Posted on 09/13/2006 8:06:21 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
After finishing dinner at a Connecticut restaurant, two diners got more than a butter mint when a waiter, apparently miffed by a $2 to $3 tip left on a $50 check, attacked them with a knife. They only suffered minor injuries, but no doubt tipped much better after that.
While violent cases of waiter rage are rare, the 1989 incident points to waiters' sticky reliance on tips for income. In some states, restaurants are only legally required to pay as little as $2 or $3 an hour. So if a server earns $30 in tips on a bad night, he could feasibly walk out having earned less than minimum wage after tipping out the bartender and busboys (a common practice in most restaurants).
To level the playing field, waiters are taking action. Some are resorting to guerrilla tactics -- it's not uncommon for waiters to personally confront stingy tippers, or to blog about them on sites such as WaiterRant.Net.
One former waiter, Yakup Ulutas, is proposing restaurants change the system. Ulutas, a 36 year-old restaurant manager in Atlanta, founded a nonprofit organization, Fairtip.org, to persuade restaurants to implement an automatic 20 percent service fee on every check. He estimates 2,500 waiters have joined.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a server who wouldn't love to see his or her employer slap an automatic tip on to every check. But wouldn't it make more sense for restaurants to hike prices by 20 percent and raise workers' salaries?
--snip--
While public humiliation may be a low blow, it's still preferable to stabbing stingy tippers.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtnh.com ...
Pardon me?
I always tip very well for good service, but I leave no tip for bad service. If the bad waiters stop getting tips, they will move on to an occupation that they are better suited for and will enjoy more.
Brilliant! That's a perfect way to kill all sorts of restaurants. Forced tipping...classic. Must be from the same people that brought CA $8 an hour for min. wage.
I tip according to services, not the value of the meal alone.
20 percent? You better be hustling your butt off or have very nice cleavage to get a 20% tip from me. You don't get that for just showing up.
If this were implemented, how soon would we be expected to add an extra 15% additional tip to get good service?
Being a waiter isn't a career, it's a way to make money to get you through college.
I tip according to the service and the meal. The better those two are the more freeer I am with my money.
The database is down now,however.Probably got sued by Mr Ketchup himself.
15-20% for good service......
....a sliding scale less for crappy service...
IOW, they're democrats who want a guaranteed income.
Ulutas, a 36 year-old restaurant manager in Atlanta, founded a nonprofit organization, Fairtip.org, to persuade restaurants to implement an automatic 20 percent service fee on every check.
Then there'll be no incentive to provide good service. The lousy waiters will be protected from the consequences of their poor performance, while good waiters won't have the incentive they now do to provide the best service possible.
Tell that to the waiters at Burns Steak House. They make more money than most college grads could imagine.
"a waiter, apparently miffed by a $2 to $3 tip left on a $50 check, attacked them with a knife."
Sounds like just a great waiter. I'm sure he was very attentive and respectful of his customers, too..../sarc
Had such a waiter attacked me with a knife over a low tip, I do believe I would have disarmed him and buried the knife somewhere in his midsection. Ridiculous. Unless he was an experienced knife-fighter, which I doubt, he'd only cut me once.
Dear dfwgator,
"Being a waiter isn't a career, it's a way to make money to get you through college."
For folks who wait tables at mid-range to somewhat more upscale restaurants, annual compensation for full-time work can easily amount to $40,000, and go well beyond that.
sitetets
You can always send the meal back; usually that's the fault of the cook. Poor attention (or too much) is the fault of the waiter. I automatically know that if I come alone into a restaurant that I will receive less attention than a pair or group of people. There is a preconception that a lone woman will be a poor tipper. I always tip 20% if service is adequate, and find that the waiters treat me with more consideration on my next visit.
In the past several years down here in South Florida, a number of restaurants have been going the service compris route of French restaurants and including on the bill anywhere up to a 15% tip. You have to catch that when you get the initial bill (at least if paying by credit card), because when the total check/credit slip comes back for you to sign, there is no indication that a tip has already been included -- but there is usually a line for "tip." An additional tip, of course, but they should at least make that clear. And I don't give an additional tip if the tip is included.
As do I.
I doubt if I would patronize a restaurant which added the tip automatically to my bill. Talk about the surest path to surly service at best, horrible service at worst!
My tipping goes as follows:
Bad service -- no tip.
Adequate service -- 15%
Superior service -- 20% - 33%
Eliminate my prerogative, and you eliminate my business.
Yes, it's that simple.
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