Note: This article is a reprint. Several readers have suggested that one way for Get Rich Slowly to retain my voice although I’m no longer a regular contributor is to re-publish old articles like this. This is a keen idea, especially on days like today when the staff writer hasn’t turned in his assignment!
Every time I get my hair cut, I’m faced with a dilemma — should I tip the barber or not? I usually get my hair cut in a small-town shop. I tip $2 on a $12 haircut. If I get to hear stories about Vietnam or histrionic political rants, I tip $3, even if I don’t agree with the barber’s viewpoints. (I tip because I’ve been entertained.) Sometimes, if I don’t have enough cash, I don’t leave a anything at all. Are these tips appropriate?
What about when I pick up Chinese takeout? Should I have tipped the guys who delivered our new gas range last fall? What about a hotel bellhop? A parking valet? Out of curiosity, I did some research on tipping practices in the United States. There’s actually significant disagreement about how much to tip for even common services.
For example, you know you should tip your waitress. But how much should you leave? Some people claim that 10% is adequate. Others claim that 20% is standard. But I suspect that most of us learned to tip 15%, and to give more for exceptional service. (The wikipedia entry on tipping currently contains the bizarre claim that “18% is generally accepted as a standard tip for good service”.) Which amount is correct?
After browsing dozens of pages, I drafted the following guide. The amounts listed are based on averages or on consensus, when possible.
Food Service
- Barista
- No tip required, though many suggest throwing coins into the tip jar.
- Bartender
- $1/drink (or 15% of total bill). Pre-tip for better service.
- Delivery person (including pizza)
- 10%, $2 minimum (also, also)
- Maitre d’
- $5-$25 for special efforts
- Takeout
- No tip required unless something special is done (also, also)
- Waiter
- 15% for adequate service, 20% for exceptional service. For poor service, leave 10% or less. It’s okay to leave nothing for exceptionally poor service, but only if you’re sure it’s the waiter’s fault.
Hotel Staff
- Bellman/Porter
- $1 to $2 per bag, $5 minimum. (Or, just as many places say $1 bag, $2 minimum.)
- Concierge
- $5-$20 depending on the service. $20 if he does something exceptional. Nothing for directions.
- Housekeeper
- $2 to $5 per night, paid daily or as a lump sum at checkout. (Most sites suggest you tip daily.)
- Parking Valet
- A wide range of opinions. Everyone agrees that you should pay when your car is retrieved. Some say to pay when it’s parked, too. Most sites say to tip $2, though some suggest $5.
- Room service
- $5 minimum (unless gratuity is included in check)
Travel
- Bus driver (not mass transit)
- $1 to $2, if she handles luggage
- Cab driver
- 10%, $2-$5 minimum
- Chauffeur
- 10-15%
- Gas station attendant
- Nothing. Or $2-$4. There’s no agreement. (I’ve never seen anyone tip a gas station attendant ever.)
- Porter/skycap
- $1 per bag. $2 for heavy items, or if porter brings luggage to counter.
Personal service
- Barber/Hairstylist
- Again, little agreement: 10-15%, 15-20%, etc. One person recommends $5 to each individual who shampoos or blow-dries your hair! (also)
- Manicurist
- 15%
- Spa service
- 15-20%
- Masseuse
- 10-15%
- Shoe-shiner
- $2 or $3
Other
- Building superintendent
- Varies —read more.
- Coat checker
- Most sites recommend $1 per coat, though one said $2 to $5 upon retrieval.
- Furniture deliverer
- It depends. Most of the time $5-$20. Some recommend simply offering cold drinks. (also)
- Grocery store bagger
- One site recommended $1-$3, though I’ve never seen one tipped in my life.
- Mover
- $10-$25 per person (also)
What about tipping at holidays? Tipping service people with whom you have regular contact can build goodwill. I found these recommendations:
Holiday Tips
- Babysitter: one week’s pay
- Doorman: bottle of wine or box of chocolates
- Garbage collector: $15 to $25
- Gardener: one week’s pay
- Housekeeper: one week’s pay
- Janitor: $15 to $25
- Mail carrier: $15 to $20 (up to $20 non-cash)
- Nanny: one week’s pay
- Newspaper delivery person: $15 to $25
- Parking attendant: $15 to $25
- Personal trainer: $20 to $50 (tip discreetly)
Some points regarding tipping etiquette:
- If you use a coupon or gift certificate, calculate your tip based on the total before discount.
- Tip above the norm if:
- Service is exceptional,
- You’ve been a burden, or
- You are a regular client.
- Don’t tip if it’s not deserved. Poor service should not be rewarded.
- In some circumstances, if you offer an initial tip — especially a large initial tip — you’ll get better service.
- If you take up a restaurant table for a long time, tip extra.
- Tip discreetly.
- When in doubt, tip.
What about public officials? When is a tip a tip, and when is a tip a bribe? Kris and I tipped the judge who married us, but even then we had trouble deciding how much to give him. (We gave him $50.)
I suspect that tipping practices vary widely from region-to-region and, especially based upon the size of the city. As always, do what works for you.
Other articles about tipping:
- How to tip in a foreign country
- International tipping etiquette
- Is it better to tip with cash or with credit?
- Tipping at weddings
- Tipping relieves guilt more than it provides incentive
- Tipping etiquette (which is actually the best guide I found)
Photo by nffcnnr.
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Tattoo Artist: 10-20% tip more for multiple session pieces(I usually tip $20 per hour)
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It never, ever dawned on me to tip the tattoo artist before! The guy that did mine charged ~$75/hour so $20/hour tip is a bit steep though.
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Your tattoo artist charged by the hour? Both of mine charged by the piece. I tipped them $20 both times.
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I usually tip more than I probably should…just because I used to work in service jobs and know how frustrating it can be to get undertipped. I’m not too big on tip jars but my basic philosophy is that if you don’t want to tip- don’t go out to eat! Or you can eat fast food and not have to tip anyone. I think it’s rude to go to a sit down restaurant and not tip or tip poorly just because you have a personal problem with tipping in general. People are trying to make a living so it’s not fair to punish them because you think the tipping system is unfair.
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Holly- I typically tip 20% when I sit down at a restaurant but I find it frustrating and pressuring when I go to a take out/fast food and I see a line for a tip. Do you think you should have to tip on those services? I used to be a waitress (at a Friendly’s) and I made tips and I knew how stressful it was waiting to see how your night was going…. but I don’t really like tipping for fast food or ice cream or take out yet somehow I feel bad when I don’t.
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I never leave tips for take-out unless they do something unusually helpful because under normal circumstances they don’t provide the kind of service that deserves a tip. I find that people will ask for a tip (via things like tip jars) for almost anything. It’s one reason why I prefer the Australian and European system of not having tips.
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I tip at restaurants, usually by rounding up the bill to the next five or ten Euro value, keeping it in the region of 10% of the total. I did tip taxi drivers routinely, until the flagfall in my city became so outrageously high (and following a court ruling, many of the taxis so ratty) that I don’t feel I have to improve these guys’ income any longer. So now I only tip when I have a lot of luggage.
I don’t tip anyone else. The union-backed wage agreements for nearly every service sector in my country, and the minimum wage, are plenty generous, and as far as I am concerned, it’s up to employee to see that they aren’t cheated out of their entitlement. Certainly the consumer is charged prices to match!
But J.D.’s article and Holly’s comment did a lot to enlighten me why I got so many bad responses from service folks when I travelled in the US. I must say, the idea that these folks would not earn a living wage and would NEED tips didn’t even occur to me.
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Hello! Love your articles!
Question: So are these percentages based off of tax included or after tax?
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Theoretically it is before tax. But most wait persons appreciate it if you do it after tax.
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One I’ve had trouble finding info on: cafeteria-style restaurants. In a way, it’s a bit like a barista (there’s somebody behind the counter putting food on your plate), and there are cooks & bus staff as well. But nobody comes to the table to take the order, we fill our own drinks. We generally gut-feel it at around 10-15% (“15-20%, minus an actual waiter”) depending on quality of food that night, friendliness of the serving staff, the expediency of the bus staff, and occasionally the messiness of our kid. Anybody else have input?
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In a similar vein are buffet-style restaurants. There are cooks and bus staff, but no one is taking our order, bringing us food/putting it on our plate, etc. Some places will bring drinks, others are self-serve.
Should I tip? I dunno.
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This is exactly the question I always have when reading articles about tipping. I have a favorite buffet restaurant, and I always tip there (works out to about 15%), but they know me when I go in, and bring me extras (including a favorite dish when it’s not on the buffet that day, without me even asking). I wouldn’t dream of not tipping there.
But there’s another buffet I go to, and the only “service” I get is plate-clearing (ie I get my own drinks and such), and I’m never quite sure whether or not to tip there.
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It always irritates me that some buffet style restaurants will “suggest” tips of 15, 20, and even 25%. They are trying to rip you off or else they are not adequately paying their wait staff. The standard tip for buffet and cafeteria restaurants is supposed to be 10% if they bring your drinks and little or nothing otherwise. After all, you have to carry your own food. In a restaurant where the wait person brings your food, they are doing more work and the standard is a 15% tip (more for exceptional service, special favors, etc.). This is what the government assumes as a basis for determining how much tax they owe, if they don’t report their own tips, and is based on common practice throughout the country. Some will complain that inflation requires that these percentages should go up. But that’s a bogus argument. Inflation also drives up the cost of the meal and, hence, automatically drives up the amount of the tip.
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If they are bringing lots of drinks and doing a lot of work, I’d go with the 10-15%
If it’s mostly just clearing plates and maybe pouring more water, I usually tip about $1 per person at our table — which at the ethnic buffet(s) I go to is…uh, well, yeah, right in the middle of 10-15%!
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That’s about how I came to the 10-15%, as we’re usually 2 adults and 1 toddler at an ethnic buffet or cafeteria-style restaurant. If the kiddo has been well behaved and tidy, we usually do $2 for the two adults that were served; if the kiddo has been particularly energetic/noisy/messy, we toss in another $1-2 for the trouble he caused (though we’ll often take a prelim tidying pass at the table to make it less obnoxious for the staff). In one, they keep our glasses full, while beverages are self-service in the other. We bump up the above amounts for the place with higher service, despite both places running about $7-11/adult.
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Curious about the Pizza Delivery. They don’t make minimum wage and they are showing up to your doorstep with food. Why would they get less than a waiter in a restaurant?
I’m not sure which category above this falls into, but I tend to tip a lot of people that come to our house for various chores. I’ll always tip someone that’s delivering furniture or appliances. We had some “junk” hauled away and I tipped them also. I typically just give them enough to cover lunch or maybe coffee (depending how long/hard they are here working). I don’t really have a specific rule I follow, but if it’s hot day, unpleasant work, and I know they are basically general laborers, I try to tip them. I will say, most people are extremely happy/thankful/surprised.
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Well, for one, the only service they are providing is delivering your pizza. They aren’t “waiting” on you in a similar vein for an hour.
This is why the grocery delivery guy shouldn’t get a tip based on the cost of your order, but on the number of bags/amount of work involved.
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Right, they aren’t waiting on you for an hour. But they are servicing 1 customer at a time, traveling between deliveries, returning back to the storefront periodically.
Suppose a delivery person hits 4 houses in an hour. If each person give a $2 tip, that’s 8 bucks. They have to cover their own gas (+ the wear and tear on their cars) and don’t make min wage.
The restaurant server incurs zero cost during their shift.
I get the idea that restaurant servers do a lot for you….I just think that food delivery people do a lot as well.
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Are you sure the pizza delivery drivers don’t make at least minimum wage? Back in college I delivered pizzas for just over min ($0.25-0.50), made an additional $1 for each delivery (whether or not I came back to the store – so 3 pizzas to 3 houses in one trip = $3) PLUS if each driver made his quota, we made an additional $0.40 per house. The $1/house was to cover gas and wear & tear (we all drove sub-compact beaters, so it was just gravy) All of this in addition to tips!! It was great pay, but the hours sucked.
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My college son did it recently (and thankfully for a short time). They got $5.something/hour, $1.50 per delivery and tips.
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My husband was a Pizza Delivery Driver when we met in college. He was the one that answered the phone then made pizzas while waiting for deliveries then delivered the pizzas (often times to remote areas in the ice and snow) he used his own vehicle and while he was paid minimum wage I recall monthly repair bills for his vehicle being $500-$1000. He also worked until 3 am and helped clean the kitchen and close the restaurant. Oh and don’t forget if you are in an office that has no convenient parking when you ask for delivery at least cover the fines they can accrue if the only space they have to park and get the pizza to you in a timely manner is illegal.
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One thing you didn’t mention is that if you use coupons, always base the tip amount on the original price. It’s not the waiters choice to offer the coupon!
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“Some points regarding tipping etiquette:
If you use a coupon or gift certificate, calculate your tip based on the total before discount.”
copied and pasted from the article.
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Needs an image; I would have loved to Pin this to save/reference for later (on Pinterest)! Thanks for putting the info together!
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I will add an image!
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Is it tacky to simply avoid the use of places that “require” a tip?
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I wouldn’t think so. It’s tacky to refuse to tip because you don’t want to. But if you’d rather not tip, not frequenting places where it’s customary seems reasonable. (Although I would find it obnoxious if you loudly proclaimed how smart you are by not paying tips.)
But I just consider them as part of the cost of the service in question. So if I’m choosing restaurants I mentally add 15-20% to the menu prices when budgeting the cost. If I can’t afford the tip I can’t afford the service.
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Not at all. In fact, I’d call it tacky for a place to require a tip. As personal policy, cocky people who ask specifically for a tip do not receive one from me beyond “keep the change” (so generally < $1.00). Otherwise, I do believe in tipping when people do something that their job does not specifically call for. For example, waitresses are just there to take your order and bring you food. If they do so politely, and constantly keep the drinks topped off, etc, they will get a generous tip. Simply doing your job does not get you a tip (e.g. Hotel housekeeping).
Note that this is my personal opinion, and not fact. If it was fact, it would be included already in your bill.
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Coming from a family that is supported by someone in the Restuarant Service industry, you should never tip less than 15% no matter how bad you might think the service is. Tips are how Waiters/Waitresses make their living. The restaurant they work for only has to pay them a server minimum wage which ranges from $2-$3.50 an hour and most servers are then expected to tip out based on their sales not based on how much they make in tips. I agree with the comment listed above if you can’t afford to tip you have no business going out to eat. The US has it completely backwards thinking that individuals in the food service industry should not be salaried. Could you live on $40 day? I don’t think so. I usually enjoy these articles but I have to admit that someone who has never worked in the industry should not provide guidelines for something they haven’t experienced. What is expected is that for normal service 18-20%, for poor service 15% and for exceptional 25% or more. Your point about if you hang out at the table for longer than 90 minutes you should also tip more. I hope you can re-post this and make the adjustments, because you are really hurting hard working people by providing these guidelines. Thank you
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Just as someone who has not worked in the industry may be biased, someone who has worked in the industry will be biased the other way. The standard for over a century has been 15% for a conventional “sit down” restaurant and 10% for a buffet restaurant where they serve only your drinks. That’s what the government assumes for calculating taxes and what many tipping guidelines advise. Of course, more than that is always a good idea for good service, and I also agree that less is appropriate for truly awful service (which I’ve experienced only once in 68 years).
At a conventional restaurant I always calculate 15% and round up to the nearest dollar – or more for good service or special favors.
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I disagree about not tipping less than 15% in the face of bad service. True, it’s hard to live on $40/day, but if the service you provide is bad enough that your wages plus tips amount to $40/day, that should be a sign to either improve your service or get out of the business.
Insisting on a minimum 15% tip, regardless of service, because the waitstaff earns so little removes an important market signal.
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Is that actually a “market signal”? There are so many things that go into a good meal, a good dining experience, and good service.
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I think it is more of a market signal for the restaurant industry itself rather than a signal for tipping (although bad service can ruin the experience and leave a bad taste in your mouth). It is basic economics, as long as there are workers willing to work at that $2 (supply), there is no need to raise the base wage.
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While I’d agree that more goes into it then just what the waiter/waitress does I refuse to leave a good tip for someone who has done a horrible job. I don’t go through a terrible amount of water/pop/beer/whatever I’m drinking. I’d say that on an average time out I’ll have two drinks.
If I sit there with my glass empty that person is going to get 10%. If they’re extremely busy I’ll take that into consideration. But if it’s a standard night or not busy I expect certain attentiveness that comes with the cost of a sit down meal. I don’t feel that its necessarily being mean. But someone that’s doing a lousy job shouldn’t be compensated simply because “that’s the rule”. Maybe that person just isn’t cut out to be a waiter/waitress.
Also I’m curious as to what people think when going to pick up their food. I’ve seen several comments about delivery people but what if I go pick up that pizza?
Those people are paid their normal hourly rate for a job. To me tipping them is akin to saying hey, thanks for doing your normal job. I don’t get tips for doing my job so I don’t feel it’s necessary tip someone else that’s doing their job. Thoughts?
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#93: Sometimes if I go to pick up food, I will put a few coins in the tip jar (basically, any loose change they give me aside from quarters, which I need for laundry). Sometimes a dollar if it’s a place I go to a lot. I don’t consider it an obligation, though.
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I think JD nailed how I view tipping waiters. I always plan on tipping 20%, and I’ll leave 15% if I’m underwhelmed. I’ll tip more for exceptional service and dining experience. For me, 10% is really rare but can be appropriate for a totally disengaged waiter. I think his comment that you should be sure that whatever happened is the fault of the waiter if you are going to leave a poor tip is wise.
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Your righteous indignation is transparently self-serving. You can’t have it both ways. Either the tip is a reward for good service given at the customer’s discretion, or it’s a salary that should be paid no matter what. If it’s the former, then internal agreements between restaurant staff are not my problem. If it’s the latter, then tips should be abolished and restaurant owners should pay their staff at least the minimum wage.
Either way, your self-serving demands about what we “should” tip are completely baseless. Firstly, having a family is a personal choice which is, and should be, completely irrelevant to the question of what a person should be paid for their work. Secondly, many people in many other jobs work just as hard as servers do for far less money (and some have families to support, if that makes a difference to you). Compared to other jobs that require similar levels of formal education, baretending and waiting tables are very well-paid gigs. Even if everyone tipped the 15% suggested in the article, I find it hard to imagine that a waiter wouldn’t be earning considerably more than someone who works in McDonald’s, or as a store assistant.
Additionally, I resent the fact that the baseline is constantly being shifted upwards. I remember a time when 15% was the baseline for a decent tip, and 18% was considered generous or a recognition of exceptional service. These days, some places automatically use 18% as the required tip for parties of 6 or more, and 20% or more was suggested for great service. Now, people like you are suggesting a ludicrous 25% for great service.
No. I don’t care if you think I’m Scrooge reincarnated. I’m sticking with 15-18% for standard to good service. No-one gets a cent more than 20% out of me under any circumstances. Bad service might get 10%, and for a truly horrendous experience I’ll give as little as one cent if I feel it’s warranted. Just because your family would like more money – and I don’t know a family which wouldn’t – doesn’t mean that the rest of us are obligated to give it to you. If anything, this constant pressure from serving staff (or people who know them) to drive tips upwards reduces my willingness to tip generously, as I’m starting to feel that it’s indicative of a greed that will never be satisfied until customers put their feet down.
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I couldn’t have said it better myself. Agreed 100%.
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@ Thea,
I’m sorry, but if the waiter decides to chat with his buddy or get high in the freezer while ignoring me, mixing up my orders, adding my total wrong, coughing on my food, and being rude to my wife, said waiter gets a 25-cent tip for yours truly if not a boot to the head.
Tipping is voluntary, not mandatory. It’s a way to let the free market work. If the tips aren’t good enough, then maybe the waiter needs to figure out why– either the waiter or the restaurant are doing something wrong, and the market needs to self-regulate (e.g. go work in a place with better tippers).
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Wow – must say that aside from occasional mistakes (and I’m guessing most of those come from the staff being spread too thin), I’ve never experienced that kind of thing.
What restaurants allow staff to “get high in the freezer”?
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Ha ha,if you’ve never worked in a restaurant, read “Kitchen Confidential”, or the classic (though ancient) “Down and Out in Paris and London”.
I used to eat at a cafe where the chef would go across the street to booze up every so often. He was nice for a while then he started getting weird, and he was eventually replaced.
Yes, those people get weeded out eventually, especially in places with good standards, but not every place upholds high standards– and yes bad places eventually go broke (restaurants have a 60% failure rate it seems), but for a while before they crash they do exist, and absurdities happen. EVer watch “Kitchen Nightmares” on HUlu? Hilarious stuff!
Having said this, getting terrible service has only happened to me once in a very blue moon, but it’s happened.
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Minimum wage for servers can very from one state to another. For example, California minimum wage for servers is the same as for everyone else. I’ve lost track of what that is..seven-something an hour. Not saying people shouldn’t tip appropriately, just that in California (and I’m sure some other states)it’s not because they only earn $3 a hour.
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Thanks for that, Thea. As I said in my comment to Holly above, I would never have known that. I have now looked up the union-negotiated pay rates in my country (Ireland) for waiters/counter assistants in cafeteria-style restaurants and bar staff, and they are as follows:
For the first 8 months of training: $8.73/hour
Second 8 months of training: $9.31/hour
Third 8 months of training: $10.45/hour
Once you are fully trained in any of these roles, you are entitled to a minimum hourly wage of $11.64 (calculated on an exchange rate of 1 Euro – 1.25 USD)
Other rates are similar, for example a beautician and manicurist is entitled to a minimum hourly wage of $9/hour. A fully trained hairdresser is entitled to $9.72.
I would stand over my previous comment that with wage entitlement like these, there is no general moral obligation on patrons to tip.
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I’m sorry but I can’t stand inaccurate information like this being reported.
1. I can tip whatever I want, it’s not required, it’s my choice. I tip 15%-18% usually. If I get bad service, it drops. If I get great service, it rises to 20%. If your family need more money, get another job.
2. “Tips are how Waiters/Waitresses make their living. The restaurant they work for only has to pay them a server minimum wage which ranges from $2-$3.50 an hour and most servers are then expected to tip out based on their sales not based on how much they make in tips.”
This statement is WRONG. While, yes, the minimum is $2.13 federal, up in some states, the restaurant has to pay more if they don’t get the tips:
“If an employee’s tips combined with the employer’s direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference.” (http://www.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/flsa/002.htm) In other words, all people in this country are REQUIRED to be paid minimum wage. If you are a waiter/etc NOT being paid that much, you can file a suit against your boss. That is illegal of them. If you are getting that amount in tips and you want MORE, then that is up to you with good service, but it is NOT required and you can go find another job that pays better.
3. “if you can’t afford to tip you have no business going out to eat.” Again, that is a rude way to think – I can afford to go out to eat and I don’t HAVE to tip, I do it because it is my way of saying thank you to someone serving me. If I can’t afford to tip, that doesn’t mean I can’t afford to go there.
Finally, I appreciated this article and I do think it is hard to determine the best way to handle all of this. But I think many people are biased one way or another. So hopefully the above clears up any misunderstanding in wage laws. Tips are OPTIONAL, not required for someone’s pay. If someone makes less because they tip out, that is not MY responsibility as the consumer, it is on the business.
PS. I do tip well and I have even gone to calling the restaurant when I messed up to make sure the waitress got the right tip. But I refuse to subsidize corrupt bosses by paying someone to do their job. Tips are extra, they are not wages.
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I HATE the whole tipping thing so much! People should just be paid a fair wage for the work they do. They should not have to depend on the kindness or generosity of clients, or even just relying on people knowing who or what to tip. And people purchasing a service should not have to face a guilt trip everytime they purchase a service. And they should know ahead of time what something really is going to cost them. I think the whole thing is ridiculous. Ok, rant over.
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I agree completely. Just out of curiosity, here’s a question for those who work as servers: What’s the lowest hourly wage you would accept in lieu of tips?
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A friend of mine worked as a waiter in Sydney, Australia. He earned $15/hour — tipping isn’t allowed there.
General minimum wage where I live (Ontario) is $10.25/hour. Minimum wage for people who serve alcohol (wait staff, bar tenders, etc) is $8.90/hour.
Tipping guidelines for restaurants are the same here (15-20%) but that applies to drinks too, not the $1 per drink I’ve heard the U.S. has.
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When I was in Australia, our group would try to tip and they’d give us the money back. We got used to the higher cost incorporated into the restaurant prices, but it took us most of the trip to get over the guilty feeling of not tipping. But it really is a great system and they way it should be here. You know exactly what you’re going to pay for sit-down service without having to factor in tipping. AND you know the server is getting a fair wage.
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I only partially agree. Because of difficulties getting staff and no tipping, service where I live is atrocious. Bad service, no cleaning tables, getting ignored etc. happens not once in a while, but nearly every time I go to a cafe/restaurant. No tip seems to translate into “we don’t have to care about the customer”. Awfull.
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This totally depends on what the expectations are. Some restaurants require extensive wine and food knowledge, fussy uniforms, and late hours. How many tables would you be expected to take of at a time? What is the clientele like? Are you working a Saturday dinner shift or a Tuesday lunch?
So obviously the expected wage varies. If you were working moderately busy place that primarily serves beer and burgers, I think $13/ hour would be my minimum. A high-end steakhouse? No less than $17-$20.
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In my humble opinion a person should never get “at least $17-$20 an hour” for bringing food to someone. Yes they’re required to know the menu, specials, etc but at more then $17-$20 an hour you’re getting into the range of jobs that require technical and quite honestly again (IMHO) a lot more training then being a waiter/waitress at a high steak house.
To me I’d say $20 an hour at that high end steak house would be a maximum. I’m sure I’m going to get flamed on it but wages for jobs are generally paid based on the number of people that can do that job. That is not a job that requires at total compensations of at least $17-$20 per hour.
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This is just my opinion based on my experience. Knowing what I know, I would not work in that type of environment for less than $17-20 an hour. Keep in mind that serving at a high volume restaurant is physically demanding, and for places that only serve dinner, it’s not necessarily possible to get more than 30 hours a week.
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Marc,
I’m firmly in the “don’t overtip” camp, even though I used to work as a waiter.
I worked in a tourist trap restaurant that required very little knowledge on the server’s end, and in general, I was bringing home more than $100 in an 8 hour shift. We had a popular breakfast, and when I got the right shift on a Sunday, I was bringing home $100 for 4 hours worth of work.
I hope that a server at a high end restaurant takes home more than I did. They go through a lot more training and have to have a lot more knowledge. These days, at a nice place (I live in a big city), I’m looking at $100-$150 for the wife and I. Take 15% of the low end, and you’re talking $15 for my table. Figure a nice place gives each waiter 3 tables at a time (just a SWAG, I have no idea) each table takes two hours, so you can turn it over 3 times in 6 hours, and we’re talking about $135 for the shift. And these are using conservative numbers, I’m sure. This comes out to $22/hour.
The question was posed to servers: What hourly wage would you want to give up your tips? At a really nice place, it looks like $25 would be a minimum.
You suggest that nobody deserves more than $20/hr for running food to a table. Maybe, maybe not. Taking a market based approach, if a cheap restaurant with no service standards will pay me $15/hr, then I want more for working at a nice place that requires me to invest in my uniform, appearance, and knowledge of the product.
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@Sarah
True but lots of other jobs are physically demanding and make people work far longer for far less.
@Sarah and @Dan
When I was younger I had a job that was very physically demanding. I worked eight hour days and got paid minimum wage which at the time was $4.25 never thinking that I should get paid more because it was physical work. After that I went to college and got a degree because I got to keep learning new things and it trained me in a specific market that fewer people work in.
To test my theory about more training deserves more compensation I’ll pose this question. Who should be higher paid? Someone that teaches the next generation of students or someone that brings food to another person? Teacher vs server/waitress/waiter (or whatever the politically correct term is)? We’ll say that both are hard working, smart and go getters. They’re both exceptional at their job and both work in big cities. What you’re advocating and telling me is that the server/waitress/waiter should make more because they’re at a high end restuarant? I completely hands down disagree with that. Which is why I say that being a server/waitress/waiter doesn’t need that kind of compensation.
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@Marc – Absolutely I do not think that a teacher deserves to make less than a server. My SO is a teacher and so I certainly understand that he doesn’t make enough money for the work that he does. However, teaching does give him a feeling of satisfaction that you just don’t get from other professions. And of course there are jobs that require more physical labor than serving. I based my hypothetical minimum hourly rate based on the demands of the various positions and what I actually made, on average, as a server. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking what someone is willing to pay me.
At that time in my life, I was getting my Master’s and turned down several TA positions because I could make more through a combination of working as a server and babysitting. I charged $12 an hour (plus gas money) for babysitting. Babysitting was much less stressful than serving, plus I got to spend a fair amount of time by the pool. So, for serving to be worth it to me, I had to make significantly more than $12/hr. I typically made $15-$20/hr and worked about 4.5 hours at a time. I worked at a higher end restaurant, but not a steakhouse.
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Marc,
There’s no point in arguing what people “should” get paid. The “market” determines that. Some of the country’s most essential services (teaching, social work) get paid the least. “Should” a CEO make 300 times the wage of his average hourly laborer? It doesn’t matter what you and I think, that’s for the “market” to decide.
That said, the original question you were responding to was directed at servers. The question was, “What’s lowest hourly wage you would accept in lieu of tips?” TBH, given the situation today, that number at high end restaurants is likely higher than $25/hr. The market has spoken, and servers at high end restaurants do well, whether or not the servers intrinsically “deserve” it.
However, I do think you’re making a mistake when you try to correlate wages with the amount of calories someone burns while doing that job. Usually, the people who physically work the hardest get paid the least.
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@Marc
Knowing how you feel about the “fair” wages of a server, I have a question:
If you were sitting next to me at a busy restaurant (where we can honestly assume the server is doing better than $15/hr in tips) and I got up without leaving a tip, would you say anything to me? Assume I speak with a thick accent so you think I’m a foreigner who doesn’t understand our tipping culture.
If I told you that I saw how much these people were getting in tips, and I thought they were making plenty as it is, so I didn’t feel necessary in giving any more of my money away, what would you say?
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Completely agree! How on earth does it make sense that servers are not guaranteed a living wage and are at the mercy of their customers?
When we occasionally have a bad experience at a sit-down restaurant, my preferred approach is to tell the manager right on the spot vs. leaving less than a 15% tip.
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A friend of mine is a licensed massage therapist. She declines all tips because she considers it demeaning. She considers herself a professional and charges what she deems to be the proper fee. I always admired her for this attitude. Of course not all in the service business have the opportunity to set the fees they consider appropriate, hence the tipping guidelines we’ve been discussing. But I concur with those would prefer that the waiters and others simply got paid a proper wage. It would raise our prices, but the net would be the same if there were no tips.
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“How on earth does it make sense that servers are not guaranteed a living wage”
Not every job is supposed to provide a “living wage.” Some jobs are intended to provide a little extra cash for part-time retirees, maybe students still living at home with few expenses, and so on. You’re not supposed to be trying to raise a family and pay a mortgage while schlepping trays of shrimp cocktails back and forth at Red Lobster.
Should paperboys be paid a “living wage?” How about the kid serving ice cream out of the freezer-bike in the park?
I repeat: Not every job has to pay a “living wage.” Some jobs are intended as stepping-stones for people just getting started, or looking for a little pocket cash. If you want to raise a family, get a real job.
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If that paper delivery person was work 40 or more hours a week, then yes, it should be a living wage.
Most jobs that are for “a little extra” are far less than 40 hours as well. Other jobs that don’t really pay a living wage (I’m thinking substitute teachers — iffy schedules, often not a full work week, no work in summers, no benefits, etc.) can usually be like that because there is a ready supply of new and unemployed teachers hoping to be hired and of retired teachers looking for “a little extra.”
But if you’re working 40 hours a week doing the job you’re told to do, yup, I do think it should pay enough to live on!
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I’m disturbed by how many people liked Kevin’s comment. The same logic is what motivated a conservative Christian seminary to pay my mom much less than her male counterpart. Their logic was, “She has a husband at home who is the primary breadwinner. This is just supplemental income, whereas the man is supporting a family.”
Where does it end? And how can an employer determine what is supplemental income and what it primary? How do we know if that teenager is just working to have spending money for things he likes, or if he working to help his family put food on the table?
And, pray tell, what is a “real” job?
I object strongly to Kevin’s logic. And what about the cashier at Target and Walmart who makes $8 or less? Is that okay? Have you tried to live on that amount of money?
What ends up happening is that they get governmental benefits to pick up the slack. This is just another form of corporate welfare.
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@Jane – I find it odd that it’s legal and acceptable to pay students a lower minimum wage than adults. I worked in a grocery store for a few years before I turned 18. I was doing the exact same job, but suddenly I got a raise one day! New hires who were over 18 made more than I was until my birthday.
IMHO, I think people deserve equal pay for equal work. I have taught students who were financially supporting themselves or their families. Why did they deserve less than someone else doing the exact same job with the same level of experience?
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Maggie – you NAILED it!
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@ Maggie
In principle I like your idea, but let me play devil’s advocate for a moment.
Tipping provides an incentive for good service though. A Soviet-style waiter may decide that it’s better to play chess than to bring your plate before the food gets cold.
And it’s more free-market to let the customer decide on compensation rather than ask a manager or someone who doesn’t have the full perspective.
The most a manager can do is assign you good or bad tables according to your productivity, and from there the customer decides what your service is worth to them.
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You should talk to my friend
Not tipping doesn’t mean bad service. Being a server becomes like any other service position — if you aren’t doing a good job, you get fired. If people aren’t happy with your service, they go elsewhere.
Consider: We don’t tip store clerks so they’ll give us good service. If they don’t, we shop elsewhere or we complain to the manager. If the U.S. were to prohibit tipping in restaurants, it would be up to management to police bad employees and not customers.
Some servers don’t get the hint when people don’t tip them well — they just think those people are cheap. Where is the incentive to improve service?
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We don’t tip store clerks for good service, but the good sales jobs are all commission jobs.
Same thing with restaurants– I had a friend back home who made a lot of money as a waitress, much more than she did as a photographer, but if she had been on the wage system she would have made much less– she’d rake in $400 per night or more some times. Her record I think was $2K (it was a very nice restaurant). Putting her on a wage system would have been punishment not rescue.
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@El Nerdo — There’s definitely a pecking order to which jobs get paid the most. I’m just arguing the point that getting rid of tips automatically means bad service.
Besides, earning a commission isn’t the same thing as tips. Commission is built into the price at the store. If a sales person doesn’t give you good service, he or she doesn’t make the sale and doesn’t get paid. (Well, actually in Ontario companies do have to make up the different between minimum wage and what’s earned in commission – but I digress)
Tips in restaurants have devolved into an add-on that’s required in some measure whether service is good or not.
I can see both sides of the debate. I’m not sure which is right or wrong, but it’s fun to see different opinions.
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A lot of people take pride in doing their jobs well and helping customers out to the best of their abilities. Tips should not be a motivating factor for any job.
I used to be a teacher and hated when parents paid students for good grades. I can’t help but see that as tipping too. Intrinsic motivation to be successful/try hard should be the ideal for our society.
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Maggie,
I think tipping originated as a courtesy, and somehow became a social norm.
Personally, I always tip my hairdresser at 20%. My hair is long, unruly, and takes her nearly twice as long to work with as her usual clientele. She does an amazing job, though, and I think she deserves a little “extra” for having to deal with my head of hair every two weeks.
Because I know someone will ask:
No, I can’t even do it myself anymore. My arms & back can’t take it.
No, I won’t cut it. My husband loves it.
And, it looks fantastic and professional when she’s done, and I always give her the credit (and pass out her card) when people compliment me on it.
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Cincycat… I always tip my wonderful hairdresser too. But I guess that’s my point, I shouldn’t have to. She shouldn’t have to depend on that to be paid what she’s worth. I guess it’s partly my neurotic personality, but every single tipping sitution I’m in I end up feeling either guilty because I didn’t tip enough or a total schmuck that got taken – lol
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I had to be upfront with my stylist, who charges $35, and tell her that if I had to tip her, I couldn’t come to her anymore. She was fine with that, and I didn’t have to feel guilty. However, now I need to cut expenses even more so I’ve been using coupons for Great Clips. It’s a crapshoot regarding my hair cut anymore, particularly since I wear glasses so I have no idea what the person is doing. But I’ve started carrying a photo of myself with a haircut I liked, and that seems to be working.
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@maggie,
My hairdresser is independent, so she sets her own rates. She used to work for a corporate retailer, which happened to have a salon inside their stores, but split off on her own when they changed their brand affiliation. (She took almost all of us with her. She’s that good…)
@Paw,
I think that my hairdresser would feel the same way if I told her I could no longer afford the tip. I don’t think I would feel badly about not tipping in that circumstance.
My mom also goes to Great Clips, and she really likes it!
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Our baseline for resturants is 20%. We do 25-30 if it’s a place we know well and go to often.
For bars, usually 20% as we drink cocktails. We do the $1 per drink if it’s just beer, with extra if the bartender was friendly, interesting etc. We usually sit at the bar so I feel that the service we get is more like table service.
We almost never eat at buffets, usually only if we’re travelling in other states where the food is crazy cheap, so we do 20%. I have have always found the service just as attentive at these places – filling drinks, taking away plates, offering local info etc.
Hotels – Bellhop, valet etc we do $10. $5 per day for the cleaner.
I didn’t tip my hairstylist as she kept all the money herself. She moved to GA so now I go to her sister who has to pay the salon a cut. I give her 20% and $5 to the woman who washes my hair.
Takeout usually $4-5, more if the weather is awful.
When I got got coffee regularly I would pur a few dollars in the jar once a week. The barrista remembered my name and drink. I don’t generally tip in those placea otherwise.
When I had a cleaner I gave her two weeks cash at Christmas.
On paper it looks like a lot, but we more than get it back, for example we were recently in Kentucky and the bartender poured us shots of the $40 bourbon we had been eyeing. We wouldn’t have bought them, but she obviously remembered us probably partly due to our tip. I have heard from various people that hotel guests don’t tip that well as most are on business and those expenses aren’t reimbursed.
We are locals in most places we go to and often walk away with a bill significantly lower than it should have been. That’s how the hospitality industry works. You’ll pay one way or the other, either via tips or higher prices to cover set wages.
I guess my attitude towards tipping is that it’s like an “investment” that’s generally a win for all involved. The server makes decent money, the owner cultivates loyal regulars (which are the lifeblood of many places in this economy) and the customer gets an enhanced experience with extra rounds and suprise special dishes the chef makes just for you because he know you like them
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While I think you are right, we can’t afford to be this generous right now. What we do though, is bring friends to the business, or recommend it to others.
At one place we like, they recently enacted a “two drink refill” on our favorite drink – but for us they keep the cup full the whole meal. So while yes, people will remember you, it doesn’t have to be through money. Instead, we send them what business we can, we come regularly to eat there, and we are polite and patient while there.
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Christina above brings up a great point: should you tip on the total bill (after tax) or just your actual food/drinks?
We do a lot of dinner seminars for clients and I tip on the pre-tax total. I don’t see why somebody should get 20% on what the government is taking away from me.
I’d guess that most people tip on the tax though. I typically give $4 for my haircut tip. It might be a lot but I know they don’t make a lot of of money and it’s only an extra $1 or 2.
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My intent is to tip pre-tax, but sometimes the situation is complex/confusing enough the math is easier post-tax.
I also tip pre-discount/coupons, unless the discount is to compensate for bad service or other mistake on the part of the restaurant.
Once I went to a restaurant late at night and ordered the soup. They apologized, as they were out of soup for the night. They then brought me the bowl of the soup I ordered, specially made (but unfortunately undercooked). I ate it. It didn’t show on the bill, but I tipped as if it had because they were going beyond what was needed to make me happy.
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You raise a good point — especially since a lot of debit machines give you the option to tip based on amount or %.
I usually do percent, but now I’m realizing that I may be tipping on the after tax amount. When there’s 13% HST on hair cuts and restaurant meals, it will add up!
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You should tip for take orders. Think about take out, who helps prepares your meal and ensures that you have the correct items in your to go bag? What about all the extra items you requested? This does not magically appear in a bag from the kitchen. A lot of these tasks are done by the hostess or bartender. If a hostess or bartender is handling take out orders, restaurants will pay these positions higher than a server, but will factor in tips so that they will make up a minimum hourly wage. If people don’t tip on take out orders, the person working take out will be working under the minimum wage rate. Just adding a dollar or two will make a difference. You’re already ordering food out, so don’t be cheap on a worker’s tip.
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Unfortunately I tipped on a take out order yesterday and then later found out they had forgotten several items. Money wasted on sub par service.
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But you can’t have that same line of thought, “Won’t tip because they will mess up my order” every time because you don’t know it will happen. A call to the restaurant manager about the left out items is more helpful than coming on some website and complaining about your left out take out items.
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Your argument demonstrates why all employees should be paid a living wage and this system of tips should be abolished completely. The customer in this situation can’t know whether the good service (s)he’s supposedly recognizing with the tip will actually materialize. What (s)he’s really being asked to do is supplement the meagre wages paid by businesses too stingy to properly compensate the staff who are working for them. There’s no reason why the customer should involved at all in paying employees’ wages, since the business is the one making a profit from their work.
Legislation guaranteeing better wages and conditions for employees is the only way that this will be rectified.
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I tip a dollar for any counter service/take out that is not a chain.
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As someone who has worked in the hotel and restaurant industry, I’d like to add a few things. In my experience, the majority of people DO tip at 18-20%. Then every now and then you get people who thank you profusely for great service and then leave 15%. Of course, it’s your perogative to tip whatever you want, but just know that 15% is below average and it will viewed that way by your server. In addition to uptipping if you linger at a table, you should add to the tip if:
1. You split a meal (tip as if you ordered two meals, or at least 1.5 meals)
2. Your child makes a mess
In a hotel, you should tip housekeeping extra if you leave an above-average mess. My experience was that half of guests leave some sort of tip. 75% of those who leave a huge mess leave something. And definitely try to tip each day, as the same person will not be cleaning your room each day.
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Does where you live have an impact? I live in an area where 20% is considered the standard for good service. But say you work in a hotel or restaurant in a big city and are serving tourists from small towns. Where they come from, 15% might be considered a good tip.
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I’ve had two serving jobs- one in a small town at a casual family restaurant and one at an upscale grill/bistro in a mid-sized city. The average tipping percentages were the same- 20% was the norm. The food prices were very different though, so the dollar amount did vary quite a bit.
Of course, my two experiences are hardly enough to know what really goes on. It would be interesting to hear what other servers or former servers have experienced.
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A bottle of wine or a box of chocolates as a holiday tip for a doorman? Are you serious? Only if you never want any help with anything ever again.
Wine and chocolates are what you bring as a gift for the host of a dinner party. Holiday tips for building employees should be in cash.
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I’m pretty well known as a generous tipper, even though I’m generally very frugal. I even tip at sub shops.
Once, though, hubby and I went out to dinner, and I am known at this restaurant to tip very well, as it’s a very busy restaurant, (like $30 on a $50-60 tab). It was a very slow night and our waiter was non existent. I tipped 15% and the server looked at me like I was Scrooge! I thought he was lucky to be getting the 15% for such poor service on a slow night.
I have been a server, and I’ve noticed in recent years some servers feel entitled to tips. I have never felt that that’s the case, and I know in my state, employers are required to fill in any gaps in their pay scale. All I ask for is mediocre service, and when there are 3 people in the entire restaurant and 2 to 3 servers, I would expect to see my server occasionally.
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You seriously tip 50%+ on a $50 tab? Wow.
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Yes, absolutely. The restaurants can get so busy, and most of the time the servers at the restaurants we frequent bust their butts to keep the diners happy. Although I’m usually “cheap”, they deserve it.
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The sense of entitlement that so many servers have makes me want to tip them even less.
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As a former barista, I have to bristle at the suggestion to not tip.
A cappuccino, for example, requires that the espresso machine be properly calibrated for extracting the most flavour out of your beans, which have to be ground at a proper consistency to reflect the filter, the roast, and humidity. The barista has to level and tamp the grinds carefully, then pull a perfect shot while working to create thick, glossy microfoam in your steamed milk (and being careful not to over-heat it, which causes the natural sugars in the milk to burn instead of caramelizing to lightly sweeten your drink). Finally, the pour has to accurately mix milk with foam. If it’s a busy cafe, the barista will repeat this hundreds of times a day for $10 an hour (or less, it’s usually minimum wage).
You recommend not to tip this caffeine artist, but think that the surly college student who opens your bud light is worthy of an extra $1?!
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$10 or even minimum wage is still more than that “surly college student” is earning at $3/hour.
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True…
Funny how we have different standards for what is essentially the same thing. I bet the barista would prefer the $2.33/hr or whatever minimum wage it is for servers these days, but then get $1/drink. Figure 2 minutes per drink, 30 drinks in an hour, and you’re talking $30/hr.
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Well, in my province server minimum wage is $8.25.
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To be honest – I feel that the cost of hiring and retaining a good barista is included in the price of a cappucino versus a cup of coffee. The materials cost of a cup of coffee with cream cannot be 1/4 of the cost of a cappucino. If you are not expert enough to manage all those things you mentioned a hundred times an hour – then you shouldn’t be working at a coffee house as a barista. I agree that a good cappucino is an art – but all too often the places that have a tip jar, are the ones who are not paying their baristas enough to retain a good one.
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Isn’t knowing how to make a good cappuccino part of being a barista? While I will tip for great service, the nature of the job is to be able to perform the basic tasks pretty well. BTW, why doesn’t anybody make the case for tipping for fast food. And I do sense a great deal of entitlement with these posts from current/former servers.
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For me it really depends on the cafe.
There’s a coffee shop in downtown Portland where coffee and espresso is really an art. I’ve seen baristas literally dump out espresso and start over if they felt it wasn’t the best they could do.
Their “pour over” coffee takes time and some amount of skill to prefect it.
For those folks, tipping is a no brainer for me. For places that are more like a chop shop, I’m less inclined to tip more than whatever loose change I have in my hand.
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Yes, but how is this different from the retail associate who has to know about the different products and/or ring up hundreds of customers in a shift…all for $10/hour?
I think making a good cappuccino is part of a barista’s job description, just as being friendly and providing good customer service is part of a retail associate’s job description. These duties are all factored into the $10/hour wage.
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I tip a dollar a drink at real coffee houses. I live in Seattle, you can get an well executed coffee drink with a great roast – delicious. OR you can get starbucks on any given block, if you’re slumming. I don’t tip at starbucks/tullys/seattles best. Usually if I’m not spending almost 5 bucks on a latte I’ll get drip from 7-11. I get withdrawal headaches so it’s coffee or 2 cups of tea, every day.
Every once in a while there will be a mom & pop looking espresso bar, it may not be staffed by coffee nerds, but I’ll tip there.
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Tip is based on the pre-tax amount.
20% is the standard for sit-down restaurants in urban areas (a result of the higher cost of living-customers expect to spend more and service workers expect to earn more).
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And my expectation to spend more is reflected in the price of the food! Or are you suggesting that a meal which costs $20 in the suburbs or rural areas would still cost $20 in urban areas?
Higher costs of living and inflation are already accounted for in the price of the meal; increasing the tipping percentage as well overcompensates for those factors.
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For those of you who tip your garbage collectors or mail carriers… how do you do it? I don’t ever see either of these folks–they come to my house when I’m not home. I do appreciate the work that they do, but I have no idea how I’m supposed to get a tip to them.
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Mail Carriers are prohibited by the Postal Service from accepting anything more than a token gift. i usually leave a card with a gift card for a movie or a Starbucks. Same thing for the garbage workers. I will put out cokes or waters in a cooler for them in the summer (we live in Texas) and I tape a card with a small gift card for lunch for them at Christmas. The paper carrier usually leaves a note with his address if you want to tip.
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I hope Springs1 comes out of the woodwork again for a hilarious tirade against food service people!
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“Cab driver
10%, $2-$5 minimum”
You’re supposed to tip cab drivers? I’ve never once heard of anyone doing this. What’s the justification behind it? I was under the impression that cab drivers made a decent wage.
As for me, I generally just try to avoid a lot of situations where you have to tip. Sure, I tip my barber and things like that, but I try not to go to restaurants anymore. For years I would go with my friends to restaurants, and always tip around 20-30%. However, because we were young, the waiters and waitresses always gave us poor service. That’s one reason I don’t have much sympathy for them anymore: they readily discriminate against customers based on how they think the customer will tip.
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In the U.S., people definitely tip cab drivers. Elsewhere, it depends and is less common in my experience.
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Taxi drivers don’t make a lot in general. Nationally the median pay for taxi drivers is $22,440 as of May 2010 according to the BLS. Top 10% makes $36,450.
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Not only are cab drivers in the US usually tipped but they generally expect it and count on it as part of their income (which tends to be relatively meager without tips). When I was about 14 I was in New York City trying to get from one bus terminal to another. I took a cab and the fare was something like $4.50. I gave the cabbie all I had – $5 – and told him to keep the change for his tip. He spent 5 minutes raking me over the coals about the tiny tip and about how he needed the money to live on and how he had waited in line for an hour just to get a “lousy $5 fare”. I suppose he was trying to take advantage of an obviously inexperienced tourist, but I was so shaken that I did some research and discovered that, indeed, cab drivers make very little off of the fare, considering the cost of fuel, upkeep on the car, idle time, etc. [They don't make any money while waiting in line at the airport or whatever for hours at a time.] Since then I’ve always given them at least 15% and usually more.
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Cab companies have to keep the prices artificially low, they are considered part of the State Department of Transportation.
They have to keep a certain % of their fleet wheelchair accessible, operate 24hrs a day, cannot refuse short trips – or cherry pick the profitable ones. I learned this when listening to a news story about a limo company in Portland that offered gorupons, but then got fined for doing so because it priced his company lower than the local cabbies; and his company did not have any of these mandated restrictions. Private auto service cannot price lower than the cabbies.
Cool, I found the story:
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/19/155305029/its-taxis-vs-limos-in-laid-back-portland
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Man I hate tipping. This list is so long and most of these should be unnecessary.
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I was really taken back when I learned that some states put waiters in a different labor category and give them a lower min-wage. My state has generous min wage laws, it is pegged to the consumer price index – whenever the cost of living goes up, so does WA state minimum wage.
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I appreciate the content of this post, and all I have learned from Get Rich Slowly overall. I’m just a bit surprised by how rife this piece is with sexist language — that’s unusual for you, JD. Waiter and waitress could be replaced with server. Masseuse could be replaced with massage therapist. Doorman could be replaced with door attendant. Gender doesn’t matter in these jobs, service does.
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Yes, this post was definitely lacking appropriate politically-correct feminist NewSpeak.
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Actually, it is competent writers that use gender neutral language.
From the Chicago Manual of Style:
To avoid sexist language, many writers use this alternative phrasing [he or she] (in place of the generic he). Use it sparingly—preferably after exhausting all the less obtrusive methods of achieving gender neutrality. In any event, he or she is much preferable to he/she, s/he, (s)he, and the like.” For more advice, including nine tips for achieving gender neutrality, see 5.221–30, especially 5.225.
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I hardly noticed myself. I guess I don’t think of titles as an indictment of a persons gender or position. With that said, I do cringe when people use the word stewardesses instead of flight attendant.
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“I do cringe when people use the word stewardesses instead of flight attendant.”
Why? That’s what they are.
A male flight attendant is a “steward,” and a female is a “stewardess.” Just like actor and actress. There’s nothing wrong with the terms.
Of course, it would be rude to refer to a male flight attendant as a “stewardess,” but there’s obviously nothing sexist about referring to a female one as such.
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How do you tip the garbage collector if you aren’t home when they come by?
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Not really an answer, but when I was little my siblings and I would keep ice cold cans of pepsi and wait for the garbage man on hot days. When he’d come we’d run out and give him some pop and he’d guzzle them in an instant, AND WE THOUGHT THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING EVER!
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How do I tip people like my garbage and mail carriers when I never actually see them in person? They’re always by the house when I’m off at work!
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If you wanted to tip your mail carrier (I don’t) I guess you would leave an envelop in your mail box. As for garbage collector beats the heck outta me. Frankly, it never occured to me to do it.
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The problem with this is that oftentimes at Christmas, your regular carrier might be on vacation. I’ve noticed this year after year. If you put an envelope in the mailbox, it might be that the replacement gets the gift you intend for your regular carrier.
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I never catch the garbage collectors, either. So, last Christmas, about a week before Christmas, I taped a sign to the top of my trash can. I addressed it to the collectors & told them to look in the mailbox.
There I placed a Christmas bag for each with hot chocolate packs, a Christmas mug, candies, and a gift card. It worked out since my collectors always come in the morning and the mailman later in the day. I also live in a very rural area.
The collectors always do a great job, so I felt that it was appropriate.
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I leave a cooler with water or cokes out with a note for the garbage collectors during the summers and I tape a card with a small gift card to the garbage can at Christmas. I am in and out during the day and I have not notice anyone stealing the cards from the can, but I guess it would depend on your neighborhood.
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Do you tip garbage collectors for good service? If so, then my not ever giving them a tip works because I always have to pick up after them, or they leave the can lid open when it’s raining. Frankly, all the guy is doing is driving up to the can and working the controls of the thing that picks the can up and dumps it in the back. I do more work taking the cans to the curb and placing them the appropriate distance apart.
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US federal law prohibits mail carriers and other federal workers from accepting money or gifts with value greater than $10. Please do not tip your mail carrier more than this amount or you will be placing them in an awkward situation.
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For waiters, when in doubt, round up. It’s a tough job. Especially if you’re tipping on a bill for only 1 or 2 patrons, that extra buck probably means more to the server than to you.
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This comment is exactly why so many people are up in arms about tipping. the belief that ‘it’s a hard job so they should get paid better’. Just like the person above who complained about making $40 a day. Or the barista who complains that minimum wage isn’t enough to justify her magic making. If the job is so bad – get a different one! The bottom line is that in the US – we are a CAPITALIST economy – that means that prices are basically set by what the market will bear. Minimum wage is set by the government to insure safe/fair working conditions. I agree you can’t raise a family on minimum wage – it’s not designed to create a family living wage. Do you really think that laying sod or landscaping labor is EASIER than waiting tables? Tipping is a way for patrons to recognize and reward exceptional service. The restaurant business is unique in that most of your experience is dictated by your server, but they do not share equally in the profits of your continued patronage based on that good service.
Personally I do not tip the person who cuts my hair and I avoid massage places that expect you to tip your masseuse. I expect these professions – as they are professions and require training – to charge a fair wage for the service they provide. My hairdresser is a friend of mine – and I will pay whatever she charges me. Same thing with massage – if the place requires you to tip – it means they are not paying their staff adequately to retain them on their saleries alone.
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As a citizen of the US I really had not realized there are so many industries that ‘require’ us to leave a tip. They seem to just be engrained in our mind.
The most obvious is the bar tender and the waiter/waitress.
While as you stated there is an etiquette for leaving a certain amount for certain services I like to stick to those rough standards plus how good/poor of a job they did.
Also as you said, the tip % can be totally debatable depending on where you are in the US. I think certain cities might have different ideals on what is the appropriate amount to tip.
I know I really appreciate it I get an exceptional server. I will take care of them.
I also feel that if the person who completes your service just stays consistent with doing an awesome job perhaps above and beyond the tip you would give them would always be greater than the ‘standard’ amount, I feel like this is hardly the case as i run into people who do terrible jobs.
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I park at a lot and then take a shuttle into my office almost every day with the same driver. I’m thinking at Christmas I should tip the driver but I have no idea how much. Any thoughts? Is it even appropriate? I realize they don’t rely on tips and I have no idea how much they are paid, but this same woman drives me safely to (and sometimes from) the office nearly every day, I think that’s a service that I should say “thank you” for.
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I would think a gift card would be nice. Does he have a favorite restaurant or store? I usually get my hairdresser a gift card to a store where I know she likes to shop.
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Give him cash, not a gift card! Maybe a nice, crisp $20 bill (or a $50 maybe). Put it inside a Christmas card if you want to make it a bit classier. A high percentage of gift cards never get used. Cash is like a gift card good at any store!
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I’d give her $25-$50 in cash if you can afford it. Even at the high end that’s only $1 a week. I suspect you’ll be one of the few who do so she’ll be extra thrilled.
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I always struggle with this. Since I bartender in college I tip $1/drink. In Massachusetts, waiters are paid something like $3/hour so they literally live off tips, but that isn’t the case here in Oregon. Plus in China, there is no expected tips. Plus, I never carry cash…
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You gotta carry cash to a bar, unless it’s some sort of very quiet hotel-type bar that functions more like a restaurant.
In a loud crowded place cash is the way to get fast service, you just stick your hand out with $20 or more (depending on the place), and watch the bartender make a beeline to you within seconds.
(Besides, carrying cash prevents friends from charging their share to your credit card–let them charge it if they want).
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What bars don’t accept plastic?
I was in a restaurant’s bar last night. 20 people, 20 different tabs. We arrived after 8:30pm and the staff was very accommodating. We were there for about 90 minutes. Most people had 1 drink and an appetizer. They added 18% to our bills, giving us separate checks. I added another amount on top of that since they handled this unexpected group so easily. Sure, there was a delay here or there, but they did exactly what we wanted.
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They all do, but cash will get you what you want a lot faster.
Also, I know a guy who didn’t have as nice friends as you do, and they stuck him in a bar with a $300 tab (this was maybe 10 years ago?). Ouch!
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I’ve used plastic and cash at bars of all types and never seen a difference. Actually bartenders were always pleased when I ask them to start a tab for me. In their mind that almost always guarantees repeat orders even though I rarely add on to it.
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Oh yeah “Start a tab” means the possibility of endless drinks ha ha ha. I prefer a cash seatbelt
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Another consideration: if you pay with a credit card, you should add a few percentage points onto the tip because the credit card company takes as much as 5% of the money in their fees.
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My feeling is that credit card fees are already factored into the prices and it’s not the customer’s job to worry about it. I do that when I sell retail. It’s easier to offer a cash discount than to charge a 3% card fee– people will take offense if you “overcharge them for using a card”. So you have to either assume everyone pays with card and price accordingly or find a ratio (e.g., 60% customers pay with card, 40% pay cash, you add a weighted average to cover the card fees).
But in any case, I think it’s not the customer’s job to be burdened with such questions. The percentages are already taking these things into account.
I eat at a restaurant that only accepts cash and it’s great– cheaper and tastier than other places, and I actually end up tipping more because I’m getting great food for little money.
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I go to a local, private esthetician school for my facials every once in a while to help with my chronic acne. They charge $30 for a 90 minute facial by one of the students in a spa-like atmosphere. I would not be able to pay full-price for a similar service so I’m thankful the school exist.
Though its a school, should I tip the students? To be safe, I generally do, especially if I feel the services was exceptional. They are generally pleased with the tip, (they are students by the way!) but I wonder if a tip is going overboard.
As an aside, I downloaded the Tip Calculator app for Android on my phone and its very handy for times my math is a little foggy.
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10% for cab drivers seems low to me. I usually tip around 15-16%.
I was just in the UK, where a 10% tip for waiters is standard, and never got over feeling like a cheapskate every time I followed the guidelines.
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Thanks for posting this! I never know when to tip, or how much. Just the other day I got my hair cut and totally forgot to tip…I felt so bad. I will definitely be saving this page.
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The bellman/porter is one I already knew about, but what are you supposed to do if you had no idea that the hotel you booked offered the service – and you have no cash on hand? Do you add the bellman’s tip to your credit card upon checkin??
On more than one occasion, we’ve had every intention of handling our own bags, and were surprised when a bellman insisted anyway. I really don’t feel obligated to tip, in those cases, even though I know I “should”…
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When I travel I try to start out with a bunch of $5 and $1 since there are so many tipping/cash events in travel…cab/shuttle drivers, sky cap etc.
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I was on a cruise ship last fall. We were charged an automatic $12.50/person/day in gratuities. In addition, every time we ordered a drink, a 15% tip was automatically included. Finally, on the receipt for us to sign (to charge it to our cruise card), there was a blank line for us to specify an additional tip.
That’s 3 tips! For 1 drink! How many times are we to be expected to tip for spraying some fizzy sugar water into a plastic cup?
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… And that’s why I love living in Belgium. No need to tip any one … Ever. Unless you are extremely pleased by the service. And even then it’s still optional. A kind word works just as well.
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As an American, I did that whole Eurail trip after college. I was able to pay for my trip because I bar-tended in remote Alaska (no experience necessary). I made $8/hour, but I worked 60+ hours a week (that’s how it goes in Alaska), tips would bring my $8/hour up to $20-30 an hour depending on the night.
Anyway, in Paris we had a great time at a bar, and I drunkenly demanded to tip the bar tender, having had just done the same job myself for the first time. He returned the gesture with shots of the most lovely tasting liquor ever. Then, once in a train station the smallest denomination I had on me was a 2-euro coin, I gave it to the lady who cleaned the toilet stall after every use — I’ve never used a public toilet with such service before — she followed me out of the bathroom to thank me.
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I woke up this morning..do I get a tip? I agree with Voice of Reason and Maggie and others. Everybody get’s a tip!! Maybe I should always have $50 in singles in my pocket at all times? Meanwhile (i.e.) I can’t put my kids through school, I have no savings, can’t afford co-pays for health problems, but I am supposed to tip every “service” person I come into contact with? There is a hair salon down the street, the Stylist are nice people–they work 3 or 4 days a week and make $50,000 a year!! Trust me I do tip servers and others fairly( in Calif.), but there is a limit. I enjoyed my time in Ireland where servers are paid better and everyone does not freak about the tip. Someone once said about tipping, “where does it end?”…exactly.
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Ugh, I completely agree. Tipping in this country has gotten out of hand. And I get so annoyed by tip cups at cafe counters and the like. If baristas lived without tips 10 years ago, what has changed?
Waiters need tips. They get paid crap, so we have to pay the difference. But all these other people…. it’s just ridiculous. (so is the system of paying waiters, but that’s another rant)
I just got back from 2 years in Japan. Believe me, every time I *didn’t* have to pay a tip, I left with a big smile on my face. It’s such a headache! Can’t we just include the cost of labor in the cost of running a business?
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I don’t leave at tip at coffee stands if the person is not actually pulling a shot. Those ‘cafes’ in grocery stores, sports stadiums, and the like, they are using machines that squirt out ‘espresso’. Basically like a fast food ‘cook’. I do not believe those machines, or espresso bars, were so prevalent 10 years ago.
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The amounts listed in this article and some of the comments seem so insultingly low – i have to assume it’s more of a geographic thing rather than so many people being jerks. Or else i’m a super generous tipper.. But i don’t think that’s the case.
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I once had a friend who always insisted on overtipping – I think she started at 25% as a base, and that was for mediocre service.
It always irritated me for a few reasons:
1. She would reward servers with a generous tip even if they ignored us for 30 minutes at a time, never refilled our water, etc.
2. She would also try to get me to “add more, because serving is hard.” I get that, I do; but I also don’t feel that throwing in a few more bucks for bad service is a great idea.
3. This is the big one – it always felt like she was trying to buy friendship with these servers. “Oh, they’ll remember me as a great server the next time we’re here,” she’d say. It always made me feel uncomfortable.
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What about guides? Rafting guides, fishing guides, horseback riding guides? How much should you tip?
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Tow truck driver/AAA service?
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No matter who you are tipping, if you want to make sure all the tip gets to them, tip in cash and give it directly to the person. Unfortunately many businesses keep a portion or sometimes even all of a person’s tips that are left on a credit card. It’s illegal but all too common. See this blog: http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2012/08/why-you-shouldnt-tip-restaurant-servers-on-your-credit-card/825058/1
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This is so much easier in Australia. You don’t tip. People will tell you “it’s un-Australian”.
I love it this way. There’s no pressure and the price it says is the price you pay.
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I’m in Australia now, and you’re right. It felt weird the first few times when we didn’t leave a tip, but it’s normal now. And I don’t feel the least bit guilty for not tipping the server who’s making at LEAST $15/hr. Sure, the price is higher, but there’s no extra tax to figure (it’s already in the posted price), no tip to worry about, etc. So it actually works out pretty similar to a restaurant in the US.
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I got into a bit of a heated discussion earlier regarding tips. It was on a cruise forum, and I was surprised by people’s reactions.
Ok, so there’s a standard recommended tip, about $11 per person per day, broken up by various departments (stateroom attendant, waiter, assistant waiter, head waiter, maybe some other people, you get the idea). Well, I had the gall to state that I tip for services received. I.e. if I went to a specialty restaurant (which requires a separate tip), I’m not tipping the main dining people for that night. If I have the stateroom attendant come once every four days instead of four times every four days, I’m going to half the tip (i.e., I’m paying as though they came two times in the four day period, cause I know they’re working a bit harder that one time). But apparently I’m cheap and should feel ashamed of myself.
If I go to Shoney’s…should I run over to IHOP and leave a tip because I COULD have gone there, and the servers really would have loved the opportunity to earn my tip? No? What if I stay at a resort where you get once-weekly housekeeping…should I pay a tip as though I had them come every day, because someone else could have? No? What’s the difference?
So here’s my main argument. Tip for services received. Anything you tip over and beyond, that is called CHARITY. If the server gives you abysmal service, and you still tip 20% because of the person’s economic status…then 10% was an actual “tip” and the other 10% was a donation. Which is 100% fine with me, just call it what it is. And please don’t think poorly of me because I donate to a different charity than you do.
I’m really fed up with tipping in the US. I tip when I’m supposed to…but I don’t like how everyone has their hand out. Take a cab…you did your job of getting me from point A to point B, here’s the money that cost…oh and here’s something extra because you did your job. Shuttle bus, tour guide, same thing, here’s a tip for doing your job (even if it wasn’t that great). You were able to cut my hair within 3 inches of what I stated…here’s a tip for not totally screwing it up. I’m supposed to “tip” the mailman even though he/she gets paid pretty well and has good job security? I’m even supposed to tip the guy who installs DirecTV…argh!!! It’s maddening not just cause everyone has their hand out, but because I feel like a fool when I find out I was supposed to be tipping the barber for all these years.
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This article seems like a lesson on lifestyle inflation. You start to get a lot of services and not only do you have to pay for them, now you have to tip them.
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THIS – If you can’t tip invite your friends over and hang out at your place. Personally I think it’s more fun that way. And plus, no public toilet :p
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I always get a little irritated when waitstaff use “not making minimum wage” as the justification for demanding large tips as standard, when there’s very little discussion as to how rampant tax fraud is on those tips. Waitstaff are guaranteed minimum wage just like any other job. The company is allowed to pay them less as tips are believed to make up the difference. If for some reason tips don’t, the restaurant is required to pay them more.
I’ve never seen a waiter genuinely not make minimum wage. I have however seen almost all of them claim only the minimum amount of tips calculated by the POS system and pocket the rest tax-free.
When I waited I claimed every penny of my tips as I had a very short timeframe to earn enough pay to cover my IRA contribution. When the hourly-wage calculations were posted each pay period, the gap between mine and everyone else’s was DRAMATIC, and it’s not because I was that much better a waitress.
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There’s a flip side to that too. If a server is making LESS than minimum wage, he/she will often claim at least minimum wage. Why? Because if everyone else is supposedly making $5/hr in tips and you’re making $1/hr in tips, well, guess who’s not going to have a job next week? The restaurant will simply claim bad performance as the reason, even if it was a REALLY slow week, and NO ONE was making at least minimum wage.
My wife was a waitress for a number of years, and I got to hear about how it really worked. Yes, the waitress might have to tip out other people, especially the bartender for drinks (and even if they don’t have to tip the busboy, if you want your tables turned over quickly, you’d better tip him). Sometimes you do make good money (i.e. Christmas Eve when even the Scrooges are a bit more generous, $100 tip is not completely unheard of), but sometimes you really are making below minimum wage.
Of course, this will vary between regions, restaurants, etc. Just our experience.
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I enjoy tipping. Here’s why. I frequently go to a few restaurants and bars where the bartenders and wait staff are people I have come to know, and in some cases are my friends. My tip helps pay their tuition, their grocery bill, their student loans, diapers for their kids, their date night, what have you. In this specific financial exchange, I know the person on the other end, unlike most other places my money goes. I realize most people don’t care about this, but I do.
Another reason is this– the summer between my first and second year of college (1990), I was the breakfast waitress at a tiny diner/greasy spoon in a small town in a rural area. The majority of my customers came every day and tipped every day including the most adorable table of old retired men who told me the same terrible jokes day after day. Tips were often .50 or $1 but at the end of the summer I had spending money for the school year. And these guys did not have a lot of money but they left me a tip every day and those quarters in the end made my college life possible. I’m grateful.
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I usually tip the bagger at the grocery store, but I shop on a military base where the baggers work only for tips. And I usually tip $1-2.
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As someone who has spent my entire working life making less than a living wage in exhausting low wage jobs, I find these posts kind of discussions about tipping offensive, full of inaccuracies, and too much middle class guilt.
I’m tired of hearing the broken-record “servers don’t make minimum wage!” I live in CA and ALL servers make minimum wage which is currently $8. This has been case the since I started working in the mid-90s, probably has been the case longer than that. I know that this is true in other states as well, yet the whole “server wage” thing gets bandied about like it’s a federal law. If you live in a state where that is not the case, work to get the law changed instead of guilting everyone around you into subsidizing restaurant owner’s labor costs.
Servers aren’t starving. With minimum wage and tips, most servers in CA are making $20-30 an hour. My last job was bartending at a pretty low rent place known for bad tips among career bartenders and I regularly made $15+ an hour in tips alone. I was thrilled and grateful with the money I made there. I didn’t begrudge or treat badly the customers who didn’t tip at all or tipped poorly. I clocked in and got a paycheck no matter what anyone tipped; I didn’t have a ridiculous sense of entitlement about the tips.
The only other job I had where there tips was as a barista and that was just a tip jar. I hustled at that job and was polite to everyone regardless of what they put in the jar, unlike some of my coworkers who seem to think they deserved a tip for sullenly pouring a drip coffee and would complain about people who didn’t tip. The only thing I hated at that job was having to split the tip jar money with coworkers who didn’t deserve anything. I had a few regulars who would slide a dollar to me directly instead of the tip jar, which I thought was really sweet of them and more fair.
Besides those jobs, I’ve made minimum wage or close to it at being a security guard, childcare worker, retail cashier, kennel worker, order puller in a warehouse, assembly in a factory, customer service rep, house cleaner. None of those jobs was any easier than bartending or serving food, in fact most were much harder. Yet tips are not expected for people who work in those jobs. Why is their service worth less? Serving food and drinks is not all that difficult. Maybe compared to sitting in an air conditioned office and pulling a salary, but not in comparison to the kind of labor working class people do every single day. I don’t understand why servers are put on a pedestal.
I hate the smug “don’t go out to eat if you can’t afford to tip well” attitude. If you feel like tipping 15% minimum, even when the service is bad, hooray for you that you have that kind of money to throw around. Not everyone does. To imply that lower wage people don’t deserve to go out once in a while is disgusting. When you work a job where you are on your feet all day and come home dog tired, you might want to take the night off from cooking dinner. And if you want a change of scenery from your house that needs work and your crappy neighborhood that’s too crowded with noisy neighbors and you care about eating something that might have some nutritional value, you might opt for a sit-down restaurant instead of fast food. When I do, I tip 15% for good service. Anything l
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My comment got cut off…Anything less than good service gets less than 15% and if someone is downright rude, they get nothing. Of course they are still going to make their $8 an hour and more from other people who feel obligated to tip someone who doesn’t deserve it but I work hard for my money and don’t have alot of it or any weird hang-ups or guilt about the people who “serve” me. No one ever tipped me when I took care of their demanding child all day or while I burned in the sun making sure their cars weren’t broken into or ran around a freezing warehouse after quitting time to make sure their huge and complicated last-minute order went out in time for Christmas, etc etc. Labor is labor, food servers aren’t special.
Tipping garbage collector and mail carriers? Again, must be nice. Those guys have government jobs that have a wage, benefits, and job security that I never even come close to having and probably never will. Not to mention that sometimes the $75 I am required to pay the city for trash collection every two months is hard to come by and if I don’t pay it they can cut shut off my water and electricity. What do the smug overtippers say then? Don’t have your trash collected if you can’t afford to tip the guy who presses the button on the truck that lifts and empties the can? If you can do so, good for you but don’t pretend it’s standard and expected when a large segment of the population earn less money than your average sanitation worker.
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How does one subtly tip a garbage man? I can’t see how it would possibly work smoothly. Perhaps most people know their garbage men better than I do.
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