You Should Tip

[The_R3d_Fury]

Pay them extra for doing their job? NO WAY!

However, I think that our minimum pay is higher, so if we had lower minimum wage then maybe.

 

[thePyro_13]

I don't tip, I avoid places that ask me to tip. The wait staff should be paid by their employer. That's the way things are in Australia.

It's a sad state that these places are able to charge full price for meals and then not pay their employees a reasonable wage. Then expect their customers to pay full price and then pay extra to cover the employees wages?

These places must be making a killing in the US if that's the way it operates. Many bushiness would love to stop paying their employees if they could convince customers to throw a few coins at them on the way out of the store.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

That is it, i am never eating fast food again

 

[Vegosiux]

So you're condoning child labor. Okay...

He's not and you know that.

I mean if his post would imply he condones that, your posts would imply that you are condoning letting people die of starvation.

Also, blatantly dishonest ad hominem attacks without actually replying to what people say? Report material, have a nice day.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I feel like mandatory tipping culture is somehow stupid, like those sales jobs you get that pay per sale.

Go to any of the Atlantic Provinces in Canada and get a Coffee from Tim Hortons and not give a tip, and see how fast you get angry glares from your fellow customers, let alone the staff.

A large coffee is $1.79, you're most likely paying with a toonie, give the person behind the counter the $0.21.

This. If you're receiving a service, unless you're really, really, RIDICULOUSLY good friends with the waiter or service provider, you're better off tipping.

There's a restaurant my family and I has been going to for upwards of twenty years. We're not celebrities by any stretch of the word, but the management and waiting staff more or less knows when to expect me or my folks. I remember tipping a waitress who's almost freaking FAMILY to me; and this is the only instance where I've ever been able to get away with not calculating the rate properly. I suck at math, so I sometimes don't give properly scaled tips.

We've known each other forever, like I said, so it passed. She knows I suck at calculating tips, so she doesn't hold it against me or ask for the difference. I've bungled my tips in other restaurants before, however, and the glares...

Well, the glares are something to remember. Politeness iced over with a metric fuckton of frost, until you finally catch on to your mistake and realize it's too damn late to drop the missing twenty-five cents somewhere.

I can definitely agree with the notion that tips are serious business, in Canada.

 

[Divine Miss Bee]

i live in the states, but i never tip for fast food and if i do tip for delivery it's because the driver wasn't so late that the food got cold (a rare occurrence). i tip in a restaurant based on how good the food was, hoe clean the dishes were, and how good the service was. starting at a 20% tip and take off for each thing on my shit list, most servers walk away with a 10% tip from me. i pay a lot of money when i go out to eat, i'm not paying more for the privilege of being ignored by a server or for a driver to get high in the back of his car so he's late.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

I find tipping to be a strange American custom, giving you extra money so that in return you provide decent service?

If you go above and beyond your duty to provide for the customers sure, but for just saying hi to me when I order...

 

[aceman67]

*totally agree with you snip*

When in doubt about how much to tip, you're safe with 10% for the most part. $1 = $0.10, $10 = $1, $50 = $5

 

[RedDeadFred]

I tip my waiter/ess every time unless they gave me really shitty service. Even if the food is bad, if the waiter was good, I'll still give them my normal 15% tip.

I will not ever tip for fast food. That is just insane to me. The people serving me aren't doing anything extra special. They are just asking me for my order, asking me for my money, and then telling me my food will be out shortly. The process of making a fast food hamburger isn't really all that challenging either. Sorry, no tips for anyone working at these places.

 

[siddif]

Having worked in my college restaurant (unpaid but we got tips) and a McDonalds (which forbids tipping btw) my personal opinion is that tips should be voluntary especially when service is patchy at best rather than tight managers cutting costs by paying staff the bare minimum and making us the customer responsible for them earning a living.

If the company isn't earning enough to pay the staff then include it in the prices of the meal, if we think the waiter did an outstanding job then we tip them because they deserve it not because of guilt or that its mandatory.

When i went to the US on holiday last year not only were we stung with unmarked service tax (VAT is included in list price in UK not added at the till) but many places such as Pizza Hut added a pre-calculated tip before we even received the bill (in pen too not even printed through the machine so it could be audited or proven)

That said I am always polite to staff anytime i am out and have no problem throwing the odd tip especially if its rounding up to the closest $10 or maybe £5 when home of course it depends on how much the meal cost too so that the tip isn't un-proportionally small.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Its grayer than the counter... that is so gross. Is that what I fucking eat?!!!! It looks like dried up cow shit... OMG... I've been eating that.

Look it doesn't matter who it is if I have the money I tip or I just do it myself. I bag my own groceries, cook my own meals, and get my own pizzas.

I've worked in the food industry and at retail stores I know how thankless it can be.


Still never want to eat a fast food burger ever again... thanks for that.

 

[Kroxile]

I work at a McDonald's and I gotta say that 99.9999% of the time when a customer uses that bullshit "The customer is always right!" line they are being a fuckhead and trying to rip us off. Just last night I had some guy return his fish sandwich, after eating most of it, twice. He demanded a new one each time and after the second I told him no. He fed me the line and I rolled my eyes and asked for the next customer.

When I go to other restaurants I tip if the service is exceptional, but other than that... no way. My job is way harder than some waitress that has to get off her ass to deliver a pizza she didn't even cook from the oven to my table and we aren't allowed to accept tips.

Delivery drivers are a whole 'nother story, however... though I rarely get delivery.

 

[speight88]

I know this is a mainly waiter/ess tipping thing, but i offer some advice from my job as a barman in a nightclub: TIP YOUR BARMAN!

Believe me it means the next time you go to the bar and it's busy, we will be all over you trying to serve you before the rest of the drunk arseholes we usually have, in the hopes of a repeat tip, or just because you're the only person who hasn't been a complete git that night

 

[Gunjester]

TIP DAMMIT. Tip everyone.
Do you tip? Who do you tip? Do you agree that we should tip the guys behind the counter?

Uhh, I DO tip the people behind the counter...I mean I don't go to Fast Food places often, I always give a buck or above into the little clear jars beside the register, which usually makes them smile so I assume that it's a tip jar....

Also, I'm Canadian, pretty sure in all Western countries they tip, not just US and UK.

 

[Flames66]

I have just looked up US national laws on pay for tipped employees. $2.13 per hour plus tips is the minimum wage and if the tips do not bring the total to above $7.25 per hour the employer has to make up the difference. My take on this is if I only pay the already inflated cost of the food, I am not doing anyone out of money other than the fat cat running the place who will be forced to properly pay his/her staff. Therefore, if I ever go to North America, I will feel no guilt whatsoever in not tipping.

 

[DevilWithaHalo]

I have just looked up US national laws on pay for tipped employees. $2.13 per hour plus tips is the minimum wage and if the tips to not bring the total to above $7.25 per hour the employer has to make up the difference. My take on this is if I only pay the already inflated cost of the food, I am not doing anyone out of money other than the fat cat running the place who will be forced to properly pay his/her staff. Therefore, if I ever go to North America, I will feel no guilt whatsoever in not tipping.

People like to conveniently forget this. Some states have stipulations that the employer pays the state minimum age *regardless* of tips; so tips are simply extra cash.

One server said I should tip her because she has to pay taxes on her tips. Well... no shit shirely; you pay extra taxes on extra wages.

No one loses any wages if you don't tip. And the argument about not being paid enough works for *any* job. And there are many jobs worse than 'waiting' that don't receive any cultural tip suggestion; like laying hot tar, or shoveling shit, or working customer service at a call center.

I still treat service people with respect. If they are really just after the cash; they just lost what I was willing to give them.

If they truly believe it's a problem; then they should take steps to correct it themselves from within the industry; not force the problem on others to... not really solve.

 

[TeletubbiesGolfGun]

(And the UK, I think) we tip people

Not true, there is the odd occasion where some say "keep the change" but it's not in our culture.

In the UK min wage is about £6.08 an hour, which is $9.77 ... I assume that is more than your min wage, so it doesn't have to be "topped up".

I always thought it was strange that American business owners expect there employees to be payed by the customers directly. We should pay the establishment, then they pay the staff.

Then again I think America sound like the weirdest place when it comes to cash, you're charged for medical stuff, you have to work out VAT yourself, tip people ... how do you afford to buy food!?

In the uk, I can go into a shop, pick up something for 99P and pay 99P. If my meal costs £20, then I pay £20 and leave From what I have heard you pick up something for $1 and pay $1.20 or something. You to a restaurant and your meal is $20, you pay $24 for it then tip the person serving you an extra $4 or something.

I might be wrong about the VAT though.

now this might sound stupid, but what the hell is the "VAT"?

I could know what it is and not know the acronym, but i have never heard of that before.

but when i'm feeling cheap but still want food, most places I like have take out/curb side, so you just order then go there in about 15 minutes and they'll have it ready for you, and they don't expect tip, so i tend to only pay 10-15 bucks instead of 20-25

just small things here and there...

or we could be non lazy bastards and just cook our own food..but that would require not being lazy, and americans don't do that.

 

[Flames66]

now this might sound stupid, but what the hell is the "VAT"?

I could know what it is and not know the acronym, but i have never heard of that before.

but when i'm feeling cheap but still want food, most places I like have take out/curb side, so you just order then go there in about 15 minutes and they'll have it ready for you, and they don't expect tip, so i tend to only pay 10-15 bucks instead of 20-25

just small things here and there...

or we could be non lazy bastards and just cook our own food..but that would require not being lazy, and americans don't do that.

VAT is "Value Added Tax", which if I have understood this thread correctly is what US peeps would call sales tax. A percentage of the cost of a product payed to the government. In the UK almost all prices include this amount so the customer does not have to think about it.

I suspect I would have problems if I ever go to the US when the price is suddenly more than the label. I would probably say something like "No, the label says $10 and I will pay no more than that for this product!"

 

[TeletubbiesGolfGun]

now this might sound stupid, but what the hell is the "VAT"?

I could know what it is and not know the acronym, but i have never heard of that before.

but when i'm feeling cheap but still want food, most places I like have take out/curb side, so you just order then go there in about 15 minutes and they'll have it ready for you, and they don't expect tip, so i tend to only pay 10-15 bucks instead of 20-25

just small things here and there...

or we could be non lazy bastards and just cook our own food..but that would require not being lazy, and americans don't do that.

VAT is "Value Added Tax", which if I have understood this thread correctly is what US peeps would call sales tax. A percentage of the cost of a product payed to the government. In the UK almost all prices include this amount so the customer does not have to think about it.

I suspect I would have problems if I ever go to the US when the price is suddenly more than the label. I would probably say something like "No, the label says $10 and I will pay no more than that for this product!"

oh okay, makes sense, i'm a huge supporter of the fairtax plan (lord knows if it will ever get approved in the US) so i understand.

mehh, it's just something you get used to, it's second nature for me now to buy something and already have it calculated out in my head for what i'll need. plus i buy a shit ton of stuff online anyways and the taxes are all included already. so if you do come to the US, just do lots of online ordering and you'll be fine

 

[Yopaz]

Your workplace sounds awesome, I have to point that out before anything else.

However I don't tip. Almost everyone working a real job here makes decent money. I tip when I am in different countries where it's normal and the workers are underpaid. I wont tip a person making more than me.