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.
I bet it actually takes a lot of skill to deal with you when you are eating out… I could imagine you aren’t the most pleasant customer in the restaurant at any given time…
BTW, you can’t just decide to under report your tips (the IRS requires employers to “allocate” tips to bring all directly tipped staff up to at least 8% of their gross reciepts). So, you may actually be costing the servers money for the privilege of serving you.
I acknowledge that you aren’t required to tip, but you should at least get your facts straight before getting on your high-horse…
In reply to Kevin
I love you kevin
In reply to Maxon primly
Ok Kevin, If you want to get the facts straight lets do that. I own 2 large restaurants. Not one server in either make only 8% in tips. If doesn’t happen. 15% percent maybe -still low. So I guess I can add you to the long list of servers who cheat every other taxpayer in the U.S.
(P.S) if any on you servers make only 8% you should be fired TODAY. And in Washington State minimum wage for a server is $9.04 and hour, plus tips, plus less taxes for the server because they don’t report all their tips. WHO IS MAKING OUT HERE –
In reply to beth
You own large restaurants? I’d be willing to bet you that your servers have to cheat the IRS just to take home a little north of 30K. Go fuck yourself.
In reply to Kevin
Don’t you think it’s fair that people like me make up for those who tip beyond 8% ? Only if more people take a stand against tipping, will we be able to improve the system.
And since I expect nothing from the waiter, there’s no “skill” involved in serving me. Just bring me the food. I don’t care about how happy a waiter looks or what they talk about. Is that not the ideal customer?
In reply to bhagwad
How much of a douchebag are you? Seriously? Go work in a restaurant for a week, and see if you can still make that comment. Even discounting the affective labor of having to chitchat. Do you even understand the complicated dance that most restaurant workers have to perform JUST to get food to your table in a reasonable amount of time?
OK,
Your points and opinions make a whole lot of sense. So, the alternative, raise the cost of the meal 20% and no tipping. GEEZE, that makes sense. So, you’re out for a nice meal and now you have someone who isn’t motivated to make your experience special.
I agree with your points, however, are you going to pay that 20% more when they raise the menue prices? You know McDonald’s, in their pricing of their products, plan on a 25% labor cost on their food. THEY ADD IT IN. So, every 25c of every $1 you are spending on service. Think about that GREAT PERSONAL CONTACT.
Hey, you have your opinion and I respect that. So, next time I am at the Cabin Club in Westlake, Ohio, I’ll try that ‘NOT TIPPING’ when we get GREAT SERVICE, perfect Wine Suggestions and a knowledgable waiter who knows his job and makes you feel like you are his only table (The guy basically waits on the entire place). Oh yeah, by the way, the cost of a meal there is $150 with a split of wine and a shared Creme Broullete, PLUS TIP, and yes, I tip him $50 because it is an experience. So, while I appreciate your opinion, I, personally REJECT it and offer mine.
What do you want? Do you want to pay the server, or do you want to pay extra for your meal? Regardless of what you choose, you are paying the tab. What are you upset about? American customs? Why did you move here? If you do not like the way it is here, move back. If I went to your country, I would follow the rules of the land. If I did not agree, I would not live there. You should really be happy that the standard of tipping is not enforced, if it was, you would never be served again . So what is. Your problem exactly? Do you secretly feel guilty for your feelings and you need other people to share your feelings? What is it? If you don’t want to tip, don’t tip. Don’t ask other people to agree with you so you can justify your thoughts. You are living in this country, obey their customs. If you hate it so much, get out.
In reply to Allison
No regardless, I may not pay the tab if I’m informed of the inclusive prices beforehand. I can pick and choose which restaurant I want to go to with the full knowledge of the cost rather than being deceived by lower prices and then paying extra.
Any there’s no law saying I have to obey anything. Tipping goes against my conscience. Customs be damned. When a custom costs me money, that’s where I draw the line.
In reply to bhagwad
Letting dotheads lives goes against MY conscience, but our customs don’t accept the killing of dotheads as proper or justified, so I refrain.
But you are all lower than a crawling, shit-stained centipede.
I am sure you left your country for a reason. What ever that reason was, you chose America . Why not obey their customs?
In reply to Allison
I obey all customs no matter how silly. When in rome etc etc. Drive on the other side of the road, or anything else that doesn’t cost me money. I’m cheap however and when a custom demands that I take money out of my pocket, I shamelessly discard it.
I’m just going to leave this here. I’ve yet to here a good argument for tipping so now I’m just gonna add an even better argument against.
http://financialuproar.com/2010/03/20/my-rant-against-tipping/
agreed. I dont tip the guy who sells me smokes at the gas station. I buy the product and all the taxes/profits are in the price.
I dont tip that black teen girl at mcdonalds drive thru. I dont tip the sonic waitress even if she remebers to ask me if i want extra napkins or mustard.
I dont tip anyone -ever. My choosing to do business with you is fortune enough -keeps the wheel spinning for all the people there.
You want a tip? Demand a higher salary or get another or better job. Do you see walmart customers checking out and paying their employees social security %age – because hey walmart workers get old and being old is just tough!
I dont care if it makes me look like an asshole – at least im not bending over and taking it like one. I pay taxes on everything. I gotta insure everything or I’m a criminal. I need licenses for every little thing. I get nickeled and dimed enough as is without opening myself up to it.
A person who likes to tip is a person who would like to turn the cash money in their just dead brothers wallet over to the estate for a 50% goverment loss -a complacent idiot who would long be dead if darwinism would ring true.
Count yourself lucky if I tell you to keep the 12 cents change just because I don’t wanna fiddle with my pocket lining.
Your definitely a terrorist. Only a terrorist would go to a restaurant and not tip.
In reply to Steven Yankee
.. and you my friend, are an ignoramus, who does not know the meaning of the word terrorist. If anything, the waiter who said they would spit on the food, if not given a big tip is the terrorist.
I am a server/waiter/cashier at a local restaurant in the US of A and I HATE TIPPING!.
Now dont get me wrong, I love getting the money. But I cannot stand the overflirty smiling and subtle chumminess I have to do to get a fucking tip, and then the feeling of disappointment and betrayal when the nice couple who seemed so cool then don’t leave me extra money for some reason I have yet to fathom out, other than “its what you do, you tip”.
If a shoe salesman, a McDonalds server, a policeman and a worker at Gap clothing is not expecting a top from you, then how come they provide a public service too?
Tipping and it’s onligatory blackmail effect are just awful. I hate the whole persona of having to do it, just ot be a sheep and fit in with everybody else giving $2 for an order under $20. It’s total blackmail. Those people that do it are sheep. And if they DON’T tip they look like cheap tight assed spendthrifts, mean spirited and crafty and always trying to get something for nothing.
THat about right?
Yes it is . I am a waiter/server so I speak from experience. I LOVE it when people put money in the jar or on a receipt, but I also hate the fact I start to look at people with disgust when they don’t. Who the hell am I? And what exactly am I hoping they give me more money for? WHat did I do? What extra thing did I do, that I didn’t need to, in order for them to give me money?
What if someone else wanted the same thing- a child seat brought out, a bottle of salsa, and these new people didn’t tip me? Would I take the chair back? No of course not.
This whole tipping business screams “whore” faster than a pari of fishnets on a tranny on Santa Monica Bld, and I hate the whole sorry mess.
Also, why am I thinking that the guy that gives me $4 is way better than the guy that gives me $2? I can now be bought for money? THis is a fucking joke. And for all those saying, “you have to tip it’s the wages, they’re terrible”, then stop doing it, as you’re only supporting that corrupt system.
In reply to Rachel
THIS. absolutely.
I have to ask all those who think that tips mean the server is encouraged to serve you, job motivation etc; what motivation do those other people on min wage have that don’t get tipped? Your motivation is: If I don’t do my job, I will get fired and some other person will have my job, and in these hard times with more and more people being jobless keeping your job is of the highest importance.
If tips are there so you do your job, if you allocate all that tip money to the work that is above and beyond (which is what a tip SHOULD be for) what % is left over is basically you getting paid to sit around and do nothing.
I enjoyed reading through your post and skimming at the comments, and I absolutely agree with you. First off, tipping is a gratuity in general, and should not be forced on by the waiter/waitress. I’m paying for the food, and ultimately, it’s the boss’s responsibility to pay the worker, not me. For all the people who keeps talking about, oh it’s for good service. Look at elsewhere, such as Korea, Philippines, China, Japan, there’s no tipping involved and I get exceptional service so your points are invalid. Force tips down my throat, and I leave you with nothing. My gratuity is a common courtesy, and forcing it down on the customer’s throat will bottleneck their ideologies even more so. It really isn’t my problem you have unfair hourly wage, bring it up to your boss. Ultimately, you decided on your career or short-term job path, not me. If you think this system is unfair, simple. Apply for another job or get some sort of skills because it is hard to find work, but interestingly, there’s no such thing no jobs being unavailable. To the ones who disagree, try your luck with the local military recruiter. To the ones who go, why don’t you? I’ll one up you, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy because of being unskilled after coming out of high school.
Put up with what you get, gifting you with a tip is not mandatory, so stop complaining already.