Tipping

What is the correct amount to tip when eating out?

– Allen D. Internet

Many people in the USA are confused by tipping.

Do you tip no matter what?

Do you deduct for bad service or food?

Do you tip extra for fast service?

The problem with tipping in the USA is that restaurant owners pay their wait staff less than minimum wage and rely on the customer to pay the difference. This may work in theory but the restaurant owner should just charge more for the food and pay their staff a decent wage.

Another problem with tipping is that the only thing the wait staff is doing is bringing you the food from the kitchen. If the food is crap and you leave a smaller tip you are punishing the wait staff for a problem caused by the cook.

Some restaurants even enforce a tip on large parties. More than eighth people at your table? Then you get to pay a built-in gratuity! The problem with the built-in gratuity is that it limits the amount of the tip because no one is going to leave a bigger tip after they have been forced to leave a tip! It gets even worse when the gratuity is built-in and they don’t tell the customer…

So what do you do?

I follow a basic system of 20% for good service and good food. If the food is bad I tell the waiter and see how they respond. If they remove the price of the food from my bill or otherwise compensate me I still figure my tip as if I had paid for that food.

If service is crap then I only leave between 5 and 10%. If service is stellar than I go as high as 30%.

Have a question for dad? Send it in!

Please Pass The Lettuce used under Creative Commons License from flickr user Sister72