How much do you usually tip when you go out to eat?

[Curtland1015]

I ask because I was out to eat with my Wife's family recently, and her Grandmother is notoriously hard on the wait staff. She always finds reasons to declare they did an awful job, looking for anything she can to criticize them about. Even things like "the food took too long", or something wasn't cooked right... things the poor waiter or waitress has no control over, will get pinned on them and they will end up with a sub-standard tip, which is money they NEED to make up for their low hourly wage.

Certainly you do on occasion get a waiter or waitress who IS bad at their job, or just plain rude or careless, but in general, how much do you tip when eating out?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Usually 20%, more for really good service.

I try to slip the waitperson a little extra when I go out to dinner with my dad because he's a lousy tipper. But then, he's 90.

[Skittles]

2. usually 20%; more at my "regular" haunts

:D

[Redstone]

13. We go by those same guidelines.

Redstone

[Mojambo]

3. Base 17.8 percent. n/t

[flvegan]

4. 25%. More if the service is really exceptional.

I go out to eat so very rarely, it's worth it to give someone more than they probably expect. A bit of sunshine.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Six dollars.

[barb162]

6. 15% unless it's lousy service. A lot less for lousy service.

[Maine-ah]

7. I start at 15%

from there it depends on the service. Good service and you'll get 20% or more. For the servers that I work with, I leave them the amount of my discount which is 30% of the check.

[Iggo]

8. At least 20%.

[madinmaryland]

9. Around 15%. I don't expect or want the service hovering or badgering us for

a tip. We go out for dinner at a restaurant maybe four times a year, so we don't have a lot of experience there. The only issue we have is if we see the service is just sucking for a tip (i.e. showing up only when the check is brought out).

[EndersDame]

10. I made $2.13 an hour at my last job. Just remember waiters have bad days too!

We are also not responsible how long and the quality of your food.
Just remember also that when you run your waiter back and forth he/she has four other tables doing the same thing

[madeline_con]

11. The grandmother is just cheap and doesn't want to tip...

or miserable in general, and likes to "share".

[Curtland1015]

16. You're right on both counts.

I love her to death, but she can be... difficult... when she wants to be.

:P

[LostInAnomie]

12. My base is 15%, unless the service is horrible or does something to piss me off.

Then, there is a good possibility they will get 0%. If they are good though I'll go well over 15%.

[Zavulon]

14. It used to be 15-20%, based on the most convenient round dollar figure

that fit with whatever bills I had in my pocket. For example: if, after the change comes back, there's $7 in singles and I've got nothning but twenties in my pocket, and 20% was, say, $7.75, I'd just leave the $7.

Nowadays I almost never go out to eat because of the economy, and if I did, I really don't think I'd tip that well. Yes, I know that wait staff can't make ends meet on salary alone, but they're not the only ones going through hard times - and to be perfectly, honest, I don't care for the idea that a 20% tip is now considered a social norm and that the wait staff will call you an asshole after you leave if you don't cough it up.

[Chan790]

24. Blame the IRS...

I grew up in a family of restaurant people.

Grandma was a lunch-lady, mom's a culinary school graduate who never really wanted to work as a chef but managed restaurants constantly, I'm a former competitive-barista, sommelier and waiter, brothers are a short-order cook and the manager of one of the best Mexican restaurants in the world. (Haute cuisine, not tacos.)

I knew the second that the IRS started taxing theoretical tips rather than reported tips that the expected tip rate would be going up...I honestly thought we'd be at 25% by now. Though, honestly, if you can't afford to tip 18%-20% stay the heck home because the goddamned IRS assumes that you tip 15% and taxes me on it...there are enough people who tip between 0% and 12% that I lost pay on every table I served that tipped under 20%. I have a right to be upset about that...if you tip less than 15% I still get taxed on the presumption that you tipped 15%.

I don't generally think you're an asshole if you tip under 20% but more than 15%, I assume you're unaware that you're screwing over your server; if I know you're aware that you're screwing over your server (I once had a famous chef tip me 14%, he certainly knows better. The service was fine, he thought it wrong that we charge for corkage because he'd never charge for corkage. (His restaurant charges for corkage FYI) I think much worse than that you're an asshole.

[JSK]

31. Not true

"Allocated tips" are calculated at 8%.

On the yearly W-2 forms, 8% of the restaurant's total food and drink sales for the year must be reported as tips and "allocated" among all the wait staff employees and reported by them as taxable income. EIGHT percent, NOT fifteen percent. And this rule only applies to restaurants with a large wait staff. Servers at smaller establishments simply report whatever the hell amount they feel like for tips received and hope they aren't audited.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/edit/news/stories/news_111299a2.asp

There was total hysteria back when the IRS decided to crack down on unreported tips. Much research was done to arrive at the 8% figure and it was generally accepted as a fair average. Nothing irks me more than servers who complain about paying taxes on their tips. It's income.

[Zavulon]

32. That's part of the problem.

A tip is now so expected because hourly wages don't cut that it's hardly even voluntary anymore. Your "Though, honestly, if you can't afford to tip 18%-20% stay the heck home" and your "if I know you're aware that you're screwing over your server I think much worse than that you're an asshole" puts me way past the question of whether I can afford it not and moves me well into whether I want to or not. I already know coming in that 20% is EXPECTED, even though I'm not your employer and don't work for the IRS, and I already know that if I don't cough it up - even though it's voluntary - you'll assume you were SCREWED OVER out of your "entitlement."

Because that's the way it is and has been for quite some time now, few things irritate me more than the phony courtesy from all of this wait staff just coiling at the ready to call me "much worse than that you're an asshole" if I don't do my duty, even though in theory it's not a requirement. To be honest, I'm tired of being guilt-tripped out of money.

Take-out suits me fine, and no, I don't tip cashiers for ringing me up.

[Chan790]

35. Okay...

I gave a very clear example of the guy who was screwing over his server and it's clearly not you (unless you're a pompous jackass who cooks on TV, owns several restaurants and is married to an actress.); he shorted my tip because of something that:

a.) has nothing to do with me as I did not set the policy that annoys him.
b.) he's being a hypocrite about because his restaurants that he owns do it too.

Frankly, we'd both be happier if they didn't allow us to receive tips, boosted pay to a reasonable level and raised the price of beverages and food accordingly. (I worked at that place, it was great until they went out of business.) All they're doing now is passing the buck to you to pay a decent wage...if you feel imposed upon, you should...you're being imposed upon.

At least tell me though you tip the cashiers who actually also made your food (deli people and baristas, in particular)...they usually make even less take home pay between wages and tips...and they work a hell of a lot harder than the guy who brings you shrimp cocktail and watered-down Sprite.

You're right though...I think we are entitled to tips; I think they should be compulsory on all food service purchases and built into the price non-negotiably...including take-out.

[Zavulon]

38. If a cashier actually makes or prepares something I'm buying, then

I will tip, yes, but to the best of my knowledge the only place that has taken place in over the last couple of years is a particular deli. I will NOT tip someone for doing nothing more than ringing me up.

I agree with your "Frankly, we'd both be happier if they didn't allow us to receive tips, boosted pay to a reasonable level and raised the price of beverages and food accordingly." I don't think anyone is actually ENTITLED to a tip, even though in most cases leaving one is common courtesy. You're exactly right that I'm being imposed upon, and I don't like the guilt trip involved. A waiter's job is to bring me food, my job is not to pay his rent. If he deserves it I'll tip him, but I don't like the fact that he feels entitled to it or that I'm some sort of asshole if I decide not to, and I'm not alone.

One thing that really gets on my nerves is delivery drivers who can't make proper change and then expect me to leave it to them as a tip. This happens constantly, and since most drivers don't go out with any more than three or four addresses at once, there's no excuse for it. My bill is, say, $14, and the guy can't break a twenty and yet expects me to leave him all six dollars? Nope, that's when I start counting out quarters and pay him in exact change. The drivers who deliver to me got the message and now are great about bringing exact change, which is the way it should be. There's little doubt that their "inability" to make change was no accident.

[Capn Sunshine]

15. Grandma is playing an all too common game

"the gotcha" so they can rationalize a bad tip. I have relatives like this, and I jusr leave a bonus for the waitstaff so they end up doing great.

[Common Sense Party]

28. Maybe it's something about that generation. My wife's grandma

was very demanding of wait staff and was a chintzy tipper, as well.

I'd always discreetly slip a few extra bucks on the table after she left what she deemed an appropriate tip.

[quakerboy]

17. 15%, but rounded to bring the total to an even .00

That is what is mandated for work. "no more than 15%". I don't really eat out on my own.

[LeftyMom]

18. I tip well because I go to the same places most of the time and I consider it an investment.

If I tip well and I get a reputation for that I get good service and my food comes quickly. I find about new items that aren't on the menu yet, etc. At all of the places I eat regularly I'm on a first name basis with the staff so I would hate to be stingy with people who are, if not friends, friendly aquaintances.

Also, none of the places I go are terribly expensive, so I try not to work on a percentage but rather on a what-seems-fair basis, because one's bills aren't any lower just because they wait tables someplace that's not high end. And I can afford to tip a bit more if my meal's on the affordable side, anyhow.

[grace0418]

26. I tip really well when we go out for breakfast. It's just as demanding as every other

meal for the waitstaff, but the prices are usually a lot cheaper than dinner.

[old mark]

19. For even decent service, 20% is my minimum. I used to drive a cab

between "real" jobs, and I will never forget the nice old lady and her granddaughter - the lady told the girl," The cab ride is always 90 cents, and I always give the driver a whole dollar with the dime for a tip."

mark

[Locrian]

20. depends

Depends on the place. Usually >25% at places I usually go that are mid/low priced. Expensive restaurants not quite as much - or more depends on the service.

I figure some poor waiter/waitress working somewhere where the bill comes to $15 or whatever often does as much or more as a place where its >$50. Not always, there are exceptions for *super service* or whatever.

[WinkyDink]

21. 20%.

[applegrove]

22. Once a waitress always a waitress.

[Mutley]

23. At least 20%. Often more, and rarely less.

You would have to have waited tables at some point in your life to understand.

[petronius]

27. That's us. My wife did a lot of waiting, so she generally takes over the

tipping duties.

[grace0418]

25. I tip 20%, if not more. I used to work retail, the employment cousin of waiting tables.

An astonishing number of people treat waitstaff and retail workers like dirt. And the job itself is exhausting, often thankless, and low-paying. So I tip well, because I've been there. If I don't have enough money to tip well, then I don't go out to eat.

[Lindsey]

29. 20% as a rule. However, you never know what kind of service

you're going to get in L.A. If it's really good, 25%-30%. If it's awful, 15% or less. A friend and I went to a REALLY nice place here in SOCAL (Inn of the Seventh Ray) and had horrible, horrible service. We tipped 15% but told the manager how awful it was when we left. The guy was actually an asshole and we would have requested someone else but it was a Sunday night and there were very few people there and very few waiters. It amazes me that a waiter or waitress would be anything but exceptional since their lively hood it based on tips...I just don't get it. On the other hand, we went to a Black Angus this past Sat. night and the service was so exceptional we tipped 30%.

[EndersDame]

30. Sometimes we have "off" days , headaches, and sometimes we are exhausted from working doubles all

week.Sometimes we have received disturbing news and are distracted . Sometimes waiters are also single moms whoworry about kids (sick , spending enough time with them.) There is alot of reasons why waiters cant be 110% all the time which sucks because to make it you have to.

[unpossibles]

33. 20% is my base line; more for good service, less for bad but never below 10-15% unless someone is

a complete and utter asshole to me, and even then I often give the benefit of the doubt. I've lived on tips and it sucks, plus many times the problem (if there is one) is not the server but other issues.

I hate going out to eat with stingy people who won't tip. I don't mean 'cheap' per se, as I can be cheap, but I am not stingy. It used to drive me nuts to see my dad or my ex-in-laws tip like a dollar somewhere on a $20 tab! That is downright insulting. I've argued it with them (my dad's gotten a bit better), but I also used to make sure I had some petty cash to slip extra in as we're leaving.

[semillama]

34. 20% is my minimum for standard service

I'll go down to 15% if I felt I received substandard service. I don't think I've ever not left some form of tip.

Plus, 20% is easier to figure out than 15%.


Remember your pizza delivery drivers as well - I used to be one, and wear and tear on a vehicle is not something that the company usually kicks in for, so a 20% tip is great for keeping your car running!

[mwooldri]

36. Depends on the restaurant we go to.

At the buffet type places (e.g. Golden Corral) our rule is $1 per person + $1.

At the cafeterias - completely and utterly depends on the service - if it's similar to McDonalds then usually no tip at all, but if it is a place where they will clear off your table and refresh your drinks then I go with the $1/person rule + $1, as for buffet places.

Usually it means the buffet/cafeteria wait staff can expect 10% from us.

Full service restaurants, 15% is usual for me if I'm paying. Sorry wifey is a scrooge. Must have brought back some bad UK tipping habits - Brits don't tip since wait staff do get at least the national minimum wage which is not like £1-£2 an hour - £5.80 is the minimum wage - about $9.50 based on today's exchange rates.

All I ask from my servers is that our drink glasses don't get too empty... Good wait staff know their menus and know what to sell and if they're helpful in that way - especially if you're new to the restaurant and don't know what to expect then yep... they will get great tips. Still my best restaurant experience ever was at a Bahama Breeze (of all places) in the Atlanta metro area (we were visiting one of my wife's college-day friends). The guy, forget his name, he knew the menu back to front, had good recommendations for dishes and for drinks to go with the dishes. This is the only time I remember our party leaving a $60 tip for a $60-ish dinner with a good number of drinks. Since I learned that Bahama Breeze are a chain, and owned by the same guys who own the infamous Olive Garden (maybe we should take my wife and our 2-month old there and try breastfeeding...) my fear is that if we ever return to a Bahama Breeze we will be so disappointed because that experience for me was a "wow".

[proteus_lives]

37. I have a scale.

20% for average service.

25-30% for great service.

Nothing if the service sucks.