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Question of the Day – Tipping
By JLP | November 8, 2006
Here’s today’s Question of the Day:
I usually tip at least 15% and if she’s really cute, 20%. JUST KIDDING! Seriously, I consider myself fairly generous, especially if I feel like I’ve gotten good service. There’s no doubt that some servers are better than others. For those who go above and beyond, I think they deserve a better tip. What I don’t like is that new rule I’ve been hearing that says the standard tip is moving to 20%. I don’t think so!
Oh, and someday I would love to leave a really, really good (anonymous) tip to a person that I thought deserved it! Wouldn’t that be awesome?
Now, here’s some good advice on tipping:
Topics: Question of the Day | 25 Comments »
November 8th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
I generally do 15% as a basic amount for average, not bad, but not special service, and it goes up or down from there. If the service is great I’ll easily put in 20%. I’ve also had such bad service that I’ve left nothing.
how would you deal with a bill that includes a tip and the service is terrible?
November 8th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
MoneyFwd,
“How would you deal with a bill that includes a tip and the service is terrible?”
Good question! I think I would go to the manager and tell them about the experience and tell them that you don’t think the tip is fair. I hate the “built-in” gratuity. I understand why places do it, I just don’t like it. It feels forced and is not really a tip but a charge.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
I hate tipping so much! If I dont tip enough I’m considered cheap, if I tip too much I might be considered as throwing my money away.
Here’s the solution I came up with if I’m out with my girlfriend. I pay for the whole thing and she must pay for the tip. And as she’s reaching for the tip money I’ll point out if I didnt like how we were served and encourage her to tip only a little.
An even better solution is to cook at home. I find it more enjoyable, relaxing, and quiet.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
I generally leave 15%-20% depending on how good the service was and how quick. One thing that bothers me, especially at lunch time, is when a server takes way too long to bring the check. If it is pretty obvious that we are done and waiting to go, the tip starts to go down.
I tend to tip more than my wife does though. Some of it is because I like nice round numbers so I round up the tip to nearest even dollar amount for the total bill especially when I pay the server as opposed to paying at the register.
If the service is bad, it is either 10% or if I really want to make a statement I just leave a dollar on the table. It erases the notion that maybe we forgot to tip, and makes the point that it wasn’t good.
November 8th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
I usually double the tax, which in Tennessee ends up close to 20%. I never know what to do when I pick up a pizza though. I usually leave a buck.
November 8th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
I used to be overly generous, tipping 20-25% on almost every meal out. But then I got smart, realized that the standard tip is still 15%, and dropped my tipping down. Although I still tend upward toward the 20% area… just because I enjoy myself when I go out to eat and am in a good mood. My husband grossly overtips, in my opinion. There’s this one place he loves to go to at lunch where he’ll give $3 on a bill of $6.77. It drives me nuts.
November 8th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
I tip around 15%. If the service and food is great, I’ll tip 20%. I rarely go below 10%, but I probably have tipped 5% on one or two occasions.
I wish there were a good way to let a server know why you are tipping poorly, without having to hunt them down and talking with them (they’re busy after all). A friend suggested printing up “tip cards” which would let you check a box for why the tip is below 15%. Something like:
My tip is ____% because:
[ ] Food service was slow
[ ] Drink refills were slow
[ ] Food was not acceptable
[ ] Atmosphere was not acceptable
that kind of thing. Then you could just leave the tip card behind.
Here’s a “tip” (haha) for any waiters who are reading this. After you’ve taken my credit card to run it through the machine, that is not the time to work slowly or be gruff. My last impression of you is how long it takes you to bring my receipt back, and that is where you can get or lose a couple percent on your tip by leaving me with a good or bad last impression.
November 8th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
samerwriter,
I like the tip card alright unless I’m paying or paid with a credit card as I wouldn’t want them to “screw” me. However, I guess that’s no different than leaving a bad tip and using a credit card.
November 8th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
We don’t eat out a lot, but when we do the tip is 20% or slightly more – we round up to even amounts.
I do this for one reason and one reason only – the wages these service workers receive is terribly low as a general rule and the job is extremely hard in most cases. Tips may be the thing helping them get by.
The thing that I don’t like is when you go to a restaurant and the tips are lumped together for all the service workers to divy up at the end of the night. Why should a poor server get to earn off the excellent server? We have just such a steak house near me. I always wonder why these people chose to work here, unless they are terrible at their job, then it is a score for them.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
We don’t have tax in Oregon so using the tax as a gage doesn’t work very well. I usually tip 20% because it’s easy math (shift the decimal to the left one place and double it). If I’m paying with a card I round up to the nearest whole dollar because I like whole numbers. I usually tip the same unless it’s totally terrible service. A friend of mine, when he gets bad service, asks for exact change back even if he is planning on leaving a tip (that would normally be the same amount of money as he gave the server) and just take a couple coins but leave the rest. Basically to make them wonder why they got a tip in that fashion.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
We do 15% to 20%, depending on the quality of service and on the cost of the meal. Frankly, I’m more inclined to tip bigger in a cheaper place since the help is paid badly, but lower in a more expensive place where the waitstaff is making more money because of bigger amounts per table.
November 8th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
I depends on what the service is for. 15-20% at restaurants is the easy one. What about cabs, housekeeping at hotels, or grocery baggers?!
I wrote a post a while ago about tipping. It includes a link to a website dedicated to tipping. Pretty interesting stuff.
November 8th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
I usually tip 20%. If I feel like the service was crappy I tip 15%.
November 8th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
I average about 20%. More at lower priced restaurants, and less at more expensive restaurant. (After all, does the server at a fancy high priced restaurant do 3 or 4 times as much work as someone at the low-priced neighborhood cafe?) I may tip 25 or 30% at some cheap but good places. My minimum is $1 per person being served, no matter what.
At limited service restaurants (like buffets or places where you order at the counter and they bring it to you), its more like 10%, or $1/person.
Pizza delivery is about $2 for a typical delivery order.
Skycaps, bell men, shuttle drivers, etc. get a dollar or two depending on how many bags they schlep. And the lady that cuts my hair gets $5.
November 8th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
Okay, another question for y’all (well, those with sales tax in your area)…do you compute the tip on the subtotal, or the final total?
I usually do a shade less that 20% off the final total.
November 8th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
I do 15%-20% on the after-tax total.
November 8th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
I tip 15% on the after tax total ONLY if I’m pleased with the service. Exceptional service gets more with no calculated limit. Depends on how generous I feel. Bad service gets NADA, ZERO, ZILCH, NOTHING and a written note on the tip line of the receipt that says “NONE-POOR SERVICE!”
November 9th, 2006 at 12:59 am
I waitressed from ages 16-21 in a chain of family restaurants. I tip in the 18%-20% range on the pre-tax total. If service is subpar, I go down to 12%. Like other writers, I round up in a less expensive place, round down when enjoying my favorite cow-cut, BP, and R&C!! (Translation: Filet, baked potato, and rum and coke…)
I needed the money to get thru college and I can appreciate those in similarly (dire) circumstances. My hourly wage for this first career? $2.08…I don’t think it has changed much in 20 years, which is ridiculous (and no, I’m not going to talk politics w/you, Jeffrey!) I also try to leave cash, even if I paid for the meal w/ a credit card.
As many times as I wanted to quit, I thought about my travel goals (I paid for my high school jr and sr trips to Mexico and Spain, respectively) and my educational goals. That’s what got me thru it!
Now, in retrospect, I see the non-financial, valuable experience I gleaned from it: subject matter for my interviews for a Big 8 position, i.e. client service, working as a team, public speaking/maintaining eye contact, etc.
PS It also provided me w/some dates
November 9th, 2006 at 2:23 am
For good to great, I usually do 15-25%.
For okay, I do 10% or so.
For horrible service, I leave.
November 9th, 2006 at 10:20 am
I do take try to account for especially good or bad service. But generally 15 percent to 20 percent.
November 9th, 2006 at 11:16 am
I tip between 10-20% and use similar metrics to others: 10% for poor service, 15% for average service, and 20% for good service. I have been known to deviate from that and I have left little to no tip for very bad service and 25-30% for absolutely superb service.
There is ABSOLUTELY no reason that the 15% standard ever needs to change. It is a percentage, and it goes up as prices go up… meaning that it is tied directly to inflation.
D,
It is difficult to take your comment at face value without thinking you aren’t really considering everything when you say restaurant servers aren’t making much money. It is pretty easy to spend $50-$100 for a couple or small family. If a server has about 3-5 tables in an hour, that is between $22.50 and $75 per hour. Obviously, there are places that are dirt cheap and they get only a couple of tables per hour; if that is the situation, I will bump it up between 3 and 5% of what I was going to leave, usually.
November 9th, 2006 at 11:31 am
We usually tip around 20%.
November 9th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
$5-$10 no matter how much is our bill.
November 10th, 2006 at 6:21 am
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November 13th, 2006 at 2:08 am
I tend to be cheap and would probably undertip. I know people work hard for thier money and don’t want to stiff them, but I don’t like spending money that is “optional”. My wife is a fair tipper so my solution is to have her leave the tip.