I hate being asked to tip on to-go orders. Today I just hit "no tip", it was for a salad.
OT: Tipping dilemma
- Thread starter 18IsTheMan
- Start date
This. The front of house staff have very little influence on the back of house staff, and they didn't make your meal. A lot of places don't do tip sharing because it can be considered illegal to take tips designated for one employee and give them to another employee (depends on the location, I'm sure). But back of house staff almost never get tips and make a normal wage, vs wait staff and hosts who will probably not be paid a living wage because someone, somewhere said "this job normally receives tips for a job well done, so the restauranteur no longer has to pay a living wage."
I dislike the system we have for that reason. But generally, tipping your sever will only help the servers, not the cooks. So if your food tastes bad, don't hold it against your server.
RHC has been known to steal Cash Tips left on the Table.
What's crazy to me is the 3.5% credit card fee I paid at a restaurant last night. Add in a 20% tip, and that's a significantly higher bill.
Restaurant have a cash price and a credit card price?
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To be honest, i haven't noticed at restaurants, although we don't eat out often.
Over the years, I have known many servers and bartenders. The good ones have always told me they make much more money from tips than they would if they were paid a "living wage" working for an hourly wage. Most bartenders do pay the bar backs part of their tips and table servers generally have some arrangement with the bartenders regarding splitting of tips if the table orders drinks the bartender has to make.
A friend in college was a part time bartender at Applebee's. He was good and developed a loyal group of regulars. He made around $30,000 a year in the late '90s, much more than any of his friends who had part time jobs with hourly wages and no tips. His first "real job" out of college he actually made less per hour than he did at his bartending job. Working for tips can be very lucrative if someone works hard and has a good attitude and does a good job. People with a poor work ethic, a rude personality and a sense of entitlement generally do very poorly in jobs where tips are the bulk of their income.
You are tipping for service not for food quality, you should bare some of the responsibility for ordering steak and potatoes at an Italian restaurant lol.
The point is the customer should not be the one to pay that money. If the person does a good job, they get a tip. If not, then they're being paid enough to live. The idea that you have to tip, or should feel like you have to tip regardless of quality of service in order for your server to survive is ridiculous.
Your approach is good. One thing I always take into consideration is whether my glass of tea, coffee or water is being re-filled.
The customer pays either way. Tipping allows the customer the ability to actually determine the level of pay for the quality of service the server provides. If the restaurant owner paid the server as much as you feel they should be paid, the customer would be paying higher prices for the meal and, indirectly, paying for the service regardless of how poor the service might be. If the server isn't doing a good job, the job they are hired to do, they shouldn't be paid at all in my opinion, they should be fired. Paying a server a "living wage" is a disincentive for the server to do a good job since they will be paid the same regardless of the level of service they provide.
You know, I almost never got bad service anywhere I went in Europe, and they don't get tips at all. They look at you funny if you try to tip them. And the food wasn't exceptionally expensive, either.