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The Tipping Divide: Study Finds Differences in Tips by Black, White Restaurant Patrons
National Public Radio ^ | 7/11/2003 | National Public Radio

Posted on 07/11/2003 3:48:00 PM PDT by 07055

July 11, 2003 -- A new study finds many waiters and waitresses feel that black Americans generally tip less than restaurant diners who are white. The study, by a researcher at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, found that blacks tip on average 20 percent less than whites. In addition, restaurant workers of all races dislike waiting on black people because they assume the tips will be less no matter how good the service. NPR's Juan Williams reports.

The study found that 63 percent of blacks and 30 percent of whites didn't understand that the standard restaurant tip in the United States is 15 to 20 percent. The difference between how blacks and whites view tipping has serious ramifications for restaurants, including lawsuits and lost profits, Williams reports.

"The average tip from a black customer is about 13 percent of the bill. The average tip from a white customer is about 16.5 percent of the bill," says Dr. Michael Lynn, the study's author.

In some cases the difference in tipping may be the result of poor service, but blacks interviewed in one of Lynn's studies rated the service slightly higher yet still tipped less than whites, he says.

Jerry Fernandez, president of the Multicultural Food Alliance, which represents food servers and restaurateurs, says the expectations of a lower tip from blacks can often lead to poor service.

"If a [waiter] says, 'I don't want to wait on that table because they're black or they're Hispanic, then they tend to give less service and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy," Fernandez explains.

He says cultural elements -- blacks have avoided sit-down restaurants in favor of take out or self-service eateries -- institutionalized racism that exists in the restaurant industry and education about tipping are all behind the discrepancy. "How do people learn about tipping? If you don't go, you don't know."

Lynn suggests that the American restaurant industry begin a campaign to inform people about the basics of leaving a tip. He urges the use of advertisements, educational pamphlets, and even putting tipping information on menus. And Lynn suggests that restaurants could introduce a game in which dining parties would have to tip at least 15 percent in order to be eligible to win a contest.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: tipping
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To: A_perfect_lady
Ooo, wait, I have a better idea... waiters should stop assuming they are entitled to a 15-20% tip and remember that patrons aren't legally required to leave them a bloody dime! How's that?!

Have you ever heard stories of the unappetizing things put into the dinners of patrons such as you?

I wonder what inadvertent culinary adventures you have been upon?

201 posted on 07/11/2003 5:55:29 PM PDT by UnBlinkingEye
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To: Nouge
Yeah a lot of people don't realize that waiters and waitresses don't usually get paid minimum wage since they get tips. There is one restaurant in my town though (Sonny's Pit BBQ) where if you work during lunch hour you make *great* money.
202 posted on 07/11/2003 5:56:16 PM PDT by honeygrl
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To: 07055
Juan Williams. I should've known.
203 posted on 07/11/2003 5:56:58 PM PDT by lawgirl (God's divine and all-knowing punishment for the Clintons: America loves George W. Bush)
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To: 07055
If you can't afford to pay the bill (with tip), then you should order something less expensive. Not stiff the waiter and blame "society" for your actions.

Ridiculous; I go to restaurants to eat, not to make friends.

204 posted on 07/11/2003 5:58:11 PM PDT by Old Professer
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To: Lijahsbubbe
"I've heard old people are the worst. They're picky and demanding and tip lousy. "

Well, I think it's usually because when they were young a good tip was $1.
205 posted on 07/11/2003 5:58:36 PM PDT by honeygrl
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To: Who dat?
Actually it's not really important, but the tip off that the patrons are Canadian (yes, the waitresses do often watch to try and see what plate is on the vehicle) is that they have a preoccupation with passing off Canadian quarters as if they're real money.

I realize that to Canadians their quarter is real money, but to Americans it is essentially a slug.

It's approximately the right shape and size and color, but no bank will take it (not as a quarter) and no vending machine will take it.

You can't unload them on the locals because they're looking out for them, etc.

206 posted on 07/11/2003 6:00:29 PM PDT by Who dat?
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To: HairOfTheDog
Hey, HOTD, we're hobbits too!

Every once in a while we'll try out a "new" place, but there is one restaurant in particular that gets most of our business. The dining snob at my work hates the place (I don't know why - she loves the most expensive and esoteric restaurant in town, though, that's probably why), but the food is excellent (modernized traditional French cuisine, not too nouvelle, always something new and interesting on the menu), the situation is wonderful (intimate little candlelit tables and big glass windows overlooking the river), and the waiters are great - a trifle casual if you like the real French service (I mean the really good kind, not the snobby kind) but enthusiastic and helpful. We have two waiters who usually look after us (depending on whose night off it is), and we usually tip 20 percent, just like you, because they always try and are cheerful, even if it's not their best day.

207 posted on 07/11/2003 6:01:08 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
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To: PresbyRev
'After-Church' self-righteous pricks who demand, demand, demand, then leave a few pieces of change and of course a "Gospel Tract."

Hey, those Chick tracts are worth their weight in gold! That's some seriously funny stuff!
208 posted on 07/11/2003 6:02:29 PM PDT by Belial
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To: All
Always remember those who serve.
In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.
"Fifty cents," replied the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it. "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.
By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied."
The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.
When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table.
There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies -
You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.
209 posted on 07/11/2003 6:02:42 PM PDT by fellowpatriot
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To: Lijahsbubbe
I've heard old people are the worst. They're picky and demanding and tip lousy.

That was my experience. I served old people with a retirement home next door. I counted my tips in spare change.
210 posted on 07/11/2003 6:03:26 PM PDT by Belial
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To: LanPB01
I use a ratio of bust to butt size on waitresses, and as to the male waiters, I calculate my tip based upon the amount of time the guy doesn't spend telling us his name, participating in conversations, or describing every item on the menu.
211 posted on 07/11/2003 6:03:41 PM PDT by Chancellor Palpatine (the preview button is my friend, the preview button is my friend....)
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To: RMDupree; HairOfTheDog
Here's an even easier way. Divide the bill by 5. That's 20 percent. If service wasn't quite up to snuff, drop it a bit, if you divide by 10 (or move the decimal) that tells you where the bottom end is.

If the service is REALLY lousy, I'll tip 5-10 percent and just never, ever go back there. A small tip says more about lousy service than no tip at all. But somebody would have to do a truly rotten job to get a small tip from me. I have too many friends who waited tables when times were rough.

212 posted on 07/11/2003 6:05:26 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
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To: McGavin999; no one in particular; yall
Nearly 200 posts, and no-one has said a word about calling over the manager and telling him/her when the service was exceptionally good. Sighting specific things the server did.

Amazing to watch the emotions play over the server's face.

Not a tip substitute, I have tipped anywhere from 1¢ to 100%. At either end there was a note expressing the reasons for my tip.

213 posted on 07/11/2003 6:05:33 PM PDT by null and void
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To: AnAmericanMother
I love the 'regular' place.... They know that I like my bourbon and coke in a big pint glass, and they bring it when I sit down without asking. They know that I like my steak rare and that I like Horseradish with it even when I don't have prime rib.

Why wreck a good thing? I have to order three drinks at a new place before they get it right.... the first time, it is too strong, because it is in a tub, not a pint.... and the second drink is in a chimney glass because they don't believe me when I say pint, and they usually make it a double because the glass is so big. The third time they usually bring me the right drink but by then I no longer care one way or the other! ;~D
214 posted on 07/11/2003 6:08:32 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
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To: Lijahsbubbe
***I've heard old people are the worst. They're picky and demanding and tip lousy.***

Hey, WATCH IT, bubbe. *I'M* an "old people" and I tip generously. I know how hard those people work.

However, my daughter once told me that when she worked at a posh restaurant while in college, she hated waiting on elderly people. The problem was that they often kept changing their order, then forgot what they ordered, and then complained that they got the wrong food. LOL!
215 posted on 07/11/2003 6:08:56 PM PDT by kitkat
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To: McGavin999; UnBlinkingEye
My, my, you ladies certainly got your panties in a bunch. And yet, I spoke the truth. The tip is contingent upon the service. Lousy service? Lousy tip. Don't like it? Get anuddah job!
216 posted on 07/11/2003 6:12:14 PM PDT by A_perfect_lady (I'm an Ann Coulter soul trapped in a Janeane Garofalo body.)
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To: HairOfTheDog
My Lord! Here I am developing an extramarital cyber-crush on you, only to find out you drink buorbon out of a Mason jar!

Libertine! Hussy!

217 posted on 07/11/2003 6:12:24 PM PDT by TontoKowalski
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To: AnAmericanMother
That's a good way too!

But when I try to explain it that way, it's "too much math" to my nieces. *sigh*

I just tell them to move the decimal point one space to the left and multiply by two. Everyone can do that. (I hope.)

218 posted on 07/11/2003 6:13:52 PM PDT by RMDupree (HHD: Deep roots are not reached by the frost.)
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To: Richard Kimball
LOL!!!

My candidate for most exuberant run-on sentence of the day!
219 posted on 07/11/2003 6:15:14 PM PDT by headsonpikes
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To: RMDupree
Here's another question...

If you're a straight 15%-er (or any-percenter, I guess), is that based on the food cost or the total bill (inlcuding tax)?

220 posted on 07/11/2003 6:15:47 PM PDT by TontoKowalski
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