Rant: Tip Culture

[33anda3rd]

Diddly not everyone has a career. Some folks have to work a lousy low paying job. Denny's is one of them.

I'm sure the ones near campuses are staffed by students. The Denny's, IHOPs, etc where I live are staffed by tired-looking adults struggling to get by. The ones I've stopped in while road-tripping through the Midwest and South that are near freeways are the same.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

The Denny's, IHOPs, etc where I live are staffed by tired-looking adults struggling to get by. The ones I've stopped in while road-tripping through the Midwest and South that are near freeways are the same.

Same here. Add Waffle House to the list.

[Diddy]

Diddly not everyone has a career. Some folks have to work a lousy low paying job. Denny's is one of them.

I'm sure the ones near campuses are staffed by students. The Denny's, IHOPs, etc where I live are staffed by tired-looking adults struggling to get by. The ones I've stopped in while road-tripping through the Midwest and South that are near freeways are the same.

No not everyone has a career but a job only has so much value and you can't reasonably say it should pay more. My career isn't paying enough right now and I've had to work construction part time this winter to pay bills. I also took a part time job yesterday. It has the potential to become a very lucrative part time job but I'd prefer that farming paid the bills and I didn't have to. It's going to mean time away from my kids which makes it harder on my wife but we can't afford not to at this point.

[Diddy]

I thought this was about tipping not min wage. I guess maybe I'm trying to be positive but I look at tips as an oppertunity to work hard do a good job and make more then min wage. Sat night we were out shopping and went to Red Robin. Not the best place but kid friendly. I left a ten dollar tip. The place was packed, our waitress probably had ten tables. Even if no one else tipped her a dime she made more then min wage. I know there are hours when she won't have many tables but I'm also sure that those other 9 tables didn't stiff her.

[Fat_Bulldog]

Leave it to GRB to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

You guys make too damn much out of "tip culture."

Good grief.

If you get good service, tip accordingly if you can afford to. And find something else to obsess over.

[cardsfansince82]

You're really hung up on this idea that only the 1% goes out and splurges on an $80 bottle of wine. I'm not sure where you live, but where I live that's not reality. People who make $40k/year in Chicago do that. Some people who make even less do. They don't do it every day, or even every month, but on occasion they do. They live in the city, and have a roommate or two who also makes $40k/year. Their 'household income' is over $100k due to the roommate thing and they're young, single, childless, and splitting basic expenses. $80 for a bottle of wine on date night in an upscale neighborhood restaurant (not "fine dining"--that describes a place where $80/bottle is the norm, not the expensive stuff) is not a big splurge for a lot of people in Chicago--provided they see that $80 as a value. The majority of our our customers would never spend that--it's certainly not the core of our business, it's just one thing we do to bring in and satisfy and get some word of mouth among those people who go "Whoa, $80 for this bottle of altesse? It would be $140 in the West Loop, let's splurge because we'll never see it this cheap again?"

You can't judge those people as being part of the problem in this country. Sorry, but you can't. If you're gonna say that then you have to say that someone who buys their kid a $60 video game is the problem too. And the dad who takes the family to a ballgame every summer for $300 for just four hours of entertainment is living the high life that others unfairly can't afford--then you can make [expletive] comments in quotes about how a baseball game is "only" $300 for a family and insinuate that DeWitt is catering to the super wealthy, for shame, for shame.

Once again you are either misunderstanding my point or intentionally misrepresenting it. You brought up corporate chains and said they are the problem. All I did was point out that they exist because that's what the majority of people want and can afford. I have nothing against rich people or high end restaurants or anything like that. Your solution seems to be that restaurants should be more like yours, better food and much higher prices. I sincerely doubt you pay your servers much more than the average chain out of your own pocket. If your servers are making a good living, it's because your customers are giving them 15-20% on much higher bills than the corporate places. And I'm saying there is definitely an upper limit on just how many places can survive using that model, even in a big city. The corporate places could easily afford to pay their people minimum wage instead of $2.13, probably without even raising prices (although the definitely would). But that's only another $10k a year at best, still not enough for them to make a decent living. There's not really an easy solution to those people making a better living and still keep the food affordable for customers whose own wages aren't getting any better.

[Arthur Dent]

I thought this was about tipping not min wage. I guess maybe I'm trying to be positive but I look at tips as an oppertunity to work hard do a good job and make more then min wage. Sat night we were out shopping and went to Red Robin. Not the best place but kid friendly. I left a ten dollar tip. The place was packed, our waitress probably had ten tables. Even if no one else tipped her a dime she made more then min wage. I know there are hours when she won't have many tables but I'm also sure that those other 9 tables didn't stiff her.

I just wanted to respond to the idea that low wage work is just kids working part time for spending money. In fact, a large fraction of it, including at places like Denny's, is full time work by adults trying to support their household with these wages. Places like that often pay less the usual minimum wage, and even with tips, it's still poverty.

Back on your topic, I don't think tips are very useful in promoting hard work. People basically tip by custom and their own personality with little variance based on service except in extreme cases. And, anyway, I don't really feel good judging the work of my server since I don't see most of it, and I figure bad service is most often the result of the server being forced to work too hard anyway. I guess tipping is useful as way to force a set percentage of total revenue to (a certain class) of labor.

[Arthur Dent]

1. payroll tax goes way up--potentially threefold. The IRS made some changes this year: auto gratuities are now a service charge. They must be reported and they are subject to payroll tax. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all money should be like this. Well, it's not. And our business model is set up for the way the world works, not the way people outside the industry think it should work (sorry, Yelpers.) We don't even put auto-grats on large tables anymore.

What exactly is the story with this? As far as I can tell, both the employer and employee portion of the payroll tax are owed on wage as well as tip income. How do restaurants evade this especially given that plastic tips are must be passed through the employers hands anyway? Is it standard practice to submit fraudulent payroll information to the IRS?

[stlouie_lipp]

Leave it to GRB to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

You guys make too damn much out of "tip culture."

Good grief.

If you get good service, tip accordingly if you can afford to. And find something else to obsess over.

Every thread here lately seems to turn into some political discussion or some kind of debate about American society. I don't get it.

[Diddy]

Back on your topic, I don't think tips are very useful in promoting hard work. People basically tip by custom and their own personality with little variance based on service except in extreme cases. And, anyway, I don't really feel good judging the work of my server since I don't see most of it, and I figure bad service is most often the result of the server being forced to work too hard anyway. I guess tipping is useful as way to force a set percentage of total revenue to (a certain class) of labor.

Really because personality and attitude seem to make a big difference. Get refills, if you see a table has young kids grab extra napkins before your asked to. Those are just a few things that don't have a Bering on what someone in the kitchen does. Generally in my experience I get worse service when resturants are slow not busy, seems they think its an imposition to help one person when they could be doing nothing.