[Nouge]

I worked as a waiter for 5 years... my $2.13 hourly wage wasn't really enough to get me by... so yeah... you are not "required by law" but no tips = no money for the server... And a lot of people do have your mentality, weather the service was good or poor...

[Justin714]

"I worked as a waiter for 5 years... my $2.13 hourly wage wasn't really enough to get me by... so yeah... you are not "required by law" but no tips = no money for the server... And a lot of people do have your mentality, weather the service was good or poor... "

The restaurants owners should be the ones to blame for the low wages. Don't expect the patrons to subsidize wages by leaving tips.

[honeygrl]

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.

[Reagan Renaissance]

The government has its hand in everything. Wage an hour laws take tips into consideration. Food service works out to fall between self-employed and minimum-wage-employee. Don't look for logic, government is the antithesis of logic. Government evolves contending that it is logical.

When I was young, an average tip was considered to be 10%. I am sure the tip lobby combined with liberals in the media were able to raise the average tip to 15% and are now trying to move it toward 20%. I am sure they base this argument on inflation, ignoring that the price of the meal will have almost certainly kept pace with inflation or possibly even out-paced inflation.

Call me a curmudgeon, or simply a cur if you like, but I don't tip at all in fast food places where I am expected to clean the table and dump the tray into the trash. I seldom leave more than a dollar or two in places that are mostly self-serve buffets and never more than 10% anywhere else. I don't eat in places that automatically add 15% or more for service. And I factor the 10% down in places that have higher priced menus. At the risk of being wrong, I suspect it takes the same amount of time and effort to serve a $10 lunch as $12.95 lunch. And if you are a waiter, don't blame me if you think you are under-paid.