Tipping

05/13/2006 Lynn "Yelp Mom" S. says:

You are absolutely right.  People are so worried about what strangers think of them that they respond to the slightest pressure to tip.  Ergo...tipping jars at cashier's stations, car wash exits, coffee bars and carry-out food counters.  It is indeed out of control.  Until we get over our inappropriate anxiety about disappointing others (and stop covering the insufficient wages employers are paying their own employees), nothing will change.  It is always appropriate to tip excellent or extraordinary service.  Bowing to the current social pressure to tip no matter what the quality of service is disrespectful to those who work really hard for tips.  Ignoring common sense would imply that we accept the notion that we could not recognize good service if we actually got it.  That is disrespecting ourselves.

05/13/2006 Mihir "Forgive Me!" S. says:

THank you Lynn. I totally agree that these unnecessary tip jars negate those who actually give service and good service at that. It is the employers' job to pay adequate wages to the counter workers. Besides, I declare all of my income and pay taxes on them - I know counter service tips are not declared.

05/17/2006 Aaron "Just Leave the Bottle" R. says:

Yeah, I don't usually chime in on these, but I have to weigh in on this subject.  The way I look at it, you tip your servers at actual resturaunts and bars because they can be, and are, paid less than minimum wage and they are bustin' their junks to get you what you want.  I don't tip the "Tip Jar' because the person behind the counter is already getting paid at least minimum wage and they aren't even doing half of the work that a waiter or bar maid is doing anyway.

Did you know that you are supposed to tip your Trash Man on the last pick-up before X-Mas?  Well, you are.  Look, I agree the job sucks, but the average trash man makes $50K or more to make up for it.  I'm sorry, but no matter how much your job sucks, I'm not tipping you if you already make $50K+, 'cause I don't make that much.

Tipping is very out of control, and I don't like it.

05/21/2006 Armstrong "Krazy Dawg" B. says:

I agree this tipping thing is out of control. Sales associates also get paid minimum wage. Some retail stores offer commission but not all. Any job dealing with customer service on a face to face basis that's demanding while getting paid minimum wage sucks for anyone. There could be only one person working at a store and you could have 4-5 impatient customers at one time getting pissed off that the one worker is taking forever to bring out the items they've requested from the stock room.

As far as restaurants go, if I receive poor service I'll tip under 15% but over 10%. The tip is for the service a customer receives. I've been stopped twice in the past because a waitress wants their 15% tip. I've even had one go as far as to write in the tip automatically which is illegal.

In addition, if customer A orders $30 of food, the waiter/waitress will be receiving 15% of the order as a $4.50 tip while customer B could order $10 and give out a $1.50 tip. Does it seem fair? If you order more food, you have to leave a bigger tip. It doesn't necessarily mean the waiter did more work. Most of these people don't report their tips as taxable income and receive more out of it than your average student working an office job at $10/hr.

I've also noticed that the waiters/waitresses in this area are biased. If you look young, you tend to get slower service.

05/25/2006 Leigh "community spirit! shopping! food!" K. says:

Tipping is a touchy subject. I'll throw in my proverbial two cents. Most people working a job where they serve customers; whether it be waiting tables or working at a toy store, do not get paid enough. I am someone who standardly tips 20% if the service was good and even more if the service goes above and beyond. Even if it was mediocre to bad, I tend to leave 15%. I even tip a couple bucks at buffet places which my friends thought was really weird the other night.

Many of my friends waited tables and I heard a great deal of horror stories about customers. Actually, from one person I still know who waits tables, he gets the shaft from people all the time. People will order $95 worth of food and end up only tipping $5. The way I see it is if you don't have money to go out to eat and tip at least 15%, you shouldn't be going out to eat at all. I try to always tip in cash so that said waiter or waitress can report what they want to when filing their taxes.