Tips are not optional, they are how waiters get paid in America

The Manchester Guardian ^ | February 1, 2013 | Chelsea Welch, former waitress

[2ndDivisionVet]

An Applebee's diner refused to leave a tip for religious reasons. The waitress who exposed it wonders if Jesus will pay her bills.

I was a waitress at Applebee's restaurant in Saint Louis. I was fired Wednesday for posting a picture on Reddit.com of a note a customer left on a bill. I posted it on the web as a light-hearted joke.

This didn't even happen at my table. The note was left for another server, who allowed me to take a picture of it at the end of the night.

Someone had scribbled on the receipt, "I give God 10%. Why do you get 18?"

I assumed the customer's signature was illegible, but I quickly started receiving messages containing Facebook profile links and websites, asking me to confirm the identity of the customer. I refused to confirm any of them, and all were incorrect.

I worked with the Reddit moderators to remove any personal information. I wanted to protect the identity of both my fellow server and the customer. I had no intention of starting a witch-hunt or hurting anyone.

Now I've been fired...

[VastRWCon]

I was at a Red Robin a couple a weeks ago and the women (white lib mid 50’s) sitting next to me went off on some rant about her taxes. So I said something like “you can thank the democrats and obama for that” and she well lets just say she didn’t like that. After she left, the bartender came over to me and said that lady left a note. The note said “The guy sitting next to me is a racist A**hole!!!” I never once mentioned race, only that I did not like Obama. The crew of mixed races working that night all agreed with me plus they didn’t like obama either.

[Michael.SF.]

Waiters are underpaid, and rely on tips to round out their salaries.

As a former waiter, I view the above comments with a differing perspective: I gladly worked for the minimum wage, in exchange for a percentage of the tips I received. Even after I shared my tips, as follows:

Bartender - 5%
Cocktail waitress (yes it was a long time ago) - 5%
Maitre D - 10%
Busboys - 10%
Kitchen Staff - One Six Pack

Even after that I could make a months rent in three nights.

[boop]

"i don’t eat anywhere where the place sets a minimum mandatory tip."

Yes. I agree. For those dirtballs that say: "Well, the management should just PAY the staff more."

If they paid the staff more, guess what, your $20 steak will be $30. And the service would stink, because there's no incentive to be attentive.

"Here's ya steak, enjoy"

Forget about refills, check-backs, pre-busing, politeness, etc.

I tip well, because I WANT good service.

If I wanted shitty service I'd head for Burger King.

[Oztrich Boy]

The problem is you are calling it a tip. It's not

There would be bo problem is it was simply stated "You pay the restaurant for your food and pay 18% commission to the person who serves it to you"

[Perdogg]

In Taiwan the tips are included with most services with an option to leave more if desired. In fact, I was in a restaurant in Taipei when my drunk coworker tipped a young woman about $70 US for a meal of about $100, she almost fainted.

[SkyDancer]

Here in Australia they don’t tip. But when I’m home I tip in cash. It’s up to the waitperson to do with it what they will, as in sharing, etc. I don’t want the boss to see what they get. But the IRS concludes that 10% of your wages are tips and tax accordingly.

[Revolting cat!]

Non-story already posted (from another source, true), and with illustrations!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2984098/posts

[gunsequalfreedom]

She should NOT have been fired. What is wrong with bosses these days.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

I’ll bet you that the original waiter was white.

[SECURE AMERICA]

Waitresses get a wage plus tips.
You did something stupid that involved the business you worked for and you paid the price.

[2ndDivisionVet]

During my first marriage there was a long period when my wife at that time didn’t work outside the home. My day job was a government position but didn’t come close to covering the bills, so I worked a 2nd job week nights (straight commission telemarketing) and a 3rd weekend job as a bartender ($6/hr + tips)at a busy Western-style steakhouse across the street from the busiest airport in that state. Even after Hurricane Katrina, I didn’t get welfare.

[Revolting cat!]

The cheapskates have their own “philosophical” reasons for not tipping, as illustrated on that other thread, and like to be seen as rebels and revolutionaries, while they’ll only ordinary contemptible skinflints, who rob workers relying by established and accepted custom on gratuities.

[Secret Agent Man]

if you want a decent hot sandwich shop find a “Potbellies” around where you are. way better than fast food but decent prices, no tips, can get stuff to go.

[dangus]

Wait, what? What form of entitlement are you talking about? People who perform a service for you are entitled to be paid for that service. And waitresses, as if you could be one of only a few hundred people in the civilized world who is ignorant of this fact, do not get paid minimum wages for their service, because as a matter of law, their pay comes primarily from their tips.

You eat, you pay. You get it yourself, you pay only the restaurant. You get served, you pay the person who served you. The fact that the pay is often determined by an honor code that allows you to determine how much you feel the service is worth does not make it any more moral or ethical to skip a waitress’s tip than it would be to fail to pay a doctor or a car mechanic. In fact, if you ever get a 2-for-1 coupon or half off, or something like that, you should consider how much the meal WOULD HAVE cost had it not been discounted.

[Indy Pendance]

Back in the old days, we had to report tips to the gov. It was an unwritten rule, a dollar an hour, so 40 hours was $40. Now, it’s a percentage of your sales. The gov has just intruded too much into our lives. I said on a different thread, what’s so bad about being undocumented? I’d love the gov not knowing what I’m doing.

[re_nortex]

If they were paid the regular minimum wage of $7.25 an hour plus received gratuities, people would be fighting over waiting jobs, just like they do over parking valet positions in places like Las Vegas.

There should be NO minimum wage. Period. Paragraph. Full stop. The very idea of such an invention (from Frances Perkins, pictured below, and the evil administration of Franklin Diablo Roosevelt) is not only abhorrent but illogical. The minimum wage is anti-liberty and is nothing more than a form of slavery.

Sorry to bend the topic a tad but I'll take every opportunity I can to speak out against this ultra-commie concept.

Above: The vile Frances Perkins plotting more ways to shred the Constitution.

[rlmorel]

As far as I am concerned, it is customer service.

I won’t stiff someone on a tip unless they were actually outright rude. If that happens, I am not only not giving a tip, I am writing a letter.

And I will give a 10-15% tip depending on the level of “mediocre” service. I try and give them a break if the service isn’t great and remember that people have off days, and write it off to that.

But if I get great service, I will leave anywhere from a 20-50% tip, in addition to telling the waitstaff they gave great service, and the manager as well.

I go to a Chinese restaurant once every week or two, and those people know me by name. They don’t even offer me a menu, because they know what I want, and they get it right. They are observant, fill my drink without asking me, are courteous, check often to make sure everything is okay, and the food is one of a kind good for me.

My meal there comes out to $16 on average, and I always give them a $7 tip on that, because they work at it.

In my opinion, if you are waiting on tables, it is contingent on YOU to provide superlative, personal service, not on the customer to give you a tip. If you do your job the way it should be done, it pays off overall.

If you get stiffed by a customer, well...grow a pair, write it off, and next time they come in, you give them even better service.

You are defined by how well you do your job, not how well your customer tips you. I understand there are some places you just aren’t going to get great tips. That goes with your job, and you either get to somewhere that has more generous clientele, or learn to live with it.

You can be resentful. It is up to you. But if you are, you aren’t going to provide better service, and your tips sure as hell won’t increase. If you have resentment, suck it up and hide it under a mantle of utter professionalism. You are there to serve.

[forbushalltheway]

You shouldn’t have to tip at all!! The restuarnt company should pay the min wage to the employees and NOT be the cheap skate! Look at the price of meals now, who’s making all that money, it sure isn’t the employee! You should NEVER be forced to pay anything!

[A CA Guy]

It was a female Pastor who enjoys getting 10% of the wages from her flock who thought it was wrong to give an 18% tip to a waitress for serving her LARGE table full of people.

The large table monopolizes the waitress from earning elsewhere. Then to use Jesus as an excuse to not pay for the service is IMO low class.

I think I'd rather give a tip to the waitress than 10% of my wages to this pastor, that is for sure.

I think the pastor got her license from Popeye's Chicken or something. No way that was an educated Pastor who wrote that dumb statement.

Never leave a note in PUBLIC you don't want in the public.

[SECURE AMERICA]

IMO the waitress can possibly sue.

On what grounds?
She posted a receipt that belonged to the business she worked for, on social media. I am sure that violates several company policies. She did something stupid and it cost her.