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
I don't get think it should ever be mandatory, except the ones that are already in effect for large parties. We tip like 99% of the time, I think we usually do 15%. I'm afraid if companies made it mandatory they could choose an outragous tip requirement. We only don't tip if the service is extremely which has only happen once to me, and the lady blamed us, was rude and got our order wrong twice for both of us. There was a third person with us,thankfully his order was okay but he was our witness.
I might have still tipped even if she did get out meal wrong for the second time, because mistakes happen it's not a big deal.But once she got rude and we were nice. I almost actaully didn't say anything when she got it wrong the first time and the second time I didn't say anything at all.
But I do think all waitress/waiters jobs should be min wage + tip(that can be shared with the cooks). Not this stupid 2 or 3 dollars + tip.
I waited tables for the better part of 8 years. And its astonishing to me how many people dont understand what a person to be making between $2-$3 an hour. At the end of an 8 hour (more than likely 9 hour) shift thats less than $30. For your entire day. I do agree a person needs to work for it. I myself try to go above and beyond because your wallet is literally my paycheck. And its funny that alot of you assume that everyone in the service industry is un-educated. Lol, espeacially in these recent times. I have had customers who have never been to college, and yet I am a year shy of a BS in Psych. I have come across people working the fast food industry with college degrees (one in particular was working on a MS in Political Science.) So as to the "get another job" comments.. I have one question?? Where is this comfy 9-5 40 hour a week job where I actually get to use to the education and skills we paid for? I WOULD LOVE to have a job that doesnt involved getting yelled at by rude customers, cleaned up after those who think that we are a daycare (I have 3 kids of my own. and they dont behave that way..), or had to work a double shift from 6AM til 10PM because someone called in with a hangover. So please.. can the job fairy come my way??? Please?? I'd love to break 30k a year.
Sorry, I disagree. When we go out to eat we're paying for the service of being served our dinners, so that we can get a break from doing it ourselves. Now, I always tip BUT I don't really think that it should be expected of us. I think that should be the owner's job. He/she is providing us a service and he/she then employs people to carry out that service. It should be their job to make sure their employees are paid appropriately for they're preformance, not the customer. I shouldn't have to pay an additional amount for my meal, that's just ridiculous!
Ok see I worked as a carhop where we earned tips as part of our pay we got paid more than most resturan waitresses but it was far from even min wage. (by like 4 bucks or so) yes we get yelled at when the kitchen messes up or the wrong food was sent out or the drinks were wrong or what ever but we also had carhops who just didnt care had bad customer service and then complaind when they didnt get tipped and didnt know why they didnt get tipped. If a waiter or waitress is ignoring me taking forever to come take my order or what not then no the tip will reflect the service. Mandatory on the bill is insane I get for large parties its alot easier for them.
There are places to eat that do not require gratuity... So how about not being such a b---- and try and understand that not all people like to spend $50 for a plate of crappy food. Any food that cost that much can not be worth the price at all.
I do not throw money out the window. If I do eat out its never at a place like that.
Here is my tip to you. Stop being such a snooty ass.
BTW If you have to force people to tip you, You may want to retrain all your staff. The service should be so good that most people leave very generous tips automatically.
I don't expect a 20% tip from every table. Sometimes I get busy and I didn't give a table 20% tips worth of attention. It happens, that's not to say I gave them shit service. If I don't get a good tip I look back on the service I gave and determine if there was anything I could have done differently.
I almost always tip 25% or more. At places like Denny's, I tend to order one meal and share it with my kids, especially for breakast. I often have a bill under $15. So if there's a 20% tip already added to the bill, that means my server is only getting $3 tip. However, if the service was good, I'll tip up to 100% on such a small bill. I get pretty irritated with tips added to my bill. And I usually don't pay more on top of that, because most of the time, the server is the one who makes the choice of whether or not to add the tip. Waitstaff work HARD. Mos of the time. But I'm not going to tip a snarky server, or one that I have to flag down for a water refill because she never comes back to my table after placing my plate, nearly as much as one that works smart, clearing plates on her way to the kitchen, checking on her tables as she walks past them, and making the effort to BE NICE!
I wish we could do away with tipping all together. It's so stressful for me. Just frickin charge me whatever the service is worth and be done with it. Then, if I get really spectacular service, I can go ahead and give above and beyond what it's worth. It should be that way for everything (restaurant, valet, hair, nails, etc).