Comments on: Financial Confession – I’m a Bad Tipper

By: chris new orleans

chris new orleans — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:54:48 +0000

You also probably go line by line to divide the bill so that everyone pays for excatly what they ordered and not a penny more when dining with others. I find those types just as offensive and refuse to dine with groups that don’t add at least 20% tip to the post-tax bill and divide by the number of people at the table, even if some didn’t consume alcohol.

By: chris new orleans

chris new orleans — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:51:32 +0000

My advice to you is to go to the grocery. I have never worked in the service industry, but you are the person who deserves the urine, feces and spittle in your food. I despise cheapskates.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:02:41 +0000

Moris, I guess I don’t understand why they would hate me. I know I’m a bad tipper so I have my wife to leave the tip so the server gets whats fair.

By: Moris

Moris — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:13:10 +0000

Please know that all of the people who wait on you hate you very much.

By: Lacey

Lacey — Fri, 08 May 2009 22:10:52 +0000

As a former server, I agree with the comments posted by other service-industry employees, except this very important one. DOUBLING THE TAX IS NOT A RELIABLE METHOD OF COMPUTING A FAIR TIP! Tax varies significantly from state to state, and sometimes, city to city.

So, unless you are certain that the tax you’re doubling is above 8%, doubling the tax is a poor rule of thumb. I was a server for years at a Maryland resort, (5% tax), and I’m certain some of the people from New York (9% tax) didn’t notice they were NOT leaving a fair tip by doubling the tax (10% = bad tip).

There’s a simple solution if you don’t want to pay a 15-20% tip: get carryout. Same food, no (or less) tip needed. As Amber said, servers must tip other employees, and pay taxes on SALES. Not actual tips received – SALES. If you don’t leave the normal 15-20%, you’re forcing the server to cover those taxes and tip shares for you.

Most servers also do a tremendous amount of prep and cleanup work, being paid $2 an hour, while there are no customers around and no tips to be made. Usually their entire paycheck goes to cover taxes on sales. The tips are the only thing they are being paid.

By: jennie

jennie — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:46:58 +0000

thank you for answering the eternal question all of us servers/bartenders ask ourselves after every shitty tip, “is it really that they don’t know? or do they just not care?” i can go on forever as to why tipping is part of going out to eat, but it’s still not going to keep the cheap bastards from dining out. do yourself a favor though and don’t frequent the same restaurant/bar you end up stiffing after every visit because we do remember you.

By: david

david — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:22:53 +0000

the fact of the matter is, the united states is one of the only first world countries around that doe not pay its service industry a decent living wage. i have been abroad to several other countries, and, being a bartender, asked the bartenders there how much money they made. in australia, they made around $20 an hour. a little more for the UK. same with italy and france.
you know what else? going out there was a little more expensive than going out here. to keep menu prices low, restaurants and bars cut the service staff’s pay to as little as $2.00 per hour. have you ever tried living on $2.00/hr? i think it might be decent pay in mumbai, but not NYC. if you don’t want to tip, eat your f*@#ing meals at home, asshole.

By: Katie

Katie — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:07:49 +0000

Wow. Maybe I feel this way because I worked a job where I made $2.50/hr and depended on tips to make up the bulk of my income, but I’ve always felt that scrooging on the tips was shortchanging, even cheating, those who are providing you a service of fair compensation. If the service is really poor, I can understand reducing the tip, but most of the time, you should tip 20%. Moreover, you should EXPECT to pay that much before you go out to eat or go to any other event where tip is expected.

You pay a tip to compensate someone for services they provide you that you would otherwise provide yourself. For instance, you tip a bellboy for bringing up your bags for you. You tip a waitress for bringing you a meal that at home you would have to serve and clean up yourself. You are compensating them for the convenience they give you. If you can’t afford the convenience of having someone else provide you a service, then stay at home and do the work yourself.

This isn’t just an issue of fair pay. It’s also an issue of being rude, ungrateful, and the worst kind of miser. It makes me angry just to read all of these comments about how some of you regularly screw over wait staff and other people in service industries just so you can have a couple of extra bucks in your pocketbooks. I’m frugal, but I’m certainly not stingy. If you’re that concerned about your money, DON’T GO OUT.

By: dave

dave — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:58:58 +0000

i have been driving concrete mixer truck for 40 years. i am very helpful and help out all i can on jobsites. I have delivered millions of dollars worth of concrete to thousands of projects and i can count the tips i have recieved on one hand!

By: Amber

Amber — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 07:45:32 +0000

You have to keep in mind as well that servers at most restaurants don’t go home with the tip you left on the table. We have to tip out a certain percentage of our sales to all the people that: seat you, clean up after you, run your food, etc. Also, we not exempt from taxes we have to pay them too. So really, even if you do get mediocre service and you leave a bad tip (below 17%) you are effecting at least 6 people at my restaurant. Oh, and please remember that a lot of servers are people making their way through school and squeeze in work between medical school hours like I do.