Then you don’t really understand how restaurants work and how tipped employees earn their living or how business works overall.
The Federal Minimum Cash Wage under FLSA for tipped employees is $2.13 per hour (although it is higher in some states and a restaurant can always pay more, but most, excepting for high end establishments, don’t). Whatever the server receives in tips, the employer applies those tips in the form of a “tip credit” up to an amount no greater than necessary to bring the server up to the standard Federal minimum wage which is currently $7.25 per hour (or higher in some states). But if the server doesn’t make enough in tips to apply to the tip credit to bring them up to the minimum wage, the employer has to make up the difference. I know a bit about this being a payroll professional.
So either way; good service or bad, the server is still going to make at least full minimum wage under FSLA but if a majority of customers stiff on tips and the employer has to make up the difference out of their bottom line, you are still going to pay the server’s wages, either by supplementing their measly $2.13 per hour with tips or absent any tipping and or very poor tipping, in the form of higher prices as the employer has to make up the difference for you cheapskates and we all end up paying a higher price that has nothing to do with the quality of service we receive.
I very rarely tip. I hate tipping, I pay for a meal and expect the wages of the staff to be included in that price. If owners would increase their prices and pay their wait staff a decent wage we could do away with the outright thievery of tipping, just another way to steal your money.
Then you would be happy to pay much higher prices at restaurants for the privilege of not being expected to tip your server and wouldn’t feel like you were being robbed? That you would be willing to pay $20 for your average Applebee’s entrée instead of $14.99? And that with no incentive for the server to go above and beyond since they’d in most cases only be making minimum wage no matter what, do you think that would improve service?
Like it not, and I’m not sure I like this system BTW, it is predicated on the idea that restaurants that have very slim profit margins and that by providing very good service they can pay the minimum of $2.13 per hour to their servers and keep the price of their meals reasonable and that customers, pleased with their service, will tip their servers accordingly or at least to the extent that it will bring the servers up to minimum wage, but if the service is very good or exceptional, it will bring the servers up to well above minimum wage - a very real incentive to provide good service – Capitalism at its finest.
I worked for a living since the age of about 15 and not one customer of the businesses I worked for(mainly lumber industry)ever paid me or any of my co-workers a tip.
But I’m sure you were paid at least the full minimum wage and not the equivalent of $2.13 per hour that restaurant severs make absent tips. And in many establishments servers have to share their tips with busboys and even sometimes with bartenders, greeters (Maitre d) and cooks. And some servers have to perform other tasks like bussing tables and helping with food prep for which they don’t earn tips over their shift. I bet you didn’t have to share your hourly wage while working at the lumber company with any of your co-workers or make less per hour for sweeping the floor.
This is also why many restaurants add an automatic gratuity of 15% to 18% for large parties of 8 or 10 or more, as someone else on this thread correctly stated, large parties tend to not tip very well. I suppose it’s because 18% on a $40 restaurant bill doesn’t seem like that much but 18% on a $200+ bill seems like too much to many, but keep in mind that for a large party, there is often more than one server involved and several busboys and that auto gratuity is shared among them all, not to mention often having to rearrange and put tables together, add extra place settings, provide high chairs and other demands that large parties often make, like at the very end of the meal, demanding separate bills, all paid by separate credit cards – a real PITA for the servers and a greater expense for the restaurant in credit card fees.
But bottom line, no matter what you were paid per hour while working in the lumber industry your employer still passed along the cost of your wages and your benefits and employment taxes and their other overhead costs and an allowance for a profit margin along to their customers. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t stay in business very long.
ETA – I am for a woman (women and blacks on average tend to be poor tippers), a rather generous tipper except where the service was exceedingly bad – 18%-20% on average. And when I’ve been part of a large party, I’m often the one who will add extra to the tip to make up for the cheapskates in my party. I also tip my hair stylist 20%. Why? A lot of people don’t realize that in many salons, the hair stylists have to pay rent to the salon for their “chair” and have to pay for many of their supplies like scissors and razors and pay for their annual licenses and for continuing education out of their own pocket.
I never worked in the restaurant business but over the years I worked off and on in retail – grocery and convenience stores and for a big box retailer for a few years during Christmas and put up with a lot of very rude, crass and nasty people while working my butt off for minimum wage. I didn’t receive tips but those customers who were nice, who appreciated my efforts to serve them well, were treated accordingly. Repeat customers who were consistently rude and nasty, well, not so much. When I was 19 and working at a convenience store, one time a woman got a cup of coffee and the creamer curdled. I profusely apologized and offered to get her a new cup and fresh creamer from the walk in box and what did she do? She told me to “shove the coffee up my a$$” and then she threw the cup at me, nearly hitting me in the face with the scalding hot coffee and stormed out. I should have called the police but she left so fast and I was so shocked, I didn’t get her tag number. The very next customer who came in saw the look on my face and the coffee stains on my clothes and said, “Looks like you’re having a bad morning”. I just smiled and pretended like it never happened. But honestly sometimes it was hard not to take out my frustrations over nasty customers on every customer. More people should keep that in mind when dealing with service workers and treat them more like they’d like to be treated.
Agree on all points. I tip from 20 to 30 percent unless the service is willfully negligent because I’ve been there and know what it’s like to be dependent on tips.