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!
It's like getting a real back massage for $50 or getting a $1 mechanical chair massage.
I think it is more rare to run across a pastor writing such ignorance.
There are advantages to a system where service providers feel they have to earn their pay. There are also disadvantages in that the same system allows many service providers to receive unjust rates of pay. But of course you recognize that if you don’t pay an adequate tip, it’s the waitress who gets gypped.
Shure, the owner is raking it in. Except if you have been to a food store and scene that the price of virtually everything has close to doubled in the past five years. That relates to wholesale prices as well. Also the massive government interference in the job market, LIKE O’Bumbler care, new regulations on food service, employment, significantly higher taxes on property, sales and government services. Don’t forget, the owner is paying payroll taxes on 8% of the employees sales on top of the wage.
Restaurants are a highly risky bet, One bone chip in a chicken salad sandwich, or an olive pit in an olive sandwich and some lawyer has you bent over. Add to that the fact that you have to buy right, price right, advertise right, and some how get the right amount and mix of people into the joint in the first place.
If the owner paid minimum wage or greater, the prices would increase a minimum of 35% making the 2 for $20 more like a 2 for $35. That is a Hell of a lot more than 15-20% on good service. If the service is poor, I tip less, maybe 10 - 12%, or I tell the waiter about it. That will generally lead to a manager talking to you and giving a deal or a free meal. Even than I tip for the wait staff. Most of them are working pretty hard and as long as they are nice and try to do well, they deserve a reasonable tip.
Let me just guess: you’ve never run a business, much less a restaurant, right?
You don’t know about overhead. How about renting the property and paying its utilities - heating/cooling, electricity, sewer and water, trash removal; equipment, furnishings, and usually paying a professional to design the kitchen AND dining rooms), insurance, advertising, promotion, withholding taxes and a bookkeeper to track expenses, loan repayments with interest in most cases. If it snows, someone is paid to shovel the walkway or plow the parking lot. “All that money” is a very marginal profit.
And in the restaurant (or any hospitality industry field), an empty table (or hotel room or airline seat) once the shift is over (or the night passes or the flight takes off) is never filled. It’s a loss that can’t be compensated.
So, if those on this board who don’t want to tip had their way, American restaurateurs would do as the Japanese or Europeans do and include the cost for staff, including wait staff, in the bill. The $20 dinner you have now would cost $35. But you wouldn’t have to tip the waiter/waitress.