How Much do You Tip? (Gratuities) (university, income, live)

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by hockeylfe11

@LBTS,
first of all obviously everyone has their own viewpoints on tipping. If you haven't worked in the industry you wouldn't understand how difficult it is to have more than five tables. The majority of the restaurants in the phoenix area will give servers 3-4 table sections. The majority of people spend about an hour at the table. So, lets say your 4 table section fills up and you have 4 -$50 tabs for that hour and you get 20% on each tab (very unlikely) then the server would walk with 40 bucks for that hour. However, you are also bypassing the fact that the server will tip out the bar, food runner, and maybe the hostess. Obviously the situation above is rare to happen having tabs that big that only sit for an hour. What about if you have a 3 table section and one of the tables is businessmen with a $20 tab on appetizer and drinks. They sit there for 3 hours and leave 20%. You just made 4 bucks for three hours BEFORE tipping out to the other staff.

Remember servers don't always take home the cash you left them. More often than not I would make less than 20% on my total sales for the night after tipping everyone out.

So you're telling me I'm tipping all the people in the back that are just doing their jobs and not actually serving me or taking care of my needs? All the more reason I feel tips are abused. Why in the heck do I need to tip the bartender, food runner and hostess? I'm tipping the waiter for giving me good service while I'm eating. Now, if the bartender wants to come over and top off my margarita I'll be happy to tip him/her too. Do I, as a customer, need to tip the guy that fixes the air conditioner at the restaurant, where does it stop? Tips should be for extra ordinary service, not compensation when you didn't do anything above and beyond to make my trip more pleasant. The hostess taking my name and making me wait 20 minutes to sit down and eat gets a tip??? C'mon Man!

Every place we go they wait staff seems to have a section they take care of and is always bigger than 3-4 tables.

You'd make less than 20% of your total sales and you're saying that like it is a bad thing??? You're an employee, not the owner of the place. Why the heck should an employee make 20% on the total sales of a business? So lets error on the low side and say you sell $500 in a night and get $100 of that for your shift? Realistically I bet sales are much higher than $500 night but we'll go with that. Now, go try and get another entry level job outside of being a server that is going to pay you $500 per week. My wife works at a school district and the starting teachers with college degrees don't make that much.

Also, I wonder how much of the tip money in the service industry doesn't get taxes paid on it because it isn't reported.

To answer the OP's question...



Waiters/waitresses/bartenders; 15% of the after tax total
Your table at a buffet whether you are served drinks or not; Don't tip unless their is a waitress bringing us things and refilling drinks, then 10%
Car wash personnel; $2
Hairdressers/barbers/nail techs; My barber gets $3 on a $12 haircut
Therapeutic massage/spa services; Don't use these so no idea
Valets; $2-$5 depending on how long I wait
Cab Drivers; 15% of the fare
Hotel Maids; $5 at the end of my stay
Skycaps/Bellcaps $1 per bag
Other Pizza delivery gets $4

All are rounded up to the next dollar.

[LBTRS]

[mod cut-- the poster deleted the quoted post]

Lol, I'm all about tipping for good service. Even with that said, I have never not left and tip and everyone gets 15% of the after tax total regardless if they did a good job or not.

Funny everyone here is saying they tip so highly because two places we go to on a regular basis and know the waitress that serves us each time (we ask to sit in her section) says we're her better tippers and she only gets 15%.

Matter of fact, whenever I'm out with other people (family, friends) I try and notice what others are tipping and more often than not it is a flat rate of $5 or $10 regardless of what the bill total is.

I question if people really as big of tippers as they like to say they are?

[madmmac]

Originally Posted by khuntrevor

yeah, that guy tips like a high income resort traveler. Those folks are only here for March, though.

Alright, Avondale has moved up to resort status!!

Ya can't take it with ya and most often, they need it more than I do.

[JoeC]

Actually, most tips (at least up here in Chicago) are paid on a CC, and are included in the servers paycheck - so they're reported to the tax men. Cash tips are a rarety for servers; bartenders see them more often, but still not as much as you'd think. When I bartended, maybe 20-30% of my tips were in cash - the rest came via CC, and were paid in my weekly paycheck.

Couple of notes addressing several comments made here:

I've served, bartended, and managed a bar and restaurant. For every night that the server/bartending crew ran their collective butts off and pocketed $150-$200, they had at least 3 nights where they made maybe $20-$30. I know - I'd enter the staff's tip sheets into payroll every shift. Unless you are at a top-end restaurant or nightclub, you DO NOT make as much as someone with a Masters and 26 years of experience. Best yearly pay I ever personally saw for a server was my Maitre D' (who had been a server for over 30 years, and was one of the most polished and professional individuals I'd ever met)? $42K total. He worked at another restaurant on his days off to make ends meet.

As far as your server tipping out their bussers and bartenders? Guess what? Those individuals are serving you, also. You want the drinks you ordered from your server in a timely manner? You want the dirty dishes cleared with alacrity? Each of the aforementioned positions are generally paid under minimum wage, and are serving multiple customers - the bussers are usually responsible for assisting more than one server, and the bartender is making drinks for EVERY server - as well as taking care of the bar customers.

I could write more, but this is long-winded enough, and a bit OT to boot (sorry, mods...).

If you don't understand the industry, don't slam it out-of-hand.

I relinquish my soapbox for the day...

[JoeC]

...and to put things in perspective...
In Chicago (a pretty high-paying area of the country), approximate pay ranges:
Servers: $3.50-$4.50/hr + tips
Bussers: $5.00-$5.50/hr + tips
Bartenders: Minimum wage (if lucky; usually around a buck an hour under) + tips.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by JoeC

...and to put things in perspective...
In Chicago (a pretty high-paying area of the country), approximate pay ranges:
Servers: $3.50-$4.50/hr + tips
Bussers: $5.00-$5.50/hr + tips
Bartenders: Minimum wage (if lucky; usually around a buck an hour under) + tips.

Ok, I'm with you...so say the server is making $3.50/hour + tips. Worse case scenario they serve one table in an entire hour and tips a $5 bill in the hour so that's $8.50/hour for a entry level/unskilled labor position (remember worse case scenario here so it is probably much better) that didn't have to work very hard for it. My son makes that amount doing hard manual labor in the hot sun all day.

There are educated people that have a hard time making that much starting out. Why do service personnel feel obligated to make more than those trying other things with an education?

My mother-in-law who is married to a rich farmer and never had to work a day in her life started cleaning houses a couple days a week cause she was bored. One day her friend told her how much she made in tips as a waitress at the local tavern and she tried it for a week. The following week she told all the people she was cleaning house for that she was done with that and started working the lunch crowd five days a week and was making a killing. She would never tell us how much she was making but she kept doing it for a long time because the money was so good. She had no education past high school and no experience other than that of a homemaker and was making as much if not more than my wife who has a degree and working an entry level corporate position. And my mother-in-law was working far fewer hours.

[Haley James]

I tip 20% or higher for any service listed above with the exception of the buffet; here I'll leave around 10%.

@LBTRS why shouldn't your waitperson be making more money than you? Because you have a Masters Degree and 26 years of experience? It can be a lucrative industry depending on the circumstances and some people choose to go into, or stay in it for just that reason; just as some choose to get degrees in majors that are known to be well paying fields. Why shouldn't people in the service industry be well paid?

It never ceases to amaze me how waiting tables/bartending/and other service industry jobs are considered "unskilled labor." There are a multitude of skills that go into waiting tables, bartending, and working with the public in general. As with everything else not everyone is cut out for it. Those that are add to your enjoyment of the experience.

[JoeC]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

Ok, I'm with you...so say the server is making $3.50/hour + tips. Worse case scenario they serve one table in an entire hour and tips a $5 bill in the hour so that's $8.50/hour for a entry level/unskilled labor position (remember worse case scenario here so it is probably much better) that didn't have to work very hard for it...

Obviously, you've never worked in a restaurant.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by JoeC

Obviously, you've never worked in a restaurant.

I was talking about my example of only waiting on one table in the entire hour. Am I wrong, is waiting on one table in the entire hour hard for a waiter/waitress? I'm not even attempting to say that service personnel don't work hard, I was just referring to my worse case scenario example.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by Haley James

@LBTRS why shouldn't your waitperson be making more money than you? Because you have a Masters Degree and 26 years of experience? It can be a lucrative industry depending on the circumstances and some people choose to go into, or stay in it for just that reason; just as some choose to get degrees in majors that are known to be well paying fields. Why shouldn't people in the service industry be well paid?

It never ceases to amaze me how waiting tables/bartending/and other service industry jobs are considered "unskilled labor." There are a multitude of skills that go into waiting tables, bartending, and working with the public in general. As with everything else not everyone is cut out for it. Those that are add to your enjoyment of the experience.

Why shouldn't they? Because, for the most part, it is an entry level "unskilled labor" position, that's why.

I'll post the definition of unskilled labor from dictionary.com for you. It's not a derogatory term, it just means they didn't have to invest any time or money in training or education to get the job like many of us do.

unskilled labor 
noun
1.
work that requires practically no training or experience for its adequate or competent performance.