It never fails to shock me how a tip is demanded in the US. People simply refuse to listen to reason when we (yes, there are others!) tell them that leaving a tip isn’t necessary. Well, I’m hoping for too much here, but if you’re a waiter, here are 5 reasons why I will try my best not to give any money to you and why the reasons for tipping are crappy.
1. You act as if you’re my best friend
Just leave me alone ok? I don’t want to bloody chit chat with you. I want food. FOOD! Get it? It’s a restaurant. I go there to eat. I go because I want either Italian food, Chinese Food or something else which I can’t get in a McDonald’s. So I come to a restaurant to fulfill my cravings for it. I will pay for what I value – food. Not you.
Christ, you offend me – kneeling down next to my table, pretending to like me and chatting as if you’re my best friend when it’s obvious that all you’re after is the tip! I’m not a bloody money bag you know. I will pay the bill which includes the cost of the food, the environment and the salaries of the people involved – nothing more.
The only way to get money out of me that I don’t have to legally pay is by prying it out of my cold dead hands…
Bottom line: I don’t want to know your name, or interact with you for any longer than I have to in order to place my order. As far as I’m concerned, you’re the equivalent of a conveyor belt that brings me my food and a computer into which I input my order. Of course, I won’t be rude. But don’t expect me to interact with you any more than I would with some stranger.
Image Credit: cafemama
2. You don’t get paid enough
And this is my problem how exactly? It’s astonishing that customers are expected to make up for your employer’s cheapness in not paying you a decent wage. Please include the full cost in everyone’s bill thank you very much. I’ll pay it because I have to and the charge is there for me to see.
What’s really funny here is that no one seems to criticize the employers! All criticism is reserved for non tipping customers instead of the owners of the restaurant for not paying a decent wage. Wtf! Could it possibly be because you guys know you can make much more by tips and under report your income to the IRS?
3. You’ll spit in my food if I don’t tip you?
And I’ll shoot your kid if you don’t give me a million dollars. Seriously, am I even hearing this right? You’re actually using the threat of blackmail to make me pay you? Well as long as you’re openly claiming to be a criminal it’s all right I guess.
Fortunately that’s why I prefer buffets. Listen apart from it being illegal, this shows your poor integrity. But if you spit in someone’s food because they didn’t give you money you didn’t earn, then you’re a loser and deserve to be a waiter for the rest of your life.
4. Bringing me my food isn’t worthy of being paid extra
Did you cook it? Did you invent it? No. You picked it up and brought it to me. While it might not be easy, there are plenty of jobs which are much worse – shop floor workers for example. And I’ve been a shop floor manager, so I know. Face it – compared to other jobs, being a waiter is unskilled. You get paid what the market will think your services are worth. You don’t deserve more for your work over and above what your employer should pay you.
5. Money doesn’t grow on trees
I expect you to be grateful and pray for me at night if I tip you 10%. Be happy I gave you anything at all. I worked for the money in my wallet and by giving you some I didn’t have to, I’m doing you a favor. Learn to remember that when people give you something they don’t need to, it’s a favor. You don’t complain that they didn’t give you more!
By the way, the same thing above applies to all professions that demand tips including those on cruise liners.
So now that you understand why I won’t give you money you don’t deserve, stop with the “oh how could you?” attitude. I can. And I will.
Update: Here’s a rebuttal of the many silly justifications for tipping that people have given in the comments section.
The Fair Labor Standards Act clearly states regarding a “tip pool”: The requirement that an employee must retain all tips does not preclude a valid tip pooling or sharing arrangement among employees who customarily and regularly receive tips, such as waiters, waitresses, bellhops, counter personnel (who serve customers), bussers, and service bartenders. A valid tip pool may not include employees who do not customarily and regularly received tips, such as dishwashers, cooks, chefs, and janitors.
Read that carefully. Legally, you are not required as a server to share tips with personnel who would not “customarily and regularly receive tips”. So if you willingly and voluntarily opt to share your tips with personnel not legally entitled to them, that is of course your choice. However, the customer is in no way obligated legally, morally or altruistically to compensate you for your decision.
I don’t agree with the American system, and I choose to never support it, as I have no legal obligation to do so. I will not willingly give my money away to people that have no legal entitlement to it under the law. And I feel no guilt about that whatsoever. If you cannot survive off minimum wage, then change your situation and circumstances. You are performing unskilled manual labor, so how can you realistically desire or expect to earn white-collar wages? Seriously, people…this is the ridiculous sense of entitlement that people in other parts of the world ridicule Americans for. Just because you choose to perform unskilled labor for whatever reason, that is regulated at minimum wage, does not mean that you are entitled to have others supplement your income, or that customers are responsible for ensuring you make above anything that you are legally entitled to. Whatever wage you want to earn, find a job that pays it in salary and EARN IT, and do not expect or rely on the charity of customers to compensate for a greedy employer that DOES make enough money to actually pay you a fair wage of $7.25 for your unskilled labor, but chooses to pay you slave wages. If you can’t find a job that will pay you $30 – $50 an hour in salary for unskilled labor, then might I suggest you learn and develop marketable skills, or get a higher education?
You should not be angry with customers that do not tip…you should be angry at the restaurant owner that WILLINGLY participates in this system, since they do not have to use the tip credit system…they are simply greedy.
I personally find it appalling when people take the attitude that because they choose to work at a low-paying job, that they are somehow entitled to a salary normally earned at a higher class position of employment, and everyone other than their actual employer is obligated to pay it. Simply appalling. You are paid and entitled to a salary that your work warrants, not what you unrealistically prefer to earn.
In reply to browsebo
Then get the fuck out of America, you fucking parasite.
Oh, so there’s no problem with the system, so long as we simply go along with giving you our money for no valid reason, eh? So far you have utterly failed to provide a convincing argument as to why or how you are entitled to tips when you are already guaranteed minimum wage regardless of whether you are tipped or not. If you can’t survive off the minimum wage salary that you are entitled to, that is in no way my problem or concern. Get a better job, and as you said, “quit b1tching”.
I’m not complaining about the commodities I buy. I’m actually not complaining at all. What I am doing is informing you that any cost associated with taking my order and delivering my food to me is included in the cost of the meal, otherwise there would never be a sale to begin with. You MUST take the order, or there is no sale. You MUST deliver my food, or the restaurant has not fulfilled the terms of the contract. You’re not serving me, you’re serving the interest of your employer.
Just because someone tells you, “this is how it works here” doesn’t make it so. If I was legally responsible for a service charge, then I would pay it. Since I’m not, I never will. THAT’S how it really works, under the law…which people like you seem to like to ignore when it’s convenient for you to get other people’s money that you aren’t entitled to.
Just because someone tries to force a responsibility on me that I don’t voluntarily agree to, doesn’t make me responsible. You don’t work for me, so I will never pay you. My legal contract for payment of services and goods is directly with the restaurant, and not a volunteer laborer, which is basically what you are under the tip credit system.
All of my posts have legally and logically demonstrated why your salary is not my, or any other consumers responsibility. You are guaranteed minimum wage under federal law…you will never get free money from me simply because you aren’t satisfied earning minimum wage in a job you willingly choose to do.
Stop taking the stance of a charity case with your hand out for something that is not due to you. Your employer has your salary, not me.
US Federal Law is my validity. I do not have to tip because I am not legally required to do so. Your livelihood is not my responsibility.
At a restaurant, the same level of service is to be expected from a tipped employee whether they are tipped or not, as you are an employee of the restaurant and you represent them. I guarantee that any business owner would agree, and would likely fire YOU for stating otherwise. The expectation of a tip will not determine the level or quality of service that a customer receives…dispute that with a business owner and see if you’re working there tomorrow.
Your “service” of taking my order and delivering my food is MANDATORY for the sale of your employer’s goods, and does not entitle you to extra compensation from me, which is why I am not legally obligated under the law to do so. THIS is indisputable fact, not opinion.
In any restaurant, I can inform you before I even order that I won’t be tipping you, and you WILL still serve me in order to sell the goods of the restaurant. THAT is fact, not opinion. You will complete the sale of goods for your employer or you will be fired.
Seven out of 50 states currently ban a tip credit, and more will likely follow in the future, because both the public and lawmakers realize it is nothing more than a scam perpetuated at the expense of a gullible public.
I’m not tipping you for doing your job, or to compensate you for willingly working a low wage job.
Giving you hand-outs and charity is barely a step above you being on welfare with my taxes supporting you anyway. The only difference with tips is that we are cutting out the welfare office as the middle-man.
My advice to others is to not be gullible enough to believe what tipped employees erroneously tell you in an attempt to deceive you into tipping and simply giving away your money unnecessarily. Put your money that you have earned towards something that benefits you and your family, and let the employers pay their employees.
Bingo Browsebo!
would love for you to visit some of our local establishments in Mobile, Al. Tipping is a option, that is granted. But if you go into a mom and pop estabishment, ie. restaurant or bar in Mobile you might want to reconsider leaving a tip, the food is good and the service is great (and remember you must pay for service) . You may come in walking on two good legs but if you dont leave a tip, you will walk out with a limp and trust me no one will be a witness to anything that happened to you except maybey you fell of your barstool or chair. In Mobile and the USA we respect hard work and reward it…something I think you have never had to do
In reply to infernoms
I have a better idea – why don’t you just hold a gun to your customer’s head and demand the tip from them? Better still, institute your attitude as a policy and display it prominently at your restaurant’s entrance.
Let’s see how your customers respond to your threats.
In reply to bhagwad
How dare any of you tell us to take up our salary issues with out bosses. Why don’t you go back home and take up all of the issues you had with your country?
In reply to bhagwad
because they would have to ask the customers for money so they could buy a gun in the first place.
In reply to bhagwad
There’s no gun to your head. Go to where you can afford to eat. There is no surprise in any of this. The service is part of the experience of eating out. If you are too much of a tightwad to pay for it, just don’t partake. If you are annoyed by the waiters doing their jobs, don’t go to where they work. No gun to your head for that either. You have options of cooking at home, going to drive thru, or fast food. But don’t partake of the full restaurant experience and then try to justify why you shouldn’t pay for it. You’re just mooching off the rest of us that do tip. Do you eat 3/4 of the meal and then decide you didn’t like that much and shouldn’t be charged as well?
In reply to infernoms
So, they’re actually going to beat me up if i don’t give them money? –That’s robbery & assault with the intent to cause bodily harm,… no ifs ands or buts.
In reply to infernoms
so if my car broke down and i had no cash, and i ran in and asked for a glass of water and if i could call a friend to come and help, are you telling me that I could be killed because i dont have money just falling out of my pockets?
This is why US Americans hate YOU foreigners! Suck on that! Get with the program!
In reply to Jess
If you are not a Native American you a “foreigner” yourself. Most American call themselves Irish!! I bet 99% dont even know where Ireland is, or couldn’t name any places in Ireland.
In reply to UK Sates visitor
Actually, my good sir or ma’am, “Native Americans” or “American Indians” aren’t native to this land either. They are a mixed race of Asiatic and Caucasian descent. If you read and research as much as I do, you would probably understand and agree with me. They can’t even call themselves “native”, it would be incorrect. This land was uninhabited, end of story. I’ll happily point you to several directions where you can research my claims.
In reply to Jake
Jake,
According to what I have researched native Americans are indigenous to North America, just like Aboriginals are indigenous to Australia.
But if you have evidence to say otherwise I will be more than happy to look at it.
In reply to UK Sates visitor
Shut the fuck up, Limey.
Hey Jackass i read your little argument about tipping and just wanted to tell you that if your brown ass came into my establishment you shouldn’t be worried about me trying to socialize with someone as cheap looking as you. i as a server like to socialize with people that one to talk. i dont do it for the money, i do it just to get to know someone new. all you fag divas think you’re great but in all reality when one of you fagets come into our establishment theres not a server in the house who wants to take care of you.
You don’t seem to know too much of anything.
I tend to tip between 10-15%, but apparently the wait staff doesn’t think this is cool? Well I think it is not cool that I have never gotten to sleep with Cameron Diaz but hey…
When I go t o a restaurant, I am interested in
a) Food quality
b) Menu choices
c) Price
d) Decor
e) Ambiance
Hmm, I don’t see “waiter/waitress” in that list. Actually, I visit places like Sweet Tomatoes frequently as well, and I have never had this thought:
“Gee, the only thing that would make this dining experience better is if someone was schlepping my tray for me, and getting the order wrong, or of a wrong portion, and I had to wait for my glass of water to be filled with ice instead of my being able to walk over and fill it with water myself.”
Similarly, at Chipotle, I have never wished that instead of spending 15 bucks on a family meal, wouldn’t it be nice if there were someone to walk the burrito over to my table, and bus the plate afterwards so that my meal could cost $20 instead.
The job of a waiter is the least important one in a restaurant from the point of view of the diner. The sit down restaurant owner has a greater stake in ensuring that the service of waiting is a net draw for the customer. So it is strange to hear waiters and waitresses angry at the customers! I mean, you want to tell me that you would rather my not come and spend 40 bucks on overpriced food, with a 5 dollar tip because you were expecting 8? Really? Talk about “penny-wise-pound-foolish”. Maybe that’s why the restaurant owner doesn’t trust you with real money!
In reply to Bowman
Because we always have a hard time carrying your tray and we NEVER get your order right or bring out the right portion size. And a good server will notice that your glass is empty pretty quickly and fill it for you.
Don’t say that servers are the least important part of a restaurant in the eyes of the customers. Even before I started waiting tables, I’ve always felt that a good server significantly improved my dining experience. So speak for yourself.
10% is rude, but 15% is standard. Most people give 20% now, but 15% isn’t that much lower. However, 10% is half as much. Therefore it is rude. Not as rude as refusing to leave a tip at all, but still pretty rude nonetheless. It’s not that we’re “penny-wise-pound-foolish”, we just don’t like it when we give a customer good service and all they are is rude to us. Whether they are horribly rude or just a little rude, it’s not appreciated and we have a right to be upset.
If the restaurant owner “didn’t trust us with real money”, they wouldn’t let us collect the money the customers left on the table because they’d assume that we’d steal it. Our low salaries have nothing to do with trust. They have to do with keeping the restaurant in business. So try again.
In reply to Bowman
There are plenty of non-tipping dining places to go to. If you hate the idea of tipping, explore them. Service is a part of the dining out experience. People-hating curmudgeons should just avoid those places that provide table service.