NWR...Restaurant tipping

mbuckley85

When you go to a restaurant, do you tip on your subtotal or the total plus tax. My mother said she tips on the total, but she pretty consistently tips 15. FI and I tip on the subtotal but we usually do about 20.

Just curious...

Loopyseven

We tip on the total.  Usually at least 20% unless service was bad.

jessicabessica

I don't tip on the tax.  15-20+% depending on service.

JoanE2012

I don't tip on tax either. 

DramaGeek

The total.  Of course, we don't have tax, so there's that... :-P

Winnertag1

We tip before tax (tax is 15% here)

RebeccaB88

Grand total.

JessAndTrav

Grand total. Considering tax is usually only a couple of dollars (unless you're going somewhere fancy or live somewhere where things are more expensive), I don't see why not. 

I'm also a very generous tipper though, because my mother waited tables when I was growing up, and the hourly wage is so pathetic, I can't help but be generous, and I'm especially generous when they're an excellent server. [:)]

Simply Fated

We double the tax and round up. And then we'll add in some more money, depending on service. Math isn't my forte.

That doesn't work everywhere, of course, because the tax is different. My friend and I went to Florida, left a tip by doubling the tax, realized what we had done and ran back to the restaurant to give the waitress more money. We felt so bad!

mica178

I tip based on the total.  20+% depending on service for dinner, 25-35% for lunch or brunch since the bills are usually significantly lower.

DramaGeek

interestingly, Oregon doesn't do "server wages."  I think we're one of the only states (maybe the only state?) where those who work in a restaurant make at least our regular minimum + tips wage.

J&K10910

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_nwrrestaurant-tipping?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:14bd0d1a-d64a-473c-887b-632d38ef826dPost:7355ec2d-3c9d-40f1-8eb8-43b8a4421ec7">Re: NWR...Restaurant tipping</a>:
[QUOTE]interestingly, Oregon doesn't do "server wages."  I think we're one of the only states (maybe the only state?) where those who work in a restaurant make at least our regular minimum + tips wage.
Posted by DramaGeek[/QUOTE]
There are a handful of states.  6 or 7, maybe?  MN is one.

mica178

CA does that too.  Most of the east coast does not.

J&K10910

I think WA does too--and I think their minimum wage is amazingly high at around $9 an hour.

ETA:  Alaska, California, Guam, MN, Montana, Oregon, Washingon, Nevada

http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm#Minnesota

Simply Fated

dramaGeek, so even though your servers make at least normal min wage, you guys still tip about 15-20%? J&K, same with you guys in MN?

J&K10910

Our "starting" tip is about 15%.  If the service sucks, it goes down.  If the service is above average, it goes up.  Our standards for "average" are pretty low though, sadly.

If you're friendly, helpful, fill up our water without us having to ask and wait forever, and don't screw up our order or our bill, that's worth about 18% for us.  If we have to ask for water, it's 15%

But we definitely reduce our tip if the service sucks, which is apparently frowned upon by some people, but I don't understand, because Hellllo?  I'm tipping for the quality of service.  If you suck, I'm not going to give you a big old tip.

J&K10910

And I guess we tip on the total, including tax, which here is 7.35%

Simply Fated

Ok, so servers who work in states with the same min wage as other workers still make good tips? Like, assuming they don't suck at their job, of course, lol.

It's becoming a big issue here in the restaurant industry. Min wage for servers hasn't gone up in over a decade. Some waiters want to get regular min wage, but other waiters are afraid it will hurt their tips. I'm curious to hear from states on the other side.

J&K10910

It might be different here because as far as I know it's ALWAYS been this way (or at least for a long time).  Like, I feel if it changed there now, it would be in the news, and people would know, and then they'd be like "hey, I don't have to tip as much now!"  KWIM?  So I could see that being a problem at first for sure.

I know when I served in WI, we made $2.33 an hour plus tips and some lunch shifts I only ended up making about $3-4 an hour.  Fuuuucking sucked.  I would have greatly prefered making straight min wage those days.  Then again, I walked away with an average of around $30-40 a night some Saturday  nights. 

mica178

I was told that the average tip for service on the west coast is closer to 15% whereas on the east coast, it's more like 20%, and that's all because of the minimum wage issue.

Kate61487

we tip on the pre-tax total, and use 20% as a base point.  It will occassionally go down if the service sucked (but it has to be pretty particularly bad), we usually round up to an even dollar amount, and will go up even more if the server went above and beyond.

I've always disliked the idea that a server in a nicer restaurant gets significantly larger tips than a server who does the same amount of work in a cheap restaurant just because the steak one brought you was more expensive than the burger the other brought you.  Especially since the waiter in the nicer restaurant is probably being paid more anyway.  But I've never really done anything to rectify it - the pressure of the social norm I suppose

Summer2011Bride

We tip on the total including tax and 20% is usually our starting point. If it was not very good, we go down. We generally don't tip less than 15% unless the server was downright rude or we saw them standing around talking with co-workers while we wait for refills, our bill, etc. being a server in college and only making $3.20/hour (though I think in my state it has gone up since then--not close to min. wage though), I know how important tips are. I also worked at a breakfast place where people would come in and only get coffee or something really cheap and leave 50 cents for a tip. Even if we have a low bill, we try and tip pretty well. Usually the people who only got coffee required more attention than the others because they needed refills frequently.

Simply Fated

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_nwrrestaurant-tipping?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:14bd0d1a-d64a-473c-887b-632d38ef826dPost:e74a1704-5588-4a83-8c42-a7f14c142779">Re: NWR...Restaurant tipping</a>:
[QUOTE]It might be different here because as far as I know it's ALWAYS been this way (or at least for a long time).  Like, I feel if it changed there now, it would be in the news, and people would know, and then they'd be like "hey, I don't have to tip as much now!"  KWIM?  So I could see that being a problem at first for sure. I know when I served in WI, we made $2.33 an hour plus tips and some lunch shifts I only ended up making about $3-4 an hour.  Fuuuucking sucked.  I would have greatly prefered making straight min wage those days.  Then again, I walked away with an average of around $30-40 a night some Saturday  nights. 
Posted by J&K10910[/QUOTE]
Exactly. You can make good money weekend nights, but weekday lunch shifts are ridiculous. You get way less than min wage, but since they're not allowed to pay workers less than min wage, the manager overrides it. That can't be legal, but it is what it is.<div>
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</div><div>mica, I worked for the same company in two different states, on in NY, one in NV. The min wage is exactly the same, but in NV they tipped less. We honestly chalked it up to "They don't know how to tip." 
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J&K10910

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_nwrrestaurant-tipping?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:14bd0d1a-d64a-473c-887b-632d38ef826dPost:5ba96f0f-baa6-4044-b175-477219a7b55a">Re: NWR...Restaurant tipping</a>:
[QUOTE]we tip on the pre-tax total, and use 20% as a base point.  It will occassionally go down if the service sucked (but it has to be pretty particularly bad), we usually round up to an even dollar amount, and will go up even more if the server went above and beyond. <strong>I've always disliked the idea that a server in a nicer restaurant gets significantly larger tips than a server who does the same amount of work in a cheap restaurant just because the steak one brought you was more expensive than the burger the other brought you.</strong>  Especially since the waiter in the nicer restaurant is probably being paid more anyway.  But I've never really done anything to rectify it - the pressure of the social norm I suppose
Posted by Kate61487[/QUOTE]

Hmmm, this may be an unpop op, but I sort of view it like someone working in a bank vs someone working on Wall Street.  The people who are working in the nicer restaurants likely had to work to get there (I know when I applied at one of the more upscale restaurants in town here, they required 7 years of serving experience), and tend to be better at what they do.  Generally. 

DramaGeek

We tip the same as J. Three servers I know make good money more than H makes as a grocery store manager

mica178

I don't change my tipping habits based on the caliber of restaurant, but I do tip more if a server is especially attentive (more common in nice restaurants) and can give knowledgable answers to my menu and wine list questions.  There are career waiters who work up to restaurants where they can make hundreds each night, and they are in a completely different category compared to people who wait their way through school. 

But H has a soft spot in his heart for waitresses at crappy diners, so he usually insists on tipping 30% and in cash for them.

Beachy730

We usually do 20% as our standard, on the non-tax amount, and then make it so the end total is an even amount (easier for our banking).  If it's horrible service I'll lower it, and if it's great service I'll up it.  For breakfast I usually always tip more though because I think breakfast servers work the hardest and it's the cheapest meal.  At least for me I always like a variety at breakfast and end up with a million plates and lots of coffee refills.  It't not fair that a $20 breakfast bill only equals a $4 tip when they busted their butt.  Usually I will never give less than a $5 tip no matter what the bill is.

As far as things affecting the tip, and Mica was the first one to point it out to me, I take into consideration how much we spent on alcohol.  If we have a $40 bottle of wine I'm not neccessarily going to add another $8 for just dropping off a bottle to the table.  Similarly if we spend $40 on drinks during dinner where they actually do less work than refilling $2 pops constantly.  I don't not tip on drinks, but if we spent a lot on drinks I take that into consideration.

J&K10910

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_nwrrestaurant-tipping?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:14bd0d1a-d64a-473c-887b-632d38ef826dPost:f90bcbaa-249f-4e9e-8969-9835ba0ca9c2">Re: NWR...Restaurant tipping</a>:
[QUOTE]<strong>I don't change my tipping habits based on the caliber of restaurant, </strong>but I do tip more if a server is especially attentive (more common in nice restaurants) and can give knowledgable answers to my menu and wine list questions.  There are career waiters who work up to restaurants where they can make hundreds each night, and they are in a completely different category compared to people who wait their way through school.  But H has a soft spot in his heart for waitresses at crappy diners, so he usually insists on tipping 30% and in cash for them.
Posted by mica178[/QUOTE]

I think what she meant was that most tips will automatically be more if you tip as a percentage because your bill will be more.  But I could be wrong.

Simply Fated

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_nwrrestaurant-tipping?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:14bd0d1a-d64a-473c-887b-632d38ef826dPost:2200d54a-1b2b-43ed-afe4-65d749a89fa9">Re: NWR...Restaurant tipping</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: NWR...Restaurant tipping : Hmmm, this may be an unpop op, but I sort of view it like someone working in a bank vs someone working on Wall Street.  The people who are working in the nicer restaurants likely had to work to get there (I know when I applied at one of the more upscale restaurants in town here, they required 7 years of serving experience), and tend to be better at what they do.  Generally. 
Posted by J&K10910[/QUOTE]
That is a good point. It makes sense. The only thing that sucks is when it's in the same restaurant. What i mean is, where I worked (and at most places) a soup and salad costs less than a steak. But, it's a buttload more work for the server. For a steak, once I put the order into the computer, I was done. For a soup and salad, I had to do everything from fish the soup bag out of the boiling water, to arranging the cucumbers at 3 and 6 o'clock (or what ever). Even though I did more work for the soup and salad, i got paid significantly less in tips. That was so frustrating, especially since that was what the weekday lunch crowd tended to order.<div>Of course, if I worked at a more upscale place with higher priced item, I would expect to get paid more overall, but when it's in the same restaurant, it suuuucked. </div>

libby2483

I tip on the after-tax total.  If the service is average to good, I tip 15 percent or a bit higher.  If the service is excellent, I will tip 20 percent or higher.  I will tip lower than 15 percent if the service is especially bad.  Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I did not leave the server a tip because the service was absolutely horrendous.

J&K10910

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_nwrrestaurant-tipping?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:14bd0d1a-d64a-473c-887b-632d38ef826dPost:63203a3b-fb13-48ee-8cb3-eb4fa4e552c0">Re: NWR...Restaurant tipping</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: NWR...Restaurant tipping : That is a good point. It makes sense. The only thing that sucks is when it's in the same restaurant. What i mean is, where I worked (and at most places) a soup and salad costs less than a steak. But, it's a buttload more work for the server. For a steak, once I put the order into the computer, I was done. For a soup and salad, I had to do everything from fish the soup bag out of the boiling water, to arranging the cucumbers at 3 and 6 o'clock (or what ever). Even though I did more work for the soup and salad, i got paid significantly less in tips. That was so frustrating, especially since that was what the weekday lunch crowd tended to order. Of course, if I worked at a more upscale place with higher priced item, I would expect to get paid more overall, but when it's in the same restaurant, it suuuucked. 
Posted by Simply Fated[/QUOTE]

That makes sense. I know we always hated when people came and ordered just dessert, because we put them all together and they cost about $5, and a lot of people didn't tip AT ALL for just dessert.