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To Tip or Not to Tip...Stingy or Over the Top...From Russia to Australia
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by leconcierge | October 12, 2008 at 03:52 pm
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Since arriving in the US some 18 years ago, I spent a number of years making a living as a waiter so the provocative question Why Tip? in 'Food Fights', the Food Issue of the NY Times Magazine (October 12) got all my attention.
Paul Wachter looks at this topic through the example of The Linkery, a popular eatery in San Diego.
Its owner Jay Porter decided to ban tipping altogether and instead ads an 18% service charge on each check.
Adding a twist to the way the money is shared usually, it is pooled and then split 3 to 1 between service and kitchen staff.
After reading the piece, I went looking for best practices and bad excuses from around the globe.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 17:00 on October 12th, 2008
I think the automatic 18% is a great option - I used to be a bartender so I'm well familiar with bad tippers - and when you do get tipped well, it hardly made up for all the times you got 10%. This would then affect the kitchen crew, because if the servers got bad tips so too did they...and if the cooks weren't happy, nobody (especially the customer) was happy!
at 02:49 on January 7th, 2009
I am slightly astonished at Terri's response. I think tipping has got WAY out of hand and that a 10% tip should be fine! It is just about ANYWHERE else in the world!
If the staff at a restaurant show signs of unhappiness with tips this size it means that the boss needs to think about increasing the base wage to keep them (and subsequently the customers) happy and then perhaps consider upping the prices on the menu.
Nowhere else in the world has tipping gone so far out of control as in the US. What is the point of offering a menu with marked-up prices if they, in reality, bare no resemblence to what you will actually be paying!?
And another thing - who on earth wants to work out what 18% of $37.82 while the waiter is standing there expectantly!? Can we PLEASE keep it at 10% or at least call it an even 20% - then I would know that I owe $45.
The places I visit most are the places (which unfortunately are few and far between) where a sign on the door says "service charges included" or "tipping not required".
When I sit down somewhere to spend my hard-earned cash on a meal should I not be able to EXPECT good service!? Why do I have to make an overwhelmingly generous monetary gesture displaying how thankful I am that the service was good?? For me to give an 18% tip the entire experience would have to be exceptional! And more often than not it ain't!
Thats my 2 cents on the subject.