Is it fair for a restaurant to add a mandatory tip to the bills of patrons with French accents? No, of course not -- no matter how many restaurant workers in Burlington, Vermont claim to have been stiffed by visitors from Quebec. An additional 18% pour vous!! Now, that said, is it fair for restaurants to add mandatory tips to the bills of all patrons, across the board? Yes, it's fair -- and it would make everybody's lives a lot simpler, too.
Before you start in on a rant about terrible service and why should you have to tip a waiter who forgot the bread basket and blah blah blah, hear me out.
Ever notice that former restaurant workers tend to be generous tippers? That's because if you've ever been a waitress/waiter whatever you want to call it, you how hard that woman/man carrying your tray really works. Which is to say, she/he works hard for the money, so ... you know the rest.
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My brief stint spent waitressing years ago was such a spectacular failure that I've always looked at skilled waitstaff with a mix of admiration, pity, and fear: Wow, I'm incapable of doing what you do/Wow, I never want to try to do what you do again/Wow, if you can do THAT you are one tough individual.
Make no mistake, they earn the hell out of every dime. Now, I'm not implying that terrible waitresses/waiters/bartenders, etc. don't exist. Every profession has its share of bad apples. But taking the guesswork, judgment and potential mean-spiritedness away from the dining-out equation can't hurt.
If you can't afford to leave a decent tip, don't go out to eat in the first place. Simple as that.
Do you think mandatory gratuities would save a lot of frustration on both sides?
Image via Tzuhsun Hsu/Flickr
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Comments 85
No, and here's why-the times when I've dined out and gratuity was automatically charged (large party, for example) I generally get crappy service. This happened just this past Sunday-my husband and I (along with our well-behaved two year old) went out to dinner with my parents and in-laws, making us a party of six adults, so gratuity was added. Fine, but the waitress took forever to take our order, forgot my dad's drink order, and didn't turn on the hibachi grill (in this restaurant it's the server's responsiblity to pre-heat the grill for the chef), so we had an additional wait for our food. The manager then comped us a round of drinks and two plates of sushi for the wait, so I'm guessing she didn't get the big tip she was expecting. It's not that I'm mean and unsympathetic to servers-I waited tables in college and know just how hard they work for their money, and I think it's crappy that most restaurants don't pay at least minimum wage. I just think a tip is earned, not to be expected.
And just to clarify, when my husband and I go out we start our tip scale at 18% (we both have waited tables) and the tip goes up or down based on the service we get.
Sorry. I did their job and I am not tipping for crappy service, cold food, wrong food, and so on. When I get good service then I tip well. Otherwise, either do your job right or find a new one.
One time I was at a restaraunt with an experienced server and the kitchen made an error she realized an error was made and before we even had a chance to open our mouths she said a mistake was made got the manager to give us a couple free drinks and got the order corrected. Now she did her job and she got a tip she deserved. Now for all the mediorcre and terrible service I've received no I shouldn't be forced to pay 18%. Only one time ever was the service so bad bad I refused to tip and actually asked the manager not to have to waiter come to my table again and requested another server. I also got half off that meal because he was such an jerk. NO way in hell should I have to argue back an 18% tip for that disaster.
I am a very good tipper. But I will say this, I get annoyed seeing tip jars in front of cash registers at restaurants. The person is doing his/her job by taking my order; nothing more. Why should I feel obligated to tip a person for doing what they are supposed to do?
I tip them by how well they did at serving us. If they did a shitty job they will get a dollar If they're lucky. If they did an amazing job I'll give them 25-30% and if they were in between the two then I'll give them anywhere from 10-20% depending on their performance.
I wouldn't eat somewhere that had a mandatory tip rule. If the service is okay we tip 10%, if it's bad we leave less than 10%, if it's great we tip as high as we want! We went to TGIFridays the other night and the service was horrible, food was great. We never complained once, the manager took it upon his self to comp our meal for us because he realized how slowly we were served. The waitress was nice and explained that she was new, we tipped her more than enough because we understood the situation.