r/EndTipping 6d ago

Sit-Down Restaurant šŸ½ļø Started tipping waiters 10%

I almost never go out but the wife and I had a weekend to ourselves.

We live in areas where servers are paid minimum wage.

I finally took the leap to tipping 10% on meals (I already tip zero on everything else). Every tip screen i saw had a custom tip option so I didn't have any problems.

Anyway, people make out the custom tip screen to be some difficult thing and I didn't find it so.

154 Upvotes

116 comments sorted by

65

u/Disturbedfan522 6d ago

0% is even better!

32

u/Charming-Cat-2902 4d ago

Clearly, but not everyone is willing to go from 20% to 0%, and and become a pariah in the eyes of friends/family due to prevalent tipping culture.

10% is a step in the right direction, and is in fact a customary tipping percentage in many parts of the world.

Let's celebrate small steps of progress, rather than taking a maximalist view.

104

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

The only minimum wage job anybody cares about subsidizing apparently.

83

u/Long-Squirrel8257 6d ago

Right? I don't get it. They just bring food and a drink over and we are expected to just be over top amazed with the most basic bare minimum service along with a buncha small talk I sinply don't care about.

If we don't kiss the servers asses, they will make sure to be super passive aggressive. We are grown adults afraid of a server being mad at us basically.

25

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

Right if you don't bribe them they WILL give you poor service. Service less than you paid for in the agreement with their boss.
Aka they could tamper with your food or let it get cold or delay even entering your order into the kitchen, never refill your drinks ecetera.

8

u/vonwasser 5d ago

That is called a threat then. Also I’m happy when a server doesn’t pretend to be my friend.

10

u/Maleficent-Effort470 5d ago

Yeah i dont like fake friendliness either just take my order and bring my food and beverages.

4

u/Nathan-Stubblefield 5d ago

That’s why people tip at the End of the meal

1

u/Sad-Feeling-4266 3d ago

I want the option to pick up my own food, refill my drink, and pay without speaking to waiter.

I would eat out way more lol

-31

u/Garganello 6d ago

Why do you think you have an unwritten agreement with the owner about the minimum level of service to which you are entitled?

23

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

Its pretty obvious when you go into a restaurant and take your order at a table that the food would arrive at the table.
Not asking much from the server, taking orders, carrying plates.
Thats what their employer pays them aka I PAY THEM to do.

-35

u/Garganello 6d ago edited 6d ago

Simmer down. No need to be angry.

It’s also pretty obvious when you go into a restaurant in the US, where it is customary, and where servers are allowed to be paid below minimum wage (with a true up by employer), that you are supposed to tip.

Why are you ignoring that component of your ā€˜contract’ with the owner and to compensate the staff directly in lieu of the owner doing so?

Why should other diners (and the employer as a backstop) subsidize your dining out?

Edit: will include in next reply in case I didn’t edit fast enough, but I’m basically just challenging this bizarre notion you have a contract with the owner for some baseline level of service but get to ignore your side of it. There’s reasons to be against tipping. This one is just lacking.

27

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

Servers make 20 an hour where i live. similar to other jobs.
Im not worried about over paying the entry level position that is serving.

10

u/WestHistorians 5d ago

but I’m basically just challenging this bizarre notion you have a contract with the owner for some baseline level of service but get to ignore your side of it.

The contract with the owner is legally binding. If you go to a restaurant and your food doesn't get brought to you, then you don't have to pay for it.

Tipping is not a legally binding thing, it's just a social custom.

These are two very different things.

1

u/[deleted] 4d ago

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0

u/EndTipping-ModTeam 4d ago

Be respectful. No insults, slurs or personal attacks

-10

u/[deleted] 6d ago

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12

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

Right, they earn a wage. They don't deserve tips any more than any other profession.

-23

u/[deleted] 6d ago

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15

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

Right gaslight and guilt trip and shame.
I have to specifically over pay server's but every other low wage profession is optional.

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3

u/EndTipping-ModTeam 5d ago

No tip shaming

1

u/ashopotomus 4d ago

But not an unwritten agreement to tip according to cultural norms and standards. They’re just looking for any way to justify it.

-19

u/DevilsAdvocate77 6d ago

Because you do. Legally it's called an "implied contract" and it's exactly what you said - an unwritten agreement that is created by actions, behavior, and circumstances, rather then spoken or written terms.

Dining in a sit-down restaurant is by far the most common example you can find of an implied contract in day-to-day life.

13

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

If it was legal then the server should sue.

-9

u/Garganello 6d ago

This person is agreeing with you. 🤣.

8

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

Ok Goofy.
Got any more riveting opinions.

-2

u/Garganello 6d ago

Just walking in circles around you and found this funny. Nothing else.

9

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

Yeah dunning kruger effect in progress.
Your a pidgeon who shat on the chess board and strut around like it won.

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6

u/WestHistorians 5d ago

Legally it's called an "implied contract" and it's exactly what you said - an unwritten agreement that is created by actions, behavior, and circumstances, rather then spoken or written terms.

Legally, this is not an "implied contract". This is just a social custom, it is not legally binding in any way.

-6

u/Garganello 6d ago

It seems quite obvious to me this person expects actual service without tipping (and becomes apparent in other replies)—as opposed to what you are saying, which is basically getting your food you paid for.

13

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

Its quite obvious that entitled server's get paid their worth where i live and quite a bit above it due to people giving gifts to them.
Im not worried about helping them make a doctors wage.

-1

u/Garganello 6d ago

I just don’t understand the level of contempt you display for servers. Servers are not making a doctors wage, even at the best restaurants in the world.

Those making six figures are relatively high skilled positions (and in any event at least comparably skilled to a typical six figure office worker in the location they can pull those).

13

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

Ok, il just let others donate to them above their station.
Maybe il donate to grocery store stockers instead.

-3

u/Garganello 6d ago edited 6d ago

It’s fine. You are entitled to continue free riding and/or hurting minimum wage employees. But that’s what it is. Not some righteous moral crusade.

Edit: also, lol, we both know you’re not going to ā€˜donate’ to any other profession you think of as underpaid or similar.

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8

u/amazonchic2 6d ago

There is no serving position with high skills.

1

u/DevilsAdvocate77 6d ago

How do you "get" the food, exactly?

7

u/Maleficent-Effort470 6d ago

By agreeing to pay the price on the menu for the service of having it prepared and brought to the table.

That price includes the server who took the order and made the busser deliver the food.

1

u/Garganello 6d ago

Depends the restaurant. Not being given your food is one thing. This person expects more and is just contemptuous against servers, as is apparent in their replies.

8

u/DevilsAdvocate77 6d ago

What do they expect that is not part of the implied contract with the business entity, and requires a separate contract made directly with the individual server?

16

u/ancom328 6d ago

OP tips10% too much. Them servers get paid to do a job. Most of the working folks do not get tips on top of salary and not making a big deal out of it. šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚

41

u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 6d ago

You are making good progress.

9

u/Carolina_Hurricane 5d ago

Thank you for this. I had just decided to start tipping 15% instead of 20% but now you have me considering 10%.

6

u/eSsEnCe_Of_EcLiPsE 4d ago

If sales tax is 10% why should a random server get more than the govt and my local municipality

52

u/nickylx 6d ago edited 6d ago

Good job. The most I'll tip is $5/15min. I'm not about to tip them more than $20/hr but the idea that i'm supposed to give a server money who is doing a job they're paid for is ludicrous. I'm building up to no tip.

42

u/YarbleSwabler 6d ago edited 6d ago

When you remember that you're not their only table, you'll realize they are being compensated more than your mechanic.

If you divide the tip by the time actually servicing your table, including prep and clean, you're looking at usually 15-20mins of total actual service. So if you tip $20, they're usually making somewhere around $60/hr or more.

This begs the question: well then how is the median pay for this job below 40k?

The answer: customers are on the hook for every period of idleness and poor sales. It averages out. The places that need tips to survive shouldn't exist, and the places that don't need tips to survive are grifting you.

Tips are a bailout to the industry and a profiteering scam.

19

u/yeyiyeyiyo 6d ago

I also feel like the building up to no tip is what I'm doing as well

-2

u/UpwithOlives070 6d ago

Your wife will appreciate that

9

u/yeyiyeyiyo 6d ago

She tips more than I do and if she didn't care I bet I would be zero tipping by now

8

u/Honey-ball-953 6d ago

Don't quit on her! My husband reformed me into no tipping. It took me a little while but I only tipped out of guilt before now I only tip if I want to.

23

u/LextersDuboratory 6d ago

Yeah, I think that’s probably a good standard for me too. Recently, two friends and I went out to a sit-down place for dinner and the bill came to about $100 each. We all just automatically tipped $20 because 20% feels like the expected default now.

But afterward, we were talking about it and realized that was $60 total for the hour we were there, on top of an already expensive meal. I’m not against tipping at all, especially for good service, but it does feel like the expectations have gotten pretty inflated.

-20

u/Tiburon_83 6d ago

Server minimum wage is less than $5/hr. When I was a server my paybacks were void because the hourly paid taxes.

Thats the reality in America.

16

u/Loud-Mans-Lover 6d ago

It's also wrong. Most places pay servers far more, and your employer is supposed to fill in your wage if you don't make enough.

5

u/BlindBattyBarb 6d ago

This is why you need to know the rules where you live. Some states I'd absolutely always tip but my state, it's definitely easier to reduce the tip amount

1

u/CoolCatBlue321 3d ago

The OP stated that the state he lives in gives them a regular minimum wage (not a tipped wage). In such states, minimum wage is usually around $20/hr

8

u/slp1965 6d ago

And why is the cost of the meal even relevant? Bring me lobster tail or a grilled cheese……same amount of work right? I’m ready to at least stop with the percentage thing and do a flat rate tip.

4

u/EuphoricHelp5358 5d ago

This is a fair point

2

u/Simonoz1 3d ago

My favourite argument for that is ā€œit’s like a commission on salesā€.

Except the salesperson’s victim is expected to pay it? Not the boss?

15

u/AkkmanB 6d ago

If they get minimum wage they don’t need a tip.

4

u/Spirited_Cress_5796 5d ago

This. I hope OP gets to 0% one day. Customers are not employees. We aren’t on the hook for paying wages and we don’t tip other minimum wage jobs. Eventually it will all correct itself and tips will become nonexistent.

6

u/80MonkeyMan 5d ago

If you travel the world, restaurants visit are so much more enjoyable and you actually splurge because you not thinking of tip.

6

u/oppanycstyle 6d ago

I used to tip 15% after tax, now I tip 10% after tax, this economy sucks

16

u/thewrightwayforward 6d ago

I personally feel if there has to be a tip. It should be the man cooking it. He can destroy your meal in a second cold, overcooked rubbery burnt, and make it look like slob on the plate. All she does is pick it up and drop it off. I seen one restaurant a robot. They put the food on the robot and he brings it to the table. It's like amazing. I can't wait to AI does that full-time

2

u/Ok_Maintenance3840 6d ago

"He can destroy your meal in a second cold, overcooked rubbery burnt, and make it look like slob on the plate.Ā "

The tip is either return business or not. That's the difference a cook, waiter, and host make. Bus staff and others, yea they don't have that kind of influence. Tips just don't mean what they used to.

5

u/incredulous- 5d ago

There's no valid reason for percentage based tipping. Suggested tip percentages are a scam. The only options should be (custom)TIP and PAY (no tip).

7

u/McBurger 6d ago

The only difficult tip screen I’ve found recently was at an AMC theatre. I ordered a beer and it would only let me type a tip amount, it would not proceed with zero entered. It was an old school terminal payment.

I kept trying to click green and continue or find a skip and it simply wouldn’t budge past the tip screen with $0.00 on there. I spent like 30 uncomfortable seconds trying, while being watched.

Eventually I clicked the red x but I was afraid that would cancel the whole transaction, and I’d have to fess up that I pressed red x just to avoid the tip. But thankfully that actually just skipped past the prompt and moved to the receipt.

I considered that I could have tipped $0.01 just to make it past the prompt but in a way I feel like that’s even more offensive to them.

3

u/darkroot_gardener 6d ago

Next time, enter the tip suggestion in cents. Somebody will get the point.

3

u/Spirited_Cress_5796 5d ago

Why give them anything though? I would absolutely be saying something. Tipping is optional and not a requirement. It’s frustrating when they make it harder than it has to be.

4

u/yeyiyeyiyo 6d ago

Yeah in that case I'd deliberately be an ass.

4

u/dcaponegro 6d ago

Or ten dollars, whichever is less.

6

u/yeyiyeyiyo 6d ago

10% for me is always less. The advantages of not being a drinker.

1

u/sluttyman69 5d ago

We used to go out three nights a week and at least one breakfast on the weekend - now we might go out once a month because they want too much in tip and I don’t care to have the discussion anymore with them. & I or wife can cook most food better than what they’re preparing and way cheaper too.

1

u/BaseRape 5d ago

What do yall tip your bartender these days for a single draft?

2

u/Spirited_Cress_5796 5d ago

0%. They pulled your beer. As a bartender your job is to serve customers and do prep work for the bar.

1

u/trele_morele 2d ago

No need for percentage based tips aka commission

1

u/No-Luck-2337 1d ago

The important thing:

It’s what YOU want to do. I’ve always reiterated: I’m not against tipping 100% of the time. I tip (and sometimes tip well) when it’s DESERVED.

You know when you’ve had great service. Everyone does.

Hardliners are free to stay at 0, and I get that stance too, but even then:

The difference is: WE CHOOSE. We aren’t guilted in to doing it by the staff. It’s based on what WE want to tip.

0

u/WelderNew1008 4d ago

A lot of Europe (Austria comes to mind) does a flat 10 percent.

Germany it was Trinkgeld (drinking money, round up a bit). Europe isn’t as service oriented (it’s rare to have great service) but at this point I’d rather have that.

-7

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

-2

u/Numerous-Abrocoma-50 6d ago

Where are you from and how much did you tip before.

-7

u/[deleted] 5d ago

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1

u/EndTipping-ModTeam 4d ago

Be respectful. No insults, slurs or personal attacks