The Tipping Divide: Study Finds Differences in Tips by Black, White Restaurant Patrons

National Public Radio ^ | 7/11/2003 | National Public Radio

[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.

[Tunehead54]

On a $50 bill the "waitperson" is out $1.75 for the table. Maybe Blacks in general don't maybe make as much as whites in general and thus are a little less free-spending? Earthshaking news? No.

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Couple simple economics with the possibility that Blacks get poorer service due to the "waitperson"'s expected deficient tip expectations then nothing in this article surprises me.

The only surprising thing is that the difference is so close and yet still makes news! Got to keep up the race thing don't ya know.

[visualops]

stop for a second and say, "Is there anything else I can get you?"

If they don't do that then they most definitely are not doing their job.

I worked with one girl years back, in a place with these fake-wood type salad bowls. She would literally throw the dinner salads onto the tables and be generally rude to the customers. One day I told her to just do everyone a favor and find a different job. No big surprise she was an aspiring actress ;^)

[Lijahsbubbe]

I guess it's just as silly as saying blacks don't tip well! Stereotypes just aren't nice!

[scan58]

Well...did you leave her a tip? ;-/

[honeygrl]

"We ate at the Vanderbilt Estate Rest. and the electronic cash register was down. My husband paid with a $50.00. The waitress, a college junior,finally came over and apologized. She didn't know how to count back the change.I showed her, but she still wasn't sure she "got it". "

That's pretty sad. I learned to do that when I was 15 at my first job. At my second job, I learned to count down the till(sp?) and make sure the right amount of money was in it at the end of the day. I was about 17 then I guess. A college junior really has no excuse not to know how to do that, especially one that works in a restaurant taking people's money. I guess that is one more reason for me to make my kids get an after school job when they get old enough for the state to allow them to. I get so annoyed seeing 16 yr old kids who don't have to work for anything and being given new $25k cars by mommy and daddy without having to earn anything on their own. My mom and dad bought me a new car when I turned 18 but I always had a job as a teen and paid my own gas, bought most of my own food, and usually bought my own clothes too. Before then I had an old crappy car to drive because it was cheap and they didn't want a teen driving a nice car before having enough experience behind the wheel to drive well and not wreck it. I totally agree with that. We probably will buy our kids cars when they can drive but only if they are willing to get after school jobs to buy their own gas, most clothing, and lunch at school (i'm not totally unrealistic about how little a teen makes at a part time job.) And the car will not be a brand new $25k car. It'll be a used car that's inexpensive and won't cause our insurance to go too high. If their grades are good enough to get the Hope scholarship to pay for college and they keep part time jobs atleast then as well then we'll think about the new car thing as a reward. But they have to earn something. It sounds like the college kid who waited on you that night hadn't had a job before. Also sounds like the public schools where ever she went didn't do a very good job teaching either. /rant

[honeygrl]

"I'm not sure about today, but in the past, the better jobs at the exclusive restaurants went to men. I worked at a couple of places where the main dining room at dinner hour was waiters only. Waitresses were relegated to lunch hour or cocktails. "

If women want a place with good tips, they can always get in good physical shape and get a job at Hooters. I bet the waitresses there make great tips. I've got a hooter girl uniform (got it to wear for halloween one year) and they aren't that bad and the restaurant doesn't let the men grope them or anything. We've been to Hooter's several times as well (even took the kids with us) and the service is wonderful and food is great. The girls love to fawn over both of my kids too which is always fun. I know they always get great tips from hubby and I. Of course, we tend to tip good anywhere we go as long as the service is good and the server isn't rude to us (which is common in our town.) And if we are with people who don't tip well, we'll tip a little extra to make up for their lack of a good tip. All that goes out the window though if the server is rude. When they are rude they'll get just the basic 15% and if they are really rude, less than that. There has only been one time when I left no tip at all, and before I left the restaurant I told the manager why. Our server was too busy playing with the people in the kitchen (which we could overhear very well) and complained about my son being loud loudly enough for us to overhear. It wasn't even busy in the restaurant that day, yet anytime I wanted a refill I had to get up and go call the waiter from the kitchen to get more to drink. He also let our food sit there once it was ready long enough to get cold because it didn't want to stop talking to his friends long enough to do his job. Our son was also only about a year old at the time and was not crying, but just playing loudly with a toy. The other customers in the restaurant didn't seem annoyed by it and kept laughing at him, but apparently it annoyed the server for some reason.

[honeygrl]

"Many people go out to eat just to eat in my opinion, and those people should just go to fast food or stay home."

Since we have young kids we usually try to stick with the family type restaurants. But I grew up going out to eat atleast once or twice a week because my mom didn't enjoy cooking. So for us, we do go out a lot just to eat. And when you eat out as often as we do, fast food gets old fast. Plus if we don't take the kids to nicer restaurants with us when we go they'll never learn how to behave in them when they are older. The kids that misbehave the most in nicer restaurants are probably ones that rarely ever get to go to them so they don't understand the difference in a nice one as opposed to McDonald's.

[honeygrl]

LOL that's good.

[Still Thinking]

I complained to someone when the customary tip percentage started going from 15% to 20%, and the person replied that since everything was getting more expensive, the waiters deserved a raise. I tried to explain that since the tip amount is based upon a PERCENTAGE of the cost of the food that if "everything is getting more expensive" that would include eating out and that the waiter would be getting a raise even if the PERCENTAGE was constant, and that if the percentage was raised, he would actually be getting a raise that was larger than the change in the cost of living. I don't think I convinced him.

[Dianna]

4 women - 4 bad tips

This makes no sense to me. If you're only buying a meal for yourself, the difference between a good tip and bad tip is what, a buck or two? If you're that damn cheap stay home and make a sandwich.

[Dianna]

One was a Friendly's (I think I'm spelling that right), which I believe is a national chain, even though I'd never run across one before. The other was a local place... not a Mom and Pop... they had hired managers.

This is your problem in a nutshell! I've NEVER been to a Friendly's which had good service. Never! And we've vistited quite a few in a number of different states.

We finally decided the corp office must demand bad service.

[husky ed]

I tipped a waiter once.....

Told him to plant his corn early this year - Jed Clampet

[visualops]

Some people are just in the wrong line of work :)

[visualops]

I worked at a Friendly's for about a month, and quit. Between the terrible tips and terrible management, it was one of the worst jobs ever. You had to spend hours learning the exact presentation (I think they cared more that the food look like the picture than taste good). What that mattered if you weren't the one cooking I never understood. And, because of a lawsuit (gotta love lawyers) if someone asked for a Coke or Pepsi, you had to remind them it was "Friendly Cola". The place just had a bland lousy atmosphere, and it seemed no matter what you did, it didn't get any better. No wonder business was bad and it was depressing to work there.

[07055]

There is a famous hot dog restaurant just off Route 3 in Clifton, NJ that has the *worst* service in the world. Even worse than Friendly's (And I concur with your opinion of their service.)

At this restaurant, the waitresses are too busy sitting at a table smoking cigarettes and counting their money to bother taking your order.

[honeygrl]

"I worked on the grill at an upscale restaurant, and made $12 an hour."

I've never made that much per hour no matter how hard the job was. My last job, which involved a LOT of physical labor and was an overnight job at a hospital, I was paid only $9.50/hour. If I had the same exact job during daylight hours my pay would've been only $8/hour. I was also expected to stay late if my coworkers didn't finish their job to help them finish. If I left when my shift was over and didn't stay to help, no matter how slow and crappy they did their work, I got in trouble. It sucked.

[honeygrl]

"Well...did you leave her a tip? ;-/ "

Definitely. She was there when we needed her but she just never smiled. Not sure I'd like the name muffin on my nametag either, but I can't help but smile at strangers regardless of how much I hate what I'm doing. Even when I worked at the hospital job I despised, I smiled at everyone I came across except for a few people I worked closely with that were mean to me. I even smile at those people if I see them in public and treat them like strangers.

[GOPJ]

bump

[GOPJ]

You make the world a happier place. Thanks.

One day they were seated in my section. I gave them my best just as I did every customer. They left me $1.00. I had to wait on them anyway, so I made an extra 50 cents for treating them right. After I had gotten them several more times, I learned that their orders were nearly identical each week, especially their drinks and their request for soft tortillas and our special Mexican relish instead of chips and salsa. So the next time they were seated in my section I brought their drinks, tortillas and relish to the table when they first sat down. They left me $2.00 that time. The next time they came in to the restaurant they asked to be seated in my section and I did the same. They left me $5.00. Every time after that they asked for me as their waiter and always left me $5.00 on a $15.00 bill.