My first real job was a server (I called myself a waiter at the time). I was 16 and I busted my ass. I made like $7, so the tips actually made it worth it. I also only worked 4-5 hour shifts.

If you're not tipping because you think a server makes more per hour then you, that makes you a dick. You try running back and forth between a hot kitchen and literally taking orders from people and fanmilies with yelling children.

I'll usually round up, start very minimally at 20-25%, but then round up after that. If I get a $37 bill, and the service is good, I'll make it an even $50.

Servers get tips because they a) have to WAIT on you and do your bidding!! b) make less per hour c) work SHORTER shifts.

Servers get tips as a token of appreciation from the customer. Most people think I'm a cheap bastard because I order water.... but really, I don't drink many other beverages and it leaves more I can tip them. Because I usually change something or add something. So if they handle it well they get more money. If not so well they still get tipped well.

If you refuse to tip, then don't go to a sit down restaurant. I'm VERY cheap with my money, but if I go to a sit down restaurant, the waiter will get tipped well. 

I'm surprised Space Jockey linked that thread as I thought he embarrassed himself enough the first time 5 years ago. He's a very proud Mr. Pink.

Maybe it was a state by state thing, but I thought there was a legal decision a few years back that prevented managers from pooling and splitting tips between front of the house and back of the house.

It was specifically about cooks and managers dipping their fingers in the tip pool, but I thought I recalled it barring pooling in general to fully prevent it.

Because as a practical matter nobody but wait staff is supposed to be tipped staff. Everyone else in the establishment is under standard non tipped wage rules.

Screw tipping. I'd never tip, unless it's butler-esque service.
I'm already paying for the food, the employer should pay the wages.

If you feel this way, you shouldn't eat out.  You've clearly never worked in the service industry. 

Not sure how it is over there in Norway... 

 

Tipping is not the norm in Norway. Some places ask for it, but most don't. Waiting staff usually earn enough to make a living without tips, although there are definitely the odd outliers. The idea of laying down a 20 percent sur-charge on a simple meal is absurd to me, especially on top of all the taxes and fees we already pay on nearly everything. But I get it, the situation in USA is hardly comparable to Norway.

And to be fair, you don't know which industries I've worked in.

Can I also just say, that tipping on fast food is ridicilous. That's a weird and rude thing to even consider asking for.
Different cultures.
 

It's the norm in North America but it's not in a lot of the world. The few people I've talked to about it from Europe absolute hate tipping and dislike that we bring this practice over from across the pond. I think in some Asian countries it's actually insulting or the tip will often be rejected. It does create issues here with some people as it's an unwritten expectation and they feel like they are paying extra that the employer should cover. Also, as some have stated, tips are often funneled back to more than just the servers and cook staff - managers have been known to take a cut of the tip pool which I am not exactly in favour of.

Your second statement about decent service is so true. I would say it's essentially a coin flip when I go to dine out if I am going to get good service. I'll often have longer than normal wait times, poor drink service, or find myself calling the server over multiple times. Very frustrating. A lot of servers feel entitled to a tip and I hate that.

The fast food thing seems to be limited to non-burger joints up here. McDonalds, Wendy's, etc. never see tips but places like Subway almost always have a tip option on the debit machine that you manually have to enter $0. Some machines have a 'add tip (yes/no)' option but most say 'Tip Amount' with a '%' or '$' option making you pick one and enter zero. I'm sure it guilts a lot of people into tipping that don't want to.

I generally agree about the self-checkouts but probably not for the right reasons. I like them partly because what we mentioned about poor service. Most times I would rather scan a few items myself and just get the hell out of there than wait in a long line with a slow cashier and potentially get stuck behind someone with an issue. Having said that, they do remove jobs from the economy (although that's part of evolving) and cut costs to the business which certainly aren't passed down to the consumer. The one thing that bothers me specifically about the ones at Walmart is that they ask you twice if you scanned your items correctly while there is a camera right in your face. It's insulting as a customer to have a fucking machine verifying that you're not stealing. If stealing increases because of these machines then make other adjustments rather than badgering a paying customer with a bunch of prompts asking if I'm doing their job correctly while being closely monitored.

At a sit-down place, 18% is my baseline. If it's poor service, then I give 15%. If it's good or I was part of a large party with more complicated orders, I'll give 20% or more. I have never and will never tip for carry out or fast food. That's ridiculous.

It's definitely not the norm in the US, at least for the multinational chains and what not (delivery is the exception, especially the ones where the driver uses their own vehicle.) If McDonald's started asking us to tip their staff, there would be ridicule and angry op-eds for years.

Small Mom and Pop stores have a tip jar, but there's no real standard for tipping. Most just drop their excess change in that and the staff split it.

Why exactly shouldn't non-tippers eat out?  Because we refuse to not pay an OPTIONAL fee?  It's OPTIONAL, not required.  This line of thinking iss asinine and you know it.  The fact that people can't wrap their head around the fact that it's OPTIONAL to tip is the problem.  Not tipping does not make a bad person, no matter your opinion on it.

Thank you. Serenity now!
 

It's a societal norm.

You could also go to a wedding, kids birthday party, etc. And not bring a gift. Hell you could also not buy anyone a single present at Christmas. Theres no legal laws enforcing that. But it is a societal norm and expected.

If you cant tip then dont go out to eat. Or, how about telling that to the sever when you sit down instead of ducking out like a coward at the end. Sit down and tell your server that no matter how hard they work your societal views will prevent you from tipping. See how that conversation goes.

My standard going into a restaurant is 20%. I take away $1 for every instance of potentially bad service. If I have to call the waiter over to get my drink refilled, that's a dollar I'm keeping. If they don't ask how my meal is, that's another dollar.

Conversely, if they nail it and keep my kids happy, I'll tip up to 35% or even 50% at lunchtime when menu prices are a little less.

At the bar, it's a dollar a drink. If I'm gonna be drinking for a while, the first couple few, I'll tip $2 to keep the bartender interested. If you comp me a drink, I'll usually tip half the amount up to the full price of the drink.

I don't tip for fast food or if I'm bussing my own table. Takeout, I'll usually throw a dollar in the tip bucket or the leftover change if the order is small.

I disagree.

Going to a family/friends' wedding, birthday party, etc. is NOT the same as not tipping.
They are both more or less societal norms, you're correct in that. However, the American tipping culture is something quite "special", and not something you necessarily see elsewhere in the world. It exists elsewhere, but this 20 percent thing isn't comparable to not attending a wedding.

Who is the biggest asshole? The guy not tipping, or the guy ignoring his friends' weddings/birthday parties. Give me a break.
 

I don’t know what the laws were back then, but I got totally screwed over by pooled tips.

It was my first real job. I was a server at a pool in a gated community. There was a good stand, and people could order meals or have one of us servers do it instead. The system was set up horribly, and it was incredibly inefficient. I had to wait in line with other customers—no special server window—and if a customer hadn’t given me enough money, I had to leave the line to get more and then had to get in the back of the line again. The people who ran the food stand would also just leave early if the stand slowed down, so although they were supposed to open until 5 or something like that, they would leave at 2 if it slowed down too much. Then I’d go to bring in an order, and I’d have to then tell the people there was no food since the stand closed. It was a mess.

Anyway, my employer had a new system for taking digital payments. Customers could use their card from the gated community to pay, since it would be charged to their account. Initially, they couldn’t figure out how to make tips work, so if a customer wanted to pay with their card and had no cash, I got no tips at all. That means if the other servers got cash customers and I didn’t, I got no tips while they got tips. It really sucked.

They finally figured out how to do tips, but they couldn’t figure out how to direct them, so it all got pooled. So again, if I got card customers and my coworkers got cash, they got all the cash tips and I had to split my card tips with them. This actually happened frequently. Customers had their favorite servers (mainly, whoever served them the first time they came). By sheer bad luck, I got card customers, and my coworkers (one particularly) got cash. There were only three of us employed, so it wasn’t like it was a huge amount of choice. Anyway, I would watch my coworkers walk away with huge tips (one guy in particular had a customer who would regularly tip ridiculous amounts—I’m talking 100-150% of the bull), while I got card tips that my coworkers then got part of the cut. It was the worst! Never worked there again.
 

It used to be a societal norm to have slaves, insult gay people and lynch someone who looked at you wrong.  At the time they were seen as normal and just fine.  You don't have to follow societal norms just because everyone else is doing it.

I'm all for a little cash giving for weddings and I'll make exceptions for my niece and give her a small gift, but other than that gift giving is just commercial BS for the most part. With exception for a few small gifts for my wife I can't remember the last time I bought something for someone for Christmas or their birthday. Haven't exchanged gifts with my family for years. Most people need less stuff... not more.

Those are horrible analogies in this instance, in my opinion.  

Here is the way I look at it --- the tipping culture, the tipping norm, that we have here in the US, is not just 'tradition,' it is not just a societal norm.  It is built into the economic structure of how these people are compensated and earn a living.  In the majority of places around the US, the technical wage that is paid to a server is well below the minimum wage.  This is legally allowed (whether you agree with it or not) because the tipping system makes it such that they are able to earn a minimum wage (ideally) through the combination of their wages and tips.  It is a standard in the industry and is a vital component of the compensation structure.

So, given that this structure exists in most places, regardless of whether anyone agrees with the model or not, if someone participates in the system but does not tip, they are essentially freeloading off of the other people who do tip.  Legally, yes, the tip is "optional" and you are under no obligation to do so.  But by deliberately choosing NOT to do so under any circumstances, someone is enjoying the benefits without paying for it.  Part of the reason your food costs what it does, is because of the tipping system.  If all of a sudden, employer's payroll costs quadrupled because the server wage went away, tipping went away, and they had to pay minimum wage or higher, do you think that your meal would cost exactly the same?  I believe that it would cost more.  So by not tipping at all, someone is essentially getting an unfair discount.

Maybe it isn't a perfect system.  Maybe it isn't a good system.  I don't know.  But at least in the majority of places, this is the system right now.  Try to really think about the economics of what I said above - this isn't about ridiculing or criticising people for their opinion about tipping, it is about pointing out the cost/benefit structure as I explained above.


 

Employers have to pay the difference between wait staff wages and minimum wage.

Tipping sucks. I hate every aspect of it. I shouldn't have to dangle a tip in a servers face to get their best service, nor should I ever have an automatic gratuity added to a bill (especially at a serve yourself buffet).

Again, nobody said it's required, but it's considered rude to not tip when you're being served on (particularly if they do a good/great job).  Tips are generally to be earned, and are a huge component and driver of the job.  Clear difference between a lawful requirement and a societal norm.  To ignore this component of dining out is extremely selfish in my opinion (and I'd also suggest to do carryout and/or cook at home if you're strong opposed).

It's funny you say slaves, because what are slaves?  Servers haha - and they weren't free either!   

I like Jone's point.  When your kid has a birthday do we throw them a birthday party and/or give them gifts?  Why?  Societal norm literally that's it (bet the Cavemen didn't do it!).  I think it's very comparable.

For the other parts of the world where this is different - their societal norms are clearly different and it should not be expected that they carry from society to society.

 

"Particularly when they do a great job"

That should be happening regardless if someone is paying an optional fee, otherwise you're a shitty employee.

So theoretically let's say, you're waiting tables and making a low hourly income.  Would you be 100% onboard with providing excellent top-rate service and not getting a penny in tips - all day every day?

 

First, I’d never work a job that relied on tips. Second, my point stands. If you don’t like your job, find a new one. There’s no reason to be pissy towards people you feel entitled to finish paying your salary for work you’re already being paid to perform. 
 

100% ignored the question haha - your response is irrelevant.

 

I answered it. Sorry you don’t like the answer. If your happiness is based on your wage, you’re a hollow person. Simple as that.