We need to eliminate tips. Charge a fair price for this food and service, give good service. I’m tired of people asking annd insisting on Tips, especially some places I’ve been to recently that automatically added it even for a single person eating.
20% is easy to calculate and a decent tip, but I sometimes leave more if the service is really good.
Tipping used to be 10% years ago. Then, went to 15%, and now 20%?
Restaurant bills always increase as food costs increase so a percentage tip always gets increased naturally. Not sure how it got to 20+ % anyway.
We solved it another way.
We don’t eat out.
Buschemi right?
I think that during the pandemic a lot of people started tipping more. It was nice to be out and interacting with people. It was nice to go to an establishment and actually have people working there, making some sort of effort to make sure you had what you needed. The service industry had been hit hard, so it seemed like the least you could do was to slip them 20% or so to say “thanks”.
But today, I sense a lot of frustration and anger in the world. (Hey, maybe it’s me.) But I think things are not going well, the world isn’t functioning as it should, nothing is fair, nothing is honest, and we’re all getting screwed 6 ways to Sunday. Tip the help?? Why the hell should I?
-PJ
20%? I thought it was 15%. Oh well, I see no reason to change it.
Places that never had tipping have added it in the last couple years. At least two fast food places I occasionally eat at have added tipping: The Habit and Five Guys. Local bakeries where I pick up a loaf of bread have added tipping. In my mind at least, the whole concept of tipping a server at a restaurant was the idea that the server was attending to your group’s needs for like an hour, refilling water glasses, refilling coffee cups, bringing over condiments that were requested, etc. It really is strange that a bakery cashier who simply hands you a loaf of bread and enters the sale on a cash register or other point-of-sale device deserves a 15%-20% tip for that. Should the cashier at a paint store deserve a similar tip? The clerk at 7-Eleven ringing up a Slurpee and a pack of Luckys? Why not?
It all comes down to the economy. Tips are down. Let’s Go Brandon!
It’s actually worse than that. Most restaurants will provide a “tipping guide” at the bottom of the recipe. Of course, the amount next to the percentages are based on the entire tab. Tips were meant to be for the pre-taxed portion of the bill.
Tip amount should NOT be by percentage of bill.
If bill is less than $10, minimum tip should be $2.50
If bill amount is over $50, 15% is fine.
I say tipping should just be a fixed amount. Like Two Bucks.
My wife will just have to call me a cheap bastard.
When I was in college, I worked as a waitress on the weekends and my day started at 5 a.m.
The patrons that came in that early were drunk as skunks and left fabulous tips. The later hung-over crowd, not so much!
I am good tipper but one thing nobody can explain
If say me & wife go for dinner at the local Denny’s, maybe we spend $20 - $25 bucks, but if I take my wife to a fancy smancy restaurant the bill might be $80 to $100 bucks.
The waiters/waitresses worked the same, it takes no more effort to give me a Steak vs a Hamburger, so why does the poor waiter at Denny’s get only tipped $4-$5 but the waitress at the fancy place gets $20+? Makes no sense and sounds unfair.
The price shouldn’t matter
I don’t always object to card readers suggesting 20% for a tip, but I do object to their suggestion based on the added sales tax. In some cities in Texas the added sales tax can be nearly 10% of the bill so no, you should not tip on the complete amount including sales tax.
A good rule of thumb is to look at the sales tax amount and double it as the tip.
I alway factor a tip into going out to dinner. 20% is my max. It goes down as service sucks. If I cannot afford the food plus tip before going out, I dine at home. I don’t want to be stiffing people because I did not anticipate the cost.
Looking at some of the comments...
I don’t have a fixed percentage for a tip. If I eat cheap for breakfast and the wait staff is crazy busy I’ll tip a lot more than 18% (my general starting point). But if I eat at a nice place for dinner where the staff is just normal busy, and then don’t get very good service, it’ll be 15% at best.
Buffalo Wild Wings carryout has a 99¢ service fee added along with a tip you have to jump through a couple hoops to zero out. Tipping before I get the food where the “service” is packing the cold veggies and hot chicken in the same bag out on a pickup shelf? Nope!
Unless a server provides absolutely OUTSTANDING service - to the point you leave the restaurant and say “that was the most amazing experience we’ve ever had at a restaurant”, simply coming to your table, answering a couple basic questions about the menu (not always guaranteed, BTW) and bringing you your food is NOT worth 20%. Especially with the huge increases in menu prices over the last year or so.
15% for good, friendly service. 10% if you are competent but don’t do much else. Heck, I’ve even left less than that on the rare occasion the server can’t even do the basics (like, getting orders wrong, not knowing the menu or forgetting to come back and even ask how everything is..)
And tablet tipping? (ie: where a kid grabs a bagel from a rack for you and the tablet you sign indicates a spot for a tip). SERIOUSLY?!