I pay the 20%, but remember the good old days of 10% and preferred that! I do have a tipping etiquette question though. We have been buying a bottle of wine occasionally when we eat out. My GF says you don't pay the 20% of that cost. I have continued to pay for it, but it does seem wrong. Just to walk over and uncork or twist off the top results in doubling the tip with little increased service to the whole experience. What is the correct procedure?
...We give the tip money to the waitress/waiter in cash. What they do with it in terms of busboys or staff who brought the plates is up to them. I like to know the person who handled our order got the cash.
When I get the chance, I use coupons, then give the coupon amount to the server as a bonus to the earned tip (20% and bump up to the next dollar). It makes the hassle of coupons worth it to make someone smile.
Once, I gave a Midol as a tip. That is a story better left unsaid.
On another point, waiters always prefer getting tipped in cash vs via credit card. The credit card machine leaves a paper trail so the tip must be declared as earnings. Cash goes right in the pocket.
This is exactly why I put the tip on the credit card if possible. To make sure that the waitstaff pays taxes on income. No reason to exempt them from taxation.
Wait staff are not exempt. The restaurant, as employer, is the retention agent for payroll taxes and would be legally exposed if caught deliberately aiding employees under-report. Tip income is estimated and reported either daily or monthly and easy to audit. Chains and large restaurants that have professional management instead of owners directly involved will have systems in place to audit and track the flow of money to minimize all efforts to misappropriate or cheat, including tips. Also, many restaurants share tip income and track the money flow to ensure employees do not cheat each other.This is exactly why I put the tip on the credit card if possible. To make sure that the waitstaff pays taxes on income. No reason to exempt them from taxation.
Not that it means much, but without exception the people I know that worked for tips (or low salary + tips) are generous when tipping others.
The money I saved from tips as a paper boy paid for half of my first year college tuition bill, and it was an expensive private school.
Wait staff are not exempt. The restaurant, as employer, is the retention agent for payroll taxes and would be legally exposed if caught deliberately aiding employees under-report. Tip income is estimated and reported either daily or monthly and easy to audit. Chains and large restaurants that have professional management instead of owners directly involved will have systems in place to audit and track the flow of money to minimize all efforts to misappropriate or cheat, including tips. Also, many restaurants share tip income and track the money flow to ensure employees do not cheat each other.
In our area, it is all undocumented Vietnamese workers.And don't get me started on tales of non-reported income at the local nail salons (on tip income and base salary/commission).
I too tip at restaurants, because of a summer job I had as a waitress at a now-defunct chain of restaurants. We got paid minimum wage, with an hourly amount taken out for meals, even if we didn't have time to eat, and for tips, even if we didn't get any. No tip was not an infrequent occurance, as many of the customers were a couple of moms taking a dozen or so little kids out for a birthday party. They sometimes had to feel under the cushions to pay for the food, never mind a tip.I go to restaurants and leave a 15% tip, I go to the barber shop and leave a tip. I hate to tip. I wish they would just raise the price of a haircut so I would know what it would cost everybody would leave happy. restaurants are my worst, I avoid going to a sit down restaurant with waitress's because I always feel cheated when I have to pay the tab and an extra 15%. I think they should just raise the price of the meal, and subsidize the wait staff and the bus boys accordingly, so that when I look at the menu I could say this is what it cost, and we would both be happy. I know that the waitress and staff don't get paid much and they have to live, but I see a lot of people leaving huge tips, maybe for great service, I don't know, it's just gotten to the point that people are viewed as pariah's if they don't leave enough tip for the service people when their wages should be livable and paid to them. If they can't make a living working in a place they should make an effort to move up, more education, etc. I know bartenders and people who work in pizza places and they want to work the tables because they take home hundreds in tips nightly, whether its taxed or not I don't know. I just think it would be fair to everyone involve if you knew what it would cost going in and there would be not bad feelings later.
Really, really bad service coupled with arrogant or hostile attitudes will result in a deduction, also commiserate with the lack of quality and/or quantity of service. I once left $0.02, to make a point that I did not forget to leave a tip.
And plenty of reasons not to:And to FUEGO -
There is plenty of motivation for a Server to report their tips:
- Mortgage Application - documentation of income
- 401(k) Matching
- SS Benefits
If your experience includes hotels, maybe you can answer this question. How common is it for hotels to have two grades of towels, one smaller, thinner and older than the other? The good ones are in the room when checking in, the lower grade ones appear the first night after a tip isn't left for the maids.My entire career has been in the Hospitality Industry, and that makes this an interesting conversation for me to read. Having cut my teeth in a "tipped" position, and now upper management (at a local establishment), I can appreciate both sides of the issue.
Never thought of that. Thanks for the education.There is plenty of motivation for a Server to report their tips:
- Mortgage Application - documentation of income
- 401(k) Matching
- SS Benefits
And plenty of reasons not to:
-- Income taxes
-- School loans for the kids (FAFSA, etc)
-- Earned Income Tax Credit
-- School lunch program and other need-based programs (some with income cutoffs well above the poverty level)
-- To come: Health Care subsidies from the government based on income
-- SS: Reporting income to get more benefits (much later) is a "win" for a fairly small percentage of folks--if the current social contract holds. Lots of people wouldn't want to bet on that.
The folks waiting tables/etc are working hard and deserve their tips. But many don't report them as income, and that isn't right.