How Much Should I Tip? How About Nothing At All
Somewhere between my first glass of ice water and a scribbled check that I could barely read, something went terribly wrong. Maybe it was the lemon slice I asked for. Maybe it was that she argued with me about french fries being a customary side with a cheeseburger. Whatever it was, she had turned on me. From my years working in the service industry and patronizing restaurants, I know the old dictum: “The customer is always right.” But not today, not in that little lady’s mind. My waitress was rude, slow and forgetful. She looked hungover and smelled of cigarettes. Her bill was so illegible I doubted her math but she refused to recalculate it. So there and then I did something brave– I left her a 30-cent tip on a $14 bill.
Tipping has reached epidemic levels in the United States. Years ago, you left whatever change was in your pocket at the diner. Finer restaurants, you left maybe 10% for the career waiters. In Europe, they is no tradition of tipping. It’s considered rude and gauche in some countries. Yet in America, we have been guilt-tripped into an ever-spiralling level of tipping. What used to be an acceptable 8% has now gone up to 15% to 20% and even more. And it’s not just for restaurants– hair salons, newspaper delivery, yard work, dry cleaning, mailmen, repairmen, pizza delivery, taxi drivers– everyone these days comes with their hand out for a little extra.
As Christians we are guided to be charitable. We are asked to tithe 10% to our churches. Should we somehow be obligated to give more than this to a surly waitress? Does that seem just to God? Is reinforcing a bad habit really a charitable act? Or isn’t it better to contribute to a young person’s understanding of the world, of the joys of honest, hard work. For those of us who don’t work in restaurants, do we expect tips for doing our jobs? If you are a police officer or sportswriter, a bus driver or a school counselor, do you deserve a tip for simply doing your job? Of course not! There is no valid philosophical or moral argument for tipping.
The problem with tipping today is that everyone does it. We are too intimidated to take a stand and stop tipping. It is psychological warfare across the dining room, young versus old. Are there times when we should tip? Of course! When we receive extraordinary service from a handsome waitress, it is a great show of kindness. But for the young people of today to expect, really demand, a free handout for a job they are employed to perform is ridiculous.
Tipping is, in essence, the transfer of wealth from one generation to the next. Young people have to learn to earn their gifts. They need to work hard and have a great ethic about them. In past generations, young boys and girls had to really hustle to survive. Today, we have children living in their parents’ homes until they turn thirty. According to a recent article in Forbes Magazine, many of this generation are too lazy to find work, blaming the recession and waiting around the house until things get better. One of the most dangerous things about tips is that they are not taxed and without a high taxable income many young people can claim to live below the poverty line and sign up for free government health care, among other things.These young people cannot be coddled like this. This is the slacker, hacker generation that contributes nothing to America and will only extend our recession. So yes, it is time for us to take a stand and stop the tipping inflation madness.
After I left that waitress her 30 cents, I walked straight out of the restaurant. I held my head high. I felt good about what I had done, teaching a young person a valuable lesson. She and the rest of her peers must understand that kindness reaps rewards, that the customer is always right and rudeness is uncalled for in a dining establishment if she wants to earn any money. Does the Bible not say, “Respect thy elders”? Yes, I have returned to that restaurant and I have not seen her since. Maybe she just wasn’t ready for hard work.
I’m not alone in being frustrated about tipping. Here are a few other writers with interesting opinions to share:
- How much should you tip a bad waiter or waitress?
- Bad Dinner, No Tip
- Ticked About Tipping
- Hey, Waiter! Just How Much Extra Do You Really Expect?
- Waiter Rant: Some People Just Don’t Get It
- The Truth Behind Tips
- College students arrested for not paying tip
- Waitress fired for griping about tip on Facebook
http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/tip.htm
- Sinful
- Suspicious
- Scared
- Sad
- Amused
- Laughing Out Loud
Author: Stephenson Billings
Stephenson Billings is an Investigative Journalist, Motivational Children's Party Entertainer and Antique Soda Bottle Collector all in one special, blessed package! Facebook me here or Fanmail me: StephensonBillings@yahoo.com !
10:05 pm
“It’s considered rude and gauche in some countries.”
How is it rude to leave a bit of extra money to thank someone for good service?
“As Christians we are guided to be charitable.”
As are other religions and atheists.
“The problem with tipping today is that everyone does it.”
GOD ALMIGHTY!!! MAN THE LIFE BOATS!!!
“When we receive extraordinary service from a handsome waitress”
And if the waitress wasn’t attractive? Would you just blow her off, you old pervert?
“Yes, I have returned to that restaurant and I have not seen her since.”
Or she could simply be working a different shift, you old fart.
Can you ever be positive about anything? Will you ever write an article that’s not a warning or a gripe about something? You’re like fucking Scrooge.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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11:14 pm
As a waitress myself, I have to say you really are missing the point about tipping. In most states restaurants pay below minimum wage meaning a little more than $2 an hour because its implied that 10-15% tips on average are earned for every meal by the wait staff. 10-15% is the average because wankers like you sometimes are real jerks and pay less so you really should be tipping 20% on your meals, maybe 18% if things aren’t up to par.
But this poster is ridiculous to say that we don’t deserve the money we earn. If restaurants paid us a full wage your costs would go up 30% or more. Plus he has no idea what’s it like to work in a restaurant and we aren’t all children. Many of us are as old as you if not older so why don’t you STFU!
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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11:54 pm
HEY DOUCHEBAG I HOPE I SEE YOUR FACE IN MY RESTAURANT ONE OF THESE DAYS I WILL BE SURE TO TAKE A CRAP IN YOUR CHEESEBURGER.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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12:24 am
Damn Claire, you would think that after trying so hard for so long, and doing a great job of it, some of these people would start to grow there left halves of the brain. (logic and reasoning side) but no they don’t.
Good job Claire, you really deserve a pat on the back for all of your work.
*pat pat*
…
What? I was being literal
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12:34 am
If anyone does anything bad to my food I will have you arrested and prosecuted. I know many fine lawyers.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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5:18 pm
hey you didn’t pay for the “i’m not gonna shit in your burger”-service so you don’t get to complain.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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12:49 am
The kitchen staff always does something to your food, I should know. I work in a kitchen
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12:52 am
They prepare it quietly and expertly, as they should.
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1:04 am
1. Do you know what happens when you send it back?
2. Never order the clam chowder.
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10:43 pm
Here is a tip for you Billings, eat your fucking meals at home from now on!!! You suck as a human being. I suspect that the waitress was rude to you because you were being a complete and utter douche first. Stay at home and eat and write your stupid-ass articles. If I knew that I was cooking your food I would shit all over it and shove it down your mouth.
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10:19 pm
well to tell you the truth I half agree with him because I had somewhat bizzare experience with a waitress she forgot to Put the tips on the Bills when I finished paYing ( normally she ask if it’s the same amount or not for the tips ) but she forgot yet after that I went outside and she Ran outside in the parking for her Tips … I was like what a weirdo a Tips is voluntary
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10:25 pm
I know, crazy right? Still, about the only thing that makes sense in this giant mass of words is ‘if the waiter/waitress is being an ass, don’t tip’em a lot’. Claire brings up some points as well that a good chunk of what’s in there is just silly.
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10:30 pm
well actually we reported her to her Boss and even her co worker actually well pissed off by her ( she was the type of the girl to Boss around and push everyone in the back ) and well she got fired
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2:56 am
i bet someone just watched the first 5 minutes of “resiviour dogs” seeing as you basicly copied that.
by all means if you are not satisfied with your service then don’t tip. but then you also have to be ready to be the fuckhead who didn’t tip. if you can live with that go ahead.
but one thing really hit me.
the cutomour is not allways right billings. that’s a mantra that some establishments take up but by no means does that mean everyone should abide by that. may places if you are a douch then you get treated as such. maybe you should try actually liveing by your beloved christian values. turn the other cheeck. do unto others what you would like them to do unto you. maybe if you respected others they might respect you.
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7:42 pm
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God– having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” –2 Timothy 3:1-5
Hot debate. What do you think?
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8:07 pm
Seriously, this guy’s on auto-pilot. His replies really ARE nothing but: random bible quotes, calling someone a liberal, being a creepy stalker, or complaining about gay people in some fashion or something that causes ‘gayness’.
Who built Robo-Troll Stevie?
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8:25 pm
A Bible verse about proud, boastful people obsessed with money is entirely appropriate when talking about waiters and waitresses.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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8:28 pm
yeah who expects to get payed for their job anyway right? (protip: the payment of a waiter asumes they get tipped. without tips they are severly under payed)
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8:39 pm
Then how dare YOU sir work for a living! YOU dare ask for financial repercussions for spending time and effort and energy to better your work environment or to serve a man or group? SHAME onto you sir, SHAME! How DARE you act so greedy, demanding money from your employer! How filled with sin are you? Yet you claim to act in the name of GOD?! You sir, should be hanged! REPENT! REPENT and start working for NOTHING! For if you do not, you shall be most hypocritical and burn in HELL for your atrocious SIN!
i.e. if you were too stupid to translate that, being tipped is essentially how waiters/waitress’ get PAID since they get jack from their employers. Every person I know who’s been in a business where they get tipped has said that being tipped is quite literally more than what they get paid to do, and they STILL are quite far behind in terms of paying bills and whatnot. If you think they shouldn’t be tipped, then you shouldn’t ask for a paycheck or ANYTHING if something happens to you during your job, but since you’re a zealot, then it really doesn’t matter because you’re without fault or sin, amirite?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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9:57 pm
Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps these rude waitresses you’ve encountered are simply responding to YOUR attitude? Have you ever considered that they may be very kind people who DESERVE the tips that they get, but who get put off by your condescending, arrogant, intolerant, sexist, holier-than-thou attitude? After all, every single one of your “articles” on here is a gripe about something on this earth; why should we assume you’re any more pleasant off the internet?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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1:01 am
Boastful people obsessed by Money sound like American to me
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12:07 am
Steve, I have family that works in the service industry. I love God. I read your article, I read your comments, though I must admit I stopped here. You quoted the Word, but I don’t think you took a look at yourself before quoting it. Wait-staff generally do not make any money that would allow them to provide for a family if they are not given a 15%-20% tip. In the end, 20% of what you typically spend on a meal, let’s say $16 on yourself, is so little out of your pocket. I understand that this waitress did not do her job well, so I understand tipping less (though I feel that your tip was too low), but going online to rant about it makes you sound greedy. You say that these people need to know honest work and don’t deserve the what is more or less change out of your pockets these days (seriously, you can’t do much with $3.20 these days). You are also not being forgiving of this woman. I’m sorry to say all this Steve. I don’t know you, and I’m certainly not perfect, but I also don’t quote the Word of God to condemn others without first looking at my actions, and considering that those same words could condemn me. This article and your replies to people have made you look greedy and unforgiving, as well as if you believe yourself to be higher than others. You said it yourself, God does not want us to be greedy, unforgiving, and terrible people, so please examine your motives before making another post like this and before you condemn someone who didn’t treat you well.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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8:26 pm
dude stop quoteing the values of the bible if you refuse to live by them.
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9:25 am
Can I get an “AMEN!”?
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1:43 pm
I tell you what, get a reputation where you don’t tip, keep going back, and when you notice that your burger has grit in it, your coffee tastes funny, and you get a lot of stomach problems, don’t blame the help, blame your lack of kindness to those who provide you a service.
I learned a LONG time ago, tipping gets you service you can only buy.
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5:36 pm
Waiters and waitresses have an obligation to serve. How else can these restaurants stay in business? If I am not treated well I will not return, then how do they expect to survive and make any money?
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6:07 pm
the price of you meal/the amount waiters earn is refelcting of the fact you are expected to tip in america.
what you get for tipping is the waiters likeing you. and if they like you they will treat you better.
this is what common courtesy is. it’s like how you would expect show respect to a priest you are expected to tip.
ofcourse you are not obliged to but they are also not obleiged to serve you as you wish.
if you are not satisfied with the service then you are right then don’t go there.
just like the waiters are not gonna treat you well if they don’t like you.
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6:14 pm
There is simply no obligation to tip in a restaurant, despite what the waitresses will tell you.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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6:28 pm
“There is simply no obligation to tip in a restaurant, despite what the waitresses will tell you.”
What about your Christian obligation to be charitable?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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6:35 pm
and the waitress have no obligation to do anything just because you expect her to. so if you don’t tip don’t expect them to.
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11:10 am
I always give 3-4$ and trust me it’s really works even the waitress talks with us
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12:37 am
“Then how dare YOU sir work for a living! YOU dare ask for financial repercussions for spending time and effort and energy to better your work environment or to serve a man or group? SHAME onto you sir, SHAME! How DARE you act so greedy, demanding money from your employer! How filled with sin are you?”
Dear Comedian, I realize you’re being sarcastic and I don’t find it productive at all. Waitresses are paid for their work, as am I in my job. That is not the issue here. What is, is the overcompensation by members of the public who have been forced into a cycle of overtipping that really does not contribute anything but instead creates an underground economy, where taxes are not paid. Why should they get to earn so much tax free and not me? And why don’t I get free tips at work? You see, there is a huge difference of logic here.
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1:01 am
Actually, I was being dead serious. How dare YOU ask for payment for working when it’s just as comparable to a waiter’s work? Do a little experiment for yourself. Take however much you’re making, and imagine if you made much less than minimum wage, but with the same hours as you’re working now (give or take some), then figure out how much you would be making under those circumstances. NOW ask yourself ‘is it perfectly alright for me to be a dick about tipping?’ Not everyone has a dream job where they’re making butt tons of money, some are unfortunate to have to work several jobs such as a waiter or waitress and pretty much rely on being tipped for their income because their actual pay more or less covers the amount of gas spent to get from point A to point B as well as so much more being siphoned from taxes. It’s one thing to tip around 9-14% (again, not exact numbers, there’s are various formulas I’ve seen people use with tipping), but constantly tip the bare minimum or nothing at all isn’t very productive. I’m not saying that you should give out god knows how much as a tip, but a decent and fair amount will help those that are in the business.
And above all, if you claim to be a Christian, you should be giving roughly that much money away to help. It’s not too different from just donating money to someone, unless your church or group or whatever spends that money on completely random and arbitrary needs.
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1:12 am
You really have one sick mind.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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1:21 am
Not as sick as yours, you bunch of Zealots. At least I’m upfront about my values and I take negative facts about myself and acknowledge them, I don’t try to hide behind some veil acting as if I’m a holy being when the reality is I’m spreading lies and hate. You claim to despise the devil, and yet you and your buddies do his dirty work quite well.
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5:08 pm
I picked this passage for you, friend:
“But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adulteries, fornication’s, thefts, false witness, slanders.” –Matthew 15, 18 – 19.
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5:16 pm
maybe try an argument next time rather than simply starting to say irelevant bullshit.
and again maybe you should actually try to live by your own values.
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8:29 pm
Bildo, that’s not an argument. It’s an insult. And a poor one at that.
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4:39 am
what is so sick about being compasionate.
let’s explain it simple.
you pay for the meal you tip for the service.
seeing as tips are the waiters payment if the establishment also payed them they’d be rich right? so why aren’t they? because the establishemnt does not pay them well. so what you are suggesting is a world where nobody pays the waiter simply because you are not obligated.
now you may ask why not do as the rest of the world and let your burger cost 3 bucks more and then drop tippeing outright. because it’s quite a decent way of make the waiers do theire best. if the customour decides their pay rather than their boss simply giveing them a set amount the better they work the better the chance of getting a good pay
but please explain to me what is so sick about understanding this and being compasionate about these people?
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7:19 pm
Servers are NOT paid by the restaurant to wait tables. They are paid less than minimum wage by the restaurant to do what is called “side-work” which is stocking and cleaning. In addition, serves DO have to pay taxes on the amount of tips that are expected they be paid. This is based off of their sales and not off of the actual tips received. So, when you screw over a sever by not paying a tip, they’re expected to pay taxes on it even if it wasn’t received.
IN ADDITION, serves are required by most restaurants to tip other employees who support them based on their total sales and not by the actual amount of tips received. This usually includes 1% of total sales to an expiditor, 1% to a bartender, 1% to the hostess, 1% to a busboy, and 1% to a weedeater. So, not including any income tax she might have had to pay, this server just paid $.40 to wait on your ungrateful, cheap, proud ass.
Feel free to serve yourself dinner if you feel the need to steal someone else’s time and hard work. How would you like it if churchgoers decided not to tithe because they didn’t appreciate the sermon that week?
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4:43 pm
stephenson, if you put a donation link up on the site i’d be happy to tip you now and then for extraordinary journalistic service. i insist!
yours in christ,
BNK
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4:49 pm
By the way, I am a Christian, and I am NOTHING like you! And I leave good tips when I eat out because I know what it’s like to make $2 an hour!
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4:45 pm
You don’t get tips because you don’t make $2 an hour as your wages. I made $2 an hour back in the 80′s and still do now. Tips are the same as they were back then, but the price of EVERYTHING has gone up! We don’t get a cost of living raise or any other raises, EVER!!! Think you could raise a family and pay bills with that?
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10:54 pm
Dog groomers too! Don’t forget to tip your dog groomers!
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12:51 am
Hahha, who needs a poofy “dog groomer”? Just take the old gal out back and brush her down.
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9:05 am
Some dogs, particularly AKC registered purebreds, need special attention given to their coats. Otherwise they can get extremely matted.
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11:50 am
“Just take the old gal out back and brush her down”
That probably worked with your mom but most people take better care of their dogs than that.
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11:03 pm
Congrats, you’re a pissy old curmudgeon!
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12:54 am
I am simply honest. Does that make you afraid?
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12:09 pm
You redefine dishonest. You and your friends are nothing but insane, rambling morons that demand things be EXACTLY your way, including forces that you have no control over whatsoever, yet you act as if it’s all evil when you’re all nothing but a bunch of whining brats and babies.
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12:15 pm
Not afraid, no. The only fear the article gives me is that someone might catch wind of it and actually take it seriously. Tips are essential income for waiters and waitresses. Just leave a few bucks and don’t be a dick about it. I don’t have such a problem with the specific case you mentioned, but your crusade to abolish tipping altogether really doesn’t paint a great picture of you.
But if this waitress was really that bad, why didn’t you speak to a manager? He/she might have even taken a few dollars off, which seems to be what you’re all about.
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12:51 pm
your message isn’t scary, it’s uncharitable and unkind. waitresses and waiters are paid below minimum wage and the tip is expected BY THE RESTAURANT you’re patronizing to support their staff. if you had that much of a problem with the person serving you then you could have asked for a manager to complain (yet again). in all honesty though, he probably would have seen what a demanding chore of a person you are and sided with her.
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2:05 am
Hey Jazze someone just shared that clip from the movie Resovoir Dogs about not tipping! It was a bit foul languaged but surely philosophically spot on! Why don’t tippers tip at McDonalds!
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3:55 am
again are you retardet?
you don’t tip on mcdonalds because there’s no service there. tipping is paying for the service. i’ve tried to explain that allready.
on mcdonalds the employes are payed by the esteblishment. in a cafe or resturant the waiters are payed by tips.
if you stop tipping the place where their payed through their tips what do you think happens? again if you are throughly unsatified with the service don’t tip. thats why they have the system to give the waiter an incentive to be their best. but if you simply decide not to ever tip them because you don’t fell obligated they are also not obligated to show you any kind of service.
also don’t try and fool me i know you saw it before writting this. you can’t get that close on accident.
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7:49 am
I hadn’t seen it before, but maybe it was there in my memory from a tv show or something. Anyway, it came up when I was talking to a man on facebook. He gave me the link. And I’m not trying to “fool” you, stop being so paranoid.
http://www.facebook.com/kaishininjou?v=wall&story_fbid=140271992663331
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8:09 am
and now you call me paranoid. seriously you almost copied a well known scene from a clasic movie and you’re trying to tell me you’ve never seen it before? yeah and i wrote hamlet by acident as my english report in 4th grade.
and with all your paranoria i’m not going to take it too much to heart mister “everyones after me”
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8:22 am
Please calm down, I don’t really care whether you believe me or not. Your paranoia is getting the better of you.
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4:51 pm
McDonald’s employees get at least minimum wage. And they don’t wait on you. Why is that so difficult for you to comprehend?
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9:28 pm
I consider myself to be a very professional server. I worked my way up from the bottom feeder restaurants, to some good mid-range restaurants, and now am at one of (if not the) busiest restaurants in the country.
It is my professionalism and dedication to absolute guest satisfaction that got me here, and I’m not done by any means. However, even from the idiot chain restaurants to fine dining and everything in between, I’ve always been paid minimum wage. Every single time.
We get paid the same as the drug addicts that inhabit the counters of a McDonalds. Do you get the same service at a restaurant as at McDonalds? NO! Yet the register monkey that can’t even add gets the same amount of money as the highly professional waiter that is at the finest of restaurants.
People just like yourself are why I refuse to work the lunch or dinner shifts (I only work late-night club crowds) because old people are in the mind-set that they somehow have fixed the planet and that I owe them for it. They are the worst tippers, and it is because of attitudes like yours.
If I have a table of four twenty or thirty somethings, and another table of two older couples about to go back to their hotel room, and both tables order the same thing, who do you think I’m going to take care of more? The 60+ crowd who is going to leave me $5 on a hundred dollar ticket because I “should be appreciative” or the 30 somethings who are going to give me a solid $20 or more on the same bill? You can take your $5 and use it to bet 4:1 odds that I’m going to take care of the people that are going to tip.
You have to remember that WE ARE ONLY THERE FOR YOUR TIP! That’s it.
We don’t like you. We don’t care about you. We hope to never see any of you again (unless you tipped well). We don’t care if you enjoyed yourself, or how the food tasted. With that in mind, keeping you happy, well fed, and hopefully having little room for complaints lead to better tips, and we’re going to work accordingly. But don’t for once think we ever like any of you (unless you tip well) because we are only there for the tips.
It might be a job that a monkey can do, but not every monkey can do it.
If you don’t want to tip, don’t go to a sit-down restaurant. You’re absolutely right, we don’t tip at McDonalds. That’s what they’re there for. So you can go out to eat and you don’t have to tip. I’ll say it once again, IF YOU DON’T WANT TO TIP (15% is for bad service, 18% is no complaints, 20% is for good service) DO NOT GO OUT TO EAT! Stay at home or live off fast food.
Now I will admit that we stereotype all the time. And quite frankly, old people are at the top of my list of people that I won’t bother doing anything but the bare minimum. Quite frankly, I’m not going to waste my time, rushing all over the restaurant, to meet your every need for your 10%. I’d rather you get upset and leave 5% since either way it was a terrible tip and I have paying customers to take care of. You’re already at the disadvantage having grey hair because 90% of your age group have ruined my generation of servers for decades. That 1 out of 10 that tip well is not worth giving great service to the other 9 just on that chance.
But you can do your part to overcome that stereotype and the next time you’re in the restaurant, either that server will take care of you very well, knowing that he’s going to be rewarded for his efforts, or he/she will tell the server taking care of you that you’ll take care fo them and they’ll be on you hand and foot. Unfortunately, the converse is also true. You tip poorly once, and you’ll never get good service in that restaurant ever again. We all tell each other about return customers. We might not remember your name, but we do remember how much you tipped.
TL:DNR – WE ARE ONLY THERE FOR YOUR TIP! THAT’S IT! If you don’t want to tip, don’t go out to eat.
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10:19 pm
What people don’t realize often is that if restaurants actually paid a livable wage, the way they would recoup that is to JACK THEIR PRICES UP. As it stands now, you can enjoy your meal and if your service was great, then a tip is a very kind thing to leave.
If your service was poor, then by all means, leave little or nothing, but I would hope that you would first consult a manager so that the poor behavior can be corrected. Your 30 cents did not likely teach your waitress any lessons. If restaurant management knows that she is not living up to their expectations, I’m sure more appropriate measures would be taken.
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10:24 pm
There’s no reason to get so belligerent here. I think I made my points perfectly clear. Maybe you should look at your expectations from this sort of employment.
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10:55 pm
Yeah, you’re point is you’re a cheap bastard who feels like you should be treated like a king and pay the server nothing. If you don’t want to tip and still get good service, then tell the restaurant’s to pay their servers more. Just don’t be surprised when you see a giant price leap in menu.
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8:19 am
Mr. Billings, many have pointed out to you that in most places servers make less than minimum wage because the state allows the owners of restaurants to count the servers tips as a part of their wage. Some of them have said this calmly, one in particular did so and you accused them of being belligerent when they in fact were not.
I’m here to point out another slight error in your editorial, yes working in a restaurant can allow people to claim to be living below the poverty line. However Mr. Billings the poverty line is determined by what wage is required to live an acceptable standard in all states with all costs of living. The current poverty line, adjusted for inflation in this day and age is $20,000 per annum. This means that you can go to New York City or Kalamazoo and be able to afford housing, transportation, food and utilities. We have more people in this country living below the poverty line in this country today than at any point in our history.
Accepting that information, the Christian thing to do is to remind yourself that most waiters and waitresses are making around $3.00 an hour and at that wage cannot subsist.
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12:40 pm
Not an “editorial”.
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6
11:16 pm
The worst part is that if people aren’t tipped, generally the server is PAYING to serve you, because a set dollar amount comes out of their tips for the bussers and hosts. It’s called tip share. So next time you don’t tip, ask yourself if he/she was really bad enough that they should have paid for the experience.
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12:39 pm
Never heard that theory before, sweetheart.
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3:17 pm
it’s not a theory.
go work as a server for a year, then come back and rewrite your article, you self-righteous, ignorant fool.
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4:54 pm
Usually about 5% to 8% of our total sales, we have to give to the bussers, runners, host, expo and the bartender. So if you’re tipping less than that, then we just paid out of our pocket to take your crap. We lost money thanks to people that gyp servers. Thus a major reason why I’m thankful I don’t have to serve old people.
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4:57 pm
This is very true! I know of restaurants that do that. Waiters actually go home with only 70% of their tips because of tip outs!
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8:10 am
I am a waitress. I am a Christian. I pay my way through college from your tips. I thank God everyday for a job. I thank God every time I think I might not make my rent, then some gracious person comes along and tips me that last $20 I needed. I am not boastful. I am not proud. I am not disobedient. I respect my elders. I treat every table the same whether I know they will give me $0.50 or a million dollars. Sometimes I have bad days and I am not in the best mood. But you won’t know that. You will get good service and good food and go home happy. I make $2.13 an hour. My paycheck for every two weeks is $50. No human being can live off of that. So are you obligated to tip? Absolutely not. But just remember that we’re not all unthankful young disobedient kids. A lot of us work really hard in and outside of that restaurant to make a living.
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12:39 pm
Thank you for being honest my friend and if I had a nice Christian waitress like you I’d surely give you a tip! God bless and best of luck with everything.
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4:01 pm
Seriously, Mr. Billings. Go work as a server. Your argument is ridiculous, and offends me as a waiter. We aren’t looking for hand-outs, we aren’t lazy, this is how the job is DESIGNED. We are counting on your tips! I’m sorry that my $2.13 an hour doesn’t exactly pay the bills. It is not customary to tip in other countries because they are paid a reasonable hourly wage, but not here. So yeah, if you wanna complain about this topic then look at the owners of the restaurants themselves, but not the people that are trying to make an honest living, and just so happen to do it by serving tables. You are a bitter, angry old man, and it shows when you try to defend yourself in your own comment thread because you can’t handle the criticism. And for your own health purposes, you should probably never walk into a restaurant again. You don’t mess with the people handling your food, and there is no telling how many of us have read this article.
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5:57 pm
“Thank you for being honest my friend and if I had a nice Christian waitress like you I’d surely give you a tip! God bless and best of luck with everything.”
And what if she wasn’t Christian?
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6:24 pm
Yeah, what if she clearly was a Muslim, or you overheard her say that she’s an atheist to another table?
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7:39 pm
For the record: The idea that tipping isn’t customary in Europe is a myth. I think it’s a joke played on American tourists by travel guides. It’s customary to round up to the nearest whole number, or the next one above that for a small bill, and a little higher for a larger bill. Since in many areas of Europe the waiters will tally each diner’s bill separately (at least at the nonfancy places), this means they receive a somewhat sizable tip in total.
As for your refusal to leave tips, well, that’s just you sucking money from the pockets of everyone else. As was already pointed out, waiters are payed below minimum wage because their tips are factored into their income by the government. This means their tips are also factored into their income by the restaurant managers. If no one tipped, the restaurants would have to pay the wait staff more. If the restaurants paid the wait staff more, the prices would go up accordingly.
This is to say: the true full price of dining is the menu price plus the tip. It’s stupid. It’s definitely silly. But it’s true. This means that when you don’t tip, you aren’t fully paying for your meal, and you are passing that cost on to the rest of us who do tip. The more of you Marxist freeloaders there are not tipping, the more the rest of us hard-working hard-paying Americans have to pay to cover your commie butts.
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7:44 pm
Dude, you have Prussian Blue on your list of favorite music on Facebook? Last I checked we Americans fought _against_ the Nazis. Take your freedom-hating ass back to Germany.
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11:02 pm
Dude, I thought this guy was serious until I saw his about the author, and I quote:
“Stephenson Billings is an Investigative Journalist, Motivational Children’s Party Entertainer and Antique Soda Bottle Collector all in one special, blessed package!”
C’mon, the jokes over. No way this guy is for real.
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11:05 am
I waited tables for five years, the biggest insult I ever had were self righteous people clearly with money preaching to me, telling me God bless, or leaving me religious literature instead of a tip. It’s smug, rude, and surprisingly frequent with the brunch crowd. Waiters get paid 2.15 an hour, nothing more and we’re typically poor anyway, so when you go to a restaurant tip 15-20% think of it as part of a social contract.
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2:46 pm
I have read several of your articles, and in all honesty it burdens me that you try to use the label of Christianity for such stingy living. Christ doesn’t call us to “give 10% and then the rest is yours.” No, He calls us to live a life with arms open… constantly graciously giving more and living a life of service to others. We are not meant to BE served, but to SERVE OTHERS.
I have so many server friends who have been completely turned off by Christianity as a whole, because of the pompous individuals who label themselves Christ-followers, and go out to eat after church on Sundays. They are typically the worst tables to wait on because they are incredibly rude, and chintzy tippers. Isn’t that hypocritical?
Please. If you want to live a self-driven, greedy lifestyle then by all means, that is YOUR DECISION. But don’t label yourself with a Biblically founded religion that literally states YOUR LIFE IS NOT YOUR OWN. To live is Christ, to die is gain. Christ lived a life of poverty, and service to others. He certainly wasn’t worrying about the percentage of his charity. HE GAVE EVERYTHING.
Please don’t be yet another person who hypocritically lives, and turns people away from the truth.
It is not our job to judge the moral character of those around us, but to live a life that sets an example. Was that “valuable lesson” you think you taught the waitress, worth sacrificing her opinion of Christianity?
There are several fallacies in your argument, but I’ll leave those to your opinionated, dramatic viewers to point them out.
Just don’t forget, Christianity is a religion rooted in grace. Maybe this poor girl was having a horrible day, you have absolutely no idea what she was going through. Maybe what she needed most was a helping hand.
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6:59 pm
(Lauren Hagood, I appreciated your post very much and I am here to make an overly dramatic, overly opinionated post of my own.
)
Dear Billings,
I am a member of the service industry. I wait tables forty hours a week. I am appalled by your bad attitude. I was also raised Presbyterian. I would just like to say several things.
Are you literally unable to comprehend that my restaurant pays me three dollars an hour, as required by law? Do you understand that I must also purchase my own low-quality health-care that doesn’t even include yearly checkups? Do you also not comprehend that after taxes come out for all of my tips, which I claim because I do not particularly want to be audited, I receive a paycheck that is a whopping… zero dollars. That’s right, zero dollars. My paycheck is void. In fact, several years in a row I have been behind on my taxes because I do not make enough hourly wage to cover them and have had to pay extra money in to the Federal Government.
Here’s something for you to chew on. If restaurants paid their employees an hourly wage and tips were not only optional but not expected, how do you think your service would be? Just a thought. If you need some help on this one, think of the service you get at a corporate coffee or sandwich shop compared to a high-end dining establishment.
Every day I wait on people who are clearly wealthy who will not make eye contact with me. I am an articulate, educated, beautiful young woman. If your %20 tip (which, to all of you readers, is the correct amount to tip… just double the first number in your bill, add a dollar) can make a difference in my day and perhaps ease the resent that one harbors after years in the service industry, who are you to refuse it to me? Did Jesus Himself not attempt at all times to ease the suffering of the righteous? And am I not to be viewed as a righteous, hard worker despite my quashing my personality and comfort, and essentially forgoing my basic human rights to dignity and respect every single day at my job?
No offense, but riddle me that one. And your theory that only superb service deserves a %10 tip? From reading several of your articles I can see you lack compassion and empathy, two things Christ not only exhibited but championed. You also appear to me to be an instigator who takes twisted pleasure in riling people up by being as callous as possible. Just a thought. Maybe some self-evaluation is in order.
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7:00 pm
I’m curious about what sort of customer service you worked for so many years in. I’m guessing it wasn’t the restaurant industry. I have worked every position in the house, from dish-washing all the way up through the different positions on the line to front of the house, waiting tables and bar tending. If you had even half the restaurant experience as I have, you would realize just how hard we work to serve the masses. You would also be aware that servers make only two dollars and a handful of change per hour, and the government will tax us on a percentage of what our sales are (usually around 8%). So if you are ‘gracious’ enough to tip 8%, you are only helping the waitress to break even. In the above described instance, you cost the waitress $0.84. This may not seem like a significant amount, but I assure you that if you had to pay gas or bus fare to get to work, not to mention the cost of uniforms and laundering them and the added cosmetic attention needed to appear a “handsome waitress” it is a huge amount.
Also, please remember that there are no sick days in this industry. You don’t work, you don’t get paid. Perhaps your servers performance was sub par, but that could have been due to a variety of reasons other than a hangover. Have you ever had to go to work shortly after receiving news of the death of a loved one? I have, and thank goodness I didn’t have to wait on you that day.
Whether your service was as terrible as you describe, I don’t believe that it warrants a blog that slanders an entire work force. I just don’t think its right to assume the worst about any one who doesn’t suit my pallet nor do I think it appropriate to generalize them.
Shame on you sir. I may not be Christian, but I do know the attitude you expressed in this article isn’t either.
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7:43 pm
Besides this being shameful and ridiculous, you obviously left out that waiters and waitresses receive less than minimum wage (if they are lucky), and in Europe it is considered rude to tip because waiters and waitresses receive regular wages and consider their jobs to be careers, not interim jobs like most wait staff in the US. We should consider ourselves lucky that we live in a country where we can routinely enjoy a VAST amount and variety of restaurants, so the least we can do is leave a few bucks for our servers. And, if you really didn’t like the waitress then DON’T GO BACK. Oh, and maybe you should learn to cook for yourself. It’s healthier.
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8:58 pm
Mr Billings,
I am working 50 hour per week in a restaurant, and I dare say you are right. Why is it that I am still working in a restaurant well passed my youth? Because, when I was young, I was too lazy to continue to study. Well, right now I am working hard in order to be able to send my children to good schools so they won’t have to be waiters all their life. What I am saying is that, why people who contribute so little to society should get such high wages, and simply for doing their job?
I earn my tips by being kind and offering the best service to my client. Your lazy unsmiling waitress deserves nothing.
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7:11 am
Waiters and waitresses in the us. make about half of minium wage hourely. The rest of there pay comes from tips. In other countries the gratuity is added to your check automaticaly or they get paid a living wage. Not tiping is not only rude , and cheap but cruel too. these people are not slackers as the author of the article sugested but hard working people who are trying to make a liviing.
a rule of thumb
15%-20% if the service is excellent (i.e. the server really goes out of there way)
10%-15% if the service was good
5%-10% if the service was ok
a penny placed face down (not sure of the exact origin for it ) if the service was thoroughly unacceptable.
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2:42 pm
Billings does not have a whole lot of restaurant experience. And while ignorance isn’t an excuse, it sure is bliss, look and that stupid smile on his avatar. With that said, if billings should ever come to realize he has injested a shit burger, and then presses charges; I’ll gladly pay for a defense lawyer. I’m millionaire a couple times over and just happen to have a few fine lawyers in my pocket, which is better that just knowing them. So on the particular subject of food tasting like shit, billings is no longer ignorant, and his photo would then be that of a legitimate shit eating grin. However, you would still be lacking a multi-faceted restaurant experience… There’s no hope for you, seems like jesus already gave it his best shot. Jesus fail.
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12:28 am
With salaried people being laid off, furloughed, taking pay cuts and losing 40l(k) matching contributions, I think wait staff, hotel maids, and others who apparently get the overwhelming majority of their income from tips should also be subject to a trim off their take-home pay.
Particularly when these same people have so blindly allowed their government representatives to raise sales taxes, car rental taxes and hotel taxes on tourists because they so casually figured, “oh, THOSE taxes don’t affect ME.”
I have always tipped reasonably, but under Barack, I have adopted the motto “15% is the new 18%.”
Yes, I know, why don’t I stay home? After reading here and elsewhere how casually amused you AntiChristwire types are at the idea of kitchen staff spitting, urinating, defecating, and masturbating into food, believe me I stay at home often. With your obsession with adding legalized prostitution and drug use to the category of “hospitality industry,” I think I can understand why you seem to find the thought of an anonymous human being’s secretions and/or excretions in your food to be the cherry on the whipped cream to your sick, overindulgent, scatalogical definition of the word hospitality.
…and that vacant seat at the restaurant earns a 15% tip on ZERO.
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12:09 am
You do understand that in today’s economy, it is EXTREMELY difficult to find certain jobs. For example, I am a poor college student looking for summer work. Not many companies are going to hire me because they don’t want to pay me to work for 3 months before heading back to school. I had no choice but to work at a restaurant. It is NOT because I am lazy.
One reason why servers are bitchy is because they deal with people who are overly demanding, uppity, and down right rude. You have to isolate yourself in a sense so you don’t have to be weighted down by people constantly bickering.
Do you even know how much servers get paid? I only got paid 2.36 an hour. That’s barely a FOURTH of minimum wage! How am I suppose to pay bills on a 35 dollar check a week? I rely on, and am thankful for, CHARITABLE people that understand I am trying to make a living.
Also, it’s considered “rude” in other countries because they actual make a decent wage working as a server.
As devout a christian as you seem, you don’t seem too eager to help your neighbor in times of hardship. Sure, you might get one or two hateful servers, but what about students are less fortunate people who end up in a bad situation?
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4:04 pm
“My waitress was rude, slow and forgetful. She looked hungover and smelled of cigarettes. Her bill was so illegible I doubted her math but she refused to recalculate it.”
I agree that if you get bad service you should not feel an obligation to tip.
However, if you receive good or excellent service, not tipping is not only rude, it is essentially denying a server their income despite their doing their job as they are supposed to do it. Tips are not gifts, they are your way of saying thank you for a job well done. The tipping tradition in restaurants in this country also enables restaurants to keep costs down by paying servers LESS than minimum wage. That’s right, Mr. Billings–in almost every place, servers and bartenders are paid BELOW minimum wage, and employers are legally allowed to do this due to the fact that servers are considered tipped employees by the government.
“Tipping has reached epidemic levels in the United States. Years ago, you left whatever change was in your pocket at the diner. Finer restaurants, you left maybe 10% for the career waiters.
What used to be an acceptable 8% has now gone up to 15% to 20% and even more.”
I would like to know what time period you are talking about. When I was a child dining out with my parents in the 70’s and 80’s, 15% was considered standard then, as it is now. More for better service, less for inferior service. It was not a matter of “spare change” when I was a child, nor was it before I was even born. Nor has “spare change” been standard practice for tipping in at least the last 60 years. (See below.) And I base this not only on my 24-year career in the food service industry, but from conversations I have had with my elders, who I respect.
“And it’s not just for restaurants– hair salons, newspaper delivery, yard work, dry cleaning, mailmen, repairmen, pizza delivery, taxi drivers– everyone these days comes with their hand out for a little extra. “
I do agree that far too many people have their hands out for tips these days that have not traditionally been considered to be in tipped professions. While I wonder why fast food joints and movie rental places have tip jars out, I cannot remember a time when food delivery people and cab drivers were not tipped.
“Should we somehow be obligated to give more than this to a surly waitress?”
As I said above, Mr. Billings, I DO agree that bad service does not deserve a reward, and despite my position in the food service industry, I HAVE stiffed bad servers on the tip in my time. This does not, however, mean that it is right or just to not tip servers who actually DO do their job adequately or superbly.
“There is no valid philosophical or moral argument for tipping.”
There certainly is, Mr. Billings. Tipping is not only tradition, it is a tradition that keeps costs down in restaurants, which they pass along to the customer, and it is a way to reward superior service when it does happen. Tipping in restaurants and bars goes back decades, far longer than I’ve been alive. My 75-year-old mother tells me that when she and her friends dined out in the 50′s, tipping was standard practice. And the standard percentage for adequate service THEN was 15%, just as it is now.
“Are there times when we should tip? Of course! When we receive extraordinary service from a handsome waitress, it is a great show of kindness.”
If you receive superior service from an unattractive server and feel you should not have to tip, the only ugly person there is you, sir.
“But for the young people of today to expect, really demand, a free handout for a job they are employed to perform is ridiculous.”
I am 40. Hardly a “young person” in the way you imply it. Yet I have made the majority of my living in the food service industry since for over 2 decades, since 1986. I do not expect nor do I demand a free handout. I expect to earn my income fairly, by providing excellent service, working in a system that allows and indeed encourages such things as tipping. If you don’t like the way the system is set up, then go about changing the system. But with the system as it is now, what you are advocating is at best being cheap and at worst ripping hard-working people off. If you came to my bar and I provided horrible service, you would be well within your rights to not tip. But if I provided you with the superior service I have been providing thousands of people since the mid-80’s, yes, I would expect to be fairly compensated for it. This is not about giving gifts, sir. It is about paying fairly for services rendered.
“Tipping is, in essence, the transfer of wealth from one generation to the next. Young people have to learn to earn their gifts.”
Strange. Many of my customers are younger than me. And an overwhelming majority of people I’ve served, from 18 to 80, really don’t seem to consider their tips to me “gifts,” but well-earned recompense. I HAVE gotten gifts from customers who really enjoyed my service, but that was above and beyond the tip they gave me, because they believed my service was above and beyond the norm.
“One of the most dangerous things about tips is that they are not taxed…”
Mr. Billings, I don’t know if you are simply misinformed or consciously lying, but this statement is simply wrong. Tips ARE taxed. They ARE taxable income. By law, tipped employees such as myself have to declare their tips. Those declared tips are in fact taxed, and those taxes come out of our meager paychecks. Additionally, if those declared tips are considered to be too low a percentage of a server’s total sales, they are subject to investigation and audit by the I.R.S. This is not merely a theoretical possibility, but a cold hard reality. I have personally known careless servers who were investigated and audited for declaring their tips to be below what the I.R.S. considered realistic. If everyone followed your advice not to tip, and the servers declared these non-tips and low tips accurately, they would be investigated for tax evasion. If they declared more than they were tipped, they would be taxed on money they did not earn. That’s one great lesson you are teaching there, sir.
“She and the rest of her peers must understand that kindness reaps rewards, that the customer is always right and rudeness is uncalled for in a dining establishment if she wants to earn any money.”
I absolutely agree that rudeness is uncalled for in the service industry. So is cheapness in the face of good service. And by the way, the customer is NOT always right. The good customer is always right. The rude, cheap, arrogant, entitlement-driven customer is usually dead wrong. As are you, Mr. Billings. And I cordially invite you to contact me via email if you would care to discuss your misguided views on tipping with someone who actually knows what they are talking about.
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7:30 pm
Just to add to my earlier post a couple of things that occurred to me:
As I said above, not all servers are young. Not all of them are students working their way through college, or working a summer job. There are many professional servers who have been doing it for a long time, are quite good at what they do, and actually support their families on their income. In other words, they are supporting their families on their tips. Because as previously noted, the actual hourly pay is pretty low for servers.
Another thing to note when it comes to the thought that servers are “young people who need to learn about the world”: think about the last time you were in a fine dining establishment. A really swank place. It’s almost a certainty that your server was not some clueless punk teenager, and it is highly likely that they were in their thirties, forties, or more. Why? Well, because such places want people with mature outlooks, professional attitudes, and experience in the food service industry. Which means the servers are not going to be the youth of America.
Finally, let me point out one more thing about people who rely on tips. They are not looking for a handout or a gift or charity. They have done their job and, if they’ve done it well, they rightfully expect to be fairly compensated for it. Now, you may not like the system that is in place currently in America. And there are good arguments against it. But the fact remains that the current system IS in place, and as such, to not tip a server who has done their job well and professionally is tantamount to not paying them for the service you have received from them. This is no different than someone not paying you for work you do, be it an employer, a client, what have you. The only difference is that servers are essentially gamblers. They don’t KNOW what they are going to be paid for their services. The know what the system suggests people pay them, i.e., a certain percentage of the total cost of the meal. Some people will tip them more, some less, some not at all. It is a gamble servers live with every day, the gamble of the unknown. Because unlike an employer or a client not paying you for goods or services you have provided, a server has no real legal recourse if they are stiffed or lowballed.
You can rail against the system all you want. And if you want to be a cheapskate, you can definitely refrain from tipping, though I imagine that in places where you are a regular, such behavior will result in less and less good service as this becomes known. But if you have received good service, excellent service, superior service, if your server or bartender has seen to your needs and provided you with a satisfactory dining or drinking experience, or even exceeded your expectations, then it is your moral and ethical obligation to tip them accordingly.
To use a favorite phrase I have heard from people such as the author of this article, it’s the Christian thing to do.
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12:11 am
Speak my mind, eh? Okay – you asked for it.
I am a server. I don’t hold any qualms about doing it until someone writes an article on “When should I tip?” and then I read it for its valued points. Sadly to say, there are none in this article.
“If you are a police officer or sportswriter, a bus driver or a school counselor, do you deserve a tip for simply doing your job? Of course not! There is no valid philosophical or moral argument for tipping.”
The above statement from this article speaks for itself. Those jobs actually earn minumum wages or higher automatically. In “most” restaurants, servers earn far less with the starting wage of $2.13 an hour. That’s less than the pizza delivery driver earns hourly. And for what we do, we actually do a lot more that’s expected of us. I have done that job too – I know what it entails. For all intents and purposes, everyone has a bad day, no matter if they are at work or at home. The pressures of society place a lot of stress starting with the government all the way down to our parents. And because your waitress didn’t give you what you had asked for in a timely manner was no means an indication of her service. There are a lot of things you simply don’t see sitting at your table.
Examples might be people didn’t show up and the servers have extra tables to wait on, the cooks are serving food that’s cooked improperly, the manager is on a power trip and thinks you can do it all, including their job, etc.
By not tipping anything or mediocre, you’re only sending one message – you are not to be waited on again. And if you visit frequently, we do remember.
Personally, I would love to be able to make a standard wage. But that wouldn’t benefit the customer, nor the restaurant because not only would the meal be higher-priced, the service would be sub-standard. If anything, tipping should be what it used to be when it was first established – BEFORE the meal and the order ever took place. Then you would know who to have as your server and who to avoid.
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8:30 pm
boy, i can’t figure any of you people out. are you unbelievably stupid or do you just get pleasure from over-reacting to irreverent (and damn funny) humor? sheesh…
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9:31 pm
It’s a satire site you freaking idiots.
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10:31 pm
Jesus is for fags
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11:08 am
I haven’t received a paycheck from the restaurant I work for in 4 years. Sure, I get a stub showing all of my hourly pay went to my health insurance premiums, but I haven’t cashed a check since my training pay. I make 2.65 an hour and am not allowed to go in to overtime because the billion dollar corporation I work for doesn’t want to pay me $4 an hour.
If you aren’t going to pay for the service, stay home and eat. I can’t afford to have stingy, rude people sitting in my section for hours if they aren’t going to pay me. I’m sorry that societal standards have made tipping a requirement. I too would rather they put the gratuity as part of the price of the meal. But then you would complain about everything being overpriced.
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6:34 pm
I totally agree, but I have a question. So what about Tithing? If God is shitting on your life, should you give him less? I mean, if he’s being pretty stingy with the blessings. Maybe they’re slow to come out, or cold when you receive them, you’ll sure teach him a lesson when you drop 30 cents in the collection plate. Man, what a point you’ll make. Maybe then your next bag of pots wont have any seeds or stems, or your baby wont be born with Down Syndrome. Shit, I don’t know you could have even prevented Hurricane Katrina. Oh wait, that was the gays fault. Oh man, won’t I have egg on my face if any of my brothers from Westboro read that. hahaha.
Anyway, love your writing. So much hate and anger, I know Jesus would be proud. For it was The lord that commanded “Thou shalt punch thy fellow brother into his scrotum, until he yields to your words. If thy brother does not, then he was a gay or ancient alien and should be drowned in the lake by Greg’s house. Amen” Timothy 8:16
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