Ok that's one restaurant down. Now can we get a directory of every single restaurant across America so we can make informed choices.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Are you cheap if you don’t tip? (American tipping culture)
- Thread starter DongBeetle
- Start date
Like I said, fast food doesn't mandate tips. If you don't know what fast food is and what the difference is between that and a sit down restaurant, go into a place and see if it has a tip section on the receipt (not a tip jar, anyone can put a tip jar up).
We don't tip in the UK. I'm not sure what the wages are like in the USA, but surly a way to combat this would be to pay the staff a decent living wage? If the staff have to rely on tips to live, it would suggest the business they work for isn't paying them enough.
You lost me on the employee's boss and landlord part. Are you saying that many restaurants in America allow waitstaff to live there?
What is a walk-out in that situation? Like someone shoplifting and walking out, or some kind of employee protest where they walk out of the store?
Sure, that's literally the arrangement where I work. None of the waitstaff live there, but all the kitchen staff do. The owner owns the entire building, so the restaurant and the apartments above it. So he is both landlord and boss to all the kitchen staff. Should be pretty clear why that arrangement is wildly unethical. It's definitely not a rare situation either, as many restaurant owners are also real estate speculators who buy the property the restaurant is in.
That's definitely the end goal, but that's not something that the working class can make happen, not with ease anyway.
They're communicating that these are both terrible people, employers who exploit wait staff and landlords who exploit tenants.
We do, it's just not seen as an out and out expectation or default in places that don't put it on the bill.
You can also perfectly legally cross out the "service charge" on a receipt and just pay for the food.
This is something I have done when I have received terrible service.
Depends. It is illegal in a lot of states, but it is legal on the federal level as long as it doesn't cause their net wages to drop below the federal minimum wage.
I'm sure the restaurant just doesn't want to enforce it, but if they give a disclaimer about a service charge before you sit down, aren't you legally obligated to pay it?
edited to add: oh, we're talking about Europe, aren't we...
I very much doubt it. I don't think you're legally obligated to pay for food if it arrives and it is disgusting or doesn't match the menu description, you can decline to eat it and just leave the restaurant (or the restaurant can negotiate a discount should they be so inclined).
The answer is - it depends
"Yes, it may be legal for the restaurant manager to make your friend pay the difference. It depends on the amount deducted from your friend's pay and what state he works in.
Under federal wage-and-hour law, a restaurant can require an employee to pay the loss from the dine-and-dash if it does not cause the employee's wages to dip below the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour for non-exempt employees.
There may be some good news for your friend, though.
A few states, such as New York and California, go further than the federal law, outright prohibiting employers from deducting from employees' paychecks for cash shortages or other business losses. "
Ugh, that is really shit. Good on NY and CA for legislating to stop this practice, which is just downright horrible.
Clearly the way is to be British and pretend like you don't have a lick of common sense. Make a thread / poll for Americans, the average responder would EASILY be able to tell you which is which. This thread is about American tipping culture, if you wanna split hairs and whine about the peculiarities of it, go make a general thread about it.
You can pretend this is oh so confusing all you want, but nobody buys it.
So much for helping your fellow man, unless you're a poor server helping other poor people have a date night.
Yeah, I don't like it.
I had some people run on me and my manager turned to me and said, " Don't feel bad, I'll give you the employee discount."
So, yeah.
So why can't Americans agree about whether to tip for delivery or for a haircut if it's so simple?
Yes, they cannot dock your pay below the minimum wage. Same as they must pay you minimum wage if you don't meet it with tips. Nobody with a tipped minimum wage is getting paid less than the federal/state minimum wage applicable to them.
So if you work 40 hours in a pay period, and minimum wage is (for argument's sake), $10/hr, you will not make less than $400 when any deductions or tips are taken into account. If your tipped hourly wage was $5/hr, but you only made $100 in tips, that'd be 40hr * $5 = $200 + $100 tips = $300. Your employer would have to add $100 to your paycheck to ensure you made minimum wage.
In the same vein, if you had made $300 in tips, and your total pay was $500 that pay period, they could theoretically dock your pay up to $100, so that you meet minimum wage, but not below that.
In practice, very little to no employers are ever going to dock pay for something like a dine and dash as it's just too messy and definitely not worth entertaining any potential legal challenges. It's hardly what most "most places" do. ERA loves to misrepresent the shit out of stuff like this.
Tipped employees also virtually never end up making below minimum wage after tips (and are often well above minimum wage), so the employer matching to minimum wage almost never comes up, but is the law and only the most reckless of establishment would be brazen enough to ignore this law, or a rogue shitty manager.
Sorry, sounds like you have a shit manager. I've voided plenty of mistakes, dine and dashes, etc. I've also caught employees defrauding the restaurant by retroactively and systemically adding discounts (like the employee discount) to cash orders then pocketing the difference ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Hardly means everyone does it.
Some areas of the USA dont ask for tips on haircuts because the barber owns the shop. Delivery? People generally always tip delivery. Ngl
Personally I dont mind tipping drivers or my barber anyway. I value their labor immensely
You seem to have trouble understanding tipping in general. That's the 23rd post in this thread asking a variant of the same question.
Edit:
Serving in the French Quarter can be absolutely insane, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. All the restaurants are open to the street so you have to be vigilant.
But these are stories from what seem a lifetime ago. Service industry life was not sustainable for me even if it was good money, sometimes.
I'm definitely against tipping but I also can't bring myself to take it out on the waiters/waitresses. I realize I just reinforce the system by doing that so I basically have stopped eating out at tipping restaurants altogether (maybe 10 times last year?) I also have stopped eating out in general actually. It's just too expensive
Yes, minimum wage is guaranteed but it will endanger your job. And even though they're getting paid more than minimum wage, most servers make a little more than $18k a year because they're in low end chains or franchises and working part time. Until this situation is fixed: if you're not tipping, especially if it's an empty day at the restaurant, you reap all of your unhappiness in life and in hell.
Yah, I can imagine. I remember my food service days as some of the most exhausting, physically, and mentally demanding of my life. It's definitely not a walk in the park, and definitely something I wouldn't want to do forever. I applaud those with the passion and resolve for it, but yah.
I have no problem with the concept of tipping, and I regularly do it when I receive excellent service or service that goes above and beyond the bare minimum.
I do have a problem with people saying you are cheap if there are any instances where you don't tip someone, except with a bunch of conflicting rules and inconsistent information about exceptions etc.
Some people in this thread are even saying you should tip for mediocre service. Why would I want to rewards/encourage mediocre service?
Because tipping isn't a science and arguably an open-ended question, people have their own viewpoints about it.
imo, Mediocre service gets a mediocre tip. Knowing what you know now about the service industry, if you want to dock their entire pay because the service was mediocre, then you're probably a less than mediocre person. And that's not even getting into what you may consider mediocre.
Generally everyone tips for those services as well. Your false ignorance act is as disingenuous as it is stupid. Reminds me of your borderline offensive takes in that thread about the climate change affects of having children, which were essentially eco-fascist nonsense.
Because some people are cheap twats, like the OP is talking about.
They aren't actually confused (at least when it comes to food stuff, at the very least)
[]
[/QUOTE]
It is also true that a majority of cooks are immigrants who would struggle to serve.
I never considered that restaurant owners want the heated divide between FOH and BOH but it makes sense.
That's wonderful that you share a portion of your tips.
[/QUOTE]
It is also true that a majority of cooks are immigrants who would struggle to serve.
I never considered that restaurant owners want the heated divide between FOH and BOH but it makes sense.
That's wonderful that you share a portion of your tips.
The division between FOH and BOH is absolutely one of the key reasons restaraunt owner's support tipping. It's a huge problem in restaurants and the restaraunt business tends to be really scummy in the way it treats both cooks and servers.
Eh, I wouldn't call it 'wonderful', it's the right thing to do imo. I work at a small place and the cooks and the servers are a team, we have to work like a well-oiled machine in order to do our jobs well and sharing a portion of my tips smooths over any of the animosities that might develop from the wage disparity that can exist (especially at peak times).
Restaurant industry would be way better if there was more solidarity between FOH and BOH but owners don't want that.
This is a very interesting thread and whilst I always tip (even here in the UK), I do find the system odd. Why should I pay more if the food I order costs more - it's not as if the plate is heavier or anything. And plenty of restaurant items have massive mark-ups, so cost of item (in that prices would have to rise by 20% if tipping ceased) isn't a valid excuse.
It also doesn't really make a great deal of sense in terms of the reason I am going (and what is going to cause my enjoyment) is the quality of the food - yet a lot of places do not share tips with kitchen staff. I can't say I've ever had my experience enhanced by a server, anywhere in the world I've been, but I've had plenty where I've been served cold food because they've left it sitting on the pass for an age.
That said, people deserve a fair wage, tipping just seems to be a bit of a grubby way of doing it.
It also doesn't really make a great deal of sense in terms of the reason I am going (and what is going to cause my enjoyment) is the quality of the food - yet a lot of places do not share tips with kitchen staff. I can't say I've ever had my experience enhanced by a server, anywhere in the world I've been, but I've had plenty where I've been served cold food because they've left it sitting on the pass for an age.
That said, people deserve a fair wage, tipping just seems to be a bit of a grubby way of doing it.
I've said it before, but tipping based on price is just an easier way of doing it. It allows the pricier restaurants to attract a higher level of staff commensurate with the experience, and while expense doesn't necessarily grow with service, there is still a relationship. If someone orders a lot of food, that's also usually a lot more work. It's not perfect, of course, but it probably equals out... topping off free water is pretty much equal in service to topping off soda but one gets counted in a tip and the other does not, for instance.
As far as sharing with the kitchen staff, I don't know why that's not more prominent other than the fact that waitstaff is categorized differently and the main cooks probably (not always) make a lot more in base salary. Is it mandated to share with, say, the busboy, or the staff up front, or is that a choice by the server as well?
I tip 18-20%, sometimes a bit more , I like to round my bills. I hate tipping though, wish the restaurants would just pay people a living wage and get rid of this whole bizarre ritual at the end of every meal. Pay people for doing their jobs. Anyways, I always tip, me not tipping won't change anything other than screw up a working persons pay check, I do skip dessert though.
I dunno but this sounds like some communist shit. We don't do that here in 'murica!
waiting tables is an easy job. try laboring on a bulding site
er...yes we do. We don't tip as much and it's not seen as mandatory but if you don't leave 10% for decent service after a sit down mean then that's tight as fuck mate
er...yes we do. We don't tip as much and it's not seen as mandatory but if you don't leave 10% for decent service after a sit down mean then that's tight as fuck mate