Tipping

[mofoburrell]

Hm the question on AMA about tipping pizza delivery people got me thinking about trying to switch tipping systems. First off: I think the best system would be for food places to pay their employees a better wage and for tipping to become unnecessary, but I'm powerless to change that, so I'll ignore it :P

Comments

[crassy]

Let me tell you how shit service is in a country where there is no tipping. It is beyond shit. Even people here will tell you it is shit. There is zero incentive for servers to give you service because they don't have to work extra for good money. You get the bare minimum and that is usually a grunt. More often than nought, even at restaurants (as opposed to pubs) you will have to go up to a counter with your menu and order there. You see a server when food is brought and finding one for extras or drinks is like finding a needle in a haystack

[mofoburrell]

I guess I'll continue to exercise my multiplication skills :(

[crassy]

I'm sorry. :(

[mofoburrell]

Parade rainer!

[rainisnice]

re: it not taking more effort to bring out a $15 entree than a $30 one

you are correct. that single act of bringing a plate to the table is equally challenging regardless of the cost of the food. but at the restaurant where i'm paying $30 for my dinner, the service reflects a $30 dinner. i'm not just tipping based on the cost of the food the waiter brought me. at the $30 a dinner place, the waiter likely never let my glass get empty, he probably was more knowledgeable and helpful, the food came out at the perfect time, aka, no waiting 30 minutes between my soup and entree, no getting bored and snacking on bread and getting full before the meal arrives, etc.

if i receive exceptional service with my $15 entree, i will tip something like 25-30% minimum on the bill. if i receive shit service with my $30 entree, i'll tip MAYBE 10% [and have a nice chat with the manager about how shit the service was and how i plan to not come back ever again].

[mofoburrell]

Point taken. I wasn't clear about it, but I meant a $15 entree and a $30 entree at the same restaurant.

[rainisnice]

oooh. alright. well, like i said... i tend to use the cost of the meal as a guide for a starting off point to calculate my tip.

[nanini]

Tipping should be for an exceptional job, not the norm. I feel strongly about this. I expect that what I'm paying already includes service and everything (it includes all taxes too btw), because they were the ones deciding the price!

But our system is very different from yours because no one counts on tips to make a living (legal minimum wage and stuff). I totally disagree with Darcie about service being shitty because of the lack of tips, they're probably just lousy anyway.

[ariomness]

The only thing I can see potentially going wrong is that we get in trouble if our tips average out to less than 10%

Tips are determined by % right now because it's considered that it takes more skill and history of serving to work at an upscale expensive restaurant than it does to work at a cheap one. That's not always true, but I think it's an okay rule of thumb.

Also, I think there's definitely a benefit to you by tipping - there's more incentive for the waiter to do well for you, yeah? You determine their wage, not their boss. So what matters to them isn't raking in money for their boss, it's giving you good service. A tip is just a service fee for your meal that you get to determine.

Tips aren't hard to calculate though. Say your bill is $36.40. Move the decimal place over one - if you want to give a bad tip, you should tip him/her 10%, $3.60, probably rounded up to $4. If you want to give him/her a good tip, double that so it's roughly 20%- so somewhere between $6-8.