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American Tipsters
Drez
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Welcome to the cow tipping thread. I've found the best way is to find a field of cows, and then approach one. Then you get your shoulder blade under their shoulder blade and push with all your might.
Welcome to the tipping thread. These usually end in pain and tears and sometimes blood so I've been thinking of starting this thread for a couple of weeks now. The topic just kind of came up in [chat] so before everyone there kills each other and leaves [chat] a desolate wasteland, I thought it prudent to cut that off and make a thread.
So, tipping. What is tipping? Tipping is when you get a check and you give extra money to your server, waitress, hairstylist, baker, barista, stripper, whatever. This seems not so customary in Europe, which is why the thread title is American Tipsters. But feel free to discuss tipping customs in Europe, Asia, or in any of the continents on Earth (or whatever planet you hail from).
My own personal behavior:
Unless service is absolutely terrible, I tip 20% as a base. Sometimes, depending on the price of whatever I'm consuming, I will tip more. If I am familiar with the waiter/waitress or bartender, the tip amount will usually increase. For beers at the bar, I usually ignore the percentage and either give 1 or 2 dollars per drink if I'm paying cash. If I have a tab, I usually figure out some decent percentage. If I get a buyback or two or three or four or five, I will generally give some large percentage of whatever the drink would have cost as a tip for that drink - somewhere between 40% and 80%. I don't know what other people do in that case and I'd be curious to find out.
Bartenders and waiters/waitresses do not make minimum wage. Most of their income comes from tips. Which is why it is customary to give a tip of at least...well, it used to be 15% but I think the bare minimum now should be 18% and I think it's better to err on the side of 20-22%.
I never tip the people at Subway or Starbucks. Sorry, but your primary function is sandwich making and/or making coffee. And you make at least minimum wage.
Taxis - I try not to take taxis, but I generally tip somewhere around 15-20%.
Delivery personnel - This is a tricky one. I usually give 10-15% which feels low. I try to factor in how far away the restaurant is. But it just feels "wrong" to spend more than 5 bucks on food delivery. ESPECIALLY if the establishment already charges like $2 for delivery. Usually I try not to order from places that either charge for delivery or are too far away from my abode.
And strippers: Usually $20 for every $80-100 you spend on lapdances. I mean I've never been to a strip club ever.
Now, back to tipping servers. People from Europe often don't tip. They do this a lot in Times Square, which I frequent a lot. I'm sorry, but I don't buy for a second that this is because "they don't tip in Europe." If you're visiting another country, you should at least familiarize yourself with some basic customs. I think most Europeans are aware that tipping is a custom in America, but they use "foreign ignorance" as an excuse. Maybe that's not fair, but I see it too often for me to believe otherwise. In fact, foreigners have asked me "how much should I tip?" which shows me that at least some tourists are thinking about the question. You have NO idea how often wait staff and bartenders get stiffed in tourist-heavy areas, especially - in my experience - from Australians and Brits. I mean no offense to those of you not in America and I don't mean to suggest that nobody from England tips while over here - but most of those I've observed do not. And the only time I saw an Australian tip is when he was stoned off his gourd and threw the bartender a $100 bill after three $6 shots.
Let the bloodletting begin!
Welcome to the tipping thread. These usually end in pain and tears and sometimes blood so I've been thinking of starting this thread for a couple of weeks now. The topic just kind of came up in [chat] so before everyone there kills each other and leaves [chat] a desolate wasteland, I thought it prudent to cut that off and make a thread.
So, tipping. What is tipping? Tipping is when you get a check and you give extra money to your server, waitress, hairstylist, baker, barista, stripper, whatever. This seems not so customary in Europe, which is why the thread title is American Tipsters. But feel free to discuss tipping customs in Europe, Asia, or in any of the continents on Earth (or whatever planet you hail from).
My own personal behavior:
Unless service is absolutely terrible, I tip 20% as a base. Sometimes, depending on the price of whatever I'm consuming, I will tip more. If I am familiar with the waiter/waitress or bartender, the tip amount will usually increase. For beers at the bar, I usually ignore the percentage and either give 1 or 2 dollars per drink if I'm paying cash. If I have a tab, I usually figure out some decent percentage. If I get a buyback or two or three or four or five, I will generally give some large percentage of whatever the drink would have cost as a tip for that drink - somewhere between 40% and 80%. I don't know what other people do in that case and I'd be curious to find out.
Bartenders and waiters/waitresses do not make minimum wage. Most of their income comes from tips. Which is why it is customary to give a tip of at least...well, it used to be 15% but I think the bare minimum now should be 18% and I think it's better to err on the side of 20-22%.
I never tip the people at Subway or Starbucks. Sorry, but your primary function is sandwich making and/or making coffee. And you make at least minimum wage.
Taxis - I try not to take taxis, but I generally tip somewhere around 15-20%.
Delivery personnel - This is a tricky one. I usually give 10-15% which feels low. I try to factor in how far away the restaurant is. But it just feels "wrong" to spend more than 5 bucks on food delivery. ESPECIALLY if the establishment already charges like $2 for delivery. Usually I try not to order from places that either charge for delivery or are too far away from my abode.
And strippers: Usually $20 for every $80-100 you spend on lapdances. I mean I've never been to a strip club ever.
Now, back to tipping servers. People from Europe often don't tip. They do this a lot in Times Square, which I frequent a lot. I'm sorry, but I don't buy for a second that this is because "they don't tip in Europe." If you're visiting another country, you should at least familiarize yourself with some basic customs. I think most Europeans are aware that tipping is a custom in America, but they use "foreign ignorance" as an excuse. Maybe that's not fair, but I see it too often for me to believe otherwise. In fact, foreigners have asked me "how much should I tip?" which shows me that at least some tourists are thinking about the question. You have NO idea how often wait staff and bartenders get stiffed in tourist-heavy areas, especially - in my experience - from Australians and Brits. I mean no offense to those of you not in America and I don't mean to suggest that nobody from England tips while over here - but most of those I've observed do not. And the only time I saw an Australian tip is when he was stoned off his gourd and threw the bartender a $100 bill after three $6 shots.
Let the bloodletting begin!
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Only once have I had such awful service I didn't tip.
Delivery drivers, I tend to tip around 10-15%. I genuinely don't think they do the same kind of work as a waiter or bartender (I worked in food service for ten years, so I'm not just theorizing), and they also tend to make more as a base wage than the other two (at least in my state).
I usually tip food service people 15-20%. 15% = met expectations, 20% = particularly nice. Below 15% = you screwed up and over 20% = you did me a special favor...
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I mean, I liked the movie and everything, but that conversation infuriates me every time.
That said, 15 is my baseline, meaning for even moderately competent service you'll get that. For decent service, ill round up, making it more like 17. For truly good service, 20 or more.
And if our table was super cheap, all splitting items and sticking with water to drink, I'll mentally bump the check up a few bucks to compensate.
Personally, I tip pretty generously. If I want to get a haircut or have a nice meal in a restaurant, I regard the price as being at least 18% above the listed cost. In a society where (unfortunately) some employees have uncertain, tenuous, and often failed sources of income (from derelict tippers), I regard their labor as another thing I'm paying for.
Eh, putting money in the pockets of the dude who helped me personally seems like a good thing IMO. Customer service is kind of a shit job and is usually underpaid, so helping out the poor schmuck who actually managed to smile at me and treat me nicely after spending seven hours on his feet getting yelled out by entitled asshats is probably one of the best uses of my money I can think of.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
In Washington, for instance, bartenders and waitstaff get the same (very high) minimum wage that everyone else does, in addition to tips. It means that eating out is a little more expensive, here, but I consider it worth the tradeoff.
Interesting. Do you still tip 10-20% or not so much?
I didn't realize so few states required that full minimum wage be paid to tip earners. Also I didn't realize that there was any state where the company can literally pay their employee nothing at all. Jesus Christ.
I'm fine with tipping, but only if you get acceptable or good service. There's nothing mandatory about tipping, and I find it distasteful how it's become a sort of blackmail fee that you have to pay to avoid them spitting into your food.
I'm not sure how this works. Unless you're constantly going to the same place without tipping, how does this happen? You generally pay your bill (including your tip) at the very end of the meal.
It's like you said, you go to the same place multiple times.
Bad service at restaurants infuriates me. If you are super shitty at your job, when I am paying 30 dollars+ an entree, you will get 10% or less. There is no excuse for that. If you do well then 20% or more is fine, just don't suck.
They're much more likely to just give you shittier service in general, and that's usually in response to something you did earlier in the meal, like being rude to them while ordering or something.
Florida, however, does not, and when I worked as a server there years ago, its absence was felt.
One issue is that servers often come to expect certain groups to tip in certain ways, and preemptively provide service accordingly. They are then unsurprised when the tips aren't so great. I combated this by serving everyone to the best of my abilities, although it still remained all too easy to start judging people before they got a chance to show you otherwise.
Organichu's statement is really the long and short of it. Servers depend upon tips in America. To withhold a tip is often directly fucking another person over. Many times, the reasons tips are lessened or withheld are not necessarily the fault of the server. And to the miniature power-trippers who act like server = servant, then go ahead and take the analogy all the way. For the period of time you are being helped by a server, you are their boss. Only a shitty boss doesn't reward good performance, and only a shitty boss punishes the last person on the line for the mistakes of others. Unless you are absolutely sure your server is at fault, it's probably better to bring up the issue with your server or management and see if they can help.
It's ridiculous how pricing is in America. Prices on tags are before taxes and, in restaurants, before taxes AND tip. Can't I get a simple price after tax like in Europe?
As for complaining about foreigners not knowing to tip, well, I don't know, I don't really see how people who never had to tip in their life are expected to know about that weird practice.
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Okay, but if you're going to the same place multiple times, it is probably because the food and service are both on par with your expectations, right? So...why wouldn't you tip an appropriate amount anyway? Why do you feel blackmailed or pressured into tipping an appropriate amount at a place you clearly enjoy patronizing?
Any waiter who's not a kid on summer break will just treat you the way you treat him or her. They won't risk their jobs.
15% is absolutely the way to go for servors even though personally I work in the service industry so I tip more. Among other things because I beleive in being charitable in general so if I have personal experience with someone that is good at their job I figure that's someone that deserves an extra couple of bucks. What's funny is I know a lot of people that just give a standard tip without regard to the quality of service. They just plunk down their standard percentage. I will tip anywhere from nothing if I get terrible service, to more than thirty percent if I caused my servor difficulty and they handled it super smoothly. That sort of feedback is great for the employee too. I always appreciate it myself.
edit: and yeah, if you suspect your servor might spit in your food for any reason less than you wishing cancer upon them, then that establishment is probably run so poorly you don't want to touch anything that comes out of that kitchen anyway. If I or any other management personnelle I know ever saw something like that the employee would be fired on the spot, and no coworkers would tolerate it either.
--LeVar Burton
Well, maybe you've had good experiences in the past, but ended up getting a bad service from a waiter for one night. You want to come back in the future, so you feel pressured into tipping.
It's not that hard to understand.
Okay, I can understand that.
Sigh.
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For meals I generally go with 20%+whatever it takes to get it to the next round dollar amount after that.
But the chef is actually getting paid. I honestly don't know how much, but isn't it usually a bit more than minimum wage? Even at your standard Greek diner?
And the wait staff are waiting on you. They are providing the direct service to you, which is why you tip them, not the chef.
Which is great because they do a fraction of the work.
Because it allows for you, the consumer, to have direct input into how much the service was actually worth giving them an incentive to go beyond the bare minimum service you receive at places where tips aren't customary.
15% is customary, there's no reason it should go up to 18% or 20%. The cost of living increase already went up on % based tips, as it goes up every time the price of goods/service go up.
I stopped putting money in those "Tip Jars" that people think they need to put up in places like Subway, Baskin Robbins, etc. I agree there is no reason to tip those people. Especially since at the subways around here they do their job half assed.
"Why yes thank you, I do want all of my mustard in one spot, and not all over the sandwich."
The head and sous chefs can make a decent living... the line cooks are probably making a bit more than minimum wage, depending on seniority... but they're still already making a guaranteed hourly wage.
Servers generally have to tip out a percentage of their (assumed) tips to bus staff, cooks, and the bar. Unlike the fly-by-night customer who can leave a terrible tip and never worry about it because they aren't coming back, a server who fails to tip out to the coworkers he sees every day is going to find life getting difficult very quickly.
Yeah, but I mean, If I'm at a restaurant and the food is great, I want to thank the chef, you know. I want to go out of my way and say "This food is great". I can't really do that except at places where I actually know the chef personally.
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I will look for that later, unless somebody else knows what I'm talking about.
I definitely don't feel this. Bad service is bad service and I have no issue leaving a bad tip at a place I like.
I think not tipping a stripper can actually get you ganked in most strip clubs. They call her Stiletto for a reason.
For haircuts, if it's someone I've been to before, it's typically $5 if the haircut is between $15-$20. If I've not been there before, it's $3 if they sucked and $5 if I would go there again.
I don't tip taxi drivers (unless they were to impress me but I almost never take taxis).
For delivery guys, it's usually a couple bucks, regardless of the order unless it's particularly large. If I like a buffet it's the same deal, a couple ones.
Stuff like that.
I've vacationed in Australia and yeah, they don't tip down there because the labor laws are different. They do accept tips from Americans, though. However, I think neither Australia nor the UK has any excuse for not tipping in the United States because it's very well known that we DO tip for service and it's not at all hard to find out what the typical numbers are, AND the AUD and the GBP are strong enough against the dollar that it's not at all a big deal.
Tipping is a basic part of life for any country where labor laws are lax or where the standard of living is a bit less than "the West," to the point where tipping is basically the only way to get service in the first place. Locals don't tip but foreigners do tip because otherwise foreigners get ignored (or the same service as locals which is typically the bare minimum). I think this is also true in less affluent parts of the United States -- consider a mom & pop shop in Nebraska that will offer deliveries or other services, or a mechanic in a small town. Dropping a couple extra bucks their way tends to grease the wheels of service.
Well, it's fine if you're not haunted by the specter of somebody's saliva ending up in your food next time. Some of us are troubled by this notion.
Okay, but that seems like a totally separate thing to me and has nothing to do with why you should tip your server.