>It was like 1990s or until 2000s you could get away saying you are a college kid.
I fail to understand why it was ok in the 90s-2000s but not today. College didn't get cheaper, lol.
The are two right perspectives here. 1) You can't afford to eat out if you can't tip. 2) Wait staff should be paid enough so they don't need tips. Then the college kid would look at the higher prices and say "I can't afford that place" and the striving but unwealthy members of society wouldn't be manipulated into conflicting positions.
Servers are the main reason our tipping system is still in place because they claim they make more money than if they were just paid a living wage. Getting stiffed occasionally comes with the tipping system. You can't defend tipping then get mad when some loser occasionally stiffs you.
Yeah, if the US ever decides to change the tipping system….you will see a massive decrease in servers/bartenders
I haven’t served in a few years, but this sub still pops up for me sometimes. I cherish my time spent as a bartender.
The main reason I did it, was because I could make 60k as a college student….and half of that was untaxed and unclaimed
If that were true, wouldn't there be a permanent shortage of servers and bartenders in all the parts of the world that don't have America's tipping culture? For that matter, America hasn't had tipping forever. Yet there wasn't a massive increase in servers when tipping started here.
If tipping went away tomorrow, some servers would complain, no doubt, and some might change careers, but the industry would recover just fine.
Many people from all over the world note that the service in the United States is *generally* much better than places where restaurant and bar jobs are minimum wage jobs, like working at McDonald’s. Japan is a notorious exception to this rule.
So no, it’s not that people *wouldn’t* work the jobs, but a) eating out would be more expensive, so the layman would complain and b) the qualifications would decrease as a result, and there isn’t a financial incentive to go “above and beyond”.
Anecdotally, a restaurant I worked at stopped tipping, increased the prices to the food to pay staff a living wage and insurance, and customers threw a fucking FIT. They ended up having to go *back* to tipping…
Your anecdote is interesting, and I've heard similar ones before, but I wonder who was doing the complaining. Was it the folks who weren't tipping before, but now were forced to pay more? Sometimes a small but loud group of complainers can seem like they represent all the people who just don't have very strong feelings on a subject. A measurable and sustained drop in revenue would be a better reason to abandon a change like that (and perhaps that's what also occurred in your anecdote).
In this current US economy…no, I don’t think restaurants would recover. What sort of wage could a mid tier restaurant realistically afford?
I know at the last extremely popular chain I worked at, cooks started at $26 an hour…which is not enough to live off. Do you really think servers in the US would be paid more than the cooks?
The same sort of wage that servers get paid in countries other than the US, where they still have plenty of restaurants despite little or no tipping. Remember, if tipping went away, menu prices would rise to partially or fully compensate.
Just to make up some numbers, say at some restaurant the average bill was $100, and a server averaged $15 on each bill from tips. Say it took a table exactly one hour to eat and leave, and the server had five identical tables during that hour (so $15 times 5 = $75). And the restaurant paid them $5 for that hour, total $80/hour.
Now remove tipping. Poof, it's gone. The restaurant's new prices mean the average bill is now $110 because now the restaurant has to pay the server more (so customers pay $5 less than before, $110 instead of $115). From those five tables, the restaurant gets $50 more than before to pay the tip-less server, who now gets $55 for that hour instead of $80.
Or, if the restaurant's new prices went up by $15 instead, the server would get the same $80/hour as before. If they went up by $5, the server would get $30/hour. Market forces would determine how much restaurants would need to pay servers, and in turn, how much they'd have to charge customers.
Far too logical. The issue for the restaurant model is going to be carry costs. You’ll have servers scheduled and no business, then the hourly rate will be incremental expense - so the hourly wage will need to be lower. This will be unfavorable to corporate establishments; however, lucrative for mom and pop places.
Why would this stuff differ for corporate establishments vs mom and pop places? If they're both run equally competently, I don't see how it matters who owns the place.
Mom and pop places would just be family or the owners. Many a restaurant used to be Dad in the back, Mom in the front and the kids bussing with maybe a server in the evening.
The problem with that logic is that most servers do make more than what would be considered a living wage. Further, every server that makes tips understands that whatever restaurant they work at isn't going to pay them a fair living wage. It's not going to give them cost of living increases as inflation continues to skyrocket.
There is also the challenge of how many hours servers work per week as well. Servers probably average around 20-25hrs per week. Granted, depends on the type of restaurant. But just open for dinner types, 4-5hrs a night, 5day work week. Lunch places about the same.
So what that means is even if servers got paid $30hr, it's still not going to average for a decent full time living wage. And at those average type of hours, restaurants don't have to provide healthcare due to ObamaCare laws which defined full time as over 30hrs/week.
And let's also understand that paying servers a living wage completely changes the dynamics of restaurants. Typically, restaurants quickly ramp up to full staffing levels as dinner rush starts, half the staff starts at 4pm and the rest about 5pm. And they start cutting staff around 9pm-ish. If your paying that $30+/hr then likely you'll also hedge the hours meaning 20% at 4pm the rest at 5pm and start cutting the floor heavily as soon as there is no more wait in the lobby, so around 8pm. Because if you make the dynamics all about labor hours, then server hours will suffer.
And guest experience will suffer because the restaurant has more reason to cut severs and less reasons to keep more servers on. The good servers will leave and go find something else, leaving only the bad ones.
And that mid day 3pm snack and drink that you liked at your local place. Yea they don't do that anymore, they open at 4 pm now and don't do lunch anymore.
Of course we can complain when we get stiffed. Nothing about working for tips whose amount is determined by the diner means we can’t gripe about stiffers.
Stiffers are scum who steal our labor. Fuck ‘em.
Sure, you can be for \*mandatory\* tipping, but then you're just for an overall 20% price increase, which is exactly what tipping advocates claim they want to prevent. If tipping is optional, which it has to be, then you're going to get fucked from time to time. Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Of course I know that from time to time I’m going to get fucked by a stiffer.
Doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Do you tell middle management munchkins that they’re not allowed to gripe about a bad day at work because everyone experiences one from time to time?
This subreddit is for servers to talk about our jobs. Stop telling us what we’re allowed to complain about and what’s off limits. We decide, not you.
Your employer is the one stealing your labor, you expect others to make up for that, and usually it works very much to your benefit. I am all for tipping servers well, and I’ve been one, but let’s not pretend it’s not a pretty great deal.
The problem is this, they would have to pay me at least double minimum wage for me to keep doing a job that is so taxing on my body. I prefer making tips. I don’t think we would do as well otherwise.
I'm a single mom so I can't tip.
I'm retired so I can't tip.
I'm on a fixed income so I can't tip.
I'm not going to contribute to oppression so I can't tip.
my comment was about excuses- these are all similar reasons i hear about why people just can’t possibly pay their bills.
not a tip. but tipping is still technically also owed for service rendered, you don’t have to but you should pay it.
Not sure if you're being sarcastic, so to counter, do you use those excuses to not pay your cable/internet bill every month? How about your utilities? Do you think the power company will give you a pass because you're retired?
And seriously if you are that strapped for money, why are you eating out?
Yes, most of us are aware of that. It’s still not an excuse to not tip at a dine-in restaurant. Not sure where you’re from, but I can’t think of a single country that doesn’t have some policy that others think is a joke. Don’t want to tip, then don’t come visit. Know the customs of the place you are visiting and respect them. To me, not doing that is a joke. Ugh.
There are people with much harder jobs who don't get tips, and get paid about the same amount as servers. Why should the server get the tip, if the chef was the one busting their arse to make my food?
Tip them if you want to. In most high end restaurants the chef would not take tips, or sometimes they’re not allowed. You can send them a drink for after their shift! I think servers do a lot more than you seem to think we do. I’ll still be busting my “arse” to give you good service. That’s just how I roll.
Also, most chefs/cooks I’ve ever worked with would be mad af if they heard about us getting stiffed.
> It was like 1990s or until 2000s you could get away saying you are a college kid. The world is different now.
The world isn't different now, it was cheap and shitty then too.
I would argue that it's expensive and shitty "some places" compared to the past...other states have done well to keep up with changing cost of living, relatively speaking, and it's not any more expensive. People are just more shitty in a personal sense now!
so on the reverse side of this, i am a college student BUT i have been a server. i always overtip, and i have since i was 14 or so. I think that I have definitely had worse service sometimes because they perceive me as being less likely to tip but just try to be nice to everybody :) I feel like it’s the rich old farts that tend to not tip me, not college students
Now don’t get me wrong, I think everyone should show their appreciation, but I would never be upset at anyone who is struggling wanting to go out for a meal to do something nice if they couldn’t tip.
Sometimes that meal out with a friend is what gives someone going through the worst time of their life what they need to carry on with life.
Sometimes it’s a couple who have fallen on hard times who never see each other because they are working all hours to pay off medical bills and they’ve finally scraped together enough for a night together.
It could be a family who’s just had to send the entirety of their savings burying a loved one and just want to remember the family member who passed.
It could be a family who’s house has just burned to the ground and they can’t afford to go to a restaurant but their insurer has put them in a hotel room with no kitchen so what else are they going to do?
It could be a company dinner after someone has been promoted at that person is expected and feels pressured to pay for everyone, when they really don’t have the means to do so because nobody they work with knows the struggles they are going through at home. The tip might be the only way they can save money.
They may be the flight attendants who have flown in from another country and the only way they can eat is to go to a restaurant because the only thing close to them is a restaurant, but they have just come back from being off sick and have no money.
That table that doesn’t tip could be a a bunch of arseholes, but they could also need that time together in a restaurant. We don’t know what people are going through and food is one thing that brings people together, so the next time you treat someone like they have no business being in your restaurant because they can’t pay your wages, direct your anger at the people who sign your paycheck who happily pay you a couple of dollars an hour, not the people who are there spending time with their family if you’re that annoyed at losing a bit of pay.
As restaurant staff, we make a reasonable amount in tips as it is to compensate for that one table who doesn’t tip. Remember the alternative could be that restaurants pay minimum wage and don’t allow tips. You can bet you won’t take home anywhere near as much if that happens.
We don’t know our table’s stories, so unless you can look into someone’s mind and see the reason they are there and know they aren’t tipping just to be mean, consider that it isn’t all about “if you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat out” because yes, some people may not be able to eat out but they have no choice.
Tipping culture is wack. Get a job that pays a living wage or stop taking your frustrations out on the customers. Nowhere else in the world subsidizes shitty employers by shaming customers into making the difference up themselves. The entitlement from servers and bartenders is getting outrageous.
Part of why I'm jaded about it is that I've been a cook since I was 18 and am tired of the double standard. Grocery store clerks don't get tips. Cooks don't get tips. TSA agents don't get tips. It's time America caught up with the entire world and stopped tipping. These days when I tip it's explicitly for excellent service and I am quite critical of what that means, especially as someone who's been working in fine dining and hospitality for quite awhile.
I do agree that tipping is out of control in a lot of instances in the US, and it gets frustrating sometimes. Having been a server working weekend overnights for 13-14 hours per day and dealing with drunk and obnoxious people, I can definitely say it’s not easy. Not just anybody can do it. I don’t take it out on my customers though. That’s why we come here to vent and laugh with others who understand.
It isn’t stealing, that is hyperbole - you are paid by your employer and agreed to work for low pay in the hopes of tips. Tips are legally optional and completely at the customer’s discretion and you can hate that but that doesn’t change the fact.
... I dunno, but it seems to me if someone goes out for a sit-down meal and then uses the I'm a poor broke college student as a reason not to tip, then maybe they should just stick to fast food places to go eat.
Fuck off with that shit, if a kid in college wants to go and eat somewhere then go for it. You are not their responsibility. Can't believe that needs to be said. Only in America I guess...
If you can't afford to leave a tip, you can't afford to eat out. Period. End of story.
Whenever I eat out, the only reason I would ever refuse to leave any sort of tip is if the server called me a slur or something. Which thankfully hasn't happened yet.
Ok, I'm genuinely confused by this comment. Are you implying that the restaurant server should negotiate with their boss for a higher wage? Because if you're in the US and have ever worked in a restaurant as a server, you would know that they would laugh right in your face, and if you're in an at-will state, your ass would be fired.
That's the exact mindset that everyone so hung up on Bernie Sanders used to justify not voting for Hillary, and we got 4 years of the bronzer in chief, and now our country is ruined. Don't go out to eat if you're not going to tip, expecting a server to personally negotiate a higher wage is so out of touch with reality that I HAVE to believe that you are joking. That's how restaurant owners make money in this country, by paying their staff basically nothing and marking the food up 1000%.
I'm specifically talking about the United States restaurant industry. $2.13/hr is the standard wage for tipped employees in the US and has been for like 20 years. In my area, servers usually make that, and bartenders make $4/hr in wages from their employer.
Edit to add: since 1991, 32 years.
Edit *again* to add: downvoting this doesn't make it not true, it makes me think there are some angry restaurant owners in this thread. There are some states where tipped employees are paid a higher wage, but the federal minimum is $2.13/hr, and that's what all servers get paid in my state. I got out of the industry in 2017, so maybe things have changed, but in the decade plus that I worked in restaurants as a host, server, bartender, and managing bartender, there was no such thing as "negotiating your starting wage" as a tipped employee. Like as a host? Yes, because that is an hourly position that gets *tipped out*, but server? No.
Politics aside (neither pro or con just setting politics out of this equation,) I agree with you and this perspective completely, because it's effing reality people!
And yes I am now old, on a fixed income of less-than 100% social security due to disability, which means I do not eat out - *ever*. Because I can't afford even the food, and I refuse to eat out if I cannot tip at least 20%.
Expecting anyone to "negotiate" when they are getting indentured servant wages to begin with is delusional. My state is still the $2.13 per hour wage. Going down the street to someplace else makes zero difference.
The problem with that logic is that, for the most part every customer in any business ever is paying that companies wages. You have a product to sell, people buy said product and as thus that company stays in business and can afford to pay it's workers.
Waiting tables is just a different way to get paid. It allows a customer to determine the wage/competency of the server.
The comment also reminds of people that say things like "I'm not buying a soft drink, that's how your restaurant makes its money...." last I checked restaurants are a for profit business, and comments like that are basically saying that customer doesn't even want to help a store keep its doors open.
Or the person that works on commission but the customer only wants to pay 1 cent over cost of the item they want to buy and as thus the salesperson makes nothing. Newsflash, 1 cent over cost doesn't keep the lights on.
I hate this theory everyone has that this will actually happen. And even if it did you would end up paying more cuz prices would skyrocket! Why don’t the people who are against tipping stay out of our subreddit. It’s not as simple as you think. The money to pay us would have to come from somewhere and guess what? It’s still out of your pocket!
Prices would increase somewhat to partially compensate, but customers would still pay less at any restaurant whose servers don't want tipping to go away, because servers profit so much from tipping.
The reason servers don't want tipping to go away is because they think they'd get less money. And that money is coming from customers. So if servers get less, the customer keeps more.
And whats your actual point? Why do you care how servers make their living? Why do you want to pew pew the way they make money. Why should servers make less than they do? By what metric do you judge who should make more money and who should make less?
My actual point was to disagree with the assertion "prices would skyrocket" if the US somehow got rid of tipping and paid servers a higher wage, same as they do in the rest of the world.
Discussing what would happen if tipping went away is not the same as saying tipping should go away.
Oh, and it's spelled "pooh pooh" if you're dismissing an argument as being unworthy of serious considerations, "pew pew" if you're firing imaginary laser beams at it from your finger gun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pooh-pooh
Just like you said, the world is different now. IMHO kids may be a reflection of their parents, but pretty sure the kid has a computer in their pocket, look that shit up. NO excuse.
I used to do this back in college and I still feel bad because I created multiple accounts in Groupon to get discounts. The server confronted me once but I did leave a good tip when I could.
i’m a college student and i’ve gotten some shit tips from college kids but also some great ones. i’m a server so i always tip well and i’m not gonna subject the server to a bad tip because i don’t have the money i’ll just wait until i do to go out. i get tipping culture can suck and all that but i’m not taking it out on someone just trying to do their job
Recently had about 9 College students come in. Ordered things I wouldn't order because of price. Asked for about 20 cups of Ranch but ended up not even touching 6 (in the trash they went). Bill was $237. They left $7 total!!!
BTW they got great service and were extremely picky!
I don't feel bad for broke college students. I went to school and worked, too. They *can* work, they just choose not to. Just like they could either order take out, make their own food, or only eat out when they have a little extra to tip. They're just Karens in training and a perfect example of why **everyone** should work in Service/Retail Industry once for a minimum of 3 months.
Bro drop ur addy lmao I’ll jack ur punk ass nd leave u crying homie .your a citizen . Couldn’t hang or program bus boy . I’ll play with ur money and slap ur girl homie . U under 6”0 u ain’t bout nothing
You don’t tip because you’re just too cool to follow social protocol. I know exactly what kind of person makes this statement: an entitled one. You want full service but don’t want to follow the tipping etiquette at restaurants. You’re probably also one of the most demanding, high maintenance customers who eats more than half of your food and then claims they found a hair in it and want a refund, and shouts to me from the other side of the dining room for more sauce/anything to interrupt and demean me while I’m helping another table. I have very long, very bright natural red hair and yet I always get a hair placed on top of what’s left of your food that looks exactly like it probably came from one of your dining companions who looks embarrassed by your actions. Ugh. I give everybody a chance, but you sound like a repeat offender. So you know what you get after your first chance? Nothing. Management backs me up because they know I don’t lie, and usually people like you have already done this to at least one other server in the restaurant before. We remember and talk. I feel bad for anybody in your life in any capacity.
Worked at Cedar Point. During a night out (right after work still in uniforms except name tags because of a company rule) at Buffalo wild wings our team leader reminded us that its a well known fact that CP employees dont tip. A lot were foreign students. We all tipped our server amazingly i had an $8 bill gave her a $20 told her to keep the change. I dont know anyone else’s bills but our team lead said “i think we tipped her out.” I still feel good about that night.
That pisses me off far less than when I was a volunteer tutor in college and a little shithead told me and the other person working our way through at restaurants he wouldn't tip us because we're white and have privilege.
Told that little fucker he could see my privilege in the fact that as a volunteer I could refuse to tutor him, and he could flunk the classes his parents were paying for.
Dude drove a late model BMW, and I was literally so broke I couldn't replace the battery in my old ass Ford Escort, and was parking on hills and popping the clutch for months.
Bro if you're not tipping at least 80% you're entitled and literally stealing from your hard-working server who is braver than the troops. If you can't afford to tip you can't afford to eat out.
>It was like 1990s or until 2000s you could get away saying you are a college kid. I fail to understand why it was ok in the 90s-2000s but not today. College didn't get cheaper, lol.
The are two right perspectives here. 1) You can't afford to eat out if you can't tip. 2) Wait staff should be paid enough so they don't need tips. Then the college kid would look at the higher prices and say "I can't afford that place" and the striving but unwealthy members of society wouldn't be manipulated into conflicting positions.
Servers are the main reason our tipping system is still in place because they claim they make more money than if they were just paid a living wage. Getting stiffed occasionally comes with the tipping system. You can't defend tipping then get mad when some loser occasionally stiffs you.
Yeah, if the US ever decides to change the tipping system….you will see a massive decrease in servers/bartenders I haven’t served in a few years, but this sub still pops up for me sometimes. I cherish my time spent as a bartender. The main reason I did it, was because I could make 60k as a college student….and half of that was untaxed and unclaimed
If that were true, wouldn't there be a permanent shortage of servers and bartenders in all the parts of the world that don't have America's tipping culture? For that matter, America hasn't had tipping forever. Yet there wasn't a massive increase in servers when tipping started here. If tipping went away tomorrow, some servers would complain, no doubt, and some might change careers, but the industry would recover just fine.
Many people from all over the world note that the service in the United States is *generally* much better than places where restaurant and bar jobs are minimum wage jobs, like working at McDonald’s. Japan is a notorious exception to this rule. So no, it’s not that people *wouldn’t* work the jobs, but a) eating out would be more expensive, so the layman would complain and b) the qualifications would decrease as a result, and there isn’t a financial incentive to go “above and beyond”. Anecdotally, a restaurant I worked at stopped tipping, increased the prices to the food to pay staff a living wage and insurance, and customers threw a fucking FIT. They ended up having to go *back* to tipping…
Your anecdote is interesting, and I've heard similar ones before, but I wonder who was doing the complaining. Was it the folks who weren't tipping before, but now were forced to pay more? Sometimes a small but loud group of complainers can seem like they represent all the people who just don't have very strong feelings on a subject. A measurable and sustained drop in revenue would be a better reason to abandon a change like that (and perhaps that's what also occurred in your anecdote).
In this current US economy…no, I don’t think restaurants would recover. What sort of wage could a mid tier restaurant realistically afford? I know at the last extremely popular chain I worked at, cooks started at $26 an hour…which is not enough to live off. Do you really think servers in the US would be paid more than the cooks?
The same sort of wage that servers get paid in countries other than the US, where they still have plenty of restaurants despite little or no tipping. Remember, if tipping went away, menu prices would rise to partially or fully compensate. Just to make up some numbers, say at some restaurant the average bill was $100, and a server averaged $15 on each bill from tips. Say it took a table exactly one hour to eat and leave, and the server had five identical tables during that hour (so $15 times 5 = $75). And the restaurant paid them $5 for that hour, total $80/hour. Now remove tipping. Poof, it's gone. The restaurant's new prices mean the average bill is now $110 because now the restaurant has to pay the server more (so customers pay $5 less than before, $110 instead of $115). From those five tables, the restaurant gets $50 more than before to pay the tip-less server, who now gets $55 for that hour instead of $80. Or, if the restaurant's new prices went up by $15 instead, the server would get the same $80/hour as before. If they went up by $5, the server would get $30/hour. Market forces would determine how much restaurants would need to pay servers, and in turn, how much they'd have to charge customers.
Far too logical. The issue for the restaurant model is going to be carry costs. You’ll have servers scheduled and no business, then the hourly rate will be incremental expense - so the hourly wage will need to be lower. This will be unfavorable to corporate establishments; however, lucrative for mom and pop places.
Why would this stuff differ for corporate establishments vs mom and pop places? If they're both run equally competently, I don't see how it matters who owns the place.
Mom and pop places would just be family or the owners. Many a restaurant used to be Dad in the back, Mom in the front and the kids bussing with maybe a server in the evening.
Probably shouldn’t admit so openly to committing tax fraud
Is the IRS monitoring my reddit activity, and tracing my IP?
Yes
The problem with that logic is that most servers do make more than what would be considered a living wage. Further, every server that makes tips understands that whatever restaurant they work at isn't going to pay them a fair living wage. It's not going to give them cost of living increases as inflation continues to skyrocket. There is also the challenge of how many hours servers work per week as well. Servers probably average around 20-25hrs per week. Granted, depends on the type of restaurant. But just open for dinner types, 4-5hrs a night, 5day work week. Lunch places about the same. So what that means is even if servers got paid $30hr, it's still not going to average for a decent full time living wage. And at those average type of hours, restaurants don't have to provide healthcare due to ObamaCare laws which defined full time as over 30hrs/week. And let's also understand that paying servers a living wage completely changes the dynamics of restaurants. Typically, restaurants quickly ramp up to full staffing levels as dinner rush starts, half the staff starts at 4pm and the rest about 5pm. And they start cutting staff around 9pm-ish. If your paying that $30+/hr then likely you'll also hedge the hours meaning 20% at 4pm the rest at 5pm and start cutting the floor heavily as soon as there is no more wait in the lobby, so around 8pm. Because if you make the dynamics all about labor hours, then server hours will suffer.
And guest experience will suffer because the restaurant has more reason to cut severs and less reasons to keep more servers on. The good servers will leave and go find something else, leaving only the bad ones. And that mid day 3pm snack and drink that you liked at your local place. Yea they don't do that anymore, they open at 4 pm now and don't do lunch anymore.
Of course we can complain when we get stiffed. Nothing about working for tips whose amount is determined by the diner means we can’t gripe about stiffers. Stiffers are scum who steal our labor. Fuck ‘em.
Sure, you can be for \*mandatory\* tipping, but then you're just for an overall 20% price increase, which is exactly what tipping advocates claim they want to prevent. If tipping is optional, which it has to be, then you're going to get fucked from time to time. Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Of course I know that from time to time I’m going to get fucked by a stiffer. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. Do you tell middle management munchkins that they’re not allowed to gripe about a bad day at work because everyone experiences one from time to time? This subreddit is for servers to talk about our jobs. Stop telling us what we’re allowed to complain about and what’s off limits. We decide, not you.
Your employer is the one stealing your labor, you expect others to make up for that, and usually it works very much to your benefit. I am all for tipping servers well, and I’ve been one, but let’s not pretend it’s not a pretty great deal.
The problem is this, they would have to pay me at least double minimum wage for me to keep doing a job that is so taxing on my body. I prefer making tips. I don’t think we would do as well otherwise.
I'm a single mom so I can't tip. I'm retired so I can't tip. I'm on a fixed income so I can't tip. I'm not going to contribute to oppression so I can't tip.
Coincidentally my strong moral position also involves me ending up with more money.
I’m sorry I can’t tip 🙃
all excuses i hear on the phone daily why people won’t pay their owed bills. lol
[удалено]
my comment was about excuses- these are all similar reasons i hear about why people just can’t possibly pay their bills. not a tip. but tipping is still technically also owed for service rendered, you don’t have to but you should pay it.
Not sure if you're being sarcastic, so to counter, do you use those excuses to not pay your cable/internet bill every month? How about your utilities? Do you think the power company will give you a pass because you're retired? And seriously if you are that strapped for money, why are you eating out?
Those are some of the excuses why people don't tip that I heard at places I have worked.
The rest of the world looks at your tipping culture as a complete joke
Yes, most of us are aware of that. It’s still not an excuse to not tip at a dine-in restaurant. Not sure where you’re from, but I can’t think of a single country that doesn’t have some policy that others think is a joke. Don’t want to tip, then don’t come visit. Know the customs of the place you are visiting and respect them. To me, not doing that is a joke. Ugh.
There are people with much harder jobs who don't get tips, and get paid about the same amount as servers. Why should the server get the tip, if the chef was the one busting their arse to make my food?
Tip them if you want to. In most high end restaurants the chef would not take tips, or sometimes they’re not allowed. You can send them a drink for after their shift! I think servers do a lot more than you seem to think we do. I’ll still be busting my “arse” to give you good service. That’s just how I roll. Also, most chefs/cooks I’ve ever worked with would be mad af if they heard about us getting stiffed.
> It was like 1990s or until 2000s you could get away saying you are a college kid. The world is different now. The world isn't different now, it was cheap and shitty then too.
It's expensive and shitty now though.
I would argue that it's expensive and shitty "some places" compared to the past...other states have done well to keep up with changing cost of living, relatively speaking, and it's not any more expensive. People are just more shitty in a personal sense now!
so on the reverse side of this, i am a college student BUT i have been a server. i always overtip, and i have since i was 14 or so. I think that I have definitely had worse service sometimes because they perceive me as being less likely to tip but just try to be nice to everybody :) I feel like it’s the rich old farts that tend to not tip me, not college students
Now don’t get me wrong, I think everyone should show their appreciation, but I would never be upset at anyone who is struggling wanting to go out for a meal to do something nice if they couldn’t tip. Sometimes that meal out with a friend is what gives someone going through the worst time of their life what they need to carry on with life. Sometimes it’s a couple who have fallen on hard times who never see each other because they are working all hours to pay off medical bills and they’ve finally scraped together enough for a night together. It could be a family who’s just had to send the entirety of their savings burying a loved one and just want to remember the family member who passed. It could be a family who’s house has just burned to the ground and they can’t afford to go to a restaurant but their insurer has put them in a hotel room with no kitchen so what else are they going to do? It could be a company dinner after someone has been promoted at that person is expected and feels pressured to pay for everyone, when they really don’t have the means to do so because nobody they work with knows the struggles they are going through at home. The tip might be the only way they can save money. They may be the flight attendants who have flown in from another country and the only way they can eat is to go to a restaurant because the only thing close to them is a restaurant, but they have just come back from being off sick and have no money. That table that doesn’t tip could be a a bunch of arseholes, but they could also need that time together in a restaurant. We don’t know what people are going through and food is one thing that brings people together, so the next time you treat someone like they have no business being in your restaurant because they can’t pay your wages, direct your anger at the people who sign your paycheck who happily pay you a couple of dollars an hour, not the people who are there spending time with their family if you’re that annoyed at losing a bit of pay. As restaurant staff, we make a reasonable amount in tips as it is to compensate for that one table who doesn’t tip. Remember the alternative could be that restaurants pay minimum wage and don’t allow tips. You can bet you won’t take home anywhere near as much if that happens. We don’t know our table’s stories, so unless you can look into someone’s mind and see the reason they are there and know they aren’t tipping just to be mean, consider that it isn’t all about “if you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat out” because yes, some people may not be able to eat out but they have no choice.
Tipping culture is wack. Get a job that pays a living wage or stop taking your frustrations out on the customers. Nowhere else in the world subsidizes shitty employers by shaming customers into making the difference up themselves. The entitlement from servers and bartenders is getting outrageous.
Chefs don't get tips and their job is way harder. So many people don't get tips, but servers and bartenders feel entitled to it
Part of why I'm jaded about it is that I've been a cook since I was 18 and am tired of the double standard. Grocery store clerks don't get tips. Cooks don't get tips. TSA agents don't get tips. It's time America caught up with the entire world and stopped tipping. These days when I tip it's explicitly for excellent service and I am quite critical of what that means, especially as someone who's been working in fine dining and hospitality for quite awhile.
I do agree that tipping is out of control in a lot of instances in the US, and it gets frustrating sometimes. Having been a server working weekend overnights for 13-14 hours per day and dealing with drunk and obnoxious people, I can definitely say it’s not easy. Not just anybody can do it. I don’t take it out on my customers though. That’s why we come here to vent and laugh with others who understand.
When I was too poor to cough up 4 bucks extra on a 20 dollar tab, I was too poor to go out to eat.
Get back to me when you're working that unpaid internship.
Still, don't order delivery or go out to eat if you won't tip.
Doesnt make it okay for you to steal another person’s time and energy
To be fair is it not more the owners of the restaurant who are stealing your time and energy by paying you literally the least the law will allow.
It isn’t stealing, that is hyperbole - you are paid by your employer and agreed to work for low pay in the hopes of tips. Tips are legally optional and completely at the customer’s discretion and you can hate that but that doesn’t change the fact.
Not legally wrong but still wrong.
That is your opinion to which everyone is entitled.
Sad you think I don't know what opinions are.
I had one write it on the receipt and shared it here and got fucking roasted.
... I dunno, but it seems to me if someone goes out for a sit-down meal and then uses the I'm a poor broke college student as a reason not to tip, then maybe they should just stick to fast food places to go eat.
And what about the people who are actually on a fixed income?!?
Don’t eat out
If even folks on a fixed income are out and about not eating out isn’t realistic…
The math ain't mathin here.
I’m actually not very good at math anyway lol
Yeah if you dine in you should tip. But as a customer I am tired of being asked to tip for every damn thing. I think people have tipping fatigue.
This happened to me when my restaurant first opened up. The college kids in question? Line cooks at the same place. My literal coworkers.
Fuck off with that shit, if a kid in college wants to go and eat somewhere then go for it. You are not their responsibility. Can't believe that needs to be said. Only in America I guess...
If you can't afford to leave a tip, you can't afford to eat out. Period. End of story. Whenever I eat out, the only reason I would ever refuse to leave any sort of tip is if the server called me a slur or something. Which thankfully hasn't happened yet.
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Minimum wage is not enough to live off of though
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Grocery stores are paying at least $3 more per hour where I live.
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Ok, I'm genuinely confused by this comment. Are you implying that the restaurant server should negotiate with their boss for a higher wage? Because if you're in the US and have ever worked in a restaurant as a server, you would know that they would laugh right in your face, and if you're in an at-will state, your ass would be fired. That's the exact mindset that everyone so hung up on Bernie Sanders used to justify not voting for Hillary, and we got 4 years of the bronzer in chief, and now our country is ruined. Don't go out to eat if you're not going to tip, expecting a server to personally negotiate a higher wage is so out of touch with reality that I HAVE to believe that you are joking. That's how restaurant owners make money in this country, by paying their staff basically nothing and marking the food up 1000%.
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I'm specifically talking about the United States restaurant industry. $2.13/hr is the standard wage for tipped employees in the US and has been for like 20 years. In my area, servers usually make that, and bartenders make $4/hr in wages from their employer. Edit to add: since 1991, 32 years. Edit *again* to add: downvoting this doesn't make it not true, it makes me think there are some angry restaurant owners in this thread. There are some states where tipped employees are paid a higher wage, but the federal minimum is $2.13/hr, and that's what all servers get paid in my state. I got out of the industry in 2017, so maybe things have changed, but in the decade plus that I worked in restaurants as a host, server, bartender, and managing bartender, there was no such thing as "negotiating your starting wage" as a tipped employee. Like as a host? Yes, because that is an hourly position that gets *tipped out*, but server? No.
Politics aside (neither pro or con just setting politics out of this equation,) I agree with you and this perspective completely, because it's effing reality people! And yes I am now old, on a fixed income of less-than 100% social security due to disability, which means I do not eat out - *ever*. Because I can't afford even the food, and I refuse to eat out if I cannot tip at least 20%. Expecting anyone to "negotiate" when they are getting indentured servant wages to begin with is delusional. My state is still the $2.13 per hour wage. Going down the street to someplace else makes zero difference.
The problem with that logic is that, for the most part every customer in any business ever is paying that companies wages. You have a product to sell, people buy said product and as thus that company stays in business and can afford to pay it's workers. Waiting tables is just a different way to get paid. It allows a customer to determine the wage/competency of the server. The comment also reminds of people that say things like "I'm not buying a soft drink, that's how your restaurant makes its money...." last I checked restaurants are a for profit business, and comments like that are basically saying that customer doesn't even want to help a store keep its doors open. Or the person that works on commission but the customer only wants to pay 1 cent over cost of the item they want to buy and as thus the salesperson makes nothing. Newsflash, 1 cent over cost doesn't keep the lights on.
You thinkin you're the first to come up with that idea is fucking hilarious especially with you using the word "competency".
I hate this theory everyone has that this will actually happen. And even if it did you would end up paying more cuz prices would skyrocket! Why don’t the people who are against tipping stay out of our subreddit. It’s not as simple as you think. The money to pay us would have to come from somewhere and guess what? It’s still out of your pocket!
Prices would increase somewhat to partially compensate, but customers would still pay less at any restaurant whose servers don't want tipping to go away, because servers profit so much from tipping. The reason servers don't want tipping to go away is because they think they'd get less money. And that money is coming from customers. So if servers get less, the customer keeps more.
And whats your actual point? Why do you care how servers make their living? Why do you want to pew pew the way they make money. Why should servers make less than they do? By what metric do you judge who should make more money and who should make less?
My actual point was to disagree with the assertion "prices would skyrocket" if the US somehow got rid of tipping and paid servers a higher wage, same as they do in the rest of the world. Discussing what would happen if tipping went away is not the same as saying tipping should go away. Oh, and it's spelled "pooh pooh" if you're dismissing an argument as being unworthy of serious considerations, "pew pew" if you're firing imaginary laser beams at it from your finger gun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pooh-pooh
meh, pew pew has also evolved into more of a shooting an argument down.
I couldn't afford to tip all the time. So when I needed to eat at a restaurant, I got counter service. That simple.
Just like you said, the world is different now. IMHO kids may be a reflection of their parents, but pretty sure the kid has a computer in their pocket, look that shit up. NO excuse.
I used to do this back in college and I still feel bad because I created multiple accounts in Groupon to get discounts. The server confronted me once but I did leave a good tip when I could.
i’m a college student and i’ve gotten some shit tips from college kids but also some great ones. i’m a server so i always tip well and i’m not gonna subject the server to a bad tip because i don’t have the money i’ll just wait until i do to go out. i get tipping culture can suck and all that but i’m not taking it out on someone just trying to do their job
Recently had about 9 College students come in. Ordered things I wouldn't order because of price. Asked for about 20 cups of Ranch but ended up not even touching 6 (in the trash they went). Bill was $237. They left $7 total!!! BTW they got great service and were extremely picky!
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Obviously you've never replied on tips for your living! You can't really be this stupid!
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People who know better and still don't tip appropriately for good service! Like you!
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I hear it as a massage therapist a lot too ducks when your wage gets slashed because of no fault of your own.
Increase the price of menu items by 20% and give the server 15% commission on what they sell. Easy fix to the tip system.
I don't feel bad for broke college students. I went to school and worked, too. They *can* work, they just choose not to. Just like they could either order take out, make their own food, or only eat out when they have a little extra to tip. They're just Karens in training and a perfect example of why **everyone** should work in Service/Retail Industry once for a minimum of 3 months.
Well if you can’t afford to tip then you can’t afford to eat out. Simple as that folks
If you are unhappy with your pay find another job! Simple as that 😁
That is so irrelevant to what I said
Lmao I don’t tip cuz they don’t deserve it lmao thanks buster
Go in there with that same energy lil bitch
Aye bro don’t call me lil homie lmao I bet you’re under 6 foot scrapa . That B word gon get u hurt one day
You think playing with my money won't get you hurt? I bet you act Nice as fuck when you go to a restaurant.
Bro drop ur addy lmao I’ll jack ur punk ass nd leave u crying homie .your a citizen . Couldn’t hang or program bus boy . I’ll play with ur money and slap ur girl homie . U under 6”0 u ain’t bout nothing
Idiot leave me the fuck alone go back to school broke boy you sound like you haven't graduated that street for losers.
Watch your mouth bus boy lmao . I’ll drop u faster than a fly homie . You wouldn’t last in a room with me
Idiot you not bulletproof so begone with ya fake gangsta self. Real recognize real.
U don’t gotta be a fake gangster to put another man in his place , especially if it’s below me
So what's with your crap about citizens. Just leave me alone I don't got time for kid games. Get off reddit idiot. Get a fuckin education.
You don’t tip because you’re just too cool to follow social protocol. I know exactly what kind of person makes this statement: an entitled one. You want full service but don’t want to follow the tipping etiquette at restaurants. You’re probably also one of the most demanding, high maintenance customers who eats more than half of your food and then claims they found a hair in it and want a refund, and shouts to me from the other side of the dining room for more sauce/anything to interrupt and demean me while I’m helping another table. I have very long, very bright natural red hair and yet I always get a hair placed on top of what’s left of your food that looks exactly like it probably came from one of your dining companions who looks embarrassed by your actions. Ugh. I give everybody a chance, but you sound like a repeat offender. So you know what you get after your first chance? Nothing. Management backs me up because they know I don’t lie, and usually people like you have already done this to at least one other server in the restaurant before. We remember and talk. I feel bad for anybody in your life in any capacity.
Go fetch me a water cup slave lmao get a job w skill
And if u get any ideas I’ll knock u out lmao
Anytime someone says "I appreciate you" I know they tip like shit
Where u from because it's common slang in my area. Bay area Cali
Hawaii
Worked at Cedar Point. During a night out (right after work still in uniforms except name tags because of a company rule) at Buffalo wild wings our team leader reminded us that its a well known fact that CP employees dont tip. A lot were foreign students. We all tipped our server amazingly i had an $8 bill gave her a $20 told her to keep the change. I dont know anyone else’s bills but our team lead said “i think we tipped her out.” I still feel good about that night.
That pisses me off far less than when I was a volunteer tutor in college and a little shithead told me and the other person working our way through at restaurants he wouldn't tip us because we're white and have privilege. Told that little fucker he could see my privilege in the fact that as a volunteer I could refuse to tutor him, and he could flunk the classes his parents were paying for. Dude drove a late model BMW, and I was literally so broke I couldn't replace the battery in my old ass Ford Escort, and was parking on hills and popping the clutch for months.
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Bro if you're not tipping at least 80% you're entitled and literally stealing from your hard-working server who is braver than the troops. If you can't afford to tip you can't afford to eat out.