Comments on: How Much Should You Tip? Divide by Six

By: VINCE

VINCE — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:16:30 +0000

DOUBLE THE TOTAL AND MOVE THE DECIMAL TO THE LEFT FOR 20%

27 x2=54 TIP $5.40

DROP A LITTLE FOR LESS THAN 20%

By: Muriel

Muriel — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:24:20 +0000

The best tip I have heard and now use and makes it easy to figure in your head is…take three times the tax and that will give you 18% so you can go up or down whatever suits you. And tip only on the food not with the tax included ((total bill).

By: A

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:31:56 +0000

…and there lies the problem.
There are places that pay min. wage and tips are a bonus
There are places that pay half min. wage and tips but get topped up to min wage
There are places that pay half min. wage and tips but no top up
There are places that are tips only.

So if you’re trying to tip so the server gets a decent wage what’s the right amount?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:16:58 +0000

Thanks for the insight, Wendy. I think many people weren’t aware that there were comments from Canada and the US, which causes confusion on standard practices, and what is is isn’t acceptable.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:58:21 +0000

I think we need to remember that some comments here are Canadian based, and some are American based.
My husband and I owned a restaurant for several years in Canada and this is how it is….
- tipping is on the total BEFORE TAXES- when taxes were 15% it made it easy- simply pay the tax for good service.
- servers DO NOT pay tax on their tips (unless they claim it) which most do not
- Most servers do need to contribute a % of their sales (not a % of their tips) to a tip pool which gets divided between cooks, hostesses, bus boys etc… that means if you do not tip at all the server has had to put money out of their own pocket- basically it cost them to serve you, which even for poor service is unfair. if you do a bad job do you get wages deducted????????
- 15% is a standard tip, we leave more for exceptional service and less for poor service. By poor service I mean something within the severs control- examples: rudeness, walking past our table 15 times without askingi if we want a refill on coffee etc, waiting for a long period of time when first being sat without even a acknowledgment, waiting to pay (very irritating)etc…
- NOT LIKING YOUR MEAL- or waiting too long for your meal is not the servers fault- that has NOTHING to do with service- it is the kitchen.
- and finally: servers live on tips and get paid minimally for a reason- your pasta dish which is $14.99 would easily be $30.00 if the owner had to pay the entire wait staff higher than minimum wage. So would you rather pay an additional $2.50 tip on that entree or $15.00????????

By: jab

jab — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:03:27 +0000

The salaries of resturant workers are calculated in the cost. then the costs are the base of the bills. so when you pay your resturant bill you covered even the gas for the truck bringing the meat to to resturant. then one day the owners of the resurant added %15 of the bill to thier profits, meaning to cover any new costs but simply double thier profit. How did they do that is by asking customers to pay some of the workers. they wish they can make you double pay for all workers including the ones behind the seen. So the sent these workers to you and make you feel guilty as thier living in totaly dependent on your tip. In the mean time the owner did not bother cutting what he used to pay them from your bill.
I think the tip is a steal the goes to resturant owner, it is demeaning to resurant workers, it is becoming a way to judge cutomers and even deprive some from thier right of good sdervice and make them feel cheep even if they tip but not %15 but say %11. Tip used to be a sign of wvaluation and appreciation for real good service. but now it is a sign of evaluation of customers.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:00:32 +0000

Steph, most places in the US only pay waiters about half the minimum wage because they are expected to earn money from tips. If they don’t earn enough to cover minimum wage, then the restaurant has to make up the difference in wages. (there are laws to cover this). It doesn’t seem fair, but that is how it is, and why it is so important to tip well.

By: qbmc

qbmc — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:00:09 +0000

I am dead against tipping more than 10%. In the 70’s when meals were less than $5.00 tips were 10%. On $5, that’s 50¢. Now when meals are $20.00, they want 15%? or even 20% as one person here has pointed out. On $20, 10% is $2.00. As meals go up in price so does the tip …at 10%. These people are paid a wage although it is minimum wage but with 10% in tips they do quite well for a job that requires little education. Keep in mind that while they are waiting on you, they are waiting on others and can probably take care of 5 tables in an hour. That’s $10 in tips per hour plus minimum is a lot more than many others get who work a lot harder or at least as hard. People at donut shops, clothing stores, walmart etc get not tips at all and often are working for minimum or a bit over. And they are working their AO and they are giving service. The people who are trying to push the tips percentage up and up are the waiters. When they mention 20%, they are getting ridiculous. When the price of dinner or a service goes up, the amount of the tip automatically goes up and there is no need for the percentage to go up, too. We should pay them 5% for a while and then they would appreciate 10%.

By: Dagwood

Dagwood — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:45:06 +0000

I never tip on the TOTAL bill . . . I usually tip 15% on the Total before taxes. I refuse to pay a tip on money that goes to the government.

By: Steph

Steph — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:39:19 +0000

Shelby, where do you live that servers only get paid an average of $2.50/hour? All across Canada the minimum wage is at least $8.00/hour, many places being $9.00 or $10.00. I know that’s still not an exceedingly high wage, but along with decent tips (15-20%) you can make a decent living off that. If I go out for dinner with my family, I always factor in a good tip (I was once a waitress myself) but it is not up to me to pay that person’s rent for the month.
If someone is honestly paying you $2.50/hour, I would contact the labor board because I’m sure that has to be illegal. No one could ever have a hope of living off a wage like that.