Posted on 10/14/2011 5:56:23 AM PDT by rawhide
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/99.7 Now) – It’s a question many of us ask when we go out to a restaurant. “How much should I tip?” Whether your service is good or bad, San Francisco Restaurant workers want to implement a 25% standard tip onto your bill for you. Is this fair?
Many in the food industry say “…yes, it’s about time.” However, many “foodies” are not as happy with the idea. According to an article in the San Jose Mercury News, for the most part, people, on average tip between 15% – 20% and the restaurant worker actually has to claim 15% of that to the IRS.
Opinions that sway against the increase said that “…the whole purpose of a tip is to reward service.” They feel the new tip increase should be earned and if more is needed, then they must step up their service so that the increase justifies a larger tip amount.
Not everyone is against the idea. Some have felt with the state of the nation’s economy is in, that 25% is not unreasonable. And some tip above the average already. Some went a step further to say if you want to reward service, you must start tipping the workers at fast food places as well. Most fast food workers earn minimum wage and rarely get tips
I think those restaurants will lose business.
FWIW I usually leave around 10% at such a place.
I usually tip 20%, and I figure it’s about half the service.
Awesome...many thanks
So maybe now casinos will instead start adding a service charge to each wager you place?
Yep, I hate places that have a policy of "Mandatory 18% on parties of 6 or More".
1) Because tipping is never "manadatory".
2) (mostly this) Because I generally tip the server waaaaaay more than 18%. Particularly at places that I eat at often. They're really just stiffing themselves.
—which means never become a regular at a restaurant.—
Not if you don’t tip. :-D
Shhh. My kid goes to a private school. It is customary to give the teacher(s) a nice gratuity at the end of each school year. (After the grades come out.)
The law says no more tipping and requires restaurants to print prices on their menus that are 20% below the actual price. Insanity.
There are serious down sides to this; it certainly eliminates any motivation on the part of the server to provide excellent service. This imposes a 20% increase on the 20% that is customary at better restaurants, in the form of a restaurant-imposed "tax" on their product.
This might work in places like LA, because like it or not, most people won't stop going out to eat. Probably wouldn't work as well in places where the people aren't sheep.
“You’d think so but many restaurant prices are about the same as they were 25 years ago.”
Nope, don’t buy it. It’s up 20-30%. Dozen on the half shell
went from 3.99 to 9.99 in the past 3 years alone. 25 years
ago you could get a good mixed drink for 2 bucks. Last night
the check was 89 bucks for two people. 18.00 is good for
about 15 minuets of moderate labor. Real good.
I never was a generous tipper until I had kids. After things start happening like the time my three year old dumped an entire plate of Indian food upside down under the table, we started tipping VERY generously to anybody who had to put up with us.
You are aware why restaurants do this?
When they don’t the wait staff usually gets seriously stiffed on the total tip. When there are individual checks often none despite the greater challenge of serving a large group. Everybody salves their conscience by assuming others will leave a good tip.
I owned a bar in New York (Brooklyn) for several years. I found the prices charged by the distributors were in line with retail prices. The reason you could not use products purchased in a retail store was because the state would lose its ability to monitor your purchases, and, by extension, your sales.
We had several state sales tax audits. The methodology was simple: the Gestapo agent from the state would get a record of your purchases from the distributors. For each bottle that we purchased, they would divide the size of the bottle by the size of our shot glass to determine how many drinks each bottle would produce. They would multiply that by the price of the drink to determine what the dollar amounts would be, upon which the sales tax would be levied. They left no room for spillage, generous bartenders (working their tip cup) who would pour more than a standard shot, outright pilferage, buybacks, etc. The state imputed very elevated sales levels using this primitive methodology. If I had as much in receipts as the state said I had, I’d still be in business.
I knew of some otherwise honest tavern owners who would buy some amount of booze from the local liquor store (the state would have no way of knowing about it) and then pouring the store-bought liquor into legitimately purchased (from distributors) bottles, since such bottles would have the requisite stamps indicating that they came from a distributor. Some of the more unscrupulous would even pour lesser brands into the empty bottles of better brands, but this was not all that common.
I presume the pricing structure varies from state to state, so my experience in no way contradicts yours.
I remember 25 years ago dinner for two typically resulted in a $5 tip. Today it’s about the same for a typical restaurant bill without drinks. Inflation over 25 years should have doubled all the prices, but I don’t think that’s the case for many restaurant menus. A waitress back then could make $20/hour. Today it’s about the same.
"Canadians" hate tipping , too.
(Note that "Canadians" is in quotes)
That is tantamount to theft then. I don't mind being told I have to compensate the server if the work is extra hard (as it is with a large party) but I do mind being told that I am being charged extra under false pretenses, and if they don't pass it on to the server then they are thieves IMHO.
In my area, restaurants usually pay wait staff around $2.15 an hour. The wait staff have to rely on their ability to give good service, to insure they get tips. Wait staff have to “tip out” the bar, the kitchen and those that buss the tables in many instances.
We were paying admission to someplace earlier this year, and the cashier actually had a jar prominently placed...and labeled “Tip’s”.
Ditto Canadians and Mexicans....since we’re in a heavily hispanic year-round demographic that gets swarmed with winter snowbirds (tons of Canucks), we constantly hear comments from the waitstaff where we eat out.
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