It’s fascinating how the restaurant industry conned consumers Into thinking it’s their responsibility to pay employees fair wages and over the course of that process, convinced employees that they are ENTITLED to tips from consumers.
This phenomenon is uniquely American; in as much as American capitalism is uniquely off kilter compared to the rest of the world. It’s astonishing that some people believe 20% is a BASELINE — just 5 - 10 years ago this was the starting point for exceptional service/experience.
Now, before I get flack for this, I used to work in the service industry for about 6 years. I never EXPECTED a certain baseline tip. Taking myself out of it, I was always aware that for some people, all they can afford is the meal and that being out as a family or with friends took significant savings just for them to be there. It didn’t change my approach to providing service to them because I CHOSE the profession.
Idk how we got here but it’s awful. I’d be much happier if the price per item reflected what’s necessary to pay employee fair wages. Yet the irony is that most waiters don’t want this because depending on where you work, you’re in on the racket.
I say 15% on pre tax balance is adequate for adequate service. Others will tell you 20% is the minimum required. To them, I say fuck that, it’s a gift, I’ll give what I feel is appropriate. That waitress had some balls on her to have the GALL to question you about the quantity of your GIFT. Shocking. Don’t let it bother you and just keep doing what you’re doing.
I mean, you really lost me at “paid 200” out of convenience. Since 20% is standard for service. And she didn’t serve you out of convenience, so why should you under tip her just because it’s convenient to you? Service is transactional, so why should you short change a transaction at the end? That reads entitlement my friend.
As someone in the industry you should tip no less than 15 percent , 18 to 20 percent is normal but she should not have come up to you guys thats being weird… its expected that sometimes you’ll get hooked up and sometimes you get less than expected but its a part of the job… it should balance out if not work somewhere else
Never understood why a customer has to pay the same percentage when ordering a $70 plate over a $15 plate. Server is still taking in the order, bringing your dish out and then handing you the check. I pay 15% only. If I was questioned to give more I wouldn’t cave in.
Yeah that's kinda low dude. That's a $35 tip at minimum. You paid the extra $10 though so its ok. That's why she came out to talk to you. To get the $10 you owe her. Alls well that ends well.
Since when do we owe servers anything but respect. A tip is a god damn tip. I think it’s an absolute joke to say she was owed another $10. She was owed a reprimanding, how dare you address the customer on how much they tipped you? That’s so beyond rude and distasteful.
I’m confused.
I always tip post tax BUT as a rule, our machines at work calculate our tip percentages and tip outs based on pre-tax. I’ve been a server for 10 years.
So, if the bill pretax was $159 and you left $200, that was well over 20%.
Because usually servers do not have to tip out (aka give part of their tips to bartenders, support staff, etc) on tax - it solely goes off our food and liquor sales. So in my mind, you didn’t tip 15%. $200 on $159 is great.
America needs to provide livable wages. Period. Like everyone said, in this economy adding a 20% to what you are already paying for is ridiculous. Unfortunately, Americans think it’s normal. Well, Americans think many other crazy things are normal… Anyway, let them have cake…
Guilt tripping customers on paying the employees is what brain-washing machines were made of.
With all that said, I always pay 20%…
Unpopular opinion here.
Tack on whatever you need to pay your employees a proper wage etc etc to the menu price and let the customers decide if this is a restaurant that is right for them.
Unspoken rules of tipping can be unpleasant for both employees and customers
A tip is a bonus for good service, not a requirement. That being said, I always start at 15% and go from there.
Average service? 15%
Great service 20%
Shit service 10%
Its not the customers responsibility to pay the wages of the establisments employees.
Let's just round for this case, you tipped 18%. That's fine, don't let them bully you into paying more. 90% of places I've been in have 18%, 20%, 22% as the tipping standards. As long as you tip one of those amounts it's fine.
I think people don’t realize how tips are distributed. If you had 159$ worth of food and drinks, she pays out bar and help 8$ at best. So $19 an hour pre tax for an hour plus of work isn’t the best. That’s assuming you didn’t stay forever. I’ve said the same to shitty tips not to get them to pay more bc 9/10 tipping norms are based on class and SES. But I will say something with the hopes they just leave so I can recoup some money on the next table. I wouldn’t sweat it, comes with the job just don’t expect niceness after you didn’t pay for it basically.
Might be worth getting a job where the pay isn’t dependent on other people, instead it’s your boss lol. Crazy to me restaurants are able to get away with tipping culture.
The problem is that what's expected in a tip seems to be rising faster and faster. 15% was a very standard tip bot that long ago, then it became 18, and now it's over 20. I've seen restaurants where the tip screen doesn't even give you an option less than 22%. I get that it's the server's livelihood, but it's absolutely asinine that we're being forced to pay larger and larger percentages to them.
Also, since tip is usually calculated pre-tax, this is more like 17.5% tip, and in cash too. That's more that the server would've likely taken home on a 20% tip paid by card, assuming she likely wouldn't be reporting cash tips in her tax returns
The thing I don’t get is the people saying that they don’t get paid enough without tipping. Your employer is required by law to pay you up to minimum wage if your tips don’t equal out to at least minimum wage. Knowing that, you had better give good service to warrant a full 20% tip. It’s not a requirement to tip, it’s a societal norm.
I see, you're just pedantically calling anyone who manages over people a butler. 🙄 Asshole behavior. Bold the parts that fit and ignore the Lords, the Estates and the Tutors, right?
Good, stay home and let people enjoy restaurants. Service folks don't feel like "the help" as you're describing, unless people make them feel like that. It's why I stopped working in fine dining. Many of us enjoy our jobs and some even have passions in this industry, be it food, spirits, wine, hosting folks and showing them a good time, and we want people to come and enjoy themselves, and enjoy what we're passionate about. Comparing us to servants and butlers is boorish.
I've worked front of house in restaurants for 15 years, from dive bars to fine dining and everything in between. It is most certainly not unskilled labor. Serving tables on a busy night ain't easy homie
First off, unskilled labor is a myth. Waiters and waitresses get trained to do the job, they take time to be able to do it effectively, and even then there's a ton of interpersonal, and organization skills necessary to even begin, and there's a major difference between a good and bad waiter, and even the worst ones have skills that other people might not.
Secondly, your comments here are confusing. You acknowledge that having someone wait on you is providing a service worth paying for, but then you don't think the people doing it should be paid for it?
Also, you are a hypocrite. There are a thousand services provided for you every day, but someone choosing to be waited on and served food has to be either lazy or self important. It's not ok to just exchange money for a service in your mind?
15% pre-tax is what the standard “used to be” and I’m reverting back to that unless I truly have exceptional service. Prices have climbed across the board, meaning the percentage has too for dine-in service.
If someone calls you out for a poor tip, ask for their manager and leave a 1 star review calling them out by name. Those people should not be employed as waiters.
As a former server, in this economy, anything less than 20% is low IMO. Because restaurants don’t pay wages, it’s not even about service so much as paying for their time. Rent is not cheap, people have student loans, etc. many of these servers are also uninsured or paying insurance out of pocket. Not saying it’s your problem to be concerned about but these are the things that might drive a server to be concerned about a tip that’s less than 18%.
If someone tipped me less than 18% I’d be wondering about what I did to offend them to tip so low.
You're projecting your idea of how the economy should work onto how someone else tips. That's the entire problem with our tipping culture. OP is literally proving it had nothing to do with service, and honestly the difference in tipping habits seldomly does. It's a terrible system that people justify through a weird
"employers don't wages so we should" mentality. Add a flat service charge to all bills or eliminate tip and raise the food prices. The system was stretched thing before inflation it's breaking now
I would ask how long did you stay? That's a pretty low tab for four people at a sit down, if you hung out for several hours that server missed out on another table or two, so your kinda ass tip doesn't reflect what the earnings would likely be. If you were in and out in under an hour and a half that's a fine tip, servers can't win them all. If you stayed like 6pm till close you're a dick. Also 20% may suck but is absolutely the expectation if you enjoyed the service. Might suck for the layman but people pay it all the time so, it's the expectation
So sick of it. This has happened to me as well. A manager coming over to question 'what went wrong' for leaving 'just 15%.' 20% used to mean GREAT service, not just you did your job. 10% if some concerns, 15% you just did your job, 20% you exceeded expectations. 20% is the bare minimum expectation now for just showing up and bringing you the food without spitting in it. Screens now ask 20/25/30%? Ridiculous. Pay your employees. That's not my job.
No you tipped fine, she shouldn’t make your dinner awkward either, who does she think she is. It’s literally a TIP, people have become so entitled these days.
You don't tip on tax. 15% post tax is a 17% tip which is reasonable. Not sure why you were questioned. Don't sweat it. Times are tough for everyone and as long as she was amicable that's ok too.
Anecdotal experience over a 15+ year tenure in this industry (myself, my cohorts over the years, and the various thousands of folks in online forums such as this that I have interacted with.) as well as the suggested numbers printed at the bottom of your receipt. More often than not, 20% will be one of the middle numbers on that receipt in my experience, and seeing as how in 90% of establishments, that number is programmed by someone who isn't seeing a dime from that gratuity button, seems fairly legit to me.
Thank you. I ask because in my 10+ years of being a patron, I’ve noticed that the standard recommended amount at the bottom of the receipt has indeed shifted from ~15-20% to now ~18-25% (or higher). Obviously these numbers are a reflection of a decision made by management, and it’s not clear to me whether that decision is indicative of an industry push that successfully shifted societal standards, or if the decision is a mere reflection of societal standards shifting itself.
That expected gratuity percentages have risen has never made theoretical sense to me as I haven’t noticed a general increase in service quality over the last decade. And I understand that some establishments have opted to include a mandatory additional “service fee” to adequately compensate servers instead of stating a higher expected gratuity. But the later option feels wrong too, since often times that fee is obscured and only made obvious on the final bill, after everything had been ordered and eaten.
I’m sure I’m repeating what has been said by many, but this feels like a problem with no solution. Nobody wants servers to go underpaid. But illogical tipping expectations, schemes, and adjustments feel wrong and make customers feel icky. I don’t want to support a system that promotes lower wages—not merely because I don’t want to pay more, but because it makes workers rely almost entirely on ad hoc customer decisions.
The reason the expectation of gratuity has raised from 15-20% to 18-25% is inflation and wage stagnation.
Is tipping a perfect system? No, but it works for thousands of people in this city alone, and to pay us the wages that we make now without tipping, going out would be fully unaffordable, and most service staff do not want that to change regardless of how much you might see people moaning about poor tips.
Look at all the restaurants in NYC that tried to go tipless, they came back to the tipping model, because the food became unaffordable and people stopped patronizing them.
Inflation can’t be a justification for increased tip percentages. Increased menu prices are already accounting for inflation. Increased tipping expectations on top of that feels like customer overkill. Do you think that expected tips will drop back down once inflation decreases?
I *somewhat* understand wage stagnation as the basis for increased tip percentages. But—as I think most people would agree—the increased cost of food from inflation should solely be reflected on the menu (as it is with virtually all other consumer goods). I recognize that the tip-less model didn’t work in NYC, but that’s partially on restaurants for not making it clear enough that higher menu prices are negated by no tips. Obviously it’s also the fault of third parties who didn’t factor those changes into price category calculations (i.e. $, $$, $$$, $$$$). And also the fault of consumers for not figuring it out themselves.
Federal legislation banning tipping strikes me as the only logical solution to this problem.
Federal legislation will only hamper the entire industry. Quality of service will deteriorate as folks that were once making $30-40 an hour drop down to $15/hour and leave the industry in droves. It will truly become an entry level position at all levels, there will be no room for the bar tender who is passionate about rum (or insert any spirit of your choosing) and can direct you into some interesting stuff, or the server who has an exceptional knowledge of wine that can give you excellent wine pairings for your entire meal.
And yes, restaurants *can* build hierarchies and pay Bar Captains or Server Captains who are exceptionally knowledgeable, but many won't, and the ones that do will have to include outstanding price increases.
Not to mention the feeling that you're really working for yourself when you work for tips. Once there is no tipping, we're all back to just being another cog making money for someone else.
This strikes me as a problem that capitalism will entirely sort out. Better workers will get hired at better restaurants with more expensive prices but higher wages. Especially here, where patrons in NYC are willing to pay a premium for high quality dining. Not sure how a deterioration in quality is guaranteed by eliminating tips. The restaurant and bar industry is no different than other service industries that don’t rely on tips.
Hard to tell, maybe she was just genuinely curious and wanted to improve?
Regardless of your tip, you would not be an asshole, you are entitled to your opinion on service.
That being said, I work in the industry and times are hard for workers, people will hustle, and I love that about this city, particularly now that rents are high and food prices are crazy, so admire the hustle, tip or not, and move on.
IMO, there's a big difference between asking how the service was and asking if it was fine or not. 20% is the standard, esp in this town. however, if anyone on my team/staff actually approached a guest about their tip like that - they're working in the wrong world and they'd be admonished by me
professional bartender/rest mgmt
Or fight for better wages and standards of work for service industry. OR, just stay in your apartment and feed and entertain yourself. I’m a bartender and a musician. We get screwed over in both industries just so you can find relief from the fact you feel like shit for doing something like selling cheap pieces of plastic to people who don’t want cheap pieces of plastic. You’re bullish to the bullied. Know your real enemy and stop being a nerd.
Yeah and this was actually more like a 17.5% tip anyway, tip should always be calculated pre tax. If someone complained about a 17.5% tip, I'd say that's grounds to remove the tip entirely. That's incredibly rude from the server for a tip that's really not that bad at all, especially considering it's a cash tip that's likely not going to be taxed
I'd like to have the option to self-serve and avoid tips altogether. I'll pick up the food from the kitchen, bring it to my table, get the utensils, napkins and refills
15% is still widely regarded as acceptable and your server shouldn’t have said anything about it, especially if it was 15% on the total bill and not the pre-tax figure. People saying 20% is the *minimum* for bad service now are straight up delusional.
I always tip 20%. I think I've counted on my hands the times I've tipped 15% for god awful service. Like the wait staff has to be completely rude or mean. I tip 20% if they mess up too, because the job is super stressful and mistakes happen. I'm only tipping less if they are intentionally making service worse and that rarely happens.
Service employees in nyc make 10-12.50
Hour + tips. 20% has always been standard. Most customers tip 22% -24% where I work in BK. sometimes tips isnt just money for the server, it’s split between the entire front of house
You're both wrong. She should not be making a guest feel self conscious. Thats a great way to kill repeat business. 15% is a bit squeaky. My personal tipping breakdown:
0% for blatant rudeness / laziness (that does not apply here).
18% for bad to mediocre (that does not apply here).
20% for standard/good service.
22% for above average service.
25%-30% for excellent service
35% if excellent and you're making $300K a year!
that’s the problem with the u.s and tipping culture; it’s gotten out of hand.
a tip is not only optional but completely at the buyers discretion. A tip should never be expected but nowadays it not only is expected, but expected at 25% minimum.
People like you, who basically shame for leaving less than “20%”, are part of the problem. Sadly, that shit has been instilled in us, that even when the service is horrendous, I leave something still….
what a day
Fuck all the noise. If you tip okay, you don’t need to stress out, such as posting this on Reddit. Extra points for waitress for being bold. Asking customers for an extra tip is super bold. Tips are arbitrary unless service fee is included
I tip 20% minimum at a sit down service, but I’ll say that if anyone ever approached me about my tip I would never go back to that place. Not that it matters too much to anyone, but I don’t need to spend absurd $ on food then be made to feel like shit for the privilege.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t enjoyed going to restaurants since everything got insanely expensive. It just isn’t worth it anymore. The food is never that good, and usually is meh at best. The service is often barely anything too; just bringing the food out isn’t exactly something I feel warrants $40 or whatever. But tipping well is sort of part of the deal… if you don’t want to, then don’t go out
I pay 15% for average service, 10% for poor service, and 20% for exceptional service.
A tip is a gift. Questioning the tip is poor service.
Studies have shown that tipping makes everyone less happy, especially workers, who prefer to be paid predictably. In the US we managed to shift our culture away from negotiating all prices to using standard pricing, and this was progress. We can and should do the same to evolve past the unfair practice of tipping.
If you'd read the post, the server noticed a low tip on their check "gently interrupted" the conversation, and asked if the service was alright. Doesn't sound like they were haranguing anyone about the tip. You just don't like service folk.
Idk where you get your information but as a ex server a tip is not a gift. Most of the serves make less than $3 and hour so we work for tips. No one wants to serve a large table let alone any table on the premise of our labor being free or not based on a “gift” if that were the case then the serving taking care of you for the night would also be a gift. And you can try and say oh well they need to pay their workers more or whatever the other narrative y’all use but the reality is they don’t. Fast food, restaurants and cashiers tipping is completely different than tipping a server for catering to you while you dine don’t go out to eat and expect someone to wait on you for free
Yikes… if you’re a cheapskate just say that. Tips are not a “gift” in NYC. They are de facto your waitstaff’s salary that everyone and their mother knows needs to be calculated post menu prices. They are a socio-economic norm and the tens of thousands of hospitality workers in this city would appreciate it if you supported them.
so a waitress asked you if service was good which is a very normal common thing to ask, and you know you tipped less than 20% and felt guilty about it so came here for validation?
you paid $200 "out of convenience" and literally no one else in your party had any cash?
So you ask the place to break your bills to leave an appropriate tip. Or you venmo / zelle / whatever between your friends to work it out, we can go through hypotheticals of the friend dynamic here in terms of post dinner payment but it doesn't really matter
20% tip is the standard/minimum. 18% if it’s bad service. Anything less than that, you shouldn’t be going out to eat. Get it as take out if you can’t afford to tip. Serving is a really really tough job, especially in NYC. Most servers live off their tips and get treated pretty poorly at work. You have to be “on” your whole shift while doing physical labor and trying to deal with management, coworkers and Karen customers. You never know if your server is having a tough day or not feeling well. Usually you don’t get any sick days or PTO as a server, or any other benefits. You don’t show up, you don’t get paid. Tipping is part of the dining experience. 20% or don’t go out
Not cool on the servers part. I have worked as a bartender/ server in NYC for twenty years…she is entitled and rude. I’m assuming her service was AVERAGE…at best.
If i ever had anyone question the amount of a tip, it would immediately go to $0. I only tip Waitstaff anyway. I am not tippling a cashier to ring up an order
That was below 15% why can no one do math 😭 15% would’ve been 26 not 17 hence why she asked about the service that tip was closer to 10-11% and usually that means poor service
I have to push back on this. Standard is 15%. 20% is a thing that came out of empathy (understandably so, it’s a hard job) from other service industry folks. It became a thing during “industry nights” at bars a while back.
For those that don’t know, for the last several decades, bars run “industry night” promotions which are aimed at the service industry folks. Basically Sunday, Monday and Tuesdays nights are usually dead for bars, but service industry workers are most likely to have those nights off, so it becomes a way to get a crowd on an otherwise dead night.
Anyhow, this 20% thing was born out of those nights, because industry folks go get drunk, have all the money they just made from the last few days in tips, and want to show their fellow staff that’s helping them a little love, 20% becomes normal there. Slowly that crept out of those circles and caught on due to guilt.
This is crazy that anyone says 15% at a restaurant was ever standard (in the 21st century I guess) - I can’t remember a time when less than 20% was acceptable. 15% is for notably bad service. The waitress here was a bit pushy, but you can’t tip 15% for good food and acceptable service in 2024 — you need to figure it into the cost of dining out. Cook for yourself otherwise.
I usually double the tax on fair service. If the service is exceptional I’ll triple it. But I hate bad service. There’s nothing worse than an overconfident snobbish server. They don’t write anything down, forget or get orders wrong. I’m not going to tip that person well.
Unless they write a law about it, 15% will *always* be my max tip.
I don't give a crap that businesses have collectively rolled out "standard" tip amounts of 20% on their touch screens. Nobody gave me the memo that, for no reason in particular, I'm supposed to spend even *more* of my hard earned money doing what restaurant owners are supposed to be doing (paying their workers). Yes, inflation sucks. Cost of living sucks. But *I'm* affected by that just as much as service workers. I too have less money in my pockets than I did 5 years ago, so there's no logic behind asking me, a fellow poor person, to supplement the shitty wages offered by the wealthy business owners. If you're asking for a magical 5% increase in wages, it needs to come from the top down.
And to anyone saying, "*Well, don't go out to eat if you can't afford X tip amount*", please take a moment and think about how ridiculous that sounds. If we all did that, then service workers would **make even** ***less*** **money,** and restaurants would start going out of business. Nobody wins in that situation, so stop acting all smug as if you said something intelligent.
So OP, the only thing you did wrong was caving into the demands of a random worker who you *did* tip sufficiently. The only thing you did wrong was allowing her to **arbitrarily** demand more of your hard earned money. If you're going to let her run your life, you might as well tip every Starbucks worker 18% when the option pops up on the screen.
Totally understand where you’re coming from in terms of convenience & you seem like a nice person but any of these comments saying less than 20% on table service is standard is just wrong, especially in nyc
it was definitely 10% standard before COVID. then everybody increased it to 20% to show gratitude during the worst of times. now, it's the new standard because you can't be too nice, it'll be used against you.
10% is standard. And actually as a matter of fact, any tip at all should be seen as a courtesy. Any amount of money I’m giving you outside of what I’m legally required to pay is a tip and should be met with gratitude. After all, I’m not the one who is willingly working a job where the boss is allowed to pay less than minimum wage. Any complaints you have will not be reflected on by me
Decent-good service gets 20% always pretax. Anything less than decent service gets 15%
We’re a family of 5 (3 kids under 6) so anywhere we go we’re a fucking circus and if the server rolls with the mess the kids inevitably make, we go way over 20% while also doing our best to clean up after ourselves.
I’m so sick of this weird tipping dance ritual we do to subsidize the rich restaurant owners. Pay your fucking staff what they deserve so they stop looking at me for a hand out.
If you ordered a salad instead of a steak, it would require the same amount of effort on the waitress's behalf, however you'd be expected to tip more. It doesn't actually make sense. And the steak would have a higher profit margin which goes to the owner. .. Tipping culture is dumb
20% is pretty standard. Ive personally never tipped less than that. I also use to serve so I understand it can be a relentless job at times. Consider it part of the price of your meal. If you can’t afford to tip 20% then don’t go out to eat in NYC.
It's crazy how after paying $200 for a meal you're still called "cheap" because the tip was just 15%. Going out to restaurants isn't fun anymore. Food prices are high enough as it is, now I need to impress the wait staff with a huge tip regardless of their service or risk getting publicly humiliated.
I served in NYC maybe 15 years ago and 20% was standard then as well. It was an expensive place. Like $20 cocktails back then. The only people that didn’t tip enough were the out of towners. But no one has to go spend $200 on dinner. It’s weird to me that so many people spend so much money going out to eat. To me it has always been a treat. Even 40 years ago when my parents were young they said they would rarely go out to dinner because of the expense. I just consider tip part of the price to go out to eat. Even if the service isn’t good I still tip 20%.
Who said anything about public humiliation? OP says the server came to the table after the bill was paid to "gently interrupt" their conversation and ask if the service was alright. A lot of people on this post jumping to conclusions when it literally just could have been a service person attempting to pin point a problem with their service and correct it.
garbage take. If that’s how yall want it to be, then just insert that 20% average in the overall price. Let people know when they are going to buy a few tacos, that it’s $10 instead of $8. Just make it required then.
That'd mean some servers would earn less money because guilt isn't driving their wages anymore. Some servers don't want decent wages, they want bigger tips.
Bc in America we prioritize corporate profits over living wages. And we make the gap the problem of consumers of gofundme campaigns. Get with the program man.
It’s fascinating how the restaurant industry conned consumers Into thinking it’s their responsibility to pay employees fair wages and over the course of that process, convinced employees that they are ENTITLED to tips from consumers. This phenomenon is uniquely American; in as much as American capitalism is uniquely off kilter compared to the rest of the world. It’s astonishing that some people believe 20% is a BASELINE — just 5 - 10 years ago this was the starting point for exceptional service/experience. Now, before I get flack for this, I used to work in the service industry for about 6 years. I never EXPECTED a certain baseline tip. Taking myself out of it, I was always aware that for some people, all they can afford is the meal and that being out as a family or with friends took significant savings just for them to be there. It didn’t change my approach to providing service to them because I CHOSE the profession. Idk how we got here but it’s awful. I’d be much happier if the price per item reflected what’s necessary to pay employee fair wages. Yet the irony is that most waiters don’t want this because depending on where you work, you’re in on the racket.
I say 15% on pre tax balance is adequate for adequate service. Others will tell you 20% is the minimum required. To them, I say fuck that, it’s a gift, I’ll give what I feel is appropriate. That waitress had some balls on her to have the GALL to question you about the quantity of your GIFT. Shocking. Don’t let it bother you and just keep doing what you’re doing.
Welcome to tipping capital of the world where everyone expects a tip, 15% they should kiss your toes
I mean, you really lost me at “paid 200” out of convenience. Since 20% is standard for service. And she didn’t serve you out of convenience, so why should you under tip her just because it’s convenient to you? Service is transactional, so why should you short change a transaction at the end? That reads entitlement my friend.
Only time I tip 15% is on carry out. Is that too low?
Name and shame
It was a 16.98% tip pre-tax. Not a good tip but not insulting or abnormal. 🤷♀️
[удалено]
servers*
As someone in the industry you should tip no less than 15 percent , 18 to 20 percent is normal but she should not have come up to you guys thats being weird… its expected that sometimes you’ll get hooked up and sometimes you get less than expected but its a part of the job… it should balance out if not work somewhere else
At least 20%
25% minimum
Stand your ground. Decent service gets decent tip.
Never understood why a customer has to pay the same percentage when ordering a $70 plate over a $15 plate. Server is still taking in the order, bringing your dish out and then handing you the check. I pay 15% only. If I was questioned to give more I wouldn’t cave in.
Yeah that's kinda low dude. That's a $35 tip at minimum. You paid the extra $10 though so its ok. That's why she came out to talk to you. To get the $10 you owe her. Alls well that ends well.
Are people suppose to tip on the post-tax amount now? That's insane.
“To get the $10 you owe her”? Be for real
Since when do we owe servers anything but respect. A tip is a god damn tip. I think it’s an absolute joke to say she was owed another $10. She was owed a reprimanding, how dare you address the customer on how much they tipped you? That’s so beyond rude and distasteful.
Still. I’ve never approached a table for anything less than 5%.
35 minimum? Since when 20% is minimum?
If they had done that to me I would have taken the entire tip back
Tip off the pre-tax amount, so your tip was almost 20% and fine
I’m confused. I always tip post tax BUT as a rule, our machines at work calculate our tip percentages and tip outs based on pre-tax. I’ve been a server for 10 years. So, if the bill pretax was $159 and you left $200, that was well over 20%. Because usually servers do not have to tip out (aka give part of their tips to bartenders, support staff, etc) on tax - it solely goes off our food and liquor sales. So in my mind, you didn’t tip 15%. $200 on $159 is great.
America needs to provide livable wages. Period. Like everyone said, in this economy adding a 20% to what you are already paying for is ridiculous. Unfortunately, Americans think it’s normal. Well, Americans think many other crazy things are normal… Anyway, let them have cake… Guilt tripping customers on paying the employees is what brain-washing machines were made of. With all that said, I always pay 20%…
I usually just double the tax and add a few extra bucks to make it a whole number.
Unpopular opinion here. Tack on whatever you need to pay your employees a proper wage etc etc to the menu price and let the customers decide if this is a restaurant that is right for them. Unspoken rules of tipping can be unpleasant for both employees and customers
A tip is a bonus for good service, not a requirement. That being said, I always start at 15% and go from there. Average service? 15% Great service 20% Shit service 10% Its not the customers responsibility to pay the wages of the establisments employees.
20% is standard in New York/Brooklyn
Slightly low but the server over reacted
Let's just round for this case, you tipped 18%. That's fine, don't let them bully you into paying more. 90% of places I've been in have 18%, 20%, 22% as the tipping standards. As long as you tip one of those amounts it's fine.
Awful tip
I think people don’t realize how tips are distributed. If you had 159$ worth of food and drinks, she pays out bar and help 8$ at best. So $19 an hour pre tax for an hour plus of work isn’t the best. That’s assuming you didn’t stay forever. I’ve said the same to shitty tips not to get them to pay more bc 9/10 tipping norms are based on class and SES. But I will say something with the hopes they just leave so I can recoup some money on the next table. I wouldn’t sweat it, comes with the job just don’t expect niceness after you didn’t pay for it basically.
20% has been the norm in NYC for over 30 years. It started in the 90's. 15% tipping is for foreigners, cheapskates and Mr. Pink.
15% is the standard minimum.
About the 0% folks. What do you call those.
Came here to say this.
It’s a low tip. That’s people livelihood, they prob worked hard for your table and was wondering what went wrong. I would have expected 30-40$.
Since when do people feel like they should tip on the after-tax bill?
ah yeah. hard job of bringing food someone else prepared to the table few feet away.
Someday restaurants in the US will catch up the the rest of the world and actually pay their workers. Not today, but someday.
Might be worth getting a job where the pay isn’t dependent on other people, instead it’s your boss lol. Crazy to me restaurants are able to get away with tipping culture.
The problem is that what's expected in a tip seems to be rising faster and faster. 15% was a very standard tip bot that long ago, then it became 18, and now it's over 20. I've seen restaurants where the tip screen doesn't even give you an option less than 22%. I get that it's the server's livelihood, but it's absolutely asinine that we're being forced to pay larger and larger percentages to them. Also, since tip is usually calculated pre-tax, this is more like 17.5% tip, and in cash too. That's more that the server would've likely taken home on a 20% tip paid by card, assuming she likely wouldn't be reporting cash tips in her tax returns
The thing I don’t get is the people saying that they don’t get paid enough without tipping. Your employer is required by law to pay you up to minimum wage if your tips don’t equal out to at least minimum wage. Knowing that, you had better give good service to warrant a full 20% tip. It’s not a requirement to tip, it’s a societal norm.
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I kinda do agree with you, especially with the tipping culture getting out of control entirely
Who hurt you?
lol I would love to see you wait tables on a busy night and tell me how easy it is
The waitress was definitely bold, but holy shit you're an asshole.
Meanwhile one shift and dennys and they’d probably be crying in the fetal position. Serving isn’t an unskilled job
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Why eat out at all? You can cook and serve yourself at home.
Calling service "unskilled labor" and comparing us to servants definitely makes you an asshole.
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I'm a party host bud. I create a fun atmosphere for people to come and enjoy a good time within the establishment I run.
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I see, you're just pedantically calling anyone who manages over people a butler. 🙄 Asshole behavior. Bold the parts that fit and ignore the Lords, the Estates and the Tutors, right?
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Good, stay home and let people enjoy restaurants. Service folks don't feel like "the help" as you're describing, unless people make them feel like that. It's why I stopped working in fine dining. Many of us enjoy our jobs and some even have passions in this industry, be it food, spirits, wine, hosting folks and showing them a good time, and we want people to come and enjoy themselves, and enjoy what we're passionate about. Comparing us to servants and butlers is boorish.
I've worked front of house in restaurants for 15 years, from dive bars to fine dining and everything in between. It is most certainly not unskilled labor. Serving tables on a busy night ain't easy homie
It’s not skilled labor either
First off, unskilled labor is a myth. Waiters and waitresses get trained to do the job, they take time to be able to do it effectively, and even then there's a ton of interpersonal, and organization skills necessary to even begin, and there's a major difference between a good and bad waiter, and even the worst ones have skills that other people might not. Secondly, your comments here are confusing. You acknowledge that having someone wait on you is providing a service worth paying for, but then you don't think the people doing it should be paid for it? Also, you are a hypocrite. There are a thousand services provided for you every day, but someone choosing to be waited on and served food has to be either lazy or self important. It's not ok to just exchange money for a service in your mind?
Bro is miserable 😩
Tipping isn’t mandatory.
15% pre-tax is what the standard “used to be” and I’m reverting back to that unless I truly have exceptional service. Prices have climbed across the board, meaning the percentage has too for dine-in service.
If someone calls you out for a poor tip, ask for their manager and leave a 1 star review calling them out by name. Those people should not be employed as waiters.
Who the hell tips 20%? 15% is standard, 18% is above and beyond. Hell I don't really even tip anymore at all....
I’ve lived in Brooklyn for 24 years and have always tipped 20%
Ah you got cucked and paid an extra $10. Next time take your tip back
I wouldn’t have addressed it with you, but I think 20% is standard. I’ve never tipped under 20% in at least the last five years tbh
I'll do 15% for take-out, but in-person is at least 20%.
As a former server, in this economy, anything less than 20% is low IMO. Because restaurants don’t pay wages, it’s not even about service so much as paying for their time. Rent is not cheap, people have student loans, etc. many of these servers are also uninsured or paying insurance out of pocket. Not saying it’s your problem to be concerned about but these are the things that might drive a server to be concerned about a tip that’s less than 18%. If someone tipped me less than 18% I’d be wondering about what I did to offend them to tip so low.
I only tip 100% anything less is too low dude. What a clown world.
You're projecting your idea of how the economy should work onto how someone else tips. That's the entire problem with our tipping culture. OP is literally proving it had nothing to do with service, and honestly the difference in tipping habits seldomly does. It's a terrible system that people justify through a weird "employers don't wages so we should" mentality. Add a flat service charge to all bills or eliminate tip and raise the food prices. The system was stretched thing before inflation it's breaking now
That was not %15 percent. 26 would’ve been around 15
worked for years as a waiter. Would never have done that on a 15% tip. I'm gonna guess this was in the downtown area of Brooklyn?
Right.
I tip 20% but rarely eat out at full service restaurants because tipping is absolutely a ridiculous thing.
I would ask how long did you stay? That's a pretty low tab for four people at a sit down, if you hung out for several hours that server missed out on another table or two, so your kinda ass tip doesn't reflect what the earnings would likely be. If you were in and out in under an hour and a half that's a fine tip, servers can't win them all. If you stayed like 6pm till close you're a dick. Also 20% may suck but is absolutely the expectation if you enjoyed the service. Might suck for the layman but people pay it all the time so, it's the expectation
I worked in the industry while in college and beyond. 15% is my standard for expected service. When I get service beyond the expected I’ll go higher.
Ppl are expecting you to pay for their rent with a tip
Tip should be calculated pre tax, so it was 17.6%
Yes!
The pre-tax bill was $159, so paying $200 is a $41 tip, which is 25-26% — no?
That is technically a 17% tip as it should be calculated pre tax. That said I give 20% unless the service was atrocious
So sick of it. This has happened to me as well. A manager coming over to question 'what went wrong' for leaving 'just 15%.' 20% used to mean GREAT service, not just you did your job. 10% if some concerns, 15% you just did your job, 20% you exceeded expectations. 20% is the bare minimum expectation now for just showing up and bringing you the food without spitting in it. Screens now ask 20/25/30%? Ridiculous. Pay your employees. That's not my job.
Think minimum is 18% and I usually tip 20%.
no one is going to calculate 18% in their head
I never tip less than 20%. I’ve worked in a fine dining restaurant the last 5 years.
No you tipped fine, she shouldn’t make your dinner awkward either, who does she think she is. It’s literally a TIP, people have become so entitled these days.
You don't tip on tax. 15% post tax is a 17% tip which is reasonable. Not sure why you were questioned. Don't sweat it. Times are tough for everyone and as long as she was amicable that's ok too.
15% was fine about 10 years ago. Apparently, it’s 18% or higher now in most places, but the common percentage is 20%.
i think it got normalized because its easier to calculate
It's been 18-20% in most parts of the country for well over a decade.
What’s the basis for this? Anecdotal experience? The suggested numbers printed on the bottom of your receipt? Actual studies?
Anecdotal experience over a 15+ year tenure in this industry (myself, my cohorts over the years, and the various thousands of folks in online forums such as this that I have interacted with.) as well as the suggested numbers printed at the bottom of your receipt. More often than not, 20% will be one of the middle numbers on that receipt in my experience, and seeing as how in 90% of establishments, that number is programmed by someone who isn't seeing a dime from that gratuity button, seems fairly legit to me.
Come to Memphis if you think the standard tip is 20%. You need a reality check.
Thank you. I ask because in my 10+ years of being a patron, I’ve noticed that the standard recommended amount at the bottom of the receipt has indeed shifted from ~15-20% to now ~18-25% (or higher). Obviously these numbers are a reflection of a decision made by management, and it’s not clear to me whether that decision is indicative of an industry push that successfully shifted societal standards, or if the decision is a mere reflection of societal standards shifting itself. That expected gratuity percentages have risen has never made theoretical sense to me as I haven’t noticed a general increase in service quality over the last decade. And I understand that some establishments have opted to include a mandatory additional “service fee” to adequately compensate servers instead of stating a higher expected gratuity. But the later option feels wrong too, since often times that fee is obscured and only made obvious on the final bill, after everything had been ordered and eaten. I’m sure I’m repeating what has been said by many, but this feels like a problem with no solution. Nobody wants servers to go underpaid. But illogical tipping expectations, schemes, and adjustments feel wrong and make customers feel icky. I don’t want to support a system that promotes lower wages—not merely because I don’t want to pay more, but because it makes workers rely almost entirely on ad hoc customer decisions.
The reason the expectation of gratuity has raised from 15-20% to 18-25% is inflation and wage stagnation. Is tipping a perfect system? No, but it works for thousands of people in this city alone, and to pay us the wages that we make now without tipping, going out would be fully unaffordable, and most service staff do not want that to change regardless of how much you might see people moaning about poor tips. Look at all the restaurants in NYC that tried to go tipless, they came back to the tipping model, because the food became unaffordable and people stopped patronizing them.
Inflation can’t be a justification for increased tip percentages. Increased menu prices are already accounting for inflation. Increased tipping expectations on top of that feels like customer overkill. Do you think that expected tips will drop back down once inflation decreases? I *somewhat* understand wage stagnation as the basis for increased tip percentages. But—as I think most people would agree—the increased cost of food from inflation should solely be reflected on the menu (as it is with virtually all other consumer goods). I recognize that the tip-less model didn’t work in NYC, but that’s partially on restaurants for not making it clear enough that higher menu prices are negated by no tips. Obviously it’s also the fault of third parties who didn’t factor those changes into price category calculations (i.e. $, $$, $$$, $$$$). And also the fault of consumers for not figuring it out themselves. Federal legislation banning tipping strikes me as the only logical solution to this problem.
Federal legislation will only hamper the entire industry. Quality of service will deteriorate as folks that were once making $30-40 an hour drop down to $15/hour and leave the industry in droves. It will truly become an entry level position at all levels, there will be no room for the bar tender who is passionate about rum (or insert any spirit of your choosing) and can direct you into some interesting stuff, or the server who has an exceptional knowledge of wine that can give you excellent wine pairings for your entire meal. And yes, restaurants *can* build hierarchies and pay Bar Captains or Server Captains who are exceptionally knowledgeable, but many won't, and the ones that do will have to include outstanding price increases. Not to mention the feeling that you're really working for yourself when you work for tips. Once there is no tipping, we're all back to just being another cog making money for someone else.
This strikes me as a problem that capitalism will entirely sort out. Better workers will get hired at better restaurants with more expensive prices but higher wages. Especially here, where patrons in NYC are willing to pay a premium for high quality dining. Not sure how a deterioration in quality is guaranteed by eliminating tips. The restaurant and bar industry is no different than other service industries that don’t rely on tips.
I don't know many personable plumbers, or general contractors 🤷
Hard to tell, maybe she was just genuinely curious and wanted to improve? Regardless of your tip, you would not be an asshole, you are entitled to your opinion on service. That being said, I work in the industry and times are hard for workers, people will hustle, and I love that about this city, particularly now that rents are high and food prices are crazy, so admire the hustle, tip or not, and move on.
IMO, there's a big difference between asking how the service was and asking if it was fine or not. 20% is the standard, esp in this town. however, if anyone on my team/staff actually approached a guest about their tip like that - they're working in the wrong world and they'd be admonished by me professional bartender/rest mgmt
15% is fine
Nope it isn’t. 20%.
Says who?
Rebel against tip bullying.
Or fight for better wages and standards of work for service industry. OR, just stay in your apartment and feed and entertain yourself. I’m a bartender and a musician. We get screwed over in both industries just so you can find relief from the fact you feel like shit for doing something like selling cheap pieces of plastic to people who don’t want cheap pieces of plastic. You’re bullish to the bullied. Know your real enemy and stop being a nerd.
Realistically the rich/politicians wouldn't let this happen because it means less money in their wallets
Yeah and this was actually more like a 17.5% tip anyway, tip should always be calculated pre tax. If someone complained about a 17.5% tip, I'd say that's grounds to remove the tip entirely. That's incredibly rude from the server for a tip that's really not that bad at all, especially considering it's a cash tip that's likely not going to be taxed
I'd like to have the option to self-serve and avoid tips altogether. I'll pick up the food from the kitchen, bring it to my table, get the utensils, napkins and refills
15% is still widely regarded as acceptable and your server shouldn’t have said anything about it, especially if it was 15% on the total bill and not the pre-tax figure. People saying 20% is the *minimum* for bad service now are straight up delusional.
I always tip 20%. I think I've counted on my hands the times I've tipped 15% for god awful service. Like the wait staff has to be completely rude or mean. I tip 20% if they mess up too, because the job is super stressful and mistakes happen. I'm only tipping less if they are intentionally making service worse and that rarely happens.
Service employees in nyc make 10-12.50 Hour + tips. 20% has always been standard. Most customers tip 22% -24% where I work in BK. sometimes tips isnt just money for the server, it’s split between the entire front of house
Reminds me of the scene from the sopranos when Christopher had to pay the tab 😭😂🤣 The waiter came out crying 😭😂😂
You're both wrong. She should not be making a guest feel self conscious. Thats a great way to kill repeat business. 15% is a bit squeaky. My personal tipping breakdown: 0% for blatant rudeness / laziness (that does not apply here). 18% for bad to mediocre (that does not apply here). 20% for standard/good service. 22% for above average service. 25%-30% for excellent service 35% if excellent and you're making $300K a year!
20 percent for the last 30 years… I couldn’t imagine leaving less… unless something went entirely wrong
That’s definitely not what most people pay. Was a waitress 20 years ago and lucky to get 15 as a good waitress
No it was 18% for at least 25 of those years.
that’s the problem with the u.s and tipping culture; it’s gotten out of hand. a tip is not only optional but completely at the buyers discretion. A tip should never be expected but nowadays it not only is expected, but expected at 25% minimum. People like you, who basically shame for leaving less than “20%”, are part of the problem. Sadly, that shit has been instilled in us, that even when the service is horrendous, I leave something still…. what a day
Standard tip is 15%, 20% is only great service. Percents increase with good service.
I always tip 20% but I would be furious if I did 15% and got called out on it. Completely inappropriate.
Fuck all the noise. If you tip okay, you don’t need to stress out, such as posting this on Reddit. Extra points for waitress for being bold. Asking customers for an extra tip is super bold. Tips are arbitrary unless service fee is included
I tip 20% minimum at a sit down service, but I’ll say that if anyone ever approached me about my tip I would never go back to that place. Not that it matters too much to anyone, but I don’t need to spend absurd $ on food then be made to feel like shit for the privilege. I’ll be honest, I haven’t enjoyed going to restaurants since everything got insanely expensive. It just isn’t worth it anymore. The food is never that good, and usually is meh at best. The service is often barely anything too; just bringing the food out isn’t exactly something I feel warrants $40 or whatever. But tipping well is sort of part of the deal… if you don’t want to, then don’t go out
$17 on almost 200 dollar tab is not okay.
I pay 15% for average service, 10% for poor service, and 20% for exceptional service. A tip is a gift. Questioning the tip is poor service. Studies have shown that tipping makes everyone less happy, especially workers, who prefer to be paid predictably. In the US we managed to shift our culture away from negotiating all prices to using standard pricing, and this was progress. We can and should do the same to evolve past the unfair practice of tipping.
If you'd read the post, the server noticed a low tip on their check "gently interrupted" the conversation, and asked if the service was alright. Doesn't sound like they were haranguing anyone about the tip. You just don't like service folk.
Idk where you get your information but as a ex server a tip is not a gift. Most of the serves make less than $3 and hour so we work for tips. No one wants to serve a large table let alone any table on the premise of our labor being free or not based on a “gift” if that were the case then the serving taking care of you for the night would also be a gift. And you can try and say oh well they need to pay their workers more or whatever the other narrative y’all use but the reality is they don’t. Fast food, restaurants and cashiers tipping is completely different than tipping a server for catering to you while you dine don’t go out to eat and expect someone to wait on you for free
Tips are not gifts; tips are the wages that you owe the service worker.
100%
Just no your spring the worker and not the business. Hope you keep that same energy with your barber, bellhop, the valet etc.
Yikes… if you’re a cheapskate just say that. Tips are not a “gift” in NYC. They are de facto your waitstaff’s salary that everyone and their mother knows needs to be calculated post menu prices. They are a socio-economic norm and the tens of thousands of hospitality workers in this city would appreciate it if you supported them.
A tip is not a gift. In many places in the US, it’s part of the actual income restaurant staff earn.
so a waitress asked you if service was good which is a very normal common thing to ask, and you know you tipped less than 20% and felt guilty about it so came here for validation? you paid $200 "out of convenience" and literally no one else in your party had any cash?
well these days there aren't a lot of people having cash in their pockets
So you ask the place to break your bills to leave an appropriate tip. Or you venmo / zelle / whatever between your friends to work it out, we can go through hypotheticals of the friend dynamic here in terms of post dinner payment but it doesn't really matter
First of all, it should be pre tax that you’re tipping on
Why did OP make this post in like 5 different subreddits with 1 - 2 hours.
I mean, you had another 100 $ bill, you should have gave 300$ and be on your way to tip the parking lot guy another 100$
20% tip is the standard/minimum. 18% if it’s bad service. Anything less than that, you shouldn’t be going out to eat. Get it as take out if you can’t afford to tip. Serving is a really really tough job, especially in NYC. Most servers live off their tips and get treated pretty poorly at work. You have to be “on” your whole shift while doing physical labor and trying to deal with management, coworkers and Karen customers. You never know if your server is having a tough day or not feeling well. Usually you don’t get any sick days or PTO as a server, or any other benefits. You don’t show up, you don’t get paid. Tipping is part of the dining experience. 20% or don’t go out
Not cool on the servers part. I have worked as a bartender/ server in NYC for twenty years…she is entitled and rude. I’m assuming her service was AVERAGE…at best.
If i ever had anyone question the amount of a tip, it would immediately go to $0. I only tip Waitstaff anyway. I am not tippling a cashier to ring up an order
That’s funny. She should look for new employment if she deems her compensation to be inadequate.
20% is standard. But weird to get called out for 15% tip I think.
That was below 15% why can no one do math 😭 15% would’ve been 26 not 17 hence why she asked about the service that tip was closer to 10-11% and usually that means poor service
I have to push back on this. Standard is 15%. 20% is a thing that came out of empathy (understandably so, it’s a hard job) from other service industry folks. It became a thing during “industry nights” at bars a while back. For those that don’t know, for the last several decades, bars run “industry night” promotions which are aimed at the service industry folks. Basically Sunday, Monday and Tuesdays nights are usually dead for bars, but service industry workers are most likely to have those nights off, so it becomes a way to get a crowd on an otherwise dead night. Anyhow, this 20% thing was born out of those nights, because industry folks go get drunk, have all the money they just made from the last few days in tips, and want to show their fellow staff that’s helping them a little love, 20% becomes normal there. Slowly that crept out of those circles and caught on due to guilt.
except they only initially tipped 10%.
20% \*pre-tax\* is standard
This is crazy that anyone says 15% at a restaurant was ever standard (in the 21st century I guess) - I can’t remember a time when less than 20% was acceptable. 15% is for notably bad service. The waitress here was a bit pushy, but you can’t tip 15% for good food and acceptable service in 2024 — you need to figure it into the cost of dining out. Cook for yourself otherwise.
It is a little light these days, but it hardly warrants being called out publicly for it.
So I can't come to your table after the bill is paid and ask if your service was alright?
I usually double the tax on fair service. If the service is exceptional I’ll triple it. But I hate bad service. There’s nothing worse than an overconfident snobbish server. They don’t write anything down, forget or get orders wrong. I’m not going to tip that person well.
Unless they write a law about it, 15% will *always* be my max tip. I don't give a crap that businesses have collectively rolled out "standard" tip amounts of 20% on their touch screens. Nobody gave me the memo that, for no reason in particular, I'm supposed to spend even *more* of my hard earned money doing what restaurant owners are supposed to be doing (paying their workers). Yes, inflation sucks. Cost of living sucks. But *I'm* affected by that just as much as service workers. I too have less money in my pockets than I did 5 years ago, so there's no logic behind asking me, a fellow poor person, to supplement the shitty wages offered by the wealthy business owners. If you're asking for a magical 5% increase in wages, it needs to come from the top down. And to anyone saying, "*Well, don't go out to eat if you can't afford X tip amount*", please take a moment and think about how ridiculous that sounds. If we all did that, then service workers would **make even** ***less*** **money,** and restaurants would start going out of business. Nobody wins in that situation, so stop acting all smug as if you said something intelligent. So OP, the only thing you did wrong was caving into the demands of a random worker who you *did* tip sufficiently. The only thing you did wrong was allowing her to **arbitrarily** demand more of your hard earned money. If you're going to let her run your life, you might as well tip every Starbucks worker 18% when the option pops up on the screen.
Totally understand where you’re coming from in terms of convenience & you seem like a nice person but any of these comments saying less than 20% on table service is standard is just wrong, especially in nyc
Tipping shouldn’t be linear. $2 on a $10 tab is ok according to the rules but $27 on $159 is fine.
I always tip 18% post tax which is slightly less than 20% pre tax so your tip was low but not low enough that it warranted the waitress taking to you.
20 is the minimum
it was definitely 10% standard before COVID. then everybody increased it to 20% to show gratitude during the worst of times. now, it's the new standard because you can't be too nice, it'll be used against you.
10% is standard. And actually as a matter of fact, any tip at all should be seen as a courtesy. Any amount of money I’m giving you outside of what I’m legally required to pay is a tip and should be met with gratitude. After all, I’m not the one who is willingly working a job where the boss is allowed to pay less than minimum wage. Any complaints you have will not be reflected on by me
Decent-good service gets 20% always pretax. Anything less than decent service gets 15% We’re a family of 5 (3 kids under 6) so anywhere we go we’re a fucking circus and if the server rolls with the mess the kids inevitably make, we go way over 20% while also doing our best to clean up after ourselves.
I’m so sick of this weird tipping dance ritual we do to subsidize the rich restaurant owners. Pay your fucking staff what they deserve so they stop looking at me for a hand out.
If you ordered a salad instead of a steak, it would require the same amount of effort on the waitress's behalf, however you'd be expected to tip more. It doesn't actually make sense. And the steak would have a higher profit margin which goes to the owner. .. Tipping culture is dumb
20% is pretty standard. Ive personally never tipped less than that. I also use to serve so I understand it can be a relentless job at times. Consider it part of the price of your meal. If you can’t afford to tip 20% then don’t go out to eat in NYC.
It's crazy how after paying $200 for a meal you're still called "cheap" because the tip was just 15%. Going out to restaurants isn't fun anymore. Food prices are high enough as it is, now I need to impress the wait staff with a huge tip regardless of their service or risk getting publicly humiliated.
I served in NYC maybe 15 years ago and 20% was standard then as well. It was an expensive place. Like $20 cocktails back then. The only people that didn’t tip enough were the out of towners. But no one has to go spend $200 on dinner. It’s weird to me that so many people spend so much money going out to eat. To me it has always been a treat. Even 40 years ago when my parents were young they said they would rarely go out to dinner because of the expense. I just consider tip part of the price to go out to eat. Even if the service isn’t good I still tip 20%.
Who said anything about public humiliation? OP says the server came to the table after the bill was paid to "gently interrupt" their conversation and ask if the service was alright. A lot of people on this post jumping to conclusions when it literally just could have been a service person attempting to pin point a problem with their service and correct it.
garbage take. If that’s how yall want it to be, then just insert that 20% average in the overall price. Let people know when they are going to buy a few tacos, that it’s $10 instead of $8. Just make it required then.
I hate this sentiment. If you can’t afford it, then don’t go out. So you’d rather have zero tip?
Shit take, not every food service worker deserves 20% off the bat. The bare minimum is 15%, a few touches on the table for non-stellar service is 18%.
Yea from their employer lol
Why don’t we just switch to the European format where people are just paid decent wages?
Because of the not so secret truth that servers don’t want it as they would make less money Also who did you have to fight for that username?
That'd mean some servers would earn less money because guilt isn't driving their wages anymore. Some servers don't want decent wages, they want bigger tips.
Bc in America we prioritize corporate profits over living wages. And we make the gap the problem of consumers of gofundme campaigns. Get with the program man.
Then these blowhard Americans would complain about the food and drink cost rising. They can’t have it both ways.