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Wedding Etiquette Forum
mbuckley85
member
NWR...Restaurant tipping
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...
Just curious...
This discussion has been closed.
Re: NWR...Restaurant tipping
[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.
Everything the light touches is my kingdom.
ETA: Alaska, California, Guam, MN, Montana, Oregon, Washingon, Nevada
http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm#Minnesota
Everything the light touches is my kingdom.
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.
Everything the light touches is my kingdom.
Everything the light touches is my kingdom.
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.
Everything the light touches is my kingdom.
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
[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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[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.
Everything the light touches is my kingdom.
[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.
Everything the light touches is my kingdom.
[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>
[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.
Everything the light touches is my kingdom.