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Why tip at all if they're making $15/hr?

Why tip before they were making $15? The bank teller doesn't get tipped. The cashier at the department store doesn't get tipped. The used car salesman doesn't get tipped. The DMV person doesn't get tipped.

Homemade meals average $2.50. Tonight's was meatloaf, roasted potatoes and peach pie. Can't see wasting gas driving to a restaurant, wasting an hour or so, getting a huge bill and then the waiter expects a tip for merely doing the job he's already getting paid to do and later getting an upset stomach because the cook didn't bother washing his hands.

Why tip before they were making $15? The bank teller doesn't get tipped.[ . . . ] Homemade meals average $2.50.

Fine. Have your home made meal. Some of us want to grab a hot meal during lunch hour or are in the mood for a particular type of meal or want to give our wives a break.

All those other jobs you mentioned have a different pay scale, and except for maybe the car salesman, they are guaranteed to make more base pay, because the waitress's pay is based on YOUR judgment of her performance. If you don't care for that set up, then go to Wendy's or Golden Corral if for whatever reason you are on the road and can't make your home cooked meal. But don't sneer at people who provide honest work in a job that puts them at the mercy of the decency of the customers.

I didn’t invent the system but your typical waiter or waitress in Texas is paid well below minimum wage (Texas is $2.37/hr if I recall). The premise is that they will make well beyond that in tips left by grateful customers. That’s why you tip and if you didn’t know that I pity the food service people you do encounter.

What places like Seattle and San Francisco have done is replaced that wage scale with a $11-$15/hr minimum wage where tipping should be unnecessary because the food server is earning the same as your typical laborer.

As to the value of eating out versus eating in, you are trading your (or more likely your wife’s) labor at preparing, cooking and cleaning afterward for the convenience of having your meal professionally prepared in the ambiance of a stimulating environment.

I’m single and admit I overspend on dining out but if I am having a good time and pay my bills, why should you care? I tip generously, particularly for pretty young waitresses who treat me like I’m somebody special.

However, under socialist minimum wage laws, the servers have no incentive to be pleasing or attentive to their guests since they are already being paid the full wage for their labors.

“then the waiter expects a tip for merely doing the job he’s already getting paid to do”

Waiters get paid far below minimum wage because they receive tips instead. How do you not know that?