Mandatory 25% tip: Fair?

[Bunnykid68]

That would be Michelle Bachman. her plan to fix unemployment is to eliminate the minimum wage.

I am good with minimum wage going away

 

[Westside]

How about we do away with gratuity altogether and just pay servers a living wage?

We can't do that that would be........Logical.....There is no room for logic in this country.

 

[Bunnykid68]

We can't do that that would be........Logical.....There is no room for logic in this country.

I wish I didn't have to agree with your logic here, but I do.

 

[BBSparkle]

You would be amazed at the number of times I have seen waitresses add a higher tip on credit card bills when they feel the customer was an ass or stiffed them. Even more amazed at how nobody else ever seemed to notice. Check your bank statement next time you think you 'voted with your wallet'.


I prefer to eat my own food, personally, but when I HAVE to go out, I have all ready accounted for the tip in my budget. I can think of maybe once or twice in my life that I have not left a tip. The people who constantly go on about "you have to impress me" or what have you are just pathetic. No different mentality than a child pulling the legs off of a bug. If you were so worthy of being impressed, you wouldn't have to play this kind of power game and you'd be an adult and shell out an extra dollar or two to help another person get through their day. There's a reason people who have worked in restaurants always tip better than people who haven't.

That being said, I've seen servers do some terrible things to their customers. But with far less frequency.

I disagree with the automatic gratuity, but I also feel that if that's what the business chooses to do, so be it. I don't have to eat there.


Protip: If you're getting ****ty service at a place you know you're going to have to frequent again for whatever reason, try leaving a bigger tip. Servers are GREAT at remembering the people who tip well and will fight over you and serve you better than people with a less-than-exemplary tipping record.

 

[Caleb]

I'll tip what the server is worth, not a penny more

 

[Caleb]

How about we do away with gratuity altogether and just pay servers a living wage?

I would agree with this, however with the tip system... The server has to work for thier money. Take that away and there's no point in working hard and providing good service if they are still going to make the same amount of money.

 

[jsharmon7]

I would agree with this, however with the tip system... The server has to work for thier money. Take that away and there's no point in working hard and providing good service if they are still going to make the same amount of money.

I disagree with this. They should work hard to provide good service because it's their job. The rest of the world works for their wages without tips and seem to do just fine. If I go to a nice restaurant I expect good service, just like I expect when I go to a higher end store or other business. I don't expect good service at Walmart or Denny's, but I would at Nordstrom or St. Elmo.

 

[PeaShooter]

Eliminate tips, pay workers a living wage, and let the management decide who's pulling their weight and fire the ones who aren't.

What exactly is a living wage? Why would you want to limit the earning potential of some just because others can't cut it? Sounds like spreading the wealth around to me... Employees are tipped in an attempt to encourage good service and reward those who give it. Others who don't won't last long. Paying a "living wage" is going to ensure that no one receives good service because there is no financial benifit to do so, when you can give just good enough service not to get fired and make the same money.

P.S. I waited tables and bartended for several years through college. I disagree with restaurants making everyone a tipped employee though. Hostesses and cooks should not be tipped. I also don't tip at stores with a tip jar at the register where there are no tipped employees.

 

[jcharrison05]

Tipping should not be mandatory. For large parties thats another thing. You take away the option to tip and there goes the need to work harder for a better tip. this being the point of a tip.

 

[Caleb]

I disagree with this. They should work hard to provide good service because it's their job. The rest of the world works for their wages without tips and seem to do just fine. If I go to a nice restaurant I expect good service, just like I expect when I go to a higher end store or other business. I don't expect good service at Walmart or Denny's, but I would at Nordstrom or St. Elmo.

In theory yes, but not everybody will work hard because it's thier job... Just good enough to get by. Anywhere I've ever worked I see people like this...

In words of Dave Ramsey...

"you work, you get paid...you don't work, you don't get paid!"

 

[Que]

The thing is, I hate it when places take a mandatory tip, and a lot of times with me they end up screwing the waiter. If I have good service I regularly tip higher than the 18% most places add. As soon as I see that they have taken a mandatory tip, I refuse to add to it.

+1! It's hilarious to me when we go out after Friday Night Steel and, for example, I see a $2.21 tip already on the ticket. For an $8 snack, I have no problem leaving a $5 tip, especially when we are asking the server to split the tickets.

 

[Que]

I disagree with this. They should work hard to provide good service because it's their job. The rest of the world works for their wages without tips and seem to do just fine. If I go to a nice restaurant I expect good service, just like I expect when I go to a higher end store or other business. I don't expect good service at Walmart or Denny's, but I would at Nordstrom or St. Elmo.

I don't agree with this. Whenever a company advertises their great deals and service, I expect to receive it. I want my food hot in the case of Denny's and I want to see someone at the ammo cage, soon after they are notified a customer is waiting to be served.

I work hard for the few extra dollars I have to spend in restaurants and other extra activities. I expect to be appreciated for choosing their establishment by receiving good care while I'm there, whether I'm spending $5 or $500.

 

[Scutter01]

You would be amazed at the number of times I have seen waitresses add a higher tip on credit card bills when they feel the customer was an ass or stiffed them. Even more amazed at how nobody else ever seemed to notice. Check your bank statement next time you think you 'voted with your wallet'.

Folks, this is also known as "credit card fraud" and is a felony. This is why I always keep my receipts and I have no problem going after someone padding my bill to line their pockets.

What exactly is a living wage? Why would you want to limit the earning potential of some just because others can't cut it?

Every other industry on the planet gets by just fine without tips. In fact, most European restaurants already do this. A "living wage" is what the server and the restaurant manager agree upon. As I said up-thread, though, I have no particular objection to tipping in a "tip culture", but I refuse to reward you just for showing up to work.

 

[Clay]

1) I reward servers for their service. The better they are the more they get. Make it mandatory, and I will NEVER reward someone for extra good service, and I expect the quality of service to go DOWN because the servers have no motivation.

2) Servers will find their income go down. I think servers are required to report their tips up to 15% of the bill. Anything over that they are technically not required to report, but if they have a mandatory 25% they will have to report it all because the establishment will have to report it to the feds.

 

[mbaza3]

I was in Miami a while back and everywhere we went to eat or drink a tip of 18% was added to our bill automatically. The receipts said you could adjust as necessary but I got annoyed at the assumed tip after poor service. If we had a 25% mandatory tip in IN I would not go out to eat.

 

[Bill of Rights]

I don't know if it's true, but I've read that the word "tip" was originally an acronym: To Insure Promptness"

As 7th Stepper said, we tip well. I stop at the same restaurant nearly every morning I work my full time job. I order the same thing every morning, and I know that my bill will be $2.45. Rarely do I sit down to eat there, but regardless, I pay $3.50, or a 43% tip. The service is usually pretty good; the waitress sometimes gets there about the same time I do, and has been known to walk in the back door and tell the cook to start making my order, even before I'm inside. Granted, part of that is being predictable, but I like that I can walk in and be called by name and get my order correctly every time.

I do agree with Scutter, though, in part, that it's not my responsibility to meet the restaurant's payroll, and that they should pay a living wage (agreed to by the server and the management)... except that what that would mean is that the restaurant's prices would increase across the board. Let's face it, if they won't make up the difference between $2.13 + tips and minimum wage, can we really expect that a restaurant owner would diminish his own profits to keep prices low and employees fully paid?

Of course, doing that would be the same as the mandatory 25% tip... it would just be rolled into the price of the food, and thus, invisible.

Blessings,
Bill

 

[newtothis]

If they make a mandatory tip a requirement for me (I understand a large group), I dont go there. Also, Ive had the fun time of threatening charges onto $h^^&& wait staff for trying to pad the bill in front of me (needless to say I was comped, given gift certificates, and made sure the waitress was fired.... litigation sure works for dealin with rubberneckkers).

I usually tip according to service. I never tip on a 2-4 dollar cup of coffee or at fast food restuarants with tip jars up front. If its a diner or actual restaurant with great service i'll tip between 20 and 22%, otherwise its usually only a few bucks.

I dont pay according to what "they think" I should pay them.

 

[PeaShooter]

A "living wage" is what the server and the restaurant manager agree upon.

that is not the typically accepted definition of a "living wage". I asked the question rhetorically, but the typical definition is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_wagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_wage. Basically you have to pay what it takes for them to live, including housing, food, utilities, transport, health care, and recreation. So if you are willing to pay $50 for the chopped steak at the Sirloin Stockade, then the living wage is the way to go.

Working in the service industry IS A CHOICE (or the end result of a string of other choices). If you don't like the method of payment (or you aren't making enough) then I suggest a change in employment. Also, waiting tables is not a career, with benefits and retirement plans.

 

[ultraspec]

I got hit for a gratuity a couples weeks back on a TO GO order from BW3's and I didnt notice it until I got back home and called on it and was told its mandatory now if you eat there on Tues or Thurs. Problem was I didnt eat in and I wasnt happy about it.

I dont like mandatory grautity, it seems as if it takes away from the incentive to do a good job with the customers

 

[sepe]

If someone adds the 18% or higher on my bill (unless the party is all on one bill and large), they get nothing. I'm not really sure if I look like I'm going to be cheap or what but if you play that game, I most certainly will be and have done it on many occasions (while leaving a note about what their tip was going to be before they tried adding it on their own).

If you are a crap server and you expect 25%, I'll be happy to disappoint you with a very small tip. If you're a decent server, you're going to get at least 15%. A server that is on top of things and at least pretends to enjoy their job (interacting and being polite), 50% isn't too out of ordinary.

Once again, tell me what you think you deserve and you get $000.00 with a hand written note about the reason you got no tip.

I order something to go, no tip if I pick it up. If I order something that is delivered, you'll get a couple bucks (don't really care if you're an idiot that drives a vehicle that gets 10mpg for your delivery job...I'll tip you for service, not to buy your fuel).