Should you tip the waitress and how much thread

I'll post the same thing I did on Foh. I tip $2 per hour I'm at a table. Assuming it's me and the Gf. I can go up sometimes if I feel extra generous. But honestly leaving the 2 dollars kills me. In Washington state, servers get min wage which is over $9 now. Now it was brought up that servers can be handling 4-6 tables at a time. If everyone left what servers would call a shitty tip of $2. They'd be making $18-$24 an hour.

I also would much prefer tipping went out the window and meal costs went up. That way I could decide if I wanted to eat at that establishment based on how much do I enjoy it vs cost. Right now, say you're eating somewhere that is pretty meh, you still have to tip or you'll be looked at as an asshole.

I've been eating out lately pretty much every lunch as my builder likes to eat out. I'm amazed at everyone money grabbing. Tip Jar/Tip Line at A smoothie place. Tip Line at terriyaki take out. Jersery Mike subs, and Taco Del Mar. Tip lines also. Heres what I don't like. If you pay with cash, there is almost no obligation for a tip when at a counter. When you pay with credit/debt. The cashier basically has an eagle eye on that tip line. How much do they expect on a smoothie? In under 2 minutes from ordering, I'm out the door. There was no skill involved, they measured the ingredients and put it into a blender, and poored it into a cup. Likewise at the terriyaki take out, the cashier touched my credit card and the bag after the food was put into it by the cooks. Why should they be looking for a tip?

I generally eat dinner at places that are say 8-13 per plate. I'm not rich, and the GF and I like to keep it under $30 when we go out to dinner. If we do go out to more expensive we'll tip more, because there is a level of service provided. But on average, We show up, get seated, order, get food, ask for togo boxes. Takes 40 minutes. Never need a drink refill etc.

Corndog_sl said:

I'll post the same thing I did on Foh. I tip $2 per hour I'm at a table. Assuming it's me and the Gf. I can go up sometimes if I feel extra generous. But honestly leaving the 2 dollars kills me. In Washington state, servers get min wage which is over $9 now. Now it was brought up that servers can be handling 4-6 tables at a time. If everyone left what servers would call a shitty tip of $2. They'd be making $18-$24 an hour.

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Your math is wrong. 4-6 tables an hour is peak time, not average. That is to say, while the dinner hour is ramping up/drawing down, a server will not be waiting their max tables.

Also, you are a cheap ass, cook your own fucking food.

If the server is friendly, brings refills every now and then and is a genuinely nice person I just throw down around 18-20 percent. It's not something I really think about too much since when I go out to eat i'm not really worried about tipping. I think around here waiters still get a lower wage so whatever.

I did go out on a valentines dinner with an ex girlfriend a few years ago to some fancy italian place...there were two people on the check to tip...I was pretty pissed...a server and a captain wtf is that.

Ortega_sl said:

Totals are in... $93.50 in tips on a 7 hour shift of which there were no customers for the last hour..... Factor in the $9.19 minimum wage, and you're looking at $22.54 an hour for picking up plates, and cleaning the floor. This isn't calculating that she only reported $16.00 in tips (since you only have to report a minimum of $2.00 per hour), so her tax burden is much lower than your average $22.54 an hour worker.

Let's not forget this is a Tuesday....

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If not a single customer shows up the last hour, does she really need to report $2 in taxes?

The Ancient_sl said:

Your math is wrong. 4-6 tables an hour is peak time, not average. That is to say, while the dinner hour is ramping up/drawing down, a server will not be waiting their max tables.

Also, you are a cheap ass, cook your own fucking food.

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And so with only 2 tables before it's ramping up. Making $13 an hour for 1/3 of the work seems just fine to me. I've only ever met one server who impressed me and went above and beyond. I tipped $20 on a $14 tab. Every other dining experience ever, my server has only ever "done their job" Take order, bring drinks, deliver food, bring check. How is this any different than say, getting my oil changed? I show up, they take the order, deliver the oil change, bring me the check. And yet, I've never seen an oil change tipped?

I know the argument will be " you've never worked food service, the shit is crazy hard/sucks/etc". I'm sure it's real fun changing oil when it's 12 degrees out too and having perma stained hands etc.

Corndog_sl said:

And so with only 2 tables before it's ramping up. Making $13 an hour for 1/3 of the work seems just fine to me. I've only ever met one server who impressed me and went above and beyond. I tipped $20 on a $14 tab. Every other dining experience ever, my server has only ever "done their job" Take order, bring drinks, deliver food, bring check. How is this any different than say, getting my oil changed? I show up, they take the order, deliver the oil change, bring me the check. And yet, I've never seen an oil change tipped?

I know the argument will be " you've never worked food service, the shit is crazy hard/sucks/etc". I'm sure it's real fun changing oil when it's 12 degrees out too and having perma stained hands etc.

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I'm curious what you consider going "above and beyond" which would warrant a higher tip? i.e what did that one server do to get 20 on a 14 dollar check?

Quineloe_sl said:

If not a single customer shows up the last hour, does she really need to report $2 in taxes?

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Yes that's true. The government knows that theres so much tax evasion on tips that they say everyone in the USA can make at least $2 in tips per hour.

McCheese_sl said:

I'm curious what you consider going "above and beyond" which would warrant a higher tip? i.e what did that one server do to get 20 on a 14 dollar check?

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You'd think it'd be some insane requirement as I'm a crazy cheap ass fuck right? Turns out the best service of my life was when it was snowing outside, and some buddies and I went into a restaurant and we all ended up ordering soup. Just so happens the soup was free refills. When one person would finish their bowl of soup he automatically brought everyone another bowl of soup. They were small bowls I believe we had 3 a piece. So he was proactive. 4 dudes coming in from the cold, ordering soup, sized up the group and brought out bowls of soup without having to ask. This in my opinion is above and beyond.

Now I've never had 4 dudes eat soup together before or since. But I can promise if I tried it again, the server would bring 1 bowl at a time, and wait for each person to finish etc. The same experience would take over an hour and waiting for someone to come back around etc.

And before people say it never happens because you're a cheap bastard. This same level of service happens at places I've never eaten before also. Maybe it's just in Washington, but food service is pretty lackluster.

McCheese_sl said:

I'm curious what you consider going "above and beyond" which would warrant a higher tip? i.e what did that one server do to get 20 on a 14 dollar check?

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A buddy and I regularly hit up this bar where we were there a night a new bartender got hired, the bar was empty except for us and we BS'd about sports, video games, movies, etc. for like 3 hours. One of the nicest guys in the world, and since then if we ever go in there our orders always have extra food, our drinks are almost pure alcohol, and we don't wait for shit. We usually go during happy hour, the best I've ever seen, like $4 appetizers, $2 draft and well drinks, we can get full and have a decent buzz on for like a $15 check. We usually leave about $25-30 on the table. You could make the VERY easy argument we're essentially just paying twice for twice the stuff, but it's going in his pocket, not the drawer, and he deserved it.

I'm like this at a couple places, I've gotten in good with a particular server/bartender over the years, they take care of me, I take care of them.

Don't you get rewarded for prescribing drugs people don't need? That isn't worse?

The pastor one bugs me only because she's such a fucking moron that she doesn't realize she's giving the server 18% of a check, not 18% of her salary.

And the get a real job one is pretty fucked on a $100+ worth of tickets

Johnny49_sl said:

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If you can drop $138.35 on a meal as a single mom, you can tip. That's fucking retarded.

Well she's a single mom feeding 12 kids from 10 different fathers based on that check.

I only give her small points for at least saying thank you. There's no reason to kick the person in the nuts AND not tip. But yeah, pretty fucked either way.

Corndog_sl said:

You'd think it'd be some insane requirement as I'm a crazy cheap ass fuck right? Turns out the best service of my life was when it was snowing outside, and some buddies and I went into a restaurant and we all ended up ordering soup. Just so happens the soup was free refills. When one person would finish their bowl of soup he automatically brought everyone another bowl of soup. They were small bowls I believe we had 3 a piece. So he was proactive. 4 dudes coming in from the cold, ordering soup, sized up the group and brought out bowls of soup without having to ask. This in my opinion is above and beyond.

Now I've never had 4 dudes eat soup together before or since. But I can promise if I tried it again, the server would bring 1 bowl at a time, and wait for each person to finish etc. The same experience would take over an hour and waiting for someone to come back around etc.

And before people say it never happens because you're a cheap bastard. This same level of service happens at places I've never eaten before also. Maybe it's just in Washington, but food service is pretty lackluster.

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That's interesting. I worked at Olive Garden (well-known for their unlimited soup and salad) and in the beginning I did just what the server in your story did: when I saw my customers were low on salad, soup, or bread, I'd bring out more automatically.

I got in trouble for doing this because sometimes I'd bring out a bowl of soup and the customer would say, "Oh, thanks, but I'm good." and the soup had to go in the trash. Obviously management didn't like that. The only thing we were allowed to practively refill were drinks.

aychamo_aycono_sl said:

So you're rewarding to server for basically stealing alcohol and food from his employer. Nice!

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I like to refer to it as "befriending someone in a position of power".