had to wait way too long for the check because of this as well. I remember the bill being something like $28.65, so I threw $30 on the table and we left. At least she got the order right and the food was OK I think the message was sent despite not completely stiffing the waitress. Typically in a place like that I would have tipped $8-$10

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by jimj

You've never fully experienced life until you've had a waiter/waitress chase you outside berating you for not leaving enough of a tip or embarrassing you in front of your family/friends while preparing to leave your table to go home.

That would never happen. I normally tip quite well and if I don't, there's no question as to why I didn't.

[teddyearp]

I have no problem with tipping. In restaurants it is along held tradition that I see no reason to change. I am not the most generous tipper, but if I get real bad service, I think leaving two-three pennies on the table gets the message across much better than no tip or even a dollar or so tip.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by teddyearp

I have no problem with tipping. In restaurants it is along held tradition that I see no reason to change. I am not the most generous tipper, but if I get real bad service, I think leaving two-three pennies on the table gets the message across much better than no tip or even a dollar or so tip.

So, you have no problem with tipping and see no reason to change due to it being a long held tradition? Then, in the next sentence you state you are not a generous tipper and feel leaving two or three pennies for poor service is appropriate.

If "tips" are in fact supplementing wages as has been said in this thread and from the service industry in general then you should not be leaving no tip (or next to none) even for poor service. You should adjust your tip between the "traditional" 10% - 20% depending on the service.

It sounds to me like you do have a problem with tipping. Or, you have no problem with it as long as you don't have to be generous.

[asufan]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

So, you have no problem with tipping and see no reason to change due to it being a long held tradition? Then, in the next sentence you state you are not a generous tipper and feel leaving two or three pennies for poor service is appropriate.

If "tips" are in fact supplementing wages as has been said in this thread and from the service industry in general then you should not be leaving no tip (or next to none) even for poor service. You should adjust your tip between the "traditional" 10% - 20% depending on the service.

It sounds to me like you do have a problem with tipping. Or, you have no problem with it as long as you don't have to be generous.

I think he made his point pretty clearly. He agrees with the custom of tipping, but also understands that he is in control of how much the server receives depending on what the level of service merits.