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

By: ANB

ANB — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:27:28 +0000

Most of the pay of waitstaff is the tips, thats why you would take the job. Its a very stressful job. Though it might take a long time to get your drinks/ food, its hardly the servers fault (not like they are just standing around) usually they are fighting for you. Since infact they do not make the drinks/food (thats a bartender or cook). And when you go shopping you are indeed tipping, except we just call it commission and it is already figured into the price!

By: DKD

DKD — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 02:06:45 +0000

Here is what I think, the waitstaff on here is saying if you cant afford to tip then don’t go out to eat. Well if you can’t afford to work for the pay that the job is paying then simply don’t take the job. You know before you accept the job what the pay is. When you go shopping do you tip the cashier? If not you should, because they are taking care of you and ringing up your purchase. If you don’t tip the cashier then only use self check-outs and if something goes wrong and an attendent has to come and assist you in anyway be sure you tip them. When you pay your bills do you include a tip for the accountant that is going to post your payment for you, I could go on and on about everyone should be tipped but only a select few are or think they should be. If I receive good service I will tip good BECAUSE I want to NOT because I am suppose to.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:56:43 +0000

I was told several years ago to leave 15 percent of the bill, however if you just don’t have it to give simply leave 3 cents ( a sign of sorry, just don’t have it but next time I will take care of you) to 1 cents flipped upside down for your service sucked!

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:31:41 +0000

Each state has a minimum wage for service staff based the fact that their primary income comes from tips, or gratuity. The average hourly rate is $3.oo in 2010. That often does not even cover the federal and state taxes, so on top of my servers having to pay taxes out of their cash income, they must also pay for healthcare benefits which are to expensive for independant business owners, such as myself, to offer. My restaurant is busy but my servers must still plan ahead in order to stay ahead of the curve when it comes time to file taxes by filing quarterly and otherwise.
Servers who really do work hard and build a good relationship with their customers and take good care of them do deserve the 20% tip and of the whole bill. It seems like a tough pill to swollow, but if diners are not willing to tip these employees who are here to take care of our customers and are left guessing what their income will be for the day if people are tipping according to all of these crazy math games, maybe carry-out is the best option for them. Just take care of your server because they take care of you. What if you had a less than productive day or week and he who signs your salary check decided you only deserved 75% of your salary??? Well that’s what a server may feel if you tip 15% on good-great service. I used to be a server and now am an owner. Take care of those who take care of you. After all, they’re not trying to sell you a care, new tires or a new mattress. They are trying to make you happy and satisfied. If you’ve had a bad experience speak with a manager before you pay your check. Often times your bad experience will be addressed and resolved and you are sure to be invited back for a more positive experience.

By: Erin

Erin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 08:20:19 +0000

I hope you realize by leaving this comment you’ve made yourself sound ridiculous. First of all we aren’t living in the 70′s and plenty of young people need to work in the service industry to pay for school and other important necessities. There isn’t a surplus of other jobs in this day. You choose to go out to eat and know before hand what it will cost you. The tip is for the service you receive when you decided not to cook or prepare a meal for yourself. If you decide to go out to eat in year 2010 you pay the standard 20 percent of this day and age unless treated rudely by the server themselves. Restaurants do not pay servers. Paychecks go to taxes and as others have said most servers are required to tip out other waitstaff up to 5 percent of their total tips. When people do overtip it makes up for all the people who don’t. Serving is strenuous mentally and physically. It takes a strong character to deal with the absurdities of people and business all at the same time.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:50:44 +0000

I have worked in a restaurant for 5 years now on and off to pay for my college tuition. In Georgia, we get paid $2.13/hour. EVERYTHING we make is tips. Our paychecks say VOID and the $2.13/hr all goes to taxes. Not only do we make only what people leave for us but we have to share it with the rest of the staff. SERVERS tip the host, bartenders, and food runners at the places I have worked at. We give the host and bar 2.66% of our TOTAL SALES and the food runner 1% for a total of 3.66%. Also, some places claim 16% of a servers sales for taxes so if you are only tipped 10% and then you tip out to the rest of the staff 3.66%…you are only making 6.44% but the restaurant is telling the IRS you make more so you end up paying a lot of taxes at the end of the year. You also have to remember that if you are in a large group of people and you have more than 1 server…they are SPLITTING the tip! If you sit at a table for a couple hours and leave $5.00, you are saying it’s okay to work for $5.00 an hour. If you would have gotten up after you ate, the server could have had another table and would have gotten another tip. If you are going to hang out with friends or coworkers and talk and take up that servers table…tip extra considering you are costing them money! If you don’t tip at all…you just made that server pay to wait on you because of the money they had to tip out from your total bill.

Here are some examples:
If your bill is $100…a 20% tip would be $20. The server gives $2.66 to the bar and host and $1.00 to the food runner which means the server actually only made $16.44 from you.

Let’s say your bill is $25 and you give a $4.00 tip. Take out a dollar for what the server has to tip out and now it’s down to $3.00 but if you sit in that servers table for 2 hours and don’t leave extra, you just paid that server $3.00/hour.

If your bill is $30 and you don’t leave anything, that server just PAID $1.10 to wait on you.

Servers only have 3-5 tables in their section for the night so when someone takes up that table (we call them campers) for a long period of time, they are taking the money you could be making from having another guest sit there.

Also…keep in mind that your server does not quote the wait time or cook your food or make your bar drinks so if you had to wait a while or if things didn’t come out the way you wanted them…it might not necessarily be your servers fault. To help a server provide you with the best service they can give…ask for everything you might need for your meal at once, not every time they come by the table you need something else (we call this running the server). Servers want to make money, they don’t want to give bad service (well…most of them) but you are not the only people they are waiting on. Another table might be a pain in the rear and the server is trying hard to make all the tables happy but one might be taking up more time than the others so when you go out…look around…see what other tables your server might have and how they are interacting with your server. Technically 18% is the standard in Georgia. My restaurant adds on 18% gratuity for parties of 8 or more.

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).