The 3rd tipping thread

[VaSteve]

OK with all this talk of tipping, he's my question:

Who am I really tipping? The person that took my order? The people that brought out the food? The random person that comes to fill up my iced tea? Maybe it's the places I eat, but it always seems a team effort.

Oh and what's up with the servers that never write it down, but the food comes back wrong.

[Moses]

My favorite hang, Pete's Brass Rail and Carwash, has a cool system. The waitstaff carry little palm pilot-like wireless units. When they take your drink order, for example, it is sent to the bar and a runner from the bar will have your drinks to the table sometimes before the waiter even left!

Your food order is similarly sent wirelessly to the kitchen and a runner (not your waiter) will bring your food to your table the instant it is ready. What does the waitstaff do? cruise the tables making sure you are happy.

The place is amazingly efficient. Who am I tipping at Pete's? I dunno. I guess I'm tipping the whole team.

[Dottore]

Restaurants divide tips according to their internal policies - and these differ from place to place. A certain level of pooling is common - a percentage often goes to busboys or the kitchen.

Some very trendy restaurants are so sought after by waiters - that they work entirely without salary and live solely on their tips - which can be considerable. (I know of waiters who regularly pull down in the region of $1,000 per night in tips. That is after all only 25% of $4,000 worth of sales - or 40 diners at $100 head.) To get around the minimum wage laws in this situation - they often agree to assign their wages back their employer.

In Chinese restaurants - of which there are many in my town - waiters are often not permitted to keep their tips at all - they go straight to the owners. If the waiters don't like this - well there are always others who want their job. So you are often very foolish to leave a large tip in a Chinese restaurant - unless you really think the owner deserves this. The same is true for many Asian establishments.

In short the whole practise of automatic tipping is really very silly. Why, for example, should a waiter get a tip and not the guy in the kitchen? Makes no sense. Why only in the restaurant business? Why not at the supermarket or the dry-cleaners?

[jrdavid68]

When I was in high school and cooked and washed dishes at the local pizza and steak place, the tips went to the waitresses. I took my $2.00 - $3.00 / hr. and went drinking with the boys after work.

The primary place we eat out at now (Sushi) puts all the tips in a jar and spreads it out among all the staff at the end of the night (I asked). So at least there, I know I'm tipping everyone and when the food is good (always) and the service is good (almost of the time) the tip is very generous.

[bivenator]

the waiter is only making 2.13 per hour in the US. many times the paycheck recieved is zero due to taxes being taken out. the supermarket and dry cleaners are paid employees making at least minimum wage. i would like to meet the waiters that are pulling down 1000 per nite. IF they are pulling down 1000 per nite, they would certainly have to pool thier tips, as you mentioned in your post. you are assuming that they are recieving 25% tips. I'm guessing that you don't eat there based on your previous post about tipping.

[wcc]

I'm a good tipper. Now for the rant, but I hate tipping! I don't think there should be tipping involved. Tipping at the bar is way over-rated! They should be paid min wage or better based on the scale of the restaurant and experience etc. Reflect the price in the meal and be done with it. Pay the bill and move on. They shouldn't need a tip to be motivated in what they do. Tip jars are another thing that is becoming annoying to me. They are popping up everywhere! I saw one not to long ago at a McDonald's I was in. Next thing you know you'll be tipping at the gas station when you pay at the pump. Or when you go to the bank and use the ATM. That's getting out there but you get my point.

I feel better now.....

[masraum]

Generally whomever you tip is the person that gets the cash. They may then later give a portion of their tips to busboys, bar staff, etc... I asked a waitress recently at IHOP about this. Since I didn't have any cash and would be tipping on the credit card if she would get the cash. She said that she would definitely get the cash since it would come from the ticket that she was our waitress. She also said that here in Texas she had to get the tip and then she could distribute portions, but the restaurant couldn't pool the tips and distribute them evenly.

Some places may do that but they shouldn't.

I think the only time that may make sense is when there's a bar with tip jars being serviced by multiple people.

[Dottore]

Originally posted by bivenator
the waiter is only making 2.13 per hour in the US. many times the paycheck recieved is zero due to taxes being taken out. the supermarket and dry cleaners are paid employees making at least minimum wage. i would like to meet the waiters that are pulling down 1000 per nite. IF they are pulling down 1000 per nite, they would certainly have to pool thier tips, as you mentioned in your post. you are assuming that they are recieving 25% tips. I'm guessing that you don't eat there based on your previous post about tipping.

A couple of points:

If waiters are making 2.13 per hour in the US - then surely something is wrong with the system. My suggestion is pay them a decent wage and raise the menu price to reflect this. I mean why pay $10 and $2 tip - when you could just pay $12 in the first place - and then, if the service is really good - you could even leave an extra gratuity.

The waiter would be better off under this system because he would always get "20% more" - and would not have to worry about getting stiffed. The customer would be better off because the uncertainty of whether or not to tip and how much would be done away with. Win - win.

As for waiters pulling down $1000 night in tips - this is not an assumption on my part - I know this for a fact. And whether or not the waiters in these places pool their tips - and to what degree - depends entirely on the restaurant in question. Of course I am speaking here of the handful of genuine two or three star restaurants that you find in major cities - and in these the service will normally be impeccable. So when I eat there I tip well.

As I said I am happy to tip very well for exceptional service. But for indifferent or incompetent service I am equally prepared to leave little or nothing.

[Rick Lee]

Tipping on a credit card is fine. At the end of the shift all their checks get rung up and the servers pay out. The amount paid on credit cards is deducted out of what they owe the house. Servers don't take diners' cash and immediately put it in the register. They keep it as their "bank" and use it to give back change and pay the house at the end of the shift. After they've paid out, what's left is their net tips. If every single diner paid by credit card and no cash ever changed hands, the server would be paid out the difference between the total of the rung up checks and the final credit card receipts.

[Moses]

Originally posted by Dottore
As I said I am happy to tip very well for exceptional service. But for indifferent or incompetent service I am equally prepared to leave little or nothing.

That's why tipping is important! If there were no tipping, service would be abysmal. In my office, my employees take great care of me. Why? Cause I sign the paycheck. Tipping gives you control. There is a direct connection between an attentive waiter and his desire for a generous tip. When the service is good, I'm happy to oblige.

[cashflyer]

I know strippers have to split their tips with the bar, the DJ, and the house.

[artplumber]

Originally posted by cashflyer
I know strippers have to split their tips with the bar, the DJ, and the house.

Are there pictures associated with this knowledge?

[Dottore]

Originally posted by Moses
That's why tipping is important! If there were no tipping, service would be abysmal. In my office, my employees take great care of me. Why? Cause I sign the paycheck. Tipping gives you control. There is a direct connection between an attentive waiter and his desire for a generous tip. When the service is good, I'm happy to oblige.

Well I agree - but only to a point.

Think of all the other service industries where tipping does not take place. Service does not have to be abysmal simply because there is no tipping. I get brilliant service at Kinkos, at my laundry, from my gardener etc etc.

And conversely, as we all know, service in restaurants is not always great just because there is tipping.

[RallyJon]

service in restaurants is not always great just because there is tipping

Tipping in restaurants has lost any connection to service quality.

If you don't tip, do you think the waiter sits quietly in the back room, running through his service in his head, wondering how he offended you or failed to deliver service up to your expectations? Not likely!

As in Rick's example, tipping has become so institutionalized that the CUSTOMER is held to blame for not doing so.

Service in most restaurants couldn't get much worse, so it really is just a 20% tax on your meal.

There is truly nothing more satisfying though, than giving an unexpected but appreciated tip to someone who's really gone out of their way to give good service.