Mandatory 25% tip

[SaltwaterServr]

Some states have higher minimum tipped wage.

And if tips don't work out to federal minimum wage, the employer already has to cover the difference.

I don't imagine many employers have to cover that often. Need like 3 tables per hour, probably less, at a local spot to come out at minimum wage.

A $30 table an hour should make up the difference to minimum wage, the problem is that it isn't per shift, it's per week. You'd have to be able to prove that all of you tips didn't make up to federal minimum including cash tips. Good luck with that.

 

[Hoofbite]

A $30 table an hour should make up the difference to minimum wage, the problem is that it isn't per shift, it's per week. You'd have to be able to prove that all of you tips didn't make up to federal minimum including cash tips. Good luck with that.

Good luck what?

If you didn't have the customers, the receipts will show that.

I can't imagine a restaurant owner willingly violating federal law just to stiff his employees over. Provided a worker got absolutely zero tips, we're talking about $200 per week, per server.

If you've got that problem, you've got a bigger problem than paying your employees. Having zero customers should be the big worry.

I don't think it's all that hard to prove it. A friend of mine worked at a small place in a resort town and he said it was just a matter of collecting receipts and presenting them to his boss. I guess an idiot without receipts or knowledge of printing a duplicate might have a problem.

 

[CowboyMike]

There's absolutely NO POINT in tipping more than 15-20%. I don't mind tipping at all, just the right amount. Hell, I'll even tip dirty e-girl fans...
http://i459.***BLOCKED***/albums/qq317/RynieRynie/receipt.jpg

While I think that is completely awesome, unfortunately I believe if you write anything on the ticket other than the tip, total, and signature, it voids the ticket. It is likely that e-girls fan did not receive the tip you intended.

 

[Teren_Kanan]

Waitstaff makes $2.13 an hour, federal minimum is $7.25. Triple your labor cost on that end of things including bus staff, hostesses, and bartenders since they're compensated out of what the waitstaff brings in as well.

Now you've reached bare minimum wage. The staff I manage average $45 an hour without the $2.13 factored in. Even "turn and burns" like Chilis, Applebees, TGI Fridays, etc make $25 to $40 an hour on a weekend night.

What's the level of service look like now when I'm paying them even $14 an hour? I've cut their income by at more than 1/3 while increasing labor cost on my end at least by 300% at minimum wage. At a Chilis you might have 20 servers on a weekend night. Their cumulative labor hit is $43. Playing the realist and going to $14 an hour I'm at $280 that has to be made up somewhere. Oh yeah, we've still got to factor in the bartenders, bus staff, and hostesses in there as well. What's that going to do to labor costs?

You, as the customer, are going to eat every cent of the cost of them standing around doing nothing because of a late rush AND you'll get crap service when I've cut down to 3 servers running 7 or 8 tables apiece to minimize labor costs as much as possible. You're paying for Saturday morning dead time, Sunday afternoon dead time, 2:30 to 5:30 everyday when there's hardly a soul out eating, but enough to justify staying open since you're doing prep work anyway.

Corporate restaurants already subsidize their labor by using the waitstaff to do closing work to get minimum wage people off of the clock as soon as possible.

Now your $40 meal at a casual dining restaurant is realistically in the $100-$120 range since you've exponentially increased a huge percentage of labor that used to be negligible. What's that going to do to a business? Increase the sales of a restaurant or price out most of the customers?

Let's not forget the service sucks because the level of employee servicing your table went from $25-$45 labor quality to minimum wage or maybe double minimum wage quality. They've got no incentive to do anything more than an adequate job.

People complain about the lack of service in the service industry, well taking the tipping out of a meal will bring a whole new level of dissatisfaction to the public that they've never seen before.

Bon Appetit.

Ding ding. We have a winner. This post is about as accurate as it gets. You take the tipping out, you get your standard McDonald's employee serving you while all the prices of the food go up significantly.

My paycheck per 2 weeks is about 150$.

Imagine you have a job making 20$ an hour. Your boss comes up to you one day and says, I don't like ____ about your work today. I'm only paying you 10$ an hour, or 0 an hour. That's how it feels when getting different tip percentages, when you're giving the same level of service to everyone.

It'd be nice if you could serve in a vacuum, where there is a set undeniable standard for good/bad service, but it simply doesn't work like that. Everyone who walks into a restaurant has a vastly different opinion on what good service is, and no server can possibly please everyone, every time. Yet every single person feels their own personal opinion on what good service should be, is fair and reasonable.

When deciding what to tip people also take into account things that have nothing to do with the server at all. Know how many times I've gotten tables who were pissed off before they even sat down because they had to WAIT 30 minutes to sit down due to being very busy?

Then because we are busy the food also takes a long time to come out, at no fault to the server. You get a crappy tip and a complaint about SLOW SERVICE, when there is not a single thing you could have done to make it faster. This isn't uncommon it happens EVERY SINGLE TIME a restaurant is busy.

Do you know how common it is for the cooks to mess up an order? In most restaurants there are generally people who's job it is to run the food out. I generally don't get a chance to personally check things before they go out.

So when I show up and check on the table 'cause I see they have their food, they flip out about it being all wrong. The average person is going to blame the server, and tip less, when again, server had nothing to do with your dissatisfaction. Big props to the people out there who simply say "It's not your fault I understand, no problem". I love you guys. But they are the minority.

The #1 most common complaint is "Slow service". Can you guess one of the BIGGEST factors in causing slow service? You, the guest.

Every time you make me stand there while you read the menu because I asked if you were ready, and you said yes, even though you weren't, it takes time away from me. Time I could be using to get the guy at the other table his 13th soda.

But now it's empty and he's getting mad because I'm just standing at this table as you ask me questions about things that are answered in the menu, because doing anything but looking at pictures is too hard, even though you are POINTING AT THE TEXT that would answer the question for you.

I really wish i was exaggerating about how frequently this type of stuff happens, but I'm not. This is day to day stuff that happens several times an hour. The #1 thing that keeps me from getting that drink refill to you quicker, is other tables WASTING my (Your) time!

Alright here's your food, is there anything else I can get for you? Barbecue sauce? Sure thing I'll be right back with that. Here's your barbecue sauce, enjoy... oh, you need honey mustard too? Ok I'll go get that for you, anything else you might need? No? Great I'll be right back. Here's your honey mustard, anyt.... oh you need extra napkins now? ... ok I'll be right back with that...

Happens. All. The. Time. Now imagine you have 3 tables doing that to you, while another table is FORCING you to stand next to it while they "read" the menu and ask you questions like "Does the burger come with any side items?", even though at the top of the burger page it CLEARLY says all burgers served with french fries.

Now half of those tables are leaving a crappy tip due to "slow service" that they helped create themselves. Lucky me. Yet I do it all with a smile, I even accept my inadequate tip with a smile and thank you for it.

Just last night I had a party come in (9 people). They ordered 8 milk shakes. Our milk shakes are hand dipped. We have 1 blender and it can only make 1 milkshake at a time. Each Milkshake takes roughly 2 minutes to make. That's 15 minutes i must now dedicate to making milkshakes.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with ordering that. And even though I am going to go by my other tables and see if they need anything before I begin, the odds are that one of my other tables is going to end up feeling like "the server was never around, I sat there with an empty drink for 5 minutes", while I make milkshakes. Again, not much I as a server could do about it, yet I'm going to get a smaller tip because of it.

The average guest simply does not think about stuff like that. They can't think much more than "I DIDN'T GET WHAT I WANTED IMMEDIATELY!!!!!! BAD SERVICE = BAD TIP!" People are very impatient.

There are bad servers out there. I've worked with them. Ones who give attitude, and simply ignore tables and never refill drinks. They don't deserve good tips. But on average "Slow Service" has less to do with the server and more to do with the business level and other tables, yet it nets you lower tips all the same.

That's pretty much the deal in many countries.

We've decided however that wait staff need to be at the mercy of fickle and often overly cheap patrons. I can understand if you work a commission sales job and have to deal with that, but something like waiting tables? You are at the mercy of so many other factors that often your "bad job" (e.g. taking forever to bring a meal) likely has nothing to do with how you, personally are performing.

This quote is pretty much a summary of what I said above it. Use the bold as your TLR.

You're not going to dictate to me the cost of service. So you give a mandatory 25% tip and the waitstaff sucks - then what? I'm tipping 25% for crappy service? That's not how it's supposed to be done.

Well if the law passes in a place where you live, yes actually, they ARE going to dictate to you the cost of service :laugh2:

Regardless though. If you really feel you have a legitimate complaint about service and there is a mandatory % tip on the bill, you will speak with the manager. And either the tip, or the entire meal will be comped. When a server is the cause of complaints, and losing the restaurant money, they are going to be fired.

Imagine a McDonalds employee who gives you terrible service, or attitude. You complain to the manager, they probably lose their job. What DOESN'T happen, is them making a lower hourly wage for the day.

 

[Teren_Kanan]

While I think that is completely awesome, unfortunately I believe if you write anything on the ticket other than the tip, total, and signature, it voids the ticket. It is likely that e-girls fan did not receive the tip you intended.

I've worked in 4 different restaurants, and this was not the case in any of them. Perhaps it works differently in other states, but certainly not here in Florida.

 

[CowboyMcCoy]

We've been down this road before


A tip should not be mandatory at any time.

I tip anywhere from 30%-0%... sometimes. I'm not hard to please, but I will stiff someone completely for bad service or for getting my order wrong. If that happens, they don't deserve a tip and let it be a lessoned learned.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

I've worked in 4 different restaurants, and this was not the case in any of them. Perhaps it works differently in other states, but certainly not here in Florida.

Not in Texas either. My staff gets notes on the credit card slips all of the time, usually because our service is excellent and the patrons want to make sure every level of management sees it. They don't necessarily want to write an email or speak to anyone, but at that moment they're able to let us know how great everything was with their evening.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Good luck what?

If you didn't have the customers, the receipts will show that.

I can't imagine a restaurant owner willingly violating federal law just to stiff his employees over. Provided a worker got absolutely zero tips, we're talking about $200 per week, per server.

If you've got that problem, you've got a bigger problem than paying your employees. Having zero customers should be the big worry.

I don't think it's all that hard to prove it. A friend of mine worked at a small place in a resort town and he said it was just a matter of collecting receipts and presenting them to his boss. I guess an idiot without receipts or knowledge of printing a duplicate might have a problem.

Two bad tips on a pair of $100 tables that paid cash would throw everything off. The receipts would show $200 in sales which should equate to $30 before tip-out. If the tip-outs are mandatory and in cash from the server's pocket at the end of the night (Mamacita's in central Texas used to do this) you've lost the paper trail.

Like you said though, it's highly unlikely ANY reasonable employer would do that to any server for any number of reasons including the fact that a server with a grudge can scam the living **** out of a restaurant. There hasn't been a system invented that a server can't work around if they have a friend as an expo or in the kitchen.

Seriously though, as a server, if you're not making $20 a hour you need to ask off lunches to find a better restaurant.

 

[casmith07]

Not in Texas either. My staff gets notes on the credit card slips all of the time, usually because our service is excellent and the patrons want to make sure every level of management sees it. They don't necessarily want to write an email or speak to anyone, but at that moment they're able to let us know how great everything was with their evening.

I'm still upset I couldn't make it out there for a meal when I was in San An.

 

[UKCowboysFan]

It's an interesting discussion for someone from overseas.

As has been pointed out, over here a tip is at the discretion of the customer, and generally will be dictated by the level of service. If the service is poor, the tip would be low and vice-versa.

We don't usually have a fixed percentage, although many restaurants are now including a 10% charge for larger groups. The irony is that in these places most people won't leave any more of a tip because they believe that they are forced into tipping, whereas if there we no minimum we would quite often leave more than that amount.

I know that as a visitor to the US, at first we found it odd that you were EXPECTED to tip, regardless of service. However to be honest in most of the places we have visited I can only recall once ever having a need to complain.
We were a fairly large group (10-12 if I remember), and they didn't serve the children first (in fact their meals were the last to come out). We mentioned this to our server & they gave us the kids meals for free so the tip reflected that anyway.

Have to say that in the past we have always used the 15% rule, started there & rounded the tip up to the nearest $5 or $10.

 

[big dog cowboy]

We've been down this road before


A tip should not be mandatory at any time.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Awesome. :laugh2:

https://lh4.***BROKEN***/-YUTW2SIMXFA/TpYU4V5sdCI/AAAAAAAAIuM/waGLDy6JDQM/h301/11%2B-%2B1

 

[YosemiteSam]

We've been down this road before


A tip should not be mandatory at any time.

I agree. Tips are earned. If they don't earn one, they shouldn't get one.

 

[Khartun]

Awesome. :laugh2:

https://lh4.***BROKEN***/-YUTW2SIMXFA/TpYU4V5sdCI/AAAAAAAAIuM/waGLDy6JDQM/h301/11%2B-%2B1

haha, that's awesome.

 

[Khartun]

Waitstaff makes $2.13 an hour, federal minimum is $7.25. Triple your labor cost on that end of things including bus staff, hostesses, and bartenders since they're compensated out of what the waitstaff brings in as well.

Now you've reached bare minimum wage. The staff I manage average $45 an hour without the $2.13 factored in. Even "turn and burns" like Chilis, Applebees, TGI Fridays, etc make $25 to $40 an hour on a weekend night.

What's the level of service look like now when I'm paying them even $14 an hour? I've cut their income by at more than 1/3 while increasing labor cost on my end at least by 300% at minimum wage. At a Chilis you might have 20 servers on a weekend night. Their cumulative labor hit is $43. Playing the realist and going to $14 an hour I'm at $280 that has to be made up somewhere. Oh yeah, we've still got to factor in the bartenders, bus staff, and hostesses in there as well. What's that going to do to labor costs?

You, as the customer, are going to eat every cent of the cost of them standing around doing nothing because of a late rush AND you'll get crap service when I've cut down to 3 servers running 7 or 8 tables apiece to minimize labor costs as much as possible. You're paying for Saturday morning dead time, Sunday afternoon dead time, 2:30 to 5:30 everyday when there's hardly a soul out eating, but enough to justify staying open since you're doing prep work anyway.

Corporate restaurants already subsidize their labor by using the waitstaff to do closing work to get minimum wage people off of the clock as soon as possible.

Now your $40 meal at a casual dining restaurant is realistically in the $100-$120 range since you've exponentially increased a huge percentage of labor that used to be negligible. What's that going to do to a business? Increase the sales of a restaurant or price out most of the customers?

Let's not forget the service sucks because the level of employee servicing your table went from $25-$45 labor quality to minimum wage or maybe double minimum wage quality. They've got no incentive to do anything more than an adequate job.

People complain about the lack of service in the service industry, well taking the tipping out of a meal will bring a whole new level of dissatisfaction to the public that they've never seen before.

Bon Appetit.

 

[Doomsday101]

I never have to tip at Burger king or the all you can eat buffet restaurants. :laugh2:

All kidding aside I don't mind giving a 15 to 20% tip if the service is good however I do not like any restaurant that automatically puts the tip on the bill

 

[YosemiteSam]

Let's not forget the service sucks because the level of employee servicing your table went from $25-$45 labor quality to minimum wage or maybe double minimum wage quality. They've got no incentive to do anything more than an adequate job.

Only hole I found in your story. The incentive should be to have a job in the first place. (this is on the manager's head) If they are doing an inadequate job, they should be let go.

 

[YosemiteSam]

I never have to tip at Burger king or the all you can eat buffet restaurants. :laugh2:

All kidding aside I don't mind giving a 15 to 20% tip if the service is good however I do not like any restaurant that automatically puts the tip on the bill

Most that I've seen that do this are only when your party is six or more people. Well, and hotels do it (20%, not to mention add a delivery charge too!) for room service and then leave a place for an extra tip.

 

[DFWJC]

I tip very well.

But having a high mandatory minumum on a tip kind of defeats the purpose of what tipping is all about.
If the service sucks, than you should not be forced to compensate or tip (for suppossedly a job well done)....at 25% freaking percent.

This goes perfectly with the SF attitude that everyone owes you something--regardless of whether or not you deserve it or have earned it.

 

[Doomsday101]

Most that I've seen that do this are only when your party is six or more people. Well, and hotels do it (20%, not to mention add a delivery charge too!) for room service and then leave a place for an extra tip.

Then they should expect the customer to be a jerk when the service is poor. I don't mind being generous with the tip but my generosity will be tied to the service.