Tipping - WTH?

[Mark1911]

Is it just me, or are we expected to tip virtually everyone that shows up to work and does a job anymore? I've been noticing this trend since the Covid lockdowns, and it seems to be getting more pervasive by the day.

I have always been a generous tipper (~20%) IF the service warrants it. -IF-. Traditionally, you go to a restaurant and a waiter/waitress serves you - they take your order, deliver it to your table, attend to your needs, and take your payment. At the conclusion of your dining experience, you evaluate the quality of the service, and tip accordingly - as a "Thank You" for exceptional service. Same thing at a bar.

NOW, you go in to a sub shop, order your sandwich at the counter, and slide your card into an Ipad and a screen pops up asking for the tip amount - usually a choice between 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%. I have a couple problems with this. First, tipping BEFORE the service and/or food is given defeats the entire purpose of tipping in the first place. There is no incentive for the staff to strive to offer you exceptional service if they have the tip up front. This leads to the second problem - If you (subjectively) under-tip, there is a legitimate fear that you will receive sub standard (or even malicious) service and/or food.

In just the past couple weeks, I have been solicited for tips at the afore mentioned sub shop, while picking up a to-go pizza, at a car wash, picking up dry-cleaning, and at a bagel shop picking up half a dozen bagels.

Is it just me, or is this trend getting out of control?

 

[chowderman]

totally out of control.
people doing the job they were hired for at the pay rate they accepted are not, in my book, a tip-able thing.
phone in an order for pizza - go to the shop to pick it up - and they expect a tip?
order a $15 coffee at the counter and they expect a tip?
local "full service" car wash - $60 for inside/outside/'the full Monty' - used to add to the tip jar - last visit they did a super-lousy job and I will not be leaving anything in the tip jar.... in my infirmitety, I go there especially for the (interior) window cleaning - total smear,lick&promise result.

the Media is outrageously complicit in this nonsense. example: local reporting of a "waitress" that worked 70 hours and had a net paycheck of less than $10 because she's working for tips and only gets paid $3.xx/hour . . . .
the waitress and the reporter and the MSM failed to report how much she got in tips - they only reported that "we" should tip better because this person only "made" < $10 for 70 hours work....

 

[PGBC]

As my own form of protest to the outrageous asking for tips, I have stopped tipping anyone.
I don't ask for, nor do I expect a tip to do my job.
Nobody should be asking for tips, ever.
If you have a complaint with your income, take it up with your employer.

 

[PGBC]

totally out of control.
people doing the job they were hired for at the pay rate they accepted are not, in my book, a tip-able thing.
phone in an order for pizza - go to the shop to pick it up - and they expect a tip?
order a $15 coffee at the counter and they expect a tip?
local "full service" car wash - $60 for inside/outside/'the full Monty' - used to add to the tip jar - last visit they did a super-lousy job and I will not be leaving anything in the tip jar.... in my infirmitety, I go there especially for the (interior) window cleaning - total smear,lick&promise result.

the Media is outrageously complicit in this nonsense. example: local reporting of a "waitress" that worked 70 hours and had a net paycheck of less than $10 because she's working for tips and only gets paid $3.xx/hour . . . .
the waitress and the reporter and the MSM failed to report how much she got in tips - they only reported that "we" should tip better because this person only "made" < $10 for 70 hours work....

That math is impossible, and shows everyone who saw the article it was all made up lies.

 

[m1west]

Out here in Ca. its worse than that. They now have a minimum wage of $15.00 an hour and soon to be $17.00 per hour and when you go to pay the bill same thing, tip starts at 20%. I believe someone should get paid for there labor, but how much $$ is unskilled labor worth? They are serving multiple tables at the same time. Its time to reel them in.

 

[FrancSevin]

Once again, a system, a culture an accepted practice of paying for a service base on it's quality, is under fire by those who wish to destroy conventional traditions and frankly, fairness in personal trade and commerce.

Do we now have negative interactions with servers because we have no way of telling them they sucked at serving you?
I never fail to tip. It is my communication language to the server.
Excellent service 20%
Good service, even for a coffee, I leave a minimum $2.00 per person at my table.
Poor service 10%. They gotta eat too.

Bad service, I leave a single buck for the whole tab. (I used to leave a penny.)

 

[m1west]

Once again, a system, a culture an accepted practice of paying for a service base on it's quality, is under fire by those who wish to destroy conventional traditions and frankly, fairness in personal trade and commerce.

Do we now have negative interactions with servers because we have no way of telling them they sucked at serving you?
I never fail to tip. It is my communication language to the server.
Excellent service 20%
Good service, even for a coffee, I leave a minimum $2.00 per person at my table.
Poor service 10%. They gotta eat too.

Bad service, I leave a single buck for the whole tab. (I used to leave a penny.)

Out here a meal at a burger joint, burger, fries and a drink is north of $20.00 because they are already being paid $15.00 an hour, so if they serve on average 5 tables where the average bill is $40.00 in a hour and get a 20% tip they are making $55.00 an hour. Thats skilled labor pay, too much for a food server and is having a negative impact on restaurants out here.

 

[FrancSevin]

I don't tip fast food places

Two reasons.
They aren't serving me personally.

They aren't fast or cheap, so why go there at all?

 

[PGBC]

The minimum wage here is $15.65 which isn't bad for walking out a plate of food, or pouring a coffee.
Having been a waiter in my youth, it really isn't a difficult job.

 

[m1west]

I don't tip fast food places

Two reasons.
They aren't serving me personally.

They aren't fast or cheap, so why go there at all?

Wasn't talking fast food, little mom and pop sit down. Those places are doomed. I never tipped fast food either. Wednesday I had to do a wire transfer so when I got to the bank it was an hour wait. almost next door is a small independent mom and pop breakfast and burger joint. Hamburger, fries and a drink was $22.00 plus tip. A couple years ago it would have been $12.00 plus tip. I don't think folks that just ate out for lunch are doing it much anymore. We used to do lunch out mostly every day before covid now its a few times a month. I can BBQ a ribeye and air fry some French fries in 30 minutes which is about the same time to go up town and pay the same amount of $$ for a burger ar Chinese buffet.

 

[m1west]

The minimum wage here is $15.65 which isn't bad for walking out a plate of food, or pouring a coffee.
Having been a waiter in my youth, it really isn't a difficult job.

Like you are saying 15.65 an hour is an ok wage for unskilled factory work, where its physical. But 15.65 an hour plus 20% of the food sales is too much. Those type jobs were always to be beginner or after school jobs, now days folks don't want to learn a skill but want the same pay.

 

[chowderman]

waitstaff working in the 'era' of Federal Tipped Wage Credit - $2.xx/hr - should be tipped.
note that if their min. employer paid wage + (reported) tips does not meet local/state/Federal minimums, the employer is required to make up the difference.
the bottom line is quite simple: all the cry baby liberals who actually know _nothing_ about how the pay-thing works , , , should go leap off the highest cliff onto the hardest rocks available. they are so ignorant of reality, they need to end it.

if absolutely no "minimum wage" job is acceptable, there's no point to any of it. just put in a Federal Income Tax Not-Earned credit for a minimum $300,000/yr and be done with it.

not even a woke-broke thing . . .

 

[rebrecs]

The notion of paying a percentage of the cost is not good business for the customers or the servers. I have been to dinner where the cost was $120, and also to dinner where the cost was $20. The server at the $20 joint did much more work than the server at the $120 joint.
Someone once told me that was ok - because the server at the $120 joint had worked their way up the ladder and had to learn a lot to get that job, thus deserved more.
Hmm.

 

[mtmudrunner]

I tip depending on service, doesn’t matter on what the check total is.

 

[power1]

If I tip or how much I tip is my business. It isn't any business of the people working there. I tip what I want. Sometimes it will be nothing and sometimes it can be10 times the cost of the meal.

 

[waybomb]

I especially don't tip into tip jars, college fund jars, or any other sort of demand-a-tip schemes.

 

[Gary O']

At a restaurant, I pay cash for the meal/tab
(no tricky auto tips)
I also put cash in the hand of those that serve me