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.
Bhagwad, you know exactly why we haven’t unionized, and that’s because unionizing will make it so we only get minimum wage, and we don’t want that. We make more than that with tips. Especially me. If I went from what I’m making now to $7.25/hour, I’ll go from living comfortably to living on the street.
Common sense, you don’t need to point out that you agree with Bhagwad. We know. You’re always kissing Bhagwad’s ass, so stop wasting your time by pointing out the obvious.
Once again, you’re acting like it’s easy to unionize. I don’t know of any union for servers to join, so you really think we need to create one just so YOU don’t have to tip? And you think we should do all of that work just so we can end up making less money in total than we are now? If being a server was a minimum wage job, nobody would do it. It’s easier to bag groceries or work a drive through than wait tables. Obviously you wouldnāt care if the restaurant industry went down under. You just want things to be run your way and wouldnāt care about the consequences.
I don’t want to quit my job because I make a lot of money. Even though it’s not much hourly, my tips more than make up for it. Same thing with most other servers. However, if they work in a restaurant with a lot of customers like all of you, they quit their job. Eventually, the restaurant goes out of business because they cannot keep employees nor can they afford to pay them more. You’ve never worked for less than minimum wage? Good for you! What do you want, an award or something? I also do not agree with working for below minimum, UNLESS you get tips to make up the difference.
You think I want your sympathy? No, I don’t. The only reason why I mentioned that the job is difficult is because Kayla claimed that she works harder in the fast food industry than any server. She gave two shitty reasons as to why her job is harder, not even realizing everything that servers do. And as someone who once worked in the fast food industry, I wholeheartedly disagree with her. I work much harder now, but I make much more money so I’m okay with it.
YOU need to face the reality that tipping is common courtesy here, and whether you agree with it or not is irrelevant. It’s not going to hurt anyone, unless you’re SO poor that a 15% tip will set you back financially. But perhaps if you’re really that poor, you should be saving the little bit of money that you have by cooking for yourself. And if it will hurt your pride by caving in and doing something that you don’t agree with? Don’t go out to eat. Simple as that. If you don’t like that the restaurants pay their server’s $2.00/hour, why are you giving those restaurants your money in the first place?
Also, some places do automatically put a tip on the bill. It’s called gratuity. Most places do it for larger tables, like 6 or more.
Once again, if you’re so poor that tipping will make it so that you can’t take care of your family, you should not be going out to eat. I don’t know how much more I can stress this point. Restaurant prices are jacked up as it is. You talk about servers being fiscally irresponsible, but you’re the one going out to eat and then talking about how you can’t tip because you need to take care of your family. Go to the grocery store and cook for yourself. It’s not that hard and it will cost you about half as much.
However, I see you insist on going out to eat. I feel sorry for anyone who has the displeasure of serving you.
Zapious, I’m personally not the one being punished. I work in a high-end restaurant and make plenty of money. However, it took me years to get to where I am now and there are still servers struggling.
You know exactly why we agree to do a job for $2.00/hour, and that’s because it’s all supposed to made up for in tips. If that doesn’t happen, the servers do quit and the restaurant ends up going out of business because they can’t keep their servers but they can’t afford to pay them fairer wages either.
You need to get out of your fantasy world and face the fact that your mom must have been a shitty business owner if she was losing money. If someone has owned a business for a certain amount of time and theyāre still losing money because of it, then they are failures as business owners. The guy who owns the restaurant that I work at has owned the place for 20 years. He makes great money off of it and all of the servers make excellent money off of tips. The rest of the staff is paid much higher wages, but servers end up making more than they do. Business is great and everyone is happy.
You’re really going to imply that I’m the one being childish? I’m not the one calling servers “faggots” and accusing them of using the money they make on only drugs and alcohol. So if you really want to call someone a child, tell that kid. Obviously you won’t because you agree with them, but I’m just saying.
You know nothing about me. I’ve had to support myself since I was 16 and I’m going to be 32 in October. I’ve been paying for ALL of my own stuff for over 15 years, so don’t tell me I have a sense of “entitlement”. Also, before you make any sort of witty remark, this isnāt any sort of sob story, nor is it an attempt to get sympathy (which I donāt want anyway considering Iām very successful). Iām just pointing out how wrong you are about servers, especially me.
It absolutely is the customerās fault if they stiff me on their bill and I get screwed over for the day. You blame us because we choose to work for $2.13/hour, but we only do that because everyone knows that servers get tips.
I’m not asking you to feel sorry for me, I’m asking you to not be so incredibly rude. You were the one who said āI have to wonder, why am I paying $15.00 for a hamburger and fries if that doesnāt include any service. I buy a 1 kg bag of fries for under $1.00. $3.00 a kg for ground beef, and under $2.00 for 12 buns.ā Going out to eat is absolutely more expensive, and it would be even more expensive if the restaurant was paying me hourly the equivalent of what I make in tips.
You call me fiscally irresponsible, yet you bought and renovated a house to sell in THIS economy? What compelled you to do that? The market is shit now and it was shit 4 years ago. You deserve to not get paid for the last four years. You fucked up big time. Itās funny how you call us stupid, when you may be the dumbest person on this forum. Plus, you wouldnāt deserve a tip anyway. You didnāt directly do anything for anyone else, so why should anyone tip you?
You still havenāt explained why you called a pro-tipper cowardly for not using their name but you didnāt say anything about āCommon senseā, āJJā, or āJCā. And YOUR name sounds pretty fake, too.
I remember the McDonald’s crisis, it was in 2008. They recovered through a bailout. AKA, tax dollars. But hey, at least they didn’t “rip off” their staff, right? Just the American taxpayers.
Common sense, once again, stop pointing out the obvious. Everyone knows that you donāt believe in minimum wage and of course youāre going to agree with Zapious (even though, NO, heās absolutely not āright onā).
What ācorrective actionā do I need to take? I make more money this way. Why do I need to correct anything? Since moving on to a high-end restaurant, Iāve never been stiffed by a table. I used to get stiffed every now and then by people like you, and it sucked. I feel bad for those who were once in my situation.
No, I refuse to do my job just for the sake of doing my job. Servers get tips. Thatās how it works in America. I work for tips. The $2.13/hour is pocket change. Comparing your job in the healthcare/biotech industry to my job in the service industry isnāt proving any kind of point. The industry that I work in is much different than the one you work in. No one in your industry gets tipped because people in your industry do not work for tips. Even though you dislike it and donāt agree with it, servers do work for tips and will continue to do so. You not tipping isnāt ātaking a standā or whatever youāre trying to do. Itās just being plain rude. While youāre at it, why donāt you just spit in your serverās face and call them a āfaggotā like that kid Alex did? Itās just as rude.
Once again, my job may be hard, but I make a lot of money. I have a house, no loans, no debt, no more car payments, and Iām happy. Thatās why Iām a server.
The fact that Zapious is losing money on a house is his own fault. The market was horribly poor four years ago, and you didnāt need to be a psychic to predict that it wouldnāt have gotten any better by now. Itās a good time to buy, not to sell. I was smart enough to buy a place, but no way in hell am I going to even attempt to sell it any time soon.
Being a server has nothing to do with being fiscally irresponsible. Buying a house to sell in this economy is fiscally irresponsible. Living above your means is fiscally irresponsible. No one is going to work hard for low pay without tips. Your fantasy of no minimum wage and salary being only up to the worker is NEVER going to come true. The fact that you think it will be better that way means absolutely nothing. America isnāt like that, and you not tipping isnāt doing anyone any favors.
In reply to Pissed Off
I appreciate your being honest. So here is what I think:
You know exactly why we havenāt unionized, and thatās because unionizing will make it so we only get minimum wage, and we donāt want that. We make more than that with tips.
Excellent. If this is true, then you obviously have to take the risk of intelligent people choosing not to tip you when they don’t have to. If you decide that you can get more money by emotionally blackmailing people to cover for your poor wages, then you must provision for situations when that blackmail doesn’t work on those who’re too smart to be conned.
Once again, youāre acting like itās easy to unionize. I donāt know of any union for servers to join, so you really think we need to create one just so YOU donāt have to tip?
Every industry has gone through this phase. You’ve already said that you don’t want unions. Ergo, you don’t want minimum wage. Ergo you can’t complain that you don’t get minimum wage. Ever.
In reply to bhagwad
Intelligent is not the correct word. Stingy is more appropriate. We do take that risk, but it doesn’t mean that we’re totally okay with it when it happens. People who participate in extreme sports put themselves at risk for injury. Does that mean that don’t mind getting hurt when it actually does happen? When a young girl is walking around alone at night, she’s taking the risk that she could be abducted and raped. But by your logic, she’ll be okay with that because she put herself at risk for it.
I don’t emotionally blackmail anyone. I don’t tell them my life story or anything. They know I work hard and they know that my wages are low, so they tip. You’re giving yourself too much credit. The fact that you don’t tip does not make you smart, it just makes you rude.
You’re right, I don’t want minimum wage. I want more than minimum wage. The goal of working is to make as much money as you possibly can. I make far more this way than I would if I was paid minimum. I’m not complaining about how much money I make. I make enough. However, I can absolutely be upset if someone that I don’t even know is incredibly rude to me for no reason.
But as I’ve been saying, my thoughts are with the servers who are really struggling. They work in cheap restaurants where cheap people like to eat. They get shitty tips. Obviously they’re looking for another job, but in the mean time they have to deal with that bullshit. You know what would happen if they tried to unionize? They’d get fired. Most likely they’re working in a place that isn’t doing well as it is and would have no way to meet the demands of the servers. And while the restaurant is already failing and would probably shut down soon anyway, their attempts to unionize would only make that happen sooner.
Now someone who is tell some truth.
1.) You don’t want min wage because you make more squeezing customers. Perhaps you should work for the Mob. They make more than servers. You, no doubt make more than anyone doing that kind of job deserves.
2.)You said “Restaurant prices are jacked up as it is” exactly we are ALREADY paying for you!
3.)You can’t even agree with people in your own industry. What does that say about your arguments?
4.) My family was starting a new business. It takes time to become popular, and we paid the staff a good wage instead of taking advantage of them and our customers.
5.)”The guy who owns the restaurant that I work at has owned the place for 20 years. He makes great money off of it” Yes from slave labour and ripping off customer. By the way, that comment defeats your next argument that a business would go broke paying staff a decent wage. Your boss in just a money hungry tight wad.
6.)Now, like you complained at Bhagwad, you want a hero cookie for looking after yourself. For 32 years old you sure have the mentality of a child. You obviously have no idea the hardship some people grow up with! “I supported myself since 16” boo hoo.
8.) You call others rude when you use words like “ass kissing, and shitty reasons etc.” because of your lack of eduction you have a limited vocabulary. So keep waiting tables. I know it takes a lot of training and concentration to carry a plate from the kitchen and put it on a table without tripping or spilling it on some one..Good for you!
9.) I didn’t comment on the person that said faggot etc. because it’s not directed at me and I can’t be bothered even replying to that. I left it for you to do. You share the same vocabulary.
10.) When I say about buying Hamburgers and fries for less than a couple of bucks from the grocery store, I’m quite sure the restaurant gets a far better price than me. So they should be able to sell it for a reasonable price. But I guess that was too complicated for you to figure out. Better stick with waiting on people.
11.) I bought the house a couple of months before the market collapsed. I don’t NEED to sell now because I own the house outright. I am not having financial problems. I just want to move. I’m tired of living were I am, and personally don’t care about the loss. I just used it as a whinny sob story like servers do. I’ll still come out of it now with my original investment of a couple of hundred thousand. I could wait till next year, but I’ve been looking a buying a new car.
12.) When I was talking about a name, I was saying that I didn’t come here and give a fake name and email just so I could post my whinny comments. This is my name and I use it all over the place.
13.)Perhaps you should read and understand…Common Sense is AGAINST min wage. Oh right sorry about your education.
14.) You use the word RUDE a lot but you are the one calling people names. Why so much anger if you are so happy and make so much money? Why care what anyone says?
15.)Many many people work hard every day and take pride in their job without tips.
16.)Ya you are so worried you would actually have to work for the money you get if it wasn’t for tips. You are lazy and pathetic. (that is not name calling, it is stating facts).
17.) Now, if you will excuse me, I am going out to dinner. The bill will most likely be around $300.00 I was going to leave the server, what I think they deserve for carrying a plate out to me, of $5.00 but because of your rant, I’ll leave the server your name and you can tip them.
Oh, and by the way, good drama. Something servers are good at, pretending to be your friend.
pissed off
your stated reasons are the EXACT reasons why tipping is frivolous.
Unions–i’m not against unions, but i am against people forcing to unionize as well. Wait staff members do not unionize, because as you mentioned, they can get away with squeezing money out of people in the form of tips (not gratuity as you mentioned, which varies among restaraunts). It shows me that wait staff cheat the consumer by charging them additionally using methods of guilt, etc. Unions demand better wages, conditions etc. from their employer. The fact that wait staff DO NOT unionize implies that the wait staff are satisfied with lower than minimum wage, etc. They are also satisfied with the current law in all states that tell people tips are NOT REQUIRED to be given (this is california law as well as other states)
as you mentioned pissed off, you make a lot of money, which in it of itself is reason NOT to tip. You are creating these guilt trips, yet you ADMIT that you make lots of money, so, why should anyone tip? You mention this is where your money comes from. Now “a lot” of money varies among people, but if you already are making so much money from tips as a waiter, then this is further reason NOT to tip. You guilt people into forcing them to pay an arbitary 15%, which they are not requried to do, and you go laughin to the bank. It is not my fault the system is flawed. I’m a consumer, don’t pin this on me. without me, the customer, you guys would have NO patrons, therefore NO TIPS! COMMON SENSE! It is also my responsibility to follow the law. The law dictates that I should pay only what the bill requires. Tips are not required by law. I wish I could receive tips for working in the research field, so I could make a lot of money.
you mention kayla and “working hard.” that is up to the eye of the beholder and various other circumstances. Who are you to say Kayla has not worked harder than you? It seems that the fast food employees unionize and they have appropriate wages and conditions, so the fact that wait staff continue to NOT demand higher wages shows the current system is fine and works great. your counter-argument may be the customary tipping system, but again, why should someone pay a fee that is not required by law?
Customary tipping? There are a lot of customs here in America that are not required by law. For example, it is customary to shake hands with someone using your right hand in the US. Do you know why? When you go to the bathroom, you clean yourself with the left hand. IS it ILLEGAL to go against this custom? no. Please do not bring customary traditions into your argument. They vary among state to state and person to person. Also realize that America’s customs are constantly changing, as the US is a melting pot of people.
I believe that wait staff continue to be fiscally irresponsible also in the sense that they feel that they require fee that, by law, is not in it of itself a requirement. Why is it that ONLY wait staff have this “we make our money through tips” mentality, but NO OTHER INDUSTRY does this? You yourself admit that people buy into a stupid custom through guilt and the wait staff members laugh all the way to the bank. The $2.13/hour works more in your favor because people that do not understand simple fiscal common sense (hence my name) and money feel sorry for you and give you up to 5-10 in tips. Also the tax burden on people with low wages is miniscule. Now if you are serving more than 10 tables, that can be up to 100 dollars per night extra!! Whoa! I wish i had 100 dollars more everyday than waht i make. Now if you go with 6 times a week (i work that much) thats 600 dollars a week!! And because you are working hourly at 2.13/hr, you are barely even taxed! Thats a ton of money! So now we’ve actually faced fact that yes, guilting people into paying a tip that they ARE NOT REQUIRED TO PAY does give you guys more money. You are basically cheating. How is taht even right? I know that is an overestimate, but look at the math man!! So lets do the math. If you are taxed 10% of you wages ( which is really high) you are still bringing home 90 dollars a night from TIPS!! thats good money as far as i’m conerned.
Now you are showing us the true childish “american spirit” of today–NOT doing your job for the sake of doing your job. If you were my employee, i’d fire you immediately just from that comment alone. Would you really do that at a job? If you were an employer, would you want those kinds of employees? Talk about selfishness if you ask me. You guys complain that we’re being selfish for not tipping, yet you contradict yourself by stating that “we do not do our job for the sake of doing our job” bid?! You work hard at any job, that’s what makes this country so great!! what about laborers, the people that make minimum wage for doing the work you would refuse to do? I can’t believe anyone would ever state that about work. That’s horrendous!
You go off subject by condemning zapious for buyin a house in thsi economy. C’mon now stay on subject with the restaraunt tipping procedure!
Now i know the truth. Just from the math, wait staff can make about $100/week wage wise and lets say $500/week on tips. Thats 600/week. Due to the low hourly wage, that isn’t taxed and the tips are slightly taxed, so lets say you bring home $350 dollars (i’m totally assuming a big chunk of tips going away to the state/fed/city). Thats a lot of money! you guys certainly do make a lot of money on tips! More reason for me NOT to tip.
Thanks pissed off. After your answer, now i will tip nothing. I used to tip 15% out of GUILT, but I now see the truth. Me not tipping does a big favor to me! I’m saving my money to come back to the restaraunt you work at just to give you guys business.
In reply to Common Sense
I admitted that I make a lot of money. I never said that other servers do. You should feel extremely guilty if you don’t tip servers in cheaper restaurants. You stiffing them could possibly screw up their entire week, maybe more. You should feel some guilt for not tipping someone who works in a restaurant like the one I work in. You may not have ruined their entire week, but you definitely ruined their day. Do you not feel bad when you’ve been rude to someone, even unintentionally? Clearly you don’t think it’s rude not to tip, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is. A lot of people don’t think it’s rude to call black people the “N” word. Does that mean black people shouldn’t feel hurt when these people throw racial slurs at them?
You asked why anyone should tip. If no one tipped, I wouldn’t have any money. That’s how it works. Obviously I’d go out and find another job if that happened, but that can take a lot of time. Have you ever had periods where you were out of a job and had no income? It’s horrible and it’s scary. I went through it about ten years ago. The restaurant I was working at suddenly shut down thanks to a stupid bartender who served one of his underage friends who then proceeded to drive home drunk. Since I had only been working there for about a month, I could not get unemployment. I put all of my time and energy into finding a new job and I applied to every place that I could. Regardless, I was homeless for three months. It doesn’t sound like a long time, but any amount of time spent not knowing where you’re sleeping or when your next meal will be is too much time. Once again, this is not a sob story. It’s the reality of what happens to people in that situation. While some people make it through, it’s not a place worth being in.
My tips go into my checking account and are used for bills and whatnot. My paychecks go into my savings account and are used for emergencies only. In the event that I had no more income, I’d need to rely on the emergency fund. If I continued living the way I do now with only my savings, I’d have enough money to last me a few months. But in order to make that money last for as long as possible, I’d more than likely have to sell my house (and as I mentioned, this is not a good time to do that), drop out of school, give away all of my pets (emergency visits to the vet are REALLY pricey), and possibly have to sell my car. No, it’s not as bad as being homeless, but it would still be a horrible situation.
Luckily, I’m not in danger of not getting tips. I’m only explaining what would happen if no one tipped.
It’s not just a custom, it’s common courtesy. Whenever I see someone trying to enter or exit a building, I hold the door for them. When I accidentally scratched someone’s car when pulling out of a parking spot, I wrote down my name and number so that I could give them my insurance information. When I found a wallet with $50 cash and multiple credit cards inside, I turned it over to the cops. Was I required to do any of those things? Of course not. But I did them because it’s common courtesy, and it’s the right thing to do. I wasn’t going “above and beyond” what I needed to, I was just doing what everyone should do.
You really think that just because a server at an expensive restaurant makes a lot of money means all servers are laughing all the way to the bank? See my other comment aimed at you.
You seriously think I’m not being taxed? Guess again. I report all of my tips and I am taxed on them. The taxes come out of my paycheck. Let’s say that I worked 100 hours in two weeks. At approximately $2.00/hour, that would be $200. But because of taxes, my paycheck won’t be more than $40. Sometimes I don’t get a paycheck at all because everything I made had to go to the government. I’m a tax-paying, law-abiding citizen and you have no right to tell me otherwise. I pay taxes just like you do.
Cheating? Haha that’s a good one. Cheating would be doing something illegal like tax evasion, drug dealing, writing false checks, or stealing. And no, taking tips is not stealing in the least. My customers give me that money. Even if they aren’t happy about leaving a tip, they’re still leaving it. I’m not conning them into tipping. They know I do well. The menu is pricey which means the bill is high which means the tip is a decent size. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out. But what they also know is that it is incredibly difficult to get a serving job at a place like that. You have to work very hard for many years and you need to be the best of the best. That’s how you get to the top of any industry, hard work. When you’re at the top, you get paid more. Even though you think it should always be the employer’s responsibility to raise those wages, that’s not how things work here.
Oh please. No one works for the sake of working. People work to make money, and anyone who says they do otherwise is a liar. Even if my paycheck was higher and I didn’t make tips, I still wouldn’t work “for the sake of working”. I’d work for only one thing, my paycheck. If I didn’t need to work, I wouldn’t. That doesn’t mean I’d sit around doing nothing, but rather I’d use the time I’d normally spend at work doing things that I enjoy. I like traveling, sewing, volunteering at the local animal shelter, going to the gym, etc. Sure, I like my job, but not enough that I’d do it for free. The fact that I openly admit that I don’t do my job for the sake of doing my job does not make me lazy or childish. It makes me honest. If I was interviewing potential employees and one of them told me that they don’t work for any other reason than the sake of working, I’d think that they were desperate and trying way too hard.
Zapious is the one who brought up the house in the first place, so it absolutely is on topic. He mentioned it because it’s a “sob story like the ones that servers use” or whatever his exact words are. Me condemning him for that stupid decision is relevant.
Once again, see my other comment directed towards you.
Funny story, when I was working at a Tex-Mex restaurant, there was this guy who started coming in regularly. He never tipped. He paid his bill in exact change every time. The fifth or sixth time he did that, the manager stopped him at the door and asked him why he never tipped. He said that he didn’t believe in the tipping system and refuses to be a part of it. He also mentioned that the manager shouldn’t be bothered because he was bringing the restaurant business. The manager basically told him to either start tipping or never come back. He was causing too many problems to make the “business” that he was bringing us worth it (which was hardly business at all, approximately $15/visit). Unless he was bringing in crazy amounts of customers, he was barely any help to us. Not getting his $15 every day was a small price to pay for never having to deal with him again.
btw pissed off you are being honest, so i won’t take that away from you
I do want to add that the $500/week i came up with.
average 100 dollar tip per night. That’s pretty fair to say, assuming you have larger and smaller parties.
Lets make it make that half so $50/night on tips. So 250/week +100/week so 350. Before taxes, that’s still some pretty good money right there. So again, more reason not to tip.
In reply to Common Sense
You do realize that I work in a restaurant where the cheapest thing on the menu is $25 and if you want to eat there you need to make a reservation one week in advance, right? Obviously I make a lot of money. But do you think I started off there? Hell no, I worked in diners and other family-owned places where the menu was much cheaper. I’m going to assume that you eat at places like that, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But there is something wrong with not leaving a tip for your servers at those places. You know what an “amazing” day is for some of them? $50. So while I don’t feel bad for myself and don’t want others to feel bad for me, I absolutely do feel bad for the servers in places like those. I remember what it was like to be in their shoes, and my heart goes out to them.
If you go to a place like the one I work at and don’t leave a tip, that’s just making an effort to be rude. I don’t think any person in the world is capable of being that rude without trying. It may not be completely screwing them over in the long run, but it’s screwing them over for the night and it causes them to waste their time and service on you when they could have used it on their other customers who don’t have a vendetta against servers.
Clearly you also enjoy trying to upset other people, because that is the only reason why you’d say that you’re never going to tip again thanks to me. I’m not hurt by what you said, but I find it ridiculous that you actually made an effort to be mean.
In reply to Pissed Off
i see how your are trying to enact a form of superiority, but lets get passed that. I have been to restaraunts where the cheapest thing is aroudn $30 and i still don’t tip as you guys expect. The bill was about $100, so I left $5. The waiter gave me attitude later, so I was essentially guilted into giving more (not a complete tip), but I did ask, is it required by law for me to tip? They told me no, but its “the right thing to do.” What does that have to do with commerce and free market? if i’m not required to do so by law, i’m not going to do it? Ever since then even at upper tiered restarunts, i tip as I please. That’s how tippign works. Not an arbitrary 15%. If i want to tip nothing, i tip nothing. If i want to tip 20%, then so be it. Its up to ME, NO ONE ELSE.
You working in the restaraunt business, again, remember tips aren’t required by law. You should understand that by now. Even if your tips are taxed, the law dictates that i’m not REQUIRED to give you anything except what is on the receipt given to me. I don’t care about being rude. In capitalism, rudeness is not even looked at. Go down to Wall Street and ask them about rudeness. Also remember, i don’t want to screw myself over either. I care about me first. I’m a human being, and by nature, we care ourselves/family first. I really do not care if a bunch of good looking entitled twenty year olds think i’m a jerk.
I’m not trying to upset people, i’m just trying to lay out some common sense. i’m not trying to be mean. I’m just being a normal guy in this awesome capitalist, free market society that has benefitted me so well, that’s it.
And you still have not answered my question, if you work in an industry that is not unionized and you are not GURANTEED proper wages, then why agree to it? There may be many chances when people with some common sense see past the smoke and mirrors and don’t tip.
BTW i’ve been to plenty of five stars and restaraunts like olive garden and its all the same. Its filled with a bunch of fake good looking entitled 20 year olds that feel that they HAVE to go to college and spill their entitlement onto me when i dine out. The only time i have a 100% satisfying meal is if my wife cooks it and home and let me tell you she’ll wipe your 5 star cooks on the floor with her cooking :) not to say we don’t enjoy restaraunts.
1) Squeezing customers? Please, they tip me because they want to. I do my job, I get tipped.
2) No, you’re paying for the cooks, dishwashers, hosts, and managers. If you were paying for us, you’d be paying more.
3) I have no idea what you’re talking about with this one. Go ahead and call me an idiot, but I’m at a total loss.
4) I don’t care, if your family had to pay out of pocket after a certain period of time, you failed.
5) He could afford to pay the staff about half as much as we make with tips. But then the place would turn into a no-tipping establishment. Unless you are told otherwise, the person serving you gets paid very low wages. But since we would be getting paid more, they’d make tips unnecessary. In the end, he’d get less money and all of us would get less money. It works out in everyone’s favor.
6) No, I don’t want a hero cookie, I’m telling it like it is. You said I was young and had a sense of entitlement, I pointed out that I’m almost middle aged and I’ve worked for everything I’ve gotten. Nothing more.
7) You skipped this number. Oops.
8) Oh no, I used some “dirty” words. Clearly that makes me uneducated. It’s not like I’m currently working on getting a degree in psychology…Oh wait…
9) Haha because “shitty”, “ass”, and “fuck” are totally on the same level as “faggot”. Get real. Those two words are not cruel, pointed insults. Calling someone a “faggot” is a horrible, nasty thing to do. It’s a personal insult. Telling someone that they’re “kissing ass”, that they used “shitty reasons”, or that they “fucked up” is hardly insulting and not nearly on the same level as “faggot”.
10) Of course they get it for a more reasonable price than you do, but they still jack up the prices to pay cooks and other people. There are reasonably priced restaurants out there. Their staff get paid less and are usually entry-level employees, but whatever. You should stick to those types of restaurants.
11) The market didn’t crash out of nowhere. It was pretty obvious that it was going to happen. And if you’re not having any financial problems, why would you use a sob story? I mentioned that I’ve taken care of myself for a long time simply to point out that what you said about me was wrong. No other reason. I don’t know about you, but I like to correct any misconceptions that people have about me.
12) The only comments that you think are “whiny” are people who are pro-tipping. In your mind, anyone who disagrees with you is simply whining.
13) So sorry that I said that he “doesn’t believe in minimum wage” as opposed to “is against minimum wage”. Come on, they’re practically the same thing. If someone says that they “don’t believe in gay marriage” or that they “don’t believe in abortion”, does that mean they think that there aren’t gay marriages and abortions happening? No, it means that they’re against it and disagree with it. And if you’ve never heard anyone say “I don’t believe in…” in lieu of “I’m against…”, you’ve probably been living in a cave. Sorry about your ignorance.
14) What “names” are you talking about? Dumb? Because that’s all that I can think of, and as far as I’m concerned that is not a “name”. Now, this may seem like a foreign concept to you, but I actually care about other people. My anger is for the people who aren’t as lucky as I am and work in cheaper restaurants that attract customers like you. I was once in their place and I remember what it was like. My heart goes out to them and it’s upsetting to me that others have to deal with that.
15) That’s because they didn’t pick a job that depends on tips.
16) This point makes no sense. I work extremely hard for my tips. I need to work extra hard for two reasons. One, in the end they determine how much money I go home with. And two, I always appreciate excellent service when I go out to eat. I assume that everyone else does as well, so I provide them with it. I’d still do my job if my hourly wages were higher and I wasn’t relying on tips, but the fact that I’m working for tips is motivating. For the most part, I’m putting the extra effort into my job so that I don’t end up getting stiffed. You need to be extra careful that you don’t screw up, and that takes extra work. That does not make me lazy or pathetic. Calling me that is your attempt to hurt me simply because your main goal in life is to hurt other people. If anything, you’re the one who’s pathetic.
17) You know very well that servers do much more than carry your plate. The only reason why you are doing that is because you are a cruel, cold person who takes pleasure in making others upset. There is no other explanation for why you’d ever think anything less that a $45 tip on a $300 check is acceptable. In all honesty, it SHOULD be a $60 tip, but you’d never leave that much. You get off on other people’s distress. You hate servers and you want to punish them despite the fact that they have never done anything to you. More than likely, they’re just kids who are working to pay for their college education. Please, give me the name of your server and the number for that restaurant. I’d be more than happy to spend only $20 in food but leave that server a large enough tip to accommodate for you screwing them over.
Not once did I ever pretend to be your friend. I’m very nice to my customers because I appreciate it when people are nice to me. Tips are important, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to be a mean person if I wasn’t working for tips.
@Pissed Off 13.) You are absolutely right, I miss read what you said, and thought you said “Common” was for min wage. My apologies. But as far as the rest, I stand by it. Normally, I wouldn’t have wasted the time to read something that long, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt, and I hate to say it (because you are probably a hard working guy) but your final line says it all..
“Iām very nice to my customers because I appreciate it when people are nice to me.”
What do you call a person, that is only nice too someone, only in hope of being paid for it?
Besides not a nice person, but sound like a whore. (not saying that to be insulting, that’s what you call it) So if you find that term unpalatable, perhaps you should change you attitude about how you think of people! Us “non nice people” just treated everyone with respect because we took pride in ourselves,
and our job…not because we see them as a walking dollar sign.
@ pissed I won’t go into the problems I have had( and they’ve been severe) in life because it isn’t relevant and it isn’t a competition. Oh, and by the way, you ARE obligated to turn the wallet in or give info if you damage someone property, not only by law, but by morality!
Finally, you wait on me for a hour and you think you deserve $60.00 plus a wage. You are insane, if you think severs should be paid more than $60.00 a hour. Ambulance drivers only get a $100.00 a call, and often spend far longer than a hour with a person… and they are, at least a trained, educated professional. Please.
I feel like you’re implying that you’re life was harder than mine and you just stating that “It isn’t a competition” is your way of instigating. Please just stop. I don’t know anything about you or what you’ve been through, and likewise you don’t know anything about me and what I’ve been through.
Exactly, you are obligated to do those things by morality. Just like you are obligated to tip by morality.
$60 is a 20% tip (which is the standard) for a $300 check. However, no one here would ever even consider tipping 20%, and a 15% tip is acceptable. Just because they’re making $60 in one hour does not mean they made $60/hour for the day. I remember one night when I was just starting out in the industry, I had one table for the entire night. It was a table of 15 people. I got to the restaurant, I set up the kitchen, and I did all sorts of tasks that needed to be done. They arrived approximately two hours after I got there. They ate for about an hour and a half. Their bill was $300. They left me a $60 tip. My shift was six hours long, so when you added my wage and my tips, I made the equivalent of $12/hour. Even when I didn’t have customers, I still had work to do and I did it. So no, I didn’t work for one hour. I worked for 5.
If these ambulance drivers make $100/call and they spent a total of 5 hours with that person (which is as long as my shift was), they’d have made $17/hour, which is much more than I made.
It’s funny, you were kind of almost being a little polite earlier. But there you go again, telling servers that they’re uneducated and unworthy of getting paid just because someone in a totally unrelated field gets paid $100/call (which still ends up being significantly more than most servers make, so I don’t see what you’re getting at).
Hey guys, let’s lay off the open insults and abuses. It’s much more fun to focus on the arguments instead no? :)
In reply to bhagwad
agreed! I apologize if have done so, sorry guys.
I’m saying that you are far from the only one who has had problems in life. I am staring at a picture of a baby, in the hospital , with tubes and equipment attached everywhere (sent to me by the Children’s Charity Lottery, which I support) who started out life with brain cancer. If he lives, even to 16, he’ll be lucky. That’s my point. Your life experience, mine and the baby’s are IRRELEVANT to tipping. Serious, you do sound like a good person, and it’s not that I think you don’t work hard, but that is still irrelevant to why people don’t want to tip. It’s not about you, it’s about the idea of idea of paying for something you feel you have already paid for once. And like “Common” would say ” an arbitrary amount”. That leaves the door open for rich people to leave you 30% and then you look down on someone that only leaves you only 15%.
You may get some support, as I said before if you were willing, to see, for just ONE second the flip side of things. ( you don’t have to agree).
If you went to stay in a hotel for $50 a night and received no room service…that’s OK, so if you stay in a $150 per night room with room service, one would expect, that it should be included, because you are paying $100 more to stay there. Does it cost more to heat that room or do the laundry?
I would like to apologize to Bhagwad and some posters, for comments I made that might be insulting. I don’t believe that it is proper and doesn’t accomplish anything in debates, or to help people understand one’s point of view. I let my annoyance get the better of me.
PS… You are totally correct about the Fag comment. Of course, I didn’t say it, but also I absolutely believe it was inappropriate.