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.
Everyone knows Towel heads don’t tip. That’s why they always have “special” treatment. There kids are annoying as fuck and nasty as hell. Arabs stink so I don’t like going to there tables. There bratty ass unibrow kids leave a mess like what barn were uou raised in probably the one with cows. Oh and not to mention I always make it a point to drop there bread sticks on the floor. If they send a salad back I just pick out what’s wrong with my hands. Pastas hard you want another one I just microwave it. I’m paying for you to sit down and eat I’m gonna get some kinda enjoyment out of it. Know how you towel heads like you some Olive Garden. (;
In reply to Kara
And to think people like you work in the service industry. Simply awesome!! Please make sure you dump the food all over the floor, dance it for 5 minutes and then pick it up with a dirty garden shovel before delivering it to your special customers. I am sure they will be all too happy to leave you a huge tip that may look like a black eye on your face.
In reply to Andy
This is the sense of entitlement that these staff workers carry. If the wages are so bad, find anotehr job. Work at Wal Mart. They pay minimum wage while the wait industry pays $2.13.
$9.00>$2.13 isn’t it?
Common Sense?
And this is the exact reason why I won’t tip indian/hindu cab drivers. I rarely take a cab (thank God) but when I have sat in a cab, it’s always been with an smelly unpleasant indian with a stupid turban, or some other dumb looking hat, or dot on his forehead which he wants to tell me all about… that or his 50+ kids back in shithole India that he thinks I care about. I’m sorry, you’re not doing me any sort of a service besides driving me from point A to point B, which is no better than what a waiter does. Bringing me food from point A to point B. I pay a premium already for the cab ride, so why should I tip him any more than that exact amount? Is it my problem they don’t pay cab drivers a minimum wage? Is it my problem they have 50+ hungry kids living in slummy India? Is it my problem that this is the only job they can be hired for? Is it my problem that they smell like curry, and worship some 4 armed blue god and can’t wash their stinky turban or trim their smelly beard because of it? No, it’s not. So when the cab ride is over, I always try and short change them, or figure out a reason I can give them to declare how unfair the charges were, whether they were late, or they talked too much, or I felt like their driving sucked, and then I throw the money through their little hole thing, and get out. Meanwhile they’re yelling at me for not tipping. I just tell them to look you and your article up, and they’ll find out why. Then I tell them to go back to their shitty dot-head country if they don’t like it. They’re not people anyway, just garbage… like all Indians. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some bacon to eat, and a cow to slaughter.
In reply to R.P.
Axe to grind much? :)
In reply to R.P.
I’m also glad you are not tipping the cab driver. I also don’t tip cab drivers since the rate in itself is premium.
I don’t like tipping wait staff because they probably live in some American slum supporting their kids, right? Same logic?
Go fuck yourself. If your too damn cheap dont eat out at restaurants. Go to McDonald’s
You are a pathetic bastard. If you are too cheap to pay for the service, don’t go out to eat.
Yes the tipping system in the US may be unfair. But that is the way the industry here works. Servers here are not paid minimum wage. Period. I guess if there is any sense to your arguments, then every server would quit their jobs in protest. Millions of people entering the workforce to find a new position and putting every single restaurant out of business. There wouldn’t be a single place open for you to sit your sorry ass down and eat at.
No one is threatening you to pay a tip. However if you came in as a repeat customer to my restaurant, I would simply refuse to serve you. I will not work for free. I’m sure my manager would back me up on that.
So go fuck yourself asshole.
In reply to Ms
I am not sure where you get your sense of entitlement from. You do realize that tipping is legally optional, don’t you? It’s entirely upto the customer whether he wants to tip or not. Tips are not guaranteed income that you can demand. It seems some servers like you take generosity for granted and think its your bloody right to get tipped and anyone who doesn’t tip is suddenly the devil incarnate.
In reply to Andy
Andy, it seems that servers don’t DIRECTLY answer this question with a logical, rational answer because they ARE entitled to a tip, which is legally optional in itself.
You are all just cheap fucking foreigners. Don’t come to the US then if you don’t want to respect our culture!!!
You sir, are an asshole
YOU, sir, are a fucking asshole. If you’re not going to tip, don’t go out to eat. I can understand if you tip less for poor service or if you’re not satisfied, but to flat out not tip? That’s ridiculous. They’re performing a service, you pay for that service. Get off your high horse, you’re a columnist for God’s sake, what gives you the right to downgrade ANYBODY? I’m a freelance grant writer and waited tables to work my way through school, it’s an honest, decent way to make a living.
Have you EVER had a server tell you they’d spit in your food if you didn’t tip? Doubt it. That would make them a criminal, not a server. However, I’d still rather be their friend than yours, ASSHOLE.
You sir, are rude!!! Your Outlook on……well everything is totally uncalled for, I myself, of course, is an ” underskilled” server and I suppose I do deserve to do it the rest of my life, because I do not agree with one thing u said,and thank god everyone isn’t like u!!!!
You need to spend 30 days waiting tables and I guarantee your mind will change. Some of the points you have made in this are ignorant. As a server we interact with the people at our tables because that is our job. No one cares if you do not like it, but to say you do not tip because you do not like the American culture of tipping then go back to where you came from. It is something that people do because they feel the person deserves the money for providing quality service to them. If I ever have the chance encounter of waiting on you I will instantly drop a gratitude on your check and FORCE you to pay a tip.
The problem with non tippers is that they, however unintentionally, take it out on the staff and not the employers. Next time you are going out to eat, ask the staff what their hourly wage is. If it’s negated by taxes (around $2.13 in most states) simply refuse to eat there, write on yelp.com explaining why, do whatever you can to bring attention to the injustice. It isn’t fair to either party so the onus rides on the owners. The sad fact is that they pay their staff a crappy wage because they can get away with it. So don’t let them.