How hard will an employee work if the otherwise hard-earned money is guaranteed? We should keep in mind that not everyone who works as a server will feel and act this way, but the possibility is still there. I regularly tip the accepted percentage of a standard meal and only refused to tip on one occasion.

The employer is responsible for the server’s pay not me.

Why are they special and deserve a tip?

I hope you’re not living in the US, because if you are you should start tipping at least 15% unless you want everyone thinking that you’re a low-life piece of trash.

Also, you claim that you never tip. I sure hope you never go to the same restaurant twice. You are giving your servers a slap in the face and cheating out them and the whole service industry. Put it this way, if everybody were like you, menu prices would rise 15-20% in every tipped-service environment. You aren’t special nor should you feel that way. Your extremely unethical and disgraceful practices will catch up to you and anyone else who practices this trashy & tacky behavior.

@Anyone who tips less than 15% – Generally, no server deliberately wants to give their customers bad service. If you received bad service, the server either wasn’t trained properly or doesn’t have the mental capacity to do it correctly. Anything else that happens is out of the server’s control and you shouldn’t hold them accountable for it. If you waited too long for your menus, more than likely somebody was too busy doing something else of equal or higher importance. Servers wish they could satisfy their customers 100% of the time but they can only do their best. If your food wasn’t right, it’s not your server’s fault. Unless your server is blatantly trying to provide bad service or piss you off, they should be tipped at least 15%.

Servers DO make the same minimum wage as everybody else. I don’t know why everybody says they can only ever make 2 something an hour and if they don’t get tipped they are hosed. Notice the last line where it states that the restaurant IS liable to cover the difference between minimum wage and tipped person wage.

From Department of Labor website (http://www.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/flsa/002.htm)

So why should consumers PAY THEIR SALARY?! stupid… I never tip… they make the same wage as the hard workers in McDonalds and Taco Bell, so that’s it.

If they get tipped enough to come out over the minimum wage, then the servers are all happy and bouncing around — Screw that… You’ll get nothing from me, but you’ll only see me once anyways, because I can cook my own damn food.

1. the reason most places add on a “mandatory gratuity” to parties of 8 or more is because, as a rule, people are cheap. At a lot of places a server might only have 3 tables in their station and a party of 8 or more might take up 2 tables and then large parties often sit at the tables longer while they chat, there for bringing down the number of tables that server gets in an evening. Then when they get the bill for 100-150 dollars people often don’t feel like leaving 15-20 dollars as a tip and will short change the server. People as a whole are really really cheap. not realizing that that server is making $4 per hour and just spent the past 2 hours taking care of them when they could have turned those 2 tables 2 times.

2. YOU SHOULD NOT TIP ON THE QUALITY OF FOOD!!! I hate hearing that people tip on the quality of the food… the server didn’t cook the food and should not be punished because something was over cooked/too salty/bad! you should be tipping the server based on their service, period. If you have a problem with the food talk to a manager and they can deal with the kitchen. IF the manager takes something off your bill please keep in mind that the server is not at fault and you should still tip them according to what your bill SHOULD have been before the comp. Also, the server doesn’t control how long you wait. Don’t take it out on them.

3. If the service is bad… leave less of a tip but talk to a manager so they can work with the server to improve their service otherwise no one knows that anything was wrong. The person above that leaves the note is a good idea too.

4. it is not uncommon for a server to get stiffed by patrons who are just too cheap and don’t care. But servers/bartenders have good memories and if they get stiffed for no reason when they provided excellent service they will remember those people and the next time those cheapskates won’t be given the time of day… why bother… they aren’t going to tip anyway.

5. Last but not least, in most medium to upscale restaurants a good tip for good service is 20%. 15 if it was ok, and less depending. at the end of the night a good server should be walking with 18-20% of their sales (minus what the server has to tip to the bar and bussers… they the server has to give part of their tip to the other employees who do work for them – such as the bar making their drinks and the busser clearing tables)

The places I worked at always had a mandatory tip for large groups simply because large groups tend to not tip. Everyone thinks everyone else left a tip and in the end… no tip.

I don’t think the tip should be mandatory on groups smaller than 6 though. I think it’s a bit of a slap in the face, especially if you got crappy service. It’s also a bit of an out for the restaurant and promotes bad service since the staff doesn’t have to work as hard to make money.

Second, @matt, adding a dollar to every charge is stealing. So are some of your other schemes.

I was almost in the same boat as the group that was arrested. Our group went out to dinner, and we had to wait 20 minutes to even get menus. Then another 30 minutes to place our order. Then another hour to actually get the food. We had a pleasent meal, but the wait staff was terrible and was serving us poorly because they knew they were getting 20% gratuity. Finally, we asked for the bill to be split–not an abnormal request. They didn’t know how to do this and made us do it ourselves by writing down what we each ordered.

When it came time to pay, we decided to not pay the full gratuity because the service was absolutely terrible. The manager told us she was calling the police; we called her bluff, but sure enough the police showed up in about 2 mintues.

We spoke with the police, and while they were sympathetic to us (one of the policemen said he’d eaten there before, and totally understands why we didn’t want to pay the full gratuity), they did say we legally had to pay. We paid to the cent, told all our friends, and of course, never went back.

As for mandatory gratuities in general, I think it degrades service. The server knows they’re getting a tip, so there’s no incentive to give better service. I know in France, all restaurants have gratuities built into the price of the item and almost everything is rounded to the nearest Euro. It makes it easy for change, but poorer service in general.

Tips shouldn’t be expected, the wage should cover that. Tips should be for good/excellent service that goes beyond what is expected.

There are tons of tricks out there and am I stealing from the restaraunt…I SURE AM. But so do the restaraunt owners. Do you think they report their cash earnings? NOPE. Do you think they pay their Mexican cooks under the table? YEP. It’s a viscious cycle, and I love the lifestyle. Gives me plenty of time to travel, save for retirement, and live a good life for now. I can assure you that most waiters are CLEANING UP. And most of it is tax free. So you cheap skates leave whatever you “feel” is fair, and we will make up the difference, I promise.

A large group is just guaranteed more customers; why are you punishing the people who want to give you more money? And making tips count as part of a wage is ridiculous — it ruins the entire point of the tip. “They did a good job; therefore they should get a bonus” not “they did a good job; therefore they should get paid the money they’re owed.” In addition, I don’t recall seeing a note that says “large parties will be charged a 15% gratuity fee” except on the bill. Therefore, I don’t think it’s legally binding that you should pay for something you neither consented to nor ordered. Otherwise, you may as well just throw some food I didn’t order or eat on my bill as well.

Here’s my tip (not pun intended, honest, haha): pay in cash. If possible just leave the money on the table beside the bill and leave. They can’t force you to pay the gratuity charge that way and you legally paid for the meal you purchased. You could also ask the waitress/waiter for exact change back. If my meal comes to $43.38 after the gratuity fee, I want exactly $6.62 back, including pennies. If you can be a jerk, then so can I.

Moreover, you’ll loose my business. Don’t expect me to ever come back again or recommend your restaurant to my friends.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I work a job where I earn tips. I am also very generous with tips. Anything less than 20% is rare (if you did a good job) and I’ve tipped over 100% before. I’m not a jerk, I just think think you should be rewarded for doing a good job, not rewarded just for showing up.

Tipping is my form of personalized charity. Take a good look at the wait staff, and you will find single parents trying to keep things together, students working their way thru school, and others just working hard to keep a roof over their heads. I believe in rewarding hard work and good service, so I tend to be a generous tipper even if the service is just “average”. I would still reward these people, even in a “no tipping” enviornment.