TIPS (TO INSURE PROPER SERVICE) were 10% in my youth if the service was satisfactory...a penny was left if it wasn't. Now folks want me to tip 15 or 20 percent because the wait staff needs it because the cost of living has gone up.
I've got news for them. The cost of a meal has also gone up, so when you give a 10% tip it's already indexed for inflation.
Not to change the subject, but what about real estate agents that get paid 6-7% for the sale of a home? Wow talk about adjusted for inflation!
ok back to tipping.... :0
The reason so many businesses are promoting the notion that customers should tip more is because businsses are being allowed to steal much of this money for themselves. Most of their employees don't even realize that the finacial benefits of the customer's tips are being stolen from them for it has been hidden in their hourly pay. If customers tip an employee $20 for the day, an employer, because of the tip credit, can reduce the hourly wages of that employee by $20. This is what the tip credit does. It allows business to benefit themselves to the customer's by using the customers tip to justify paying their employee less in hourly wages. Because our corrupt government has passed a tip creit bill which allows employers to pay tipped employees wages lower than the regular minimum wage requrements of this country, an employee who receives $20 in tips for the day can be payed $20 less than he would have had the customers not tipped him at all. A waiter can receive a $20 tip only to find out that the only one who benefitted from it was the business owner. Oh, the waiter keeps the tip, but his employer pays him $20 less in wages for the day. What this really means is that the waiter doesn't really keep the tip at all. He may go home with the tip but because his employer was allowed to lower his wages by $20 for that days work it was actually the business owner who benefitted from the customer's tip. Because the customer tipped one of his employees $20, the business owner was able to reduce his employees wages by $20 and thus save himself $20 he would have had to pay had the customer not tipped.
Tip percentages shouldn't be going up. They are tied to inflation, however, when business are allowed to steal them for themsleves you will see more publicizing of the request to tip higher percentages. The more you give, the more business can steal now that they've paid off our judges and politicians to allow them to steal the tips presented to their employees.