What percentage do you tip in restaurants for good service?

[RoadRunner]

What percentage do you tip in restaurants for good service?

[RoadRunner]

I'm typically in the 15-20% range.

[Alec]

15%

[Grimey]

15-20. I probably tip 20% more often because it is easier to calculate, I'm lazy, and waiters work hard for the money.

[jamesglewisf]

I normally tip 20% - sometimes a little less.

[jamesglewisf]

I worked in a restaurant for 5 years as a kid, so I appreciate how hard they work.

[kezzer]

I usually do 15%.

[Nise]

Generally 15-20%. I was a waitress back in HS and College. It was probably the hardest job I've ever had.

[RoadRunner]

Originally posted by Nise
Generally 15-20%. I was a waitress back in HS and College. It was probably the hardest job I've ever had. I think if everyone had to spend 6 months working as a wait person, most people would be big tippers. It is hard work. You are on your feet for hours, your customers can be very rude, and the pay (including tips) is not that great.

[Outlaw TexasRed]

20%.

[DeltaDawn]

Depends on the service. Average service gets 15 percent, good service gets 20 percent, and exceptional service gets 25 percent. I used to own a restaurant and had to wait tables and know how difficult the customers can be and how hard the work is.

[CuriousG]

usually about 20%, no less than 15%, if it's bad service, I will deduct from the tip though. Usually it has to be pretty bad though. I don't expect to be catered to constantly, just acknowledged. There's nothing worse than someone at the restaurant who thinks that the server is their own personal assistant for the evening. The other thing that annoys me about restaurants is when I'm served by 20 different people. I'm seated by one, someone else gets me my drinks. The server takes my order, but isn't the one who delivers my food, just my check. In my opinion the server doesn't deserve 15 to 20 % for this, but I tip it anyway. It's not fair, they hardly do anything sometimes when you have the group serving like that. I hope they split the tips up fairly, but I doubt that's what happens.

[jamesglewisf]

{offtopic} DeltaDawn. What kind of restaurant did you own?

[DeltaDawn]

It was a breakfast/lunch deli place. It was the most horrible experience I ever had. My husband and I dedicated everyday, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year for 2 years, 5 months (we did take Thanksgiving and Christmas days off, but it didn't matter cuz we slept thru them anyway). Its been over 3 years since we walked away from the place, and it still brings shivers down my spine when I think of some of the people/things that went on there......

[jamesglewisf]

I got this email about tipping and bad service.On your home page, you said...guess what! People in service industries don't always have great days either... Maybe your waiter is a little absent-minded because his mother is sick in the hospital.
Instead of skipping the tip, talk to the manager about poor service. ARE YOU KIDDING? A comment to owner/manager could get the server fired, or at the very least, a cut in hours. Definitly feel free slight the tip! Even say "Your attitude stinks" but DON'T complain to manager.

[jamesglewisf]

Answer - You must not own or run a business. Managers need to know how their employees are doing. You don't fire an employee who is giving bad service, you train him. If the employee refuses to shape up, then you fire him. But you can't train him if you don't know there is a problem.

[Dude111]

I usually tip whatever seems like a good amount (2-4 dollars (depending on the amount of my bill))

[alishalouise]

I tip purely on the quality of service, I receive. I worked wait service (and may have to go back), and it was always my opinion that with everything else in the world being competitive, "fighting" for tips was no different. I worked hard, and even if I had to fake a smile, I did. Yeah, sometimes real life gets in the way, but I always found it worth it to put it out of mind until closing time. I do try to stay above 10% if I can, but I've been known to throw out upwards of 30% onto the table.

[Dude111]

Yes thats usually the best way to tip (The better the service the better the tip)

Welcome to frappydoo :)

[alishalouise]

Thanks.

It is a very good philosophy. I know so many people that throw out the bare minimum every time no matter how hard the waiter/ress works. I really hate it.

[Pit Bull]

American society has become so inundated with the idea of tipping just for the sake of tipping. Are you people aware that the word TIP is an acronym? It stands for "To insure Promptness." Yes, we all have bad days from time to time. But people in the Wait business cannot afford this luxury. They knew when they accepted the job that the hourly pay was next to nothing. They were fully aware that the majority of their income would come from Tips. If you are not willing to provide your customers with GOOD SERVICE then I suggest you find a different line of work. McDonalds is always hiring and you don't have to go out of your way to provide good table side service. I will be the very first to tip someone who really takes care of me but someone who basically ignores me after the food is delivered won't get a single penny. A Tip is EARNED, not just given for the sake of keeping your conscience clear.

[jamesglewisf]

TIP is not an acronym.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tip1.htm
Could I first dispose of the odd belief that it is an acronym for the phrase To Improve Performance? Modern folk etymology has a curious idea that the source of almost any short word lies in an acronym (perhaps because we’re surrounded by them), but the truth is that few such inventions are found before the 1930s.

[jamesglewisf]

I'm guessing you have never worked as a waitperson. At the office, if you provide bad customer service for one hour or one day, you still get paid your salary.

I'm not saying you should tip well for poor service, but I don't hear any humility or mercy in your comments. That just doesn't work in the real world.

[SSN]

I'm guessing you have never worked as a waitperson. At the office, if you provide bad customer service for one hour or one day, you still get paid your salary.

Well in fairness, the waiter who provides bad customer service also gets paid their wages for taking the order and serving the food ...they just didn't get paid the gratuity since there was nothing to be gratuitous for. Likewise the person working in the office is probably not being paid to be "nice" but they are being paid to sell a product, or troubleshoot, or answer questions. If they did just that but with bad customer service, they still did their job just like the waiter did their job and both should be paid accordingly.

[Mssix]

the state i live in has tax in food at 8.9% so i dont really calculate the tip amount, I just take the tax and double to a rounded figure.


Real easy & usually a little more than they expect.

Each state is comparative with the wages they make & the taxes they charge to it works for most states ( except the ones that have diff food taxes)

[Server-AMel]

I am a college student and I work at two restaurants owned by the same people. One is fine dining, the other is casual, yet still a nice environment. When I eat out, I tip 20% for average service, 25%+ for "good" service.

It's just a part of the treat others how you would like to be treated philosophy. Waiters can't always give excellent service to every table,, especially during a rush.

In response to SSN's post, I couldn't disagree more. Salaried workers make enough money to support themselves. People working on server's wages do not.
It is important in an office environment to be "nice", especially when dealing with customers or clients, you'll still be paid the same. In a professional environment such as that it is part of etiquette that is expected of you.
Not that I'm saying that servers have a right to give bad service,, I do understand where your idea seems to be coming from,, but no tip at all is basically just disrespectful.

I also read a response in this thread from an e-mail response to James about how people shouldn't tell a manager about their problem. It seems to me like that person may be a waiter trying to save co-workers and people in similar work environments from being criticized by management.
Although being confronted by management about a complaint made on you may not be something you want, in the end it will probably prove for the best and make you a better, or more considerate, server. If the customer isn't making a fuss, they just simply talk to the management in a civilized manner about their experience, it helps so the management will perhaps see that the customer is just stating their bad experiences to help improve the restaurant. When customers make a scene and demand free food is when the managers get angry and the repercussions of the bad service the server gave tend to be more harsh.

[Kelly]

We tip 20%...if the service is really good, we'll go up to 25%. Luckily, we have not had service that would make us want to reduce it from 20%.

[tface]

My bottom line is 20 percent...going up from there. My hands are clenched reading some of the posts here....PITBULL

[coolmissdinah]

I am a server and I find myself wishing that we could have public sevice announcements explaing the right way to tip. I think a lot of people just honestly don't know. Last night a guest commented on my smiling a lot and asked "why are you in such a good mood? Was today pay day or something?" Servers don't really have a pay day. My checks are almost always for $0 or very close to that, mabye up to $10 if I had a slow week. Servers are usually paid $2.13/hr which is usually just enough to cover your taxes. Some servers may receive slightly higher checks if they only claim the bare minimum, up to $25-30 checks per week. Most restaurants don't claim tips for their employees, they claim them themselves. If what you claim plus your 2.13/hr doesn't equal out to minimum wage by the hour, the restaurant is legally supposed to pay the difference. That doesn't happen though, because restaurants assume you must be a bad employee if you are getting tipped so low.

Technically servers are supposed to claim 100% of their tips, but many claim less- You can claim as low as 10-12% without raising any red flags. This way you don't have as much taxes taken out. However, on the other end, there are servers who claim all or more of what they earn to show that their income is higher in order to be approved for loans, rentals, etc. Either way, you're not going to live on 2.13/hr.

The point I'm getting to is that if you go out to a restaurant and your server takes your order, possibly offers suggestions or answers questions; puts your order in; brings you drinks, bread, salad,etc; refills for all these; brings your meal, checks on you, fixes any problems that may have occured(say if the cook made something wrong, or if you just don't like something), boxes your leftovers; and basically does everything for you so that you don't have to lift a finger;--and you don't tip--that person just did all that work FOR FREE, without pay, like slave labor(okay, that's a little dramatic, I admit). But still, if you ever see a server with pissed off look on their face, it's probably because they just got a bad tip. I can't think of anything that pisses me off more than working my butt off just to get stiffed.

I think what upsets and depresses me the most are the "verbal tips". People that can't say enough good things about you, thank you again and again, tell the manager the service was fantastic; and then leave a bad tip. I think in these situations people just don't understand tipping etiquette. There are some people that only believe in tipping 10% no matter what, (or even 15% which isn't as bad, but still kinda sucks), people that think $5 is a good tip regardless of what the bill is, people that think if the server makes any mistakes they don't deserve a tip, people that get half their meal taken off because of a gift card and tip on only the half they pay for instead of the original bill--I could go on for a while. If you get good service, tip 20% of the original bill. If they really amaze you, 25%. If you get reasonable service, 15%, poor service 10% and talk to a manager- they'll probably give you some kind of a discount. If someone with an office job has a bad day at work, their paycheck doesn't change-they might get in trouble with the boss, but they still know they can pay their bills.

If you can't afford the tip, you can't afford the meal. Period.

[Dude111]

Welcome......

I usually leave $2 (If i have that much to leave)

[IB O IR ID O]

If I can't afford the tip, I simply don't dine out. I would no more skimp on paying the server than I would the owner/cook. I've worked in the service industry so I know how difficult it is to get by on those wages. Servers seem to have it better in the US than abroad (especially in Europe) for my father, a world-traveler, has told me about the relative non-tipping that occurs everywhere else, but in America. Whenever my father visits and pays for a group meal, I tend to have to go behind him and make sure that the server is properly compensated. I've gotten into debates about his tendency to low-tip (or non-tip), but it is useless changing his mind since he has been to so many countries in which having a job is more than enough.

If I felt under-served by a server, I automatically calculate an exact 15% gratuity and leave just that. My normal behavior, however, is to tip between 20-30% (usually higher rates for small checks).

[Dude111]

The better the service the MORE I TIP usually :)