Tipping at restaurants......

Okay so this is more a rant than anything else. I work at a restaurant and I am a good server. I am friendly I take care of everything that guests need I am attentive but not nagging- people drink eat and generally have a good time. Then I give them their 60 dollar tab and they leave me 3 dollars.... ON 60!!!!!!!

I must say that people really MUST NOT UNDERSTAND that at the end of the night we look at our individual sales- (tonight mine were 710.34) and tip out 1-2% to the bar, 2% to the bussers, 1% to the food runners- sometime there is one more person to tip out depending on how busy we are so lets break this down-

On 60 dollars, no matter my tip, the bar gets $1, the bussers get $2, $1 food runner-----Thats 4 dollars that and that means that not only am I losing money by helping you because I have to tip out everybody but I am not using your table for anyone else SO when you tip shitty you make people LOSE MONEY!

This is how I make my living, this is how I pay for school, rent, car, utilites, EVERYTHING!

If you aren't prepared to tip at LEAST (and when I say least I mean it) 15% then don't go out to eat.

If your server is good tip 20% if they are great tip more like 25%! Seriously I cannot tell you how aggravating this is-

10 on 100 is not a good tip ( remind you that $5 of that would go to other people in the restaurant and not your server)

Tonight was just so busy and my feet hurt and people were tipping so poorly that I just really needed to vent. I know I am just a server but when people waste my time and effort and then make me lost money I just cannot handle it.

My Mom complains about crappy tippers, too... People are just douchebags... I always tip generously ($3 on a $7 order for instance)...

She actually had a guy tonight ask her if she made minimum wage... She informed him that Waitresses only make $2 an hour and he flipped out... He totally had no clue... If only more people would ask..

Hmm, that's tough that you have to make all your money on tips. I assume you are from the US? I had no idea that servers then have to tip other people. In NZ we don't tip at all usually, but the servers get paid a decent hourly wage. It's the same in Japan where I live now.

It seems a pity that a culture has developed in the States whereby employers don't have to pay their staff properly and the staff then have to live off tips and don't have a guaranteed income. I wonder why this has never been changed by unions etc. Is it a situation most people are happy with?

I get paid 3.90 an hour minimum wage in Illinois were I live in the US is 6.50 I think- but since we are tipped etc... then they are allowed to pay us 3.90----

So if you tip 10 on 100 then 5 goes to tip outs (other people in the restaurant) and you make 5 BUT if you are spending 100 then you sit there for at least 2 hours that means I am making 2.50 an hour +wage= 6.40 so after tips UNDER minimum wage.

Remind me now how I'm supposed to pay my tuition

I completely know where you are coming from on this one.  Saturday night I had 9 teenage girls come in and every single one of them wanted a milkshake, which I have to make from hard ice cream, and we only have one machine.  They all wanted separate tickets and were loud pains in the ass.  They disrupted the whole restaurant and monopolized my time.  Needless to say, they left me NOTHING!!  No surprise there.

Anyway, what keeps me from wanting to kill people who leave little or no tip is the thought that there are just as many, if not more, people who are very generous.  Plus, I'm lucky.  It is a pretty small town, and a pretty small restaurant (only 17 tables) and I am usually alone with the cook.  No busboys to tip, just one cook.

I am so sorry you had such a bad night.  It is true that this system is messed up.  It also bothers me when people don't tip the waitress at casinos.  There was this one waitress at Caesar's who was about 7 months pregnant and still working, but there still were people not tipping her.

One thing I would suggest if it's available to you is to find a job on campus.  When I was in college, I worked at labs and such.  I only did administrative work and learned whatever they needed me to learn to help out.  Some of these jobs paid much better than retail.  Minimum wage was around $6.90 and I got paid around $9-$10/hr to start.  Also, a lot of these jobs allow you to set your own hours which is great for working around tests and study time.

Hope you have better days this week.  :)

I totally know how you feel...I used to be a waitress in Dubai. We get a monthly wage of 1,500 AED which is about $300 we work 60 hours a week (no overtime) which i guess works out to about $1.20 an hour. Americans usually tip but you'd have europeans and arabs that just don't tip and it would drive me nutty.

Any way that business owners can exploit workers, they'll find a way to do it.  They are the ones with the lobbying power to set the minimum wage laws. 

I've felt for a long time (actually ever since I waited tables back in the 1960s) that there should either be fair wages for wait staff, or a service charge added to the restaurant bill to pay the workers. 

I think that those of us who formerly waited tables for a living are better tippers because we understand how it works.

I know there are plenty of lousy tippers, but when I was "waiting" my way through college the good tippers far outweighed the bad ones. Most of us started out as "hostess" with the normal wage and so looked forward to switching to waitress and making tips. Once we were waitresses we made tons more money than as hostesses. But we didn't have to share tips with all those other people; their wages were already more than minimum.

In California, I believe the servers still get paid minimum wage and they don't have to share tips with the poor guys in the back.  There are a couple of restaurants in San Francisco that actually add a 5% surcharge for the folks in the back as a way of pointing this out.

So, does that mean that the amount on the tab - since it's not paying any of the workers - that amount is all just food cost, non-labor overhead costs, and profit?

I always read about how the food cost is actually the cheapest cost to restaurants (thus why they keep increasing portion sizes because the food is cheap and they're trying to sell you on the value), and that it's their labor costs that's where their money goes.

But I've also read that it's extremely difficult to run a restaurant and be successful, that a single proprietor will never get rich, but they do it because they love the business.

So on a $100 tab for two people who drink ice water (no alcohol), assuming you add $20 for tip, where does that $100 go and why isn't that enough for the restaurant to prosper?

Most restaurants charge $1.89 or so for iced tea, which costs pennies to make an entire urn - why can't they pay their workers fairly?

Some servers actually make really good money and that's why no one complains...

My Mom has been known to bring home $100+ a night... Working 6-8 hr shifts... That's more than $12+ an hour...

thats not even the minimum of 10-15% thats so trashy to do that.

work in a place thats better. or work in a place thats trashier so you can yell at the customers. lol
a nice little jab i did...when i saw a small tip go on the table..i would go over and ask them if there was something wrong or they werent happy because they could tell me. and i looked at the tip tray and made sure they saw i did it...two more dollars goes down on that tray AT LEAST everytime. its so funny. try it out. i knew it wasnt me it was them being cheap....those customers ironically...would come back and want my section. i dont get it.
i think everyone is NUTS. lol

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i got hired at a place where the house would take tips from people that wait tables...i told them they werent getting my money...lol

and they didnt take it...i couldnt believe people just handed it over.

i agree claire - UNION is needed for food workers 

WA state servers get minimum wage - $7.93/hr. plus tips.

I always try to tip well. When in doubt, I round up because why squabble over a few bucks?

I have been both a hostess and a server. I've worked big parties that monopolize my entire shift - one guy even wanted me to cut his chicken breast and mix it into the pasta for him - which I did - and the group left me barely 10%.  But bad tippers, while frustrating, are a natural part of the job. At the end of the night, it  balances out  - or why else would anyone keep doing it? As a server, you are a bit more independent contractor than straight employee and bad tips are a cost of doing business. 

Hour for hour, I made better money hourly as a server than I make currently. 

To all our friends from other countries: Here, in the US, it is the custom  to tip 15-20%  USD , minimum....

Whether or not serving pays a decent wage depends on where you're doing it--both geographically and the quality of the restaraunt.  If you are fortunate enough to be at a place where the average check is $100, then even with crappy 10% tippers you can probably still do better than minimum . . . but if you're working somewhere where the average check is $35, and you have to tip out to dishwashers etc, there's no chance to make minimum when you get bad tippers. 

I overtip.  Big time.  But, I used to be a server.

When I used to have first dates, I would always find a way to spy on what the guy left.  If a guy is a crappy tipper, I wouldn't go out with him again.  In my opinion, it shows something about someone's personality -- how they treat waitstaff, valet parkers, etc.

^5 y-racer...:D

"If you aren't prepared to tip at LEAST (and when I say least I mean it) 15% then don't go out to eat."

I agree.  TOTALLY. 

My husband and i usually tip $2 minimum per person on small bills.  We always tip at least 15%, most of the time 20.  We only tip less than 10% (between ten and 15, usually closer to 15) if we get really terrible service. 

I actually rarely tip a percentage.

I also take into account how busy the place is, how long I sat there, how annoying I or anyone in my party may have been (dressing on the side, no butter on those veggies please, oh damn this isn't quite done right could you have them throw it back on for 3 more minutes), how many times the server had to empty our ashtray, and also the average size of a group in the restaurant.

Example: Man and I often go to a local "family" restaurant for dinner.  It's one of those places where you can get just about anything, they have prime rib on the weekends, huge mai tais in tiki glasses, and saganaki flaring.  The average size of a group there is 4 or more.  Let's say man and I are there on a busy Friday night.  It's one of the few places left where we can smoke, so we will probably sit a little longer than the average 2-top in this particular restaurant.  We often order filet mignon there, and our bill is usually about $50-$60.  I have no qualms about tipping at least $20 on that.  Why?  Because we sit there forever, the average bill in the restaurant (for 4) is at least $80 or so, and we also ask for a lot of special things (see above).

However, we go there all the time, and we always get INCREDIBLE service.  Especially now that they know our tipping philosophy.

I have, in the many years that have gone by been a server, dishwasher, busser, cook, restaurant owner and most definitely a customer.  It is called gratuity for a reason.  It has become customary in the U.S. to tip but it was started as a way to show a server (waitress or waiter in my day) that they did a good job and you appreciated it.  There are many minimum wage jobs that don't get any tips at all.  When was the last time one of you servers tipped the person on the cash register at your favorite clothing store?  They stand on their feet all day, wait on lousy customers and put up with heavy boxes, heavy handed bosses etc... just like you.  I understand most servers work for the tips, my daughter is a server and complains about the tourists who don't tip. But to expect it and get mad over it when it does not happen is really asking a lot.  Personally I tip minimum of 15% -20% but if I get lousy service (which happens more times than not these days) I will take away from the tip as the lousy things add up.  Many people in the public are afraid to even complain for fear of what will end up in their food if they do.  As far as the owners remember their operating expenses are high and due to taxes etc the servers, many times go home with more money in their pocket than the owners of the restaurant (unless of course they are a big company).  I understand and feel for you all but there is no job that I can think of that does not have its problems and many that have no opportunity to get anything more than what shows up in their paychecks. 

Good luck to all and may your pockets have enough in them to make you happy.