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Your Take: Acceptable To Tip Less in a Recession?
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Kimberly Palmer of Alpha Consumer asked her readers this week whether you should tip less during a recession. There was your typical philosophical discussion about the merits of tipping (think about the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs) but it seems as though, based on the callers into NPR’s Talk of the Nation, a show that Kim was on, people, based on empirical evidence, felt it was acceptable to tip less.
I don’t think it is. I worked once as a banquet waiter and so was not subject to per-ticket gratuities and I wasn’t compensated as if I were subject to per-ticket gratuities. I was paid a handsome $10 an hour for my banquet waiter duties and the only tips I ever saw were for getting drinks for people. I may be a little biased, but not terribly so.
I think that if you don’t think you can afford to tip fairly, you should be using the services are expect tips. You can cook your own food for far less than eating out, so if money were really the issue then you wouldn’t be ordering or dining out, you’d be cooking yourself.
As for the philosophical qualms people have about tipping, our society has made it a norm. Some food service staff are paid less because there is an expectation that they will be compensated by patrons for their service through tips. If you don’t like it, don’t blame the waiter or waitress, blame the system and blame the restaurant owner for perpetuating it.
What are your opinions about tipping? Do you think it’s acceptable to tip less when money is tight? What about the philosophical angle about how tipping has really stretched itself into other areas or how tipping in general is really a terrible compensation system?
(Photo: mwichary)
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I agree that the restaurants are to blame for causing this tipping issue. They pay their employees so little that they soley depend on the tips. What gets me is that the restaurants are the ones making out because they charge way more for food that is not worth it and don’t pay their waiting staff much.
Reservoir Dogs was a great movie, and the opening scene was a classic. At least Steve Buschemi made a well-thought out and intelligent case for his views. I would have to agree that if you can afford to use the services in which an accompanying tip is customary, then you should be able to afford the tip. Just because the country may be in a recession or the individual may be going through tough times financially, if the services provided are no different quality wise, then there should be no reason to tip any less. Like Jim stated, you can always cook your own food to avoid spending more on a tip, but it would be in pretty poor taste to deprive someone of making a living because a person wants to pick and choose how to cut back in a crunch.
if you cannot afford to tip, then you probably couldn’t afford the service to begin with….so stay home.
i think tipping has gotten out of control in certain places, though. tip jars at starbucks for example. i am ordering a coffee, they are making it…why am i tipping? of course if you are super high maintenance with weird requests, you should tip!
tip jars seem to show up everywhere and that is why people might feel they can cut back on tipping. (dry cleaners,fast food??)
waiters make less, so you should tip. other workers, like starbucks employees get paid a normal wage as do most other jobs. (i’m not picking on starbucks, that is just the first thing that comes to mind!)
As a former employee of Starbucks, I feel the need to correct you.
Starbucks employees (at least in some parts of the country; pay varies by region) are payed only a few cents above minimum wage. It is presented to you, at the time of hire, that you are payed this amount because your pay is supplemented by tips. Making a customized, hand-crafted beverage for someone is a process that can take up to a minute, sometimes several if the customer in question orders numerous drinks with different customizations. Of course I never expected someone to tip me a dollar for pouring a cup of coffee; making 5 different varities of frappuccinos in under 2 minutes? Yea, a buck would be nice. A buck that is split amongst all the employees of the store, no less.
People think nothing of tipping their bartender a dollar for every cap they pop off of a bottle of beer but the very NOTION that your barista might expect a similar tip for a well-crafted, handmade beverage sends people into a frenzy of huffing. You wouldn’t believe some of the comments we’ve endured from customers ignorant to the fact that we actually don’t make $12 an hour.
Please remember that the next time you order your half-decalf, 1 and a half shot, soy, extra hot, extra foam latte.
You should eat out less if you can’t afford the tip.
You guys are so tough! The fact is, I have heard this opinion many times, that you should not go out if you can’t afford to tip. I understand what you are saying, but I think many people, tip based on a lot of factors besides what they should be tipping on. For example, when i am in a really good mood I tip better or if people at my table tip too much I may follow suit out of social pressure. Secondly, it is all fine as a server to say that people shouldn’t come to the restaurant unless they can afford to tip well, until no one comes to your restaurant and it goes out of business. A small tip is better then no tip at all, at least at some point. Lastly, I can tip however I want! You don’t want an unstable source of income, get a different job. I used to cashier for long hours. It was very hard at times and thankless and there was no tipping. I went to school and got a better job! No matter how crappy, different jobs tend to pay different levels of income. As an individual, it is up to you to move to where the money is.
@Rachel: I agree with you, you can tip however you’d like, but I think that if you tip less only because of the recession then you shouldn’t be going in the first place. If you tip less because the service was sub-par or some other reason, I think that’s perfectly fine.
My opinion:
Tips should be based upon the quality of the service rather in a recession or not.
However, I know most waitress/waiters in the NYC region, including private country clubs, do not report their tips plus they do side jobs for wealthy families where in two hours they get paid for what someone does not even make in a day and do not report this either. In addition, in the NYC region they make normally about $400-$500 a day in just basic tips.
Tired of hearing their poor me syndrome.
Cheers and Happy Holidays to all !
Tip as normal. In my case, I tip around 20% for sit-down service, 10% for buffet, and nothing for fast-food, and adjust from there for quality of service. The least tip I have left was 2ยข, which was paid for r-a-l-l-y wretched service, the level of which would now result in me having a discussion with the management and then leaving to find someplace else to eat (though I was much younger and less wise at the time).
If you are scrimping on the tip in order to save money, perhaps you would be better off eating in. If you cannot afford to tip right, then you cannot afford to eat out.
On the other hand, I feel that tipping is vital in the feedback to the waitstaff. No other industry rewards you as well when you hustle, or punishes you as quickly when you fuck up. It holds as long as your tipping is appropriate to the level of service. Change that, and the whole system breaks.
I think the percentage should stay the same, if you need to save money then order something cheaper or skip the drinks. Unfortunately this does translate to less money overall for your server.
You should continue to tip fairly, or don’t eat out!
Good point. You shouldn’t use the service if you cannot tip fairly. A lot of restaurant service workers rely on tips to make up for their low hourly wages.
Don’t tip less – at least by percentage.
Eat at cheaper places if you are having money problems.
Jim -
Therefore, less money for me to go out give wonderful or lackluster wait staff. My point, the downward psychology of a recession inpacts a lot of people, including service workers (whether it is right or wrong).
I agree that people should not tip less because of the recession, but to make a comparison, my company did give me less of a bonus this year because of the recession. Our profits have not been down, and from what management has hinted at, they just feel that they can get away with giving less.
@ Rachel:
I can see your viewpoint, but I also see a difference in your comparing a bonus to tipping a service person. You do not work at your job directly for the bonus, whereas wait staff, barbers, etc. work almost entirely for the tips which they receive. Plus, you are speaking of a one-time event as opposed to an ongoing reduction in salary, hours, etc. I think the point of most of the respondents is that if a person is hit so hard financially that they cannot afford to properly tip (which to many is considered an inherent part of the cost), then how can they justify going out to eat in the first place from a fiscally responsible standpoint.
I agree it’s easier in Europe, both for waitstaff and for customers. the tip is on the bill; you pay it as part of the cost of dining out. In the US at present, I think, if you can possibly afford it, you should tip more in a recession-assuming the service was good. Others are tipping less, the waitstaff are seeing fewer customers, people are ordering cheaper meals (resulting in smaller tips). The people at the bottom of the wage system are most hurt in this economic climate. If I can afford to eat out, I can afford to tip, notwithstanding geography.
If you can’t afford to tip the ‘normal’ rate, don’t eat out.
Having relied on tips in the past, I was always dismayed when someone would simply scoop up their change and leave, after I served them a drink.
If I am not mistaken, if no one tipped the waitstaff, then the employer would bump their wage from something liek $2.17 to the minimum wage. The reason they can get away with this is because they get tipped, on average, more than $4 an hour to reach teh minimum wage.I agree with the individual who said that if they wanted steady cash stream then they should get a different job.
Now, I do tip, but I am not nearly as ‘generous’ as most of you. 20% on average? I do not see that someone serving me food deserves a 20% markup in price. If they did something very nice, and stood out, I have tipped 20% before. I think , recession or not, there should NOT be a set percentage.
I dont think the “if you cant tip the rate, dont eat here” mentality works in a recession.
If I was a server, I would rather get a little less as a tip as long as there customers coming. We all have to make adjustments and service oriented people understand that money is tight for many now.
I worked my way through college waiting tables, sometimes I had 2 jobs. I worked hard, and it was so demoralizing when I got a measly tip, and I knew I had done a good job. As a wait-person, I can’t help it if the whole tipping system is wrong, or if we’re in a recession…I’m just trying to make a living. Tip well if the service is good, just to put a smile on someone’s face, if for no other reason. I believe Kindness is something that gets returned to you many-fold in this life.
If you want to be stingy, stay home, you don’t have to tip there.
Tipping less should be a function of getting less goods or services. For example, if you used to eat a $100 meal and tip $15, going and eating a $100 meal and tipping $10 is not really fair. But, if you ate a $65 meal and tipped $10, then I think that is fair.
This generation unfortunately has had very little guidance from their parents about thinking for themselves. As a result FEAR of not “doing the right thing” controls their behavior. When you are confident in your abilty to judge each situation on it’s merits, there is no problem. Nothing has to be turned over and over again in the mind. You do what is right instinctivly. Even regarding money!
If you really want change-try Zen. We can help you.
“Don’t buy it if you can’t afford it” is a reasonable argument but as Aman pointed out – most servers would probably prefer to have the same number of customers but lower tips then the same rate of tips but a lot less customers.
That’s a good point, I guess I would prefer more people and smaller tips than the regular tip and fewer people.
I tip 20% and wouldn’t eat out if we couldn’t tip. We automatically add tax and 20% tip to our eating out budget. Maybe it depends on location (we’re in the SF Bay), but I thought 17-20% was the norm.
I completely agree with you, if you can’t leave a reasonable tip then you can’t afford the service. When my wife and I go out to eat it’s usually not to get great food, it’s to have someone else make it, serve it, and clean up.
Agreed. Because social norms in the US factor in the tip as part of the fair wage, it’s my opinion that you should always pay the socially expected tip. If the service is bad, you should notify management and let them handle the appropriate response. If bad service is common there why are you patronizing that restaurant?
That said, I almost always over tip. First, I visit the same restaurants regularly and being known as a generous tipper goes a whole lot further in getting you good service than being known as a stingy one. Second, it has been my experience that often when my service is sub-par it is not the fault of the wait staff–the place is understaffed and the waitress has been dealing with too many tables or other jerk customers. In this case she’s likely to get too little in tips despite hard work through no fault of her own.
People are too quick to dole out negative reinforcement than positive reinforcement when tipping. Disclosure: I’ve never worked as a waiter, but I did work a janitor while getting my degree and thankfully my wages weren’t dependent on the whims of those sickos who manage to spray diarrhea everywhere but in the toilet.
Given that restaurant workers are obscenely underpaid, it’s unreasonable and unfair to cut the percentage of a tip expected when you dine out. On the other hand…if you don’t shop in WalMart for ethical reasons, then maybe you shouldn’t be patronizing restaurants for ethical reasons, either. One reason I rarely eat out is that I try not to do business with companies that grossly exploit their workers. Sometimes it’s hard to avoid, but one does the best one can.
If enough people stop eating in restaurants, the cost of restaurant food will come down and the cost of tips will drop commensurately. Then you can feel a little less guilty about tipping less while in fact you should be tipping the poor wretch more. Food’s better and cheaper at home, though….
@ Funny about Money:
Very true. However, if people stop eating out en masse it won’t cause costs to come down. In many cases, margins on food are already pretty low. More likely is that it will cause lower quality restaurants to close and a shift in the industry to higher margin restaurants then net effect of which would be higher prices when you do finally go out to eat.
That’s been my anecdotal experience when visiting the UK where regularly eating out is not as prevalent as in the US.
I can’t remember ever seeing a restaurant lowering prices, most just shut down.
Actually, I’ve noticed that some places are reducing the sizes of drinks and portions in an effort to control costs. Went to Applebees today and the drinks seems to have shrunk about half the size, and they now have some combo thing with appetizers where you only get a couple of each which the server admitted wasn’t the greatest of deals.
I’ve noticed the same thing, it’s a little deceptive because the menus don’t list the size of things. It’s a little disappointing especially if you go to a place frequently.
I refuse to tip, under all circumstances. Why should I tip the person whose JOB it is to provide SERVICE to me? I work hard, have an excellent, well-paying, career, yet I would NEVER expect to be tipped for my work. Why should someone who already gets paid to serve me EXPECT anything more? Tipping is wrong, for so many reasons, and those that believe in doing it are just showing how foolish they are, to be taken advantage of. If you believe in tipping, then you also believe in accepting mediocracy, and that is sad. Don’t tell me that the person serving my food, or other service, “relies” on tips for their income, or that their base salary is so low that they need tips. That’s BS! Everyone in our society has an opportunity to get an education, to learn a real marketable skill, and to be successful. If the uneducated, low-life serving my food accepts the hard, thankless, JOB that they are stuck doing as their CAREER, then it’s not my fault. Remember, life is full of choices. Choose to get a real education and enjoy the benefits of a successful life.
Non-tipper,
I agree totally with your assessment. However, many are in this profession because they do make a lot of money however cry poor me. If they were not making decent money why would they stay? There are other minimum wage jobs available. (Refer to my note of earlier which speaks factual information about people I know in the industry in the NYC region (NY and NJ)making a decent living. By the way country clubs pay $15-$25 an hour for their dining staff and they still get big tips.
Go non-tipper at least in the NYC region.
You are just the type of person who would scream bloody murder if your service was bad, I’m sure.
Fact- In some states there is a seperate Minimum wage (lower) for tipped employees
Fact- Almost all tipped employees are paid minimum wage + tips.
Fact- Uncle Sam places a minimum tax on sales for tipped employees because of the reasons stated by Jane.
Fact- These people are working for you.
Fact- If you do not tip, you are asking them to work for less than minimum wage.
Is that right? How much do you think they value your business, if you value their service so little. And don’t say you don’t care, it just makes you seem petty and abbrasive. No one likes those qualities in a boss.
Fact- Most employees perform better when encouraged and compensated.
How’s your benefit package?
How often do you get a raise?
Believe it or not, most service industry people are in it because they enjoy it.
I think they would all agree, you would not be enjoyable.
If you don’t believe in tipping, you obviously don’t believe in Capitolism and probably lean toward a more socialist society, but… by the sound of your rant, let’s just call it, “entitlement”, you’ve probably done very well for yourself.
Sorry your so bitter. May you get all that you deserve. Karma’s a bitch.
Well, tipping is actually a negative as far as earnings and in an economic sense. Think about it this way, those jobs which are highly gratuity based are sales. Wait staff are not sales, they have no control over the revenue stream of a company whatsover (except perhaps negatively, if the service is terrible or they cannot turnover the table fast enough). Essentially, tipping gives restaurants a free ride during slow periods to overstaff since the penalty for overstaffing is less(in a marginal cost sense).
Believe it or not, if everyone stopped tipping the wages for wait staff would quickly rise to fill in the gap. The reason is simple supply and demand labor economics. Also, this income revenue would be more easily taxed and increase the tax roles of the country. Tips are largely a negative both for the waiter and for those who eat at the restaurant. The second is less obvious than the first. The reason it is a negative for the patron is that there is pressure for fast turnover in low meal price restaurants (as well as high) and the wait staff is constantly pushing people out the door for obious reasons. This is obviously a boon to the restaurantuer, but negative for everyone else.
Also, if no one at restaurants tipped the price of food at the restaurant would increase, but probably less than the difference between the pre and post tip bill. The fundamentals of the market would set the price and since tips are a perfectly price elastic good to the price of a meal. By removing the tips from the market it would eliminate the free riders, those who don’t tip.
Also, I believe the fundamental of implied gratuity for parties over a certain size is illegal. You are essentially charging two different rates for the same product. If you view a meal as being a transaction between an individual and a restaurant then forcing large groups to have fewer waiter and forcing a gratuity raises the per person price above that which each would pay for the same service seperately. It is akin to saying if you book a plane flight for 12 people you are forced to pay a higher rate than if you booked for 12 people individually. This is something in which their is legal precedent.
Finally, the tipping procedure is merely a way to incent the wait staff to push people through their meals faster. It provides no value to either the wait staff (In a monetary sense) or the customer. The customer is essentially paying for the priviledge of having someone stand over them and pester them while they are eating to eat faster and not enjoy their meal. If you don’t believe, go to a diner on a saturday morning and try to read the entire paper. Order one meal and nothing else. After 1-2 hours in a booth, the manager will try to come by and throw you out. This is not service nor is it intended to create service.
John K., thanks for this post — it is truly the most insightful comment I’ve ever read on the subject of tipping.
John K,
In selectively throwing your logic around, you offer little to no explanation as to how or why tipping came into being. You ignore ideas such as how tipping can be a way to transfer decision-making sovereignty to consumers (if no one tips a certain waiter, a waiter leaves the workforce – the customer has a comparative advantage in performance review), for voluntary income redistribution and normalized giving, and tricky little details such as that most consumers probably do not want to read their newspaper in a crowded diner.
To avoid sounding as rambling and incoherent as you do, I will write no more.
I cannot disagree more. If you’ve ever traveled abroad you’d know the flatline service socialism provides. They don’t care if you’re happy they will get paid anyway, along with benefits and social programs, like health plans, vacation etc., sorry “Holiday”.
The customer benefit is in how they are treated. If you’ve ever been a regular anywhere and you’ve taken care of you’re favorite bartender or waiter, you’d know what I am talking about. You get the royal treatment. Or the “Norm” from Cheers. They know what you like, remember what you drink and generally treat you as a friend if that’s appropriate. If you are a corporate big-wig your are treated with extra respect and it usually impresses clients when the staff welcomes you by name and cares about your experiences. And you would never be rushed. If you feel rushed anywhere anytime speak up and/or pick a new place.
Socialism irraticates this. You won’t feel rushed, because there is never a sence of urgency about anything. There is no reason to go above and beyond. Just the minimum service for minimum pay or worse minimum service for very good pay and benefits.
To understand the fiscal benefits you first have to understand the business. If all the employees of the service industry were to be given normal work force standards: benefits, medical, vacation time, sick days, raises etc. your price for dining out would exponencially increase.
Every business has cetain built in over head costs. Real Estate (mortgage or rent) cost for product, shipping and cost for production. In many businesses you pay for their office decor and all the employees as well and never see any of it. I don’t know about you, but I have seen some pretty extravagant offices out there.
Restaurants are no different.
There is:
1. the ambience and cleaning and upkeep of the space and the staff that performs those functions that you probably never see.
2. The chefs, cooks, prep cooks, and dishwashers you also never see.
3. The management and Maitre de, waiters, cocktailers, bartenders, busboys and food runners and in some cases security staff that you do see.
4. Product costs: Liquor, food, ice etc.
5. Liability insurances- much higher for businesses with public foot traffic and even higher if alcohol is served.
6. All your home expenses- Utilities, water, Air conditioning, heat, Cable, etc.
7. Sports packages and special events- at a much higher price than yours, because it is for public viewing so priced for “potential eyes.”
8. The tipped employees are like private contractors. There are no benefits, no sick days, no vacation and usually no medical.
(Yes you can go on vacation, but if you’re not working you don’t get paid.)
9. You seem to know economics- do the math- add the cost of medical, pay raises, sick days for all the people listed above and then flatline the service you will receive…I think you’d rather throw a 15%-20% gratuity and have a nice experience than the automation alternative.
10. To not tip, is to ask the server to work for less than minimum wage. They have a minimum tax on sales. Again do the math. After they tip the food runners, busboys, barbacks, bartenders and paying the minimum tax on your experience, you have cost them money.
11. Illegal? I think not. Restaurants have added the gratuity for large parties as a curtousy to help eliminate bad feelings and miscalculations. And you don’t get less waiters either. Most servers will have a section of 3 or more tables. Your example means you have the undivided attention of your waiter for the legth of your stay, which will probably be well above average. To facilitate a large party (say your example of 12 people) it takes much more attention, time and effort than say 12 parties of 1, or 6 parties of 2 or even 3 parties of 4 people. The party of 12 is all going to be sat at the same time and will and should expect to be served at the same time, everything has to be timed just so. As the server you know you will need your track shoes on for this one. Most people will want refills, other rounds and special requests and usually not at the same time. When a large parties order hits the kitchen the normal flow comes to a screeching halt and everyone else in the restaurant basically suffers and has to wait for that party to be served before their order is even looked at. Some restaurants like Houstons in Beverly Hills refuses parties over 6 for just that reason. If you are the patron on a nice dinner with a friend, the wife, husband, or significant other or worse a client you are trying to impress, are you going to be understandind when your food gets backed up as much as 20-30 minutes because a party of 12 is getting their food? I didn’t think so.
Finally, the tip is an incentive, yes, but not to rush you. To give you the best service the business, atmosphere and other cliental will allow.
John K. makes a good point. My wife and I lived in Germany for four and a half years and had to get used to the European habit of leisurely dinners. There, it is not unusual to see people sit at a restaurant table for two or three hours – and not necessarily re-order drinks. Nor does the waiter stop by and ask how the food was. Regarding tipping, it’s usually included in the bill (normally 15%). You can round up to the next euro, but it’s up to you.
@ Non-tipper:
Theoretically, I agree with most of what you said. If I had a magic wand to wave and affect the tipping paradigm, I would eliminate it. I can also see the sense in consciously modifying your behavior as a form of protest against a custom you deem lacking.
However, your hostility is disturbing. There are many ways to protest the custom of tipping service staff and it is revealing that the method you choose is to penalize those you deem “uneducated, low-life” scum. Truly, the uneducated and others who have made poor life choices find themselves in such jobs. So do high school and college kids, teachers during the summer and others in “seasonal” vocations, seniors who need to supplement retirement income, stay-at-home parents whose kids have grown older, as well as a myriad of other situations which are not predicated on being “uneducated” or “low-lifes”.
You imply that the market has dictated the appropriate “base” salary for these people already and your tip is something extra. Yet, the vast majority of patrons *do* tip so this argument is fallacious. If tipping was eliminated then in all likelihood these salaries would rise to make up the difference. So, by never tipping you are jipping these folks of the difference between your “base” and the wage a properly free market would set. Instead of being some kind of champion of the free market, you are exploiting government intervention in the labor market to pay too little for the labor of these people. I suspect you don’t care though.
We both look at the custom of tipping and see a bad system. My actionable response has been to do what I can to address it in a positive manner; yours has been to use it as an opportunity to stick it to those you consider beneath you.
Hear, hear, great response, much more even keeled than I would’ve been.
Tipping is not a city in China.
I personally think that tipping is a necessity. I agree with the comments above about: if you can’t tip, then don’t eat at the restaurants.
One thing I would like to get someone’s opinion about is:
Do you tip if your taking the food to-go?
Yes, but not as much. 10% is appropriate. Your order still takes time and effort and hopefully is as skillfully crafted as if you ate in.
Bottom line here is that the people fixing and wrapping up your order are usually tipped employees and have a minimum tax on sales applied by Uncle Sam. So as I’ve said in other responces, not tipping is asking the “tipped employee” to work for less than minimum wage.
I would say also though, not tipping because your take out is always screwed up at a particular restaurant is justified.
Cause and effect: Most people don’t tip, so we all suffer for the servers lack of commitment to get it right, because they’re in turn going to get screwed by the us.
Point out whenever your order is not right and especially if you’re a regular let them know, you’re not adding a tip because the orders always wrong, but would like to tip for better service. I think we’d all benefit.
People who are against tipping are just cheap. Why do you think the waiters are so nice at expensive restaurants? They’re earning a commission on the check. Do you think they’d bend over backwards for minimum wage? Tipping is a kind of stupid custom, but it’s what prevents you from getting McDonalds-level service (especially at corporate restaurants like Applebee’s, where the waiters are trained more like salespeople than just servers).
I’ve been tipping less. But that’s because I usually tip 20% – 30% for average to above-average service. I’ve recently dropped it to 15% for average service and 20% for solidly above average.
I’ve also quit giving valet’s a $5 just because that’s what’s in my pocket – now it’s $1 – $2 depending on the effort required by the valet.
It’s not OK to STOP tipping or to tip less than 10% for decent service. But it’s OK to reign in extra generous tipping.
I would like to express my feelings by quoting the the words of the song “Waitress” by Live:
Come on, baby, leave some change behind
She was a b****, but I don’t care
She brought our food out on time
Wore a funky barrette in her hair….
Everybody’s good enough for some change….
For my own part, I always leave at least the socially accepted 15%, and will leave 20% for even moderately above average service. I used to be uptight about it, but I’ve found (much like Mr. Maddock above) that in almost every instance the cause of the problems I’ve had are not due to the waitress but some other employee or the establishment’s policies/practices in general. I sometimes also leave an extra 5% if the waitress is pretty, and to those who say that’s discrimination, you’re right.
Urgh – I believe the opposite. A recession is an important time to make sure you’re providing a right-sized tip. People who are tip-dependent can be hit hard during a recession. Yes, I worked in a restaurant once, as a hostess, so I wasn’t tip-dependent myself, but I had servers come up and beg me to seat lots of tables in their sections, because they needed enough tip money to pay the rent.
Why are waitresses untouchable in a recession… I’m in financial services (self employed, and my friend is in Tool and Dye… we’re both feeling the effects of the economy… and we’re cutting back, but still go out and have fun (less often).
The bar is still packed as it was during the bull market. So why should waitresses, or bartenders make the same amount?
Everybody hurts during a recession… bottom line. Fuck this bullshit “if you can’t afford the service then stay home” bullshit. If I want to tip less… while I’m cutting back on other bills too… then who the fuck are you to pass judgment.
You can do whatever you want, but the fact you’re getting so worked up about it is a sign that you recognize the hypocrisy in your statements. If your customers were able to decide how much they wanted to pay you for your financial services and arbitrarily decided to lower that payment because of some external factor, would you think that’s right? I doubt it.
I am the Angel on your shoulder telling you to do the right thing.
You’ve actually just answered you’re own question. The place is still packed. So, you’re saying let the staff continue do bust their butts for you as usual and in turn you would like to pay them less. That’s Rich! If your business is down you probably have less work, so less money. Would you accept less money for more or the same work? I don’t think so. Why ask the staff of your favorite restaurant to. The nights you go maybe they are still busy, but I gaurantee the off nights are much more off than you know.
Here’s the bottom line, good, bad or indifferent. The industry standards are:
For service- 15%-18%, for excellent service and/or if the establishment is super busy and everyone is scrambling to accommodate the business- 20% is customary or more if you’ve been pampered or needy. (For an example of needy see When Harry met Sally- Sally ordering her food/ You know who you are…)
For Waiters, Cocktailers and Bartenders, Uncle Sam actually expects you to be tipped and you have a minimum tax on your sales. When a customer leaves a nasty tip or no tip they are asking you to work for less than minimum wage, just because they “feel justified, for whatever reason”. Most customer’s do not know or understand this. Most people also do not know that the Waiter, Cocktailer and Bartender then, at the end of the day, tip the Runner who brought your food, the busboy who cleared your table, the barback that assisted the bartender and yes the runner who packed up and brought your to-go food. (You should be tipping 10% for to-go food at establishments that employ waiters to service you. If this is too much for you, may I suggest drive thru. It takes time and effort to do to-go food. Some restaurants won’t even do it at all, because it takes too much time away from the guests.)
To put it in normal terms: How would you feel, if your boss randomly came to you at the end of the day and told you, “I’m gonna pay you less than minimum wage, because I feel justified, for whatever reason”. Would there ever be a good enough reason?
IT’S JUST WRONG, RUDE, AND UNACCEPTABLE. If you want to play with the big boys you need to pay with the big boys. If you cannot afford to go out, don’t. Or do it less if it’s a strain on the purse strings. The economy stinks for everyone, but no one should ever have to work for less than minimum wage.
“If your time is money, so is ours.”
When I go out to eat I always tip well. Especially if the server is doing their best. I have found in the past that when you leave good tips, they remember you and the service only gets better each time you go back. Some times the owner will pay a visit to your table with a sample and ask what you think. When I used to bar hop in my younger days the bar tender had my drink in front of me as I sat down. I LOVE good service and I’m happy to pay extra for it if the server is willing to go the extra mile of remembering my favorite drink etc. It’s hard work to serve the public. I don’t envy wait staff in the least.