Stop Tipping

[Archman]

.......Just abolish tipping and let management decide who is worth what. It makes more sense to me.

There is no law says that you must tip. In the case a that a restaurant will add a gratuity due to the number in a party, one has the option to leave the restaurant.

 

[CardsFan]

One thing that's affecting American wait staff is the prevalence of credit cards. Waiters can't hide their income from the IRS if you put it on a credit card. So consider perhaps paying the bill on the CC but leaving a cash tip.

And so why do I want to aid and abet in income tax evasion?

In honesty, I will often tip in cash at low end places, but that is primarily to assure the waitress (and it is most often a waitress), gets the money. Particularly if she/he were particularly helpful/friendly.

Regarding the comments about how little waitstaff make: I occasionally frequent a corner bar. A friend I meet there is more of a regular and knows the staff pretty well. Now this is a low/middle class place. Beer specials, good, inexpensive food. According to my buddy, our normal waitress grosses over $50,000/year. Not high end, but not chicken feed. The facts are: she knows the regulars, and welcomes them (and most patrons are regulars), she is quick and efficient, she tends bar and waits tables, and probably most importantly, she is like-able.

I guess my only point is that a motivated person can make a decent living at a lower end place, if they apply themselves.

 

[JJpop]

No tips

Restaurants should pay their servers a fair wage and tipping should not be expected.It is not my job to pay someone like they are my employee.There should be no jobs that depend on tips to make a fair wage.If someone wants to tip a worker that is fine,but it should not be expected.It is a ridiculous situation that has gotten totally out of hand.The rates keep rising as well.In a few years it will be 30 pct.

 

[FireBug]

I enjoy tipping folks who service my wants.

 

[68bucks]

In the US we are conditioned to tip and the system is set up for that. I don't understand why anyone would resent what someone makes for a wage. Does the OP resent what many CEO's make? I don't resent their pay but I believe many are grossly over paid. Why would I resent someone making $11/hr getting tips? A server making $60k a year bothers me a lot less than a CEO making $10 million at a company going down the tubes.

 

[mystang52]

Restaurants should pay their servers a fair wage and tipping should not be expected.It is not my job to pay someone like they are my employee.

While I don't disagree with the merits of this argument, it doesn't change the fact that in our country tipping waiters/bartenders is standard practice, and how they get their wages. One could refuse to tip a waiter using the above logic, but it won't change our culture and only the waiter gets hurt.

 

[Corporateburnout]

In the US where servers don't get minimum wage we tip generously and we will not stiff the server that's doing a good job.

I have been to many European countries and Canada and I found the service in the US superior and the servers are much friendlier and accommodating.

 

[bclover]

It's for suckers.

I confess, I previously tipped as high as 10%; but after reading this article, no more.

I don't hate tipping. why should I stop. If someone provides me a service that I feel is worthwhile I'll tip. I tip my paper delivery, I definitely tip my hair stylist. I give end of year gifts to various folks who do the things I'm to busy, tired or just plain lazy to do.


personally I don't understand why the hate against tipping.

 

[bclover]

If you don't believe tipping is out of hand take a look at this from the nationally famous cheapskate - Clark Howard.

https://clark.com/family-lifestyle/tipping-guide-holiday-2017-gifts/

This is just the miscellaneious list:

lol really hard for someone to cry broke if they use the services of the folks on this list.

why is this "out of hand"? It ain't "out of hand" when you contract all these services?

 

[24601NoMore]

Few pet peeves about tipping..

- Carry-out - (e.g. PF Changs recently)..the person behind the counter literally hands me my order, prepared by the kitchen staff. There is IMHO no real "service" being provided to tip on. Yet, there's always a spot on the cc receipt for tip and if you leave it blank, it's easy to feel like a cheapskate shorting the person..

- iPads / other tablets at checkout - I was in a bakery recently, and their payment system was an iPad that you sign..once again, a spot for tip. In a bakery where all we were doing is picking up a couple of muffins from the girl behind the counter? She literally did nothing aside from take 2 muffins out of a jar and hand them to us. UGH.

- Winery - ditto..iPad at checkout. Spot on the screen to add tip (little slider graphic that conveniently showed what 15%, 20%, etc was). Seriously? Again not doing much aside from handing us a couple glasses of wine..

I don't mind tipping for ACTUAL (and good) service - but the expectation that you're going to get a tip for handing me something (carry-out, muffin, etc) is getting out of control.

 

[youbet]

One thing that's affecting American wait staff is the prevalence of credit cards. Waiters can't hide their income from the IRS if you put it on a credit card. So consider perhaps paying the bill on the CC but leaving a cash tip.

Well at least you're clear about your intentions and motives: you want to conduct yourself in a way that promotes tax cheating. To each his own........

 

[ERD50]

I ... personally I don't understand why the hate against tipping.

Then I don't think you have been reading these threads. What's hard to understand? I just want my dinner. I don't want to be concerned about who gets paid what - that's between management and the employee.

I ... Just abolish tipping and let management decide who is worth what. It makes more sense to me.

Exactly.

We hear all these tales about how hard/easy the work is, how they are over/under paid, but you know what? It's not my business. I'm there to buy a product/service. Sell it to me.

I don't have any inside information as to the pay scale, benefits, or total compensation of the worker. Or how all that compares at Restaurant A versus Restaurant B. So why am I being asked to be a part of this?

Imagine you go to buy a car, and two are equivalent in all ways, but then you learn the workers at one plant don't get such good benefits. Should you include a tip on that car?

No, it should ALL be between the worker and their management. I want a dinner, not the responsibility of doing a performance review.

-ERD50

-ERD50

 

[youbet]

Few pet peeves about tipping..

- Carry-out - (e.g. PF Changs recently)..the person behind the counter literally hands me my order, prepared by the kitchen staff. There is IMHO no real "service" being provided to tip on. Yet, there's always a spot on the cc receipt for tip and if you leave it blank, it's easy to feel like a cheapskate shorting the person..

- iPads / other tablets at checkout - I was in a bakery recently, and their payment system was an iPad that you sign..once again, a spot for tip. In a bakery where all we were doing is picking up a couple of muffins from the girl behind the counter? She literally did nothing aside from take 2 muffins out of a jar and hand them to us. UGH.

- Winery - ditto..iPad at checkout. Spot on the screen to add tip (little slider graphic that conveniently showed what 15%, 20%, etc was). Seriously? Again not doing much aside from handing us a couple glasses of wine..

I don't mind tipping for ACTUAL (and good) service - but the expectation that you're going to get a tip for handing me something (carry-out, muffin, etc) is getting out of control.

Your attitude actually encourages their behavior. OTOH, when I come across "calls to tip" such as the examples you gave, it never even crosses my mind to tip. Right over my head. There was essentially no service provided, so no tip. I just assume there must be some instances where service would be provided and tipping appropriate so they have a spot for it. But not in the examples you gave.

No astonishment. No fretting. No jaw-dropping amazement. Just sign the tab without adding a tip, grab my bag and on my way.

Why do you even make note of it?

 

[youbet]

Then I don't think you have been reading these threads. What's hard to understand? I just want my dinner. I don't want to be concerned about who gets paid what - that's between management and the employee.





-ERD50

If you just want your dinner, then it's your choice to just have your dinner and not be concerned with tipping. YOUR CHOICE! Why be overly sensitive and make a big deal out of it?

If you don't like tipping, please don't. That's the way our free market system works. Tipping, or fretting over tipping, sends a signal to the service sellers that they have a system that works (for them) and encourages them to continue. If you want to discourage tipping and have competition based on just the menu prices alone, don't tip.

All this wailing and gnashing of teeth over tipping is another example of how Americans don't like to follow their own beloved free market system and are the cause of many of its failures to allocate resources and dictate business practices in accordance with demand. They don't like the tipping system yet follow it like lemmings when doing so is very, very optional.

I tend to NOT vote for things I don't like.

 

[Hamlet]

I tip well as an offering to destiny.

 

[youbet]

I tip well as an offering to destiny.

I've never met Destiny. What restaurant does she work at?

 

[Teacher Terry]

If servers didn’t get tips the food prices would be higher. Yes service is better here than in Europe because of the tipping. Service has to really be horrible for us not to leave 20%. On a small bill we leave more.

 

[Pellice]

What I dislike is the fiction that I am tipping for "good service." Very rarely is that the case! Most of the time I am tipping for mediocre service - waitstaff has to ask who gets what dish, comes by within 90 seconds to ask whether food is ok, has to be asked specifically if we want water, etc. Sometimes it is bad service. Nonetheless I tip on the *truth* that I am supplementing the inadequate wages paid by restaurant ownership. And helping ownership avoid various payroll taxes. This turns me off enough that I eat out relatively seldom. Stop telling us we are tipping for good service!

 

[ERD50]

Originally Posted by ERD50
Then I don't think you have been reading these threads. What's hard to understand? I just want my dinner. I don't want to be concerned about who gets paid what - that's between management and the employee.

-ERD50

If you just want your dinner, then it's your choice to just have your dinner and not be concerned with tipping. YOUR CHOICE! Why be overly sensitive and make a big deal out of it?

If you don't like tipping, please don't. That's the way our free market system works. Tipping, or fretting over tipping, sends a signal to the service sellers that they have a system that works (for them) and encourages them to continue. If you want to discourage tipping and have competition based on just the menu prices alone, don't tip.

All this wailing and gnashing of teeth over tipping is another example of how Americans don't like to follow their own beloved free market system and are the cause of many of its failures to allocate resources and dictate business practices in accordance with demand. They don't like the tipping system yet follow it like lemmings when doing so is very, very optional.

I tend to NOT vote for things I don't like.

Because I know I'm not going to change the system by myself, one non-tip at a time. But I still think an open discussion is worthwhile. I dunno, maybe more minds will be changed by open discussions like this, than by me holding back a tip.

And if anyone is wondering, I do tip at restaurants. I don't like the system, but it is the system. I don't have many options if I want to go to a sit down restaurant.

If servers didn’t get tips the food prices would be higher. Yes service is better here than in Europe because of the tipping. Service has to really be horrible for us not to leave 20%. ... .

I'm fine with higher prices, that's an obvious, and transparent side effect of a no-tipping policy.

I'm not sure the difference in service in Europe (is there one? I didn't notice it on my travels) is due to tipping/not tipping. I've received excellent service from people who do not get tips. Why is that?

-ERD50

 

[youbet]

Because I know I'm not going to change the system by myself, one non-tip at a time.

That one is hard to understand. Do you also fall in line with other marketing ploys such as a car dealer trying to sell you useless after-market add-ons? Or an appliance dealer trying to charge you for delivery when the competition doesn't? Etc.? The absolute only way for consumers to deliver the message for what demand is, is to vote with their dollars one consumer at a time. It's not unlike voting in a political election. We each do it one voter at a time (with exceptions in Illinois of course!)

 

[Chuckanut]

My understanding is that in many European countries being a server is a career profession that is paid reasonably well. It is not just a job that gets young folks through college with some spending money. At least that is my impression in countries like France, Spain and Italy.

 

[Chuckanut]

That one is hard to understand. Do you also fall in line with other marketing ploys such as a car dealer trying to sell you useless after-market add-ons? Or an appliance dealer trying to charge you for delivery when the competition doesn't? Etc.?

I don't see them as being the same as tipping. The after market add-ons are another item I am buying - like dessert at a restaurant. Why shouldn't I pay for it if I am buying it. Delivery or non-delivery varies from one store to another. It is not nearly as uniform as tipping in restaurants.

FWIW, I refuse to tip some guy behind a counter for handing me a cup of coffee in a paper cup and doughnut on a napkin, so that I can take it to a table, probably wipe off the crumbs left by another patron, and then dispose of the garbage myself on the way out the door. So, yes, I am fighting back.

 

[kgtest]

Does anyome tip the mechanic? He provides a service to keep your car running...you could do this yourself and avoid any gratuitous expectation.. Do you tip the bellboy who lugs the luggage? Do you tip the nurse who gives you a flu shot? I dunno I tip at the restaurant unless the service was terrible, at the hair stylist unless the haircut was bad after setting expectations and I give the UPS and mailman gifts for xmas. Other than that I dont think I tip much. I figure nobody accepts the job offer thinking tips are guarenteed and im just one fine example. Btw there are other ways to show gratuity without providing financial means. A sincere thank you works in a lot of situations.

 

[youbet]

Stop telling us we are tipping for good service!

I tip for good service. You apparently aren't as discriminating. Sellers are carefully listening to your votes. Restaurants go in and out of business with great frequency, one of the most volatile business sectors. They want to please you in all regards.

Tipping is a great example of sellers playing consumers based on their sensitivity to "people issues." Change is frequently painful but if people who don't like to tip for less than outstanding service would stop tipping for less than outstanding service, change would occur over time. Yep, some pain for that college student trying to earn a few bux at the National Park lodge snack shop one summer. Or the single mom working a six hour shift at the diner while the kids are at school. But, in the long run, they, we and the entire economy would be better off if we act how we feel in regard to tipping.

Unless, of course, we just like to jaw about it on Internet forums but then go out and act totally differently in real life!

 

[youbet]

I don't see them as being the same as tipping. The after market add-ons are another item I am buying - like dessert at a restaurant. Why shouldn't I pay for it if I am buying it. Delivery or non-delivery varies from one store to another. It is not nearly as uniform as tipping in restaurants.

In my life, tipping in restaurants is not uniform at all. Not a bit. It varies from places where I never tip (carry-out, fast food, deli, etc.) to places I go to regularly and receive special service regularly (typically groups of retired geezer buddies and I spending hours at the diner drinking endless coffee and BS'ing with the server taking great care of us throughout) to high tier dining where I tip in correspondence to the dining experience we have from zero to generous.

So, yes, I am fighting back.

Good. Keep it up. Don't make a big deal out of it. But do have your dollars do the talking and be congruent with your level of consumption satisfaction.