People complaining about customers having to subsidize an employees wage thru tipping.... Just some things to think about.
Its not just restaurants mandating it now. Governments have decided that servers of licensed restaurants get a lower minimum wage. A server at a licensed establishment in BC gets $1.25 less per hour, effective May 1st. The disparity is not as much in Alberta. If you abolished tipping, servers could not survive, not necessarily because of their hourly wage.. Servers can't even get in a full 40 hour work week. A lot of them work 4-5 hours at a time. At a restaurant you'd be lucky to find 2 or 3 servers that actually get close to full time hours. Stat holidays screw that crap up. Keep the hours down, less you have to pay. Servers wouldn't even be able to survive on min wage job due to the ####ty hours they work. 20 - 25 hours a week. Do you really think if servers were paid a fair wage that the price of food wouldn't go up as result. Labour costs are huge factor in determine prices on the menu. All the chain restaurants have nice software that determines how many labour hours they should use on any given day and break it down to any given hour. Takes into account store history and everything. A 20% increase in wages (takes $9 to $10.80, still not worth working as a server at that wage) would result in well more then 20% increase on your bill in costs. That standard run of the mill meal that is $15 is going to rise to $20, no problem. Refills wouldn't be free. I bet tap water would cost you money. If the restaurants had to hike up wages to keep people employed as servers, they will nickle and dime everything possible to help offset wage increases. Continuing with tipping as a standard in our society will cost customers less in the long run.
I'll never leave no tip. Some friends and I left 13 cents once and the guy thru the change at us and hid behind the bouncers. That guy was a complete dick. We ordered a pitcher that had the top 3rd as foam. He was the bartender/server and we literally had to argue with him to go and fill up the pitcher properly. And he slammed the pitcher down like a jackass when came back and sighed like a baby when we wanted to pay by debit.
My wife and I do not see eye to eye on tipping. She is a chronic over tipper. She used to be a server. She doesn't think I understand the value of tipping.
My wife likes to leave 20% no matter what. Poor service, great service no matter she feels the need to tip 20%. She always gets annoyed if I don't leave a tip that high. Im not against tipping 20%, but its got to be good service. Bad service still gets 10% and decent, expected service gets 15%. If I have tabs that have way more booze then food, like an appy and 6 pints them im tipping closer to 10%. A meal and 2 or 3 drinks then it stays at the normal tipping rules for me.
One thing I cannot stand is having an empty beer, or wine glass. There is no exccuse for my drink being empty. Refillable soda, sure I get it, you're busy and it adds nothing to my bill. When i'm paying $6 a drink.... My glass should never be empty. And it happens so often. Get more drinks on my tab and you get more money in your pocket its as simple as that. That is a sure way to get me to tip less.
As for take out. I loathe tipping on take out. My wife always does it. For those of you mentioning the tip out the servers have to do and that is why you should tip on take out.. Take out orders for the most part are run thru the system by a manager, or the managers will change it later. Not personal experience, but my wife worked as a waitress for years, and my best friend is well entrenched in the restaurant industry, and thru him i've learned so much about the inner workings of what really goes on. I can't help it I like asking questions, lol. In his case, when managing, if a server got screwed on a tip to not even cover tip out, it was a pretty accepted practice to comp a non alcoholic beverage just so the server got something. Its usually the bar manager that does take out orders or the manager himself. They don't have to do tip outs, they aren't servers. There is no cost. You are saving them money by not having to sit down and take up a table for 30mins - 45mins if not longer. Restaurants would love to do take out all day long at the prices they charge for food.
If its one of my local watering holes, I tip fairly well and they treat me well. I have a few
places I go to regularly, been living in the same area for a decade and I like beer, what can I say. These are the places that start pouring my beer as soon as i walk in. There is another beer placed down before my last gulp is gone. They always getting tipped well, and in return I've receive more then my free share of "samples" of food, beer and shots.
