Q: Tipping ... My girlfriend and I eat out all the time and it seems to me that the 10% tipp that I have been giving is not good enough by some standards. My question is this if I can afford to have a nice meal out why is it that the wait staff will be rewarded according to my bill and not just by a set price? Let me put it this way: I spend $100 on a meal the tip will be $15 and the waiter does 3 tables just like mine that is a little more than $45 with base pay. That is more than i make, lets see 4 years of college, 28 years in the workforce. Why is this? sounds like the people that reply to this must all be wait staff .
A: I do not tip according to a percentage of the bill. I tip according to the quality of service. If my husband and I go out, whether the bill is $15 or $50, or more or less than that, I have no problem leaving a $2 tip or a $10 tip. It all depends on how good of a job the server did. What difference does it make how much the food costs???? Since when did they decide to make it a standard to make tips 20% or 10% of the bill? Shouldn't the wait staff EARN their tips? If a waitress does a good job, I'll give her a $10 tip, even if my bill was only $25. If she did a lousy job, I'll give her $1, even if my bill was $50. Again, what difference does it make how much the food costs??? She needs to work for her tip, if she does a lousy job, she deserves a lousy tip. Someone else commented on wait staffs splitting their tips. Not all restuarants do this. Many restaurants let their waitresses keep every penny. Yes, they do have to file taxes on them, but at the end of the night, they count their tips, and enter the amounts into the computer, there is no way to keep them from understating tips. And yes, the restuarants might only pay $2-$3 an hour, this is to cover the taxes on those tips, their actual paychecks from the restuants are only supposed to be pennies, most of the money comes from tips. I strongly believe that good waitresses deserve good tips, bad waitresses deserve crappy tips. I have worked as a server before. Servers do make damn good money. I've even seen people in other management positions quit their jobs to work as a server because the money is better.... go figure... But it's not something to do as a lifelong carrer. It is tiring and stressful.