No need to TIP

[albin25]

I generally pay a flat rate tip not dependent on the bill total but only on the number of people in the party. The skill/effort to serve isn't dependent on the cost of the food. If the restaurant's busboy does more than wipe the table with a skanky rag I'll tip them direct ( they seem to really appreciate it). I never put the tip on the card.

Ya.... I'm tight, I'll admit that.

 

[HaveGun]

I visited Japan where tipping is considered an insult. You don't do it. Paid for a meal at a diner for me, my daughter and son-in-law, and three grand kids. Huge portions, delicious food, and great service. Even had some decent Japanese beer with the meal. $27.

My girlfriend took me out to a fancy place locally for my birthday where they don't accept tips. Service was good, food was great, but tiny portions. We each had one glass of wine and shared a dessert. $100.

 

[Devneck]

I worked in restaurant industry for more than 15 years. (More than 10 years ago though)

A couple years as a bartender, but mostly as BoH or management. Several several different states.

My experience was:

• As a manager, I never ever received tips.
• As a bartender, I received tips and servers were required to share some of their tips with me. It was extremely small amount as in they might make $100 and give me $5.
• As a BoH (cook or dishwasher) the vast majority of the time I never received tip sharing except at 2 restaurants. Both of those places were higher end steakhouses and the servers would easily make $100+. Sharing could be more than $20 per server, some nights I left with over $100 myself. (Small kitchens, 1 cook + 1 dishwasher so they weren't sharing with 5 or 10 people)

Delivery places (pizza) never share. Diner type places (Shari's or Denny's) never share. Small mom and pop places never share. Higher end places don't usually share, unless it is a culture.

Some places pool tips, I'm aware of them ... never worked at one (at least not one that shared with cooks)

As for what the restaurants pay, you can pretty much bank on what the state law is. If the state allows for a tipped employee wage that is less than minimum then that's what they paid. If there is no lower tipped wage then they make minimum only.

Washington and Idaho are (were) prime example. (See spokane vs cda restaurant pay)

Having this experience, I have historically tipped extremely well. Even bubblegumty service could warrant 15-20% when they are super busy. Even more if I knew or suspect they share tips with BoH.

But now we have more and more push for higher minimum wages. Therefore, now I don't tip automatically. Much more merit based and I have no problems not tipping. This is in Washington though, where our minimum wage is already very high. When traveling, I will research what state law is in tipped employees.

They have to earn it now. Some may consider me cheap or an bubblegum because of this change. I don't care ... and a few weeks ago when I went to Spiffy's, the server that got a $100 tip on an $80 bill sure wouldn't agree. So you can save the "if you don't tip then don't go out to eat" comments for somebody else.

 

[pharmseller]

So I jump ship in Hong Kong and I make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald… striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one – big hitter, the Lama – long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga… gunga, gunga-lagunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

 

[Flopsweat]

When all

YEAH......
View attachment 810351

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/tipping-saru-jayaraman-voices-in-food-104500260.html

Aloha, Mark

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

 

[ma96782]

Someone might remember this scene.....

Aloha, Mark

 

[TNThomas]

Some questions about TIPS.....
1) How does one know which places "share" their tips?
2) Then, some places even share tips with the owners.....is that "right/what you expected"?
3) How do you know which places actually pays the min wage plus tips and which do not?
4) Do you (in a non-tip job) feel cheated, that some people make a great part of their income via tips and don't pay their "fair share" of taxes?
5) Notice the tip jar by the cash register.....do you leave a tip on take out food?
6) How should I feel, about those places that automatically add a tip to my bill?

Aloha, Mark

PS.....I'd like to see "Full Disclosure" from every restaurant, etc.... But, I'm not holding my breath.

1) Ask your server. I had people ask me all the time. Waitstaff can get upset if they want to, but as long as you sre not rude, they wont care. It is standard practice for waiters to "tip out" bussers at the end of the shift where I worked. We would tip them a minimum percentage based off our sales. 2% to the busser. 1% to the bartender. Sell $1000 in food/bev, pay at least $20 to the busset and $10 to the bartender at the end of the night. We never pooled tips though, and management wouldnt want that due to the drop off in effort from waiters.

2) I have heard of this, but only "heard" any good server would instantly leave a place like this, leading to a slow decline in customer service, bad reviews, and a slow die off of the restaurant. So most places dont do this. Sharing tips is no bueno with the owner!

3)Thats going to be a state law, and varies state by state. WA was the best state to serve in when I was a waiter. Full minimum wage plus tips. Many states pay WAY under. I know Idaho is under minimum, not sure about OR.

4)At one resturant I was the lead server who was in charge of counting/tracking tips for the resturant. The majority of tips are logged via credit card, and as a result have a paper trail. With this in mind they ARE logging most tips for tax purposes. As per usual though, honor system for cash transactions. I always fully reported everything because I did it to a tee. It helped out when time to buy a house. Gets the bank warm and fuzzy seeing how much you actually make.

5. I do tip on take out, but thats probably just because I was in the food industry.

6. Those places that add a tip to your bill usually have to to survive. I worked at one. Places with the highest minimum wage/service staff laws are usually in very Urban areas such as downtown Seattle. The resturants are struggling to pay this extra money towards insurance, vacation, etc. So what they usually do, (or at least my joint) was to tac on a "service fee" something like 20%. 15% of that goes in my pocket, 5% goes to the extra dues that the resturant pays for insurance and other "fair wage law" stuff. So I sell $1000, im walking out the door with $120 in cash (after tipping out). Then add on min wage. From my experience, I would rather roll my dice and not have the default tip on there. I made enough to pay for my own insurance via cash, so I didnt need the law for it. I also found I got a higher % on avg than with the auto grat. Heres another interesting one. For large groups of friends and family (think 8 or more guests) I learned to always assume split bills, and did ahead of time while I was working. Usually whoever wanted to cover the whole thing would end up terribly tipping since they just spent so much on their freinds and family. Not always, but often enough.

The last restuarant had a pretty cool policy where they trusted server judgement on giving guests free drinks/apps/dessert etc. They figured out they could pay less money by doing this to advertise via word of mouth than for actually pay for advertising.

Whenever we had banquets or hosted events we would be left with literally thousands of dollars of 5 star food we were suppose to throw away. My manager would turn an eye and I would often load my car up and drive to homeless areas downtown and in U-District and hand food out before driving north to get home. I was brought up not to waste anything.

For a while I was making a KILLING in the service game. Almost a minimum of $100 a night, but $200 was the goal. Not really sure what my best year was, but somewhere around $80,000 working about 35 hours a week avg. I paid for grad school in cash. Wife paid for her last year at UW undergrad in cash (she was a bartender). We bought a house as well. But I was smart and realized it was a game the whole time. I realized I could buy a house and land for less money 30 minutes away than my co-workers could rent downtown. I could also drive to work faster than they coild walk or ride the bus. I also thought long and hard geographically where to work. DOWNTOWN! Highest minimum wage at $15/hr. That high wage means prices have to be higher on food to accomidate. Customers tip off of a percrntage of their bill so bigger tips too. People also WANT to spend money downtown, not the case in the suberbs.

On an interesting note, if auto gratuity was to sweep the nation, you would see MUCH higher prices for food on the menu to accommodate wages that are high enough to keep workers. In the end it would probably be slightly lower than now+20%, but many of the good waiters wouldn't waste their time and go to a different career. We had to bump up our prices slightly across the board even with the move to auto grat. It costs restaurants a lot of money to run, and they make very little on the food. The real money maker is alcohol, lasts forever, and is a quick simple sale at double/triple/quadruple what they bought it for.

Busting my butt came naturally coming from a background in football, and those tips I received helped put me in a WAY better position in life. I am now a high school science teacher. But staying in a tipped position is a slow death. You need to leverage that extra cash to get you somewhere else, and not waste it at the bar every night after work or with traveling. I would go to school in the morning, ride my motorcycle to downtown and park it inside the restaurant (free parking), sleep in a hammock for a few hours in the dark basement that I strung in the joists above me. Wake up 10 minutes before my shift, work, go home, and repeat.

 

[Certaindeaf]

In idaho they tip the cows so they're pretty cool.

 

[BWH]

Nobody tips me.

 

[Alexx1401]

Someone might remember this scene.....

Aloha, Mark

I had forgotten that scene from that movie. It was a great flick. May have to watch it again now.

 

[P7M13]

I hope the professor remains true to her ideals and no longer eats out - or she's one more P.C. hypocrite.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I hope the professor remains true to her ideals and no longer eats out - or she's one more P.C. hypocrite.

Clams are an acquired taste.

 

[Alexx1401]

Clams are an acquired taste.

I used to hear that about Beer. Have to say I took to Beer VERY easy.

 

[ma96782]

TNThomas,

I want to thank you for taking the time to write out your response.

As for the owner also being a part of the tipping pool..
I've had two ladies that I knew (while living in WA) that have told me/complained that the owner(s) of the business where they worked at were getting a part of the tip pool. Maybe, it's just that they have a __________ for an owner. Or maybe it's because it's a "small business" and not a "bigger" operation. That being said.....I also suggested that they find other employment. They didn't. For whatever reason(s), they choose to stay. Mostly I think, it was because they didn't see/value their own "self-worth".

Yeah.....I don't think.....it's a typical American situation either.

But then......
In some places, the staff TRUSTS the management to divide the tips "fairly".

As for your $80k a year income. Congratulations.

I made way less doing a "hard job" too. Or at least many in the public might have considered my job to be a hard one. Also.....I paid taxes on dollar one. It was easy for the Govt to know how much I made and what tax I should be paying as a result.

BUT.....we are all free to choose what job we'd like to try our hand at. Not mentioning initial qualifications. And, not saying that everyone is equally successful.

So then.....don't take my above comments as an "attack" of any sort. WE are NOT here to debate my pay check (and benefits package, etc...) vs yours.

+++++++

So then.....
It strikes me that some in Govt (along with some in the public sector) are trying to sell me on that "Universal Living Wage" argument.

Rrrrright.....
"The Working Poor".

Why, does the public almost universally think that a waiter/waitress are automatically a part of the "working poor"? Hummmm.....

Then.....
I ran across this video......

Yup.....and Pres. BIDEN wants an expansion of the WELFARE programs/give a ways. Additionally, $15 an hour min wage, student loan forgiveness, etc.... etc.....

But.....what do I know about anything. Rrrrright...... I got my chance to vote.

Aloha, Mark

PS.....and DEVNECK.....thank you for sharing your insight.

 

[joken]

It is at times humorous but also quite pathetic how so many "highly educated" people in this country seem to find EVERYTHING is some how racist and has something to do with slavery.

Ending racism is a career for many.

 

[BBQ Guy]

Ending racism is a career for many.

These guys came to mind immediately....

 

[ma96782]

3) How do you know which places actually pays the min wage plus tips and which do not?

I should have paid more attention to the details in the original article.

In this Voices in Food story, Jayaraman talks about her commitment to eliminating the tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour and ensuring that all restaurant workers receive the federal minimum wage — plus tips — for their work.

And then, within the article it said....

Seven states — Alaska, California, Nevada, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon and Washington — all changed their laws to One Fair Wage 30-plus years ago. California changed its law 50 years ago, so we have decades of data showing how effective and successful it is to pay a full minimum wage.

All seven states have booming restaurant industries.

Perhaps/I guess/I could/I should feel NO guilt (or less guilt) if I didn't leave a tip (or a smaller tip) in those 7 states?

Aloha, Mark

 

[Ramjet12]

Nobody tips me.

Don't go swimming after a heavy meal....

My second best tip.

 

[Flopsweat]

I really can't let this thread go without this little NSFW tidbit:

https://hooktube.com/watch?v=vvxCjDYX5Lg


On a more serious note, when I notice that a bartender is getting off shift, I will usually discretely ask them if they want to cash me out before they go so they'll get their tip (if the service is good it will be substantial). This gives them both the choice to do so and the opportunity to tell me how it works. If I'm sticking around I'll have to tip the next one too, but I actually like tipping, so no biggie. I also get great service the next time I show up, and moral support if another patron is being a bubblegum. BTW, being a bubblegum is an indication you've reached your limit. Some folks' limit is below zero.

 

[pharmseller]

What did the leper say to the prostitute?


P