TIPPING in General and related to WAITERS!

Welcome to my 2nd blog which is SOLELY about TIPPING [waiters primarily]!!!

My main waiter blog is located at : http://waiterstips.blogspot.com/

I am a waiter and it's not something I plan on doing for much longer as I spent most of my 20s
doing so and have hit the 30 mark! It's a great way to make money but is definitely not easy.
I think most people take it for granted and think, well, "how hard is it to take my order and bring me my drinks!" (& food along with A LOT MORE!!!).

Waiters rely on TIPS as their main source of income. They are paid lower than minimum wage by their employers because TIPS are going to make up their main base of salary.
About 90 PERCENT or MORE of WAITERS in the USA have to tip other employees in their own restaurant.

This is called their TIP OUT.

As a customer, you will see your waiter and possibly a busboy, host, and food runner plus someone else opening your wine. You might take for granted all these people and think the generous tip you have left will ALL go completely into your waiter's pocket. This IS NOT the case at all! You might be thinking that it's not your problem but is that reason enough to justify that the service you just got will not be FULLY rewarded as you intended?!? NO! How could it?

20 Percent is for Execellent service but with times the way they are -- 20 Percent is not always enough. People tip based on their bill and have been doing so for a LONG time.

Take this example though:

Table 1 is a party of 2 that orders TWO TAP WATERS (free) and TWO STEAKS (let's say $30 each)

Table 2 has only ordered 1 Cup of Coffee ($2) but has asked for 5 refills which would come to 6 cups of coffee.

Table 1 has a check of let's say $65 while Table 2 only has a check of $2.16

20 Percent on Table 1 is $13 while on Table 2 it's $0.43.

If I got you 6 cups of coffee plus more milk/cream and maybe engaged you in a pleasant way perhaps had some conversation with you. Maybe I got you some napkins and/or answered your questions. Well now I have to tip out as well so it depends on the place...

Some places with less employees and less people working in the restaurant will let the waiter tip out other employees a percent of their TIPS. Most places can't rely on what the waiter said they made in TIPS and makes the server tip out on their overall SALES (minus tax of course).

Let's say I have to tip out the following:

2% of my sales to Busboys
2% of my sales to Food Runners
1% of my sales to Bartenders
.5% of my sales to Managers
.5% of my sales to Hosts

(I'm guessing if you have a sommelier, they get a cut of wine sales BUT maybe not -- if they are there to work and the waiter doesn't sell wine -- they might still get a percentage!)

Ok so that's 6 Percent and not all establishments require you to tip out every department.
The first 3 though are ALWAYS TIPPED OUT.

Let's say Table 2 leaves me 20 percent or let's say they even leave me like 46-48 percent which
would be $1!

$2 (don't tip out on tax)

.04 Busboys
.04 Food Runners
.02 Bartenders
.01 Managers
.01 Hosts
----

.12 which will lower my VERY GENEROUS $1 tip to $0.88
(or my normal 20 percent which would lower my $0.43 to $0.31

Some of you might be thinking that..."does he hand people pennies?"
No, usually if that was your only table then they don't force you to give under $1.
They'll let you keep your one tip of $1 or less.

My point is that this is just ONE tip out of ALL your tips and even if they are 20 percent, it's not as much money as one may think. Most people tip between 5-15 percent it seems. Many feel that double the tax is fair even though tax is a different percentage in every state!

So, where am I going with ALL of this?!?

I have a few ideas I'm trying to cover:

1) The bill total shouldn't limit you on the amount or percentage you tip. If someone went way above and beyond their job as a waiter and it was ASKED for on top of it (meaning people wanted extra things that were not just FOOD or DRINK), then when thinking of the percentage - make sure the dollar amount is suitable. If the 20 percent is $8 but the service felt like $15 or even $20 or more...you should tip accordingly!

2) Let's say I only brought table 1 just 1 round of waters and then the food runner brought out their Two Steaks. I've done WAY less for your table than I did for the table #2 as far as what I've physically brought to the table. Now one might argue with me that they should tip less then 20 percent due to this but I still was pleasant and accommodating with them..some people just require less than others. People should always tip 20 percent unless the waiter was clearly poor as in they had attitude, they didn't bring you what you wanted, they made you wait when the restaurant was empty -- even then, if they can recover and make up for their 'mistake(s)' -- you should still leave 16-18 percent! I'm saying that once a table wants more and more and more with strange requests [RED BEER, blech!!]...they should pay you beyond the percentage!

***If your car needed new brakes but you called up to ask for an oil job as well -- you'd pay for labor on EVERYTHING -- not just the brakes.

But if you ask me for Water, Refills, dressing, more napkins, to watch your stuff, to watch your kid(s), to make your drink stronger or weaker, etc. (I could go on for PAGES and PAGES -- I will!!)....you should TIP me MORE MONEY even though these things were NOT on the bill.

I propose that if people want to tip 20 percent solely on the check, then the check should have everything the waiter did for you during that meal. Imagine if you had to pay for tap water, extra dressing(some places you do pay for this), for me to bend down and pick up something you dropped, a high-chair, etc.
So you'd have to pay for all the extra stuff PLUS TIP more because the bill is now much HIGHER!

We will continue this subject and many more!!