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    VoOnTheGoHamilton Nolan
    3/16/16 4:05pm

    How about we just stop with the tips altogether and make restaurants (at least) pay minimum wage like almost every other business in America?

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      LongSnakeVoOnTheGo
      3/16/16 4:07pm

      Because they would all, every single one, go out of business.

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      hntergrenLongSnake
      3/16/16 4:09pm

      No they wouldn’t they would just reflect the increased costs in their prices.

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    ShutupandtipHamilton Nolan
    3/16/16 4:12pm

    If you, as a person with enough funds to eat out, do not tip (and I would say 20% as a minimum), you are a bad person. You can disguise your badness without however many excuses and bullshit personal beliefs you want, but know this, you are a bad person. I have never been a server in my life, so this isn’t sour grapes. Just know not tipping, or tipping cheaply, makes you a bad person. If you don’t want to tip, don’t eat out, you greedy cheap jerkass.

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      Pending ApprovalShutupandtip
      3/16/16 4:24pm

      so i’m a bad person because i’m supposed to pay your income, not your boss?

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      hntergrenShutupandtip
      3/16/16 4:25pm

      Conversely, one could say if you want steady guaranteed pay, don’t become a waiter.

      This is all symptomatic of our shift to a largely service based economy. Really, most people have the requisite skill to be a waiter, and part of tipping culture is entitlement. If you live in any major city, I guarantee you 90% of your waiters are younger (20s-30s) college educated white people. There aren’t enough jobs around and you can make good money waiting. But let’s be honest, unless you’re getting into fine dining or something, serving isn’t a career, but it’s becoming that. Bottom line is that restaurants should be paying their damn employees, and restaurant workers should probably unionize.

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    ParcherHamilton Nolan
    3/16/16 4:06pm

    Just get rid of tipping all together, the rest of the world has it figured out.

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      hntergrenParcher
      3/16/16 4:14pm

      Agreed. Tipping is a stupid practice. Get rid of tips, pay servers a salary just like back of house, from there, if people want to tip above the check, that’s fine.

      Like, why are customers tipping above their bill to pay your workers rather than your workers taking a percentage of their sales like every other sales job? That’s a novel idea—pay waiters and waitresses commissions on their bills.

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      MysticalPepperSaucehntergren
      3/16/16 4:21pm

      And make it into a profession - not just something embarrassing college students do to earn extra cash. Oddly enough, I think the tipping leads to people thinking of it as something lowly for the servile class.

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    Endless Supply of CynicismHamilton Nolan
    3/16/16 4:06pm

    I waited tables through college, and I loved getting big parties. I never included the 15%. I just told whoever was paying that I didn’t include it, and I never once got screwed. Most of the time I came out much better for it. Big parties tended to drink a lot of alcohol which is great for tips, or they were on a business account and didn’t really care how much they spent.

    It was the parties of 2-3 that really liked to screw you on tips. Foreign nationals had a big problem tipping and the elderly had a big problem as well. When you get some experience sometimes you can just tell as soon as they walk in the door.

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      meowzterEndless Supply of Cynicism
      3/16/16 4:12pm

      Most American servers would flip the fuck out if they worked in other countries where tipping isn’t typical. I was just in South America a couple of months ago and one server almost gave me a kiss and hug when I gave him a $10 tip for dinner.

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      woohizmeowzter
      3/16/16 4:22pm

      Can’t really compare to South America. Cost of living is worlds apart.

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    meowzterHamilton Nolan
    3/16/16 4:09pm

    I wish restaurants paid a fucking living wage for these servers instead of having customers constantly feel guilty if we don’t tip enough, even when service is shitty.

    I was a waitress when I was in college, and it can be exhausting. I tried my best to earn my tips and my restaurant didn’t have automatic tipping for large groups so I REALLY had to work my ass off to get anything close to 20%. I’m noticing more and more often that some servers just phone their work in when serving large groups because they know we have to pay automatic gratuity anyway. Tipping isn’t (and shouldn’t be) mandatory. Raise your fucking wages, you jerks!

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      KinglyCitrusmeowzter
      3/16/16 4:29pm

      I tip 20% for service, good or bad. The way I see it, if somebody does a terrible job, it’s up to the restaurant to discipline them. It’s not up to me as a customer to decide whether the person waiting my table makes less money. I don’t know the situation they’re in that night, if they’re short-staffed or just having a really terrible shift. They’ve got enough shit to deal with. They don’t need me making their day even harder.

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      PuddingandthemissusKinglyCitrus
      3/16/16 4:34pm

      Do you tell a manager if the service is bad?

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    FlazloHamilton Nolan
    3/16/16 4:08pm

    “A rule change by the IRS that took effect in 2014, though, mandated that restaurants treat these automatic gratuities as regular salary and deduct payroll, Social Security, and other taxes from them.”

    Sigh.

    If the IRS thinks it should be collecting payroll on tips, then it should collect payroll on all tips. If you can’t collect payroll on all tips (you’d have to be insane to think you can), why target the most lucrative tips? Is there truly a lot of tax fraud amongst restaurant workers? Where they use this situation as leverage? Does this policy decision produce the most bang for the buck - sticking it to servers?

    I’ve never worked in a restaurant, but the tip should absolutely be on the bill for large groups. Let people screw each other, not the wait staff.

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      RobNYCFlazlo
      3/16/16 4:15pm

      They already do collect payroll on tips. You’re required to report all your tips at least for the restaurant industry.

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      Demon!Flazlo
      3/16/16 4:15pm

      No, the IRS should collect on what the IRS is supposed to collect.

      I’ve never worked in a restaurant

      So seriously shut up. You very much don’t know what you’re talking about.

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    Sharon O.Hamilton Nolan
    3/16/16 4:22pm

    I do not understand this. I very rarely get stiffed on a tip from a big party, and we have all opted to not have automatic gratuity at my job. If you offer great service, it is rewarded. I end most nights with over 20% of my sales. No decent server in a decent establishment would want to tack on an automatic tip, it’s rude.

    That said, I don’t work at Outback or Cheesecake Factory. Thank God. The clientele there might be less than forthcoming with appropriate tipping. IDK IDK.

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      ItsMedicinalButNotForAIDSSharon O.
      3/16/16 4:29pm

      It largely depends on the crowd of the restaurant, as I’m sure you know.

      I served/managed at a restaurant that offered full wait staff service, but because the primary crowd was mainly seniors and the “after-church” crowds (Breakfast, coffee, etc. kind of place), tips were often terrible simply because (and this is the part where I show how years of serving has led me to stereotyping) old people just generally don’t tip well, regardless of service.

      You can wait on them hand and foot, and about 70% of the time you’ll be lucky to get $5 on a $60 tab.

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      RedWriterSharon O.
      3/16/16 4:34pm
      If you offer great service, it is rewarded.

      No, no and no. There are more people who choose not to tip (or tip poorly) because they are cheap, decided they’ve already spent enough on dinner or just don’t fucking want to. Great service has nothing to do with not tipping. Some people are just bastards.

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    Myrna Loy's Side-EyeHamilton Nolan
    3/16/16 4:06pm

    Here in Portland we’re starting to see some of our better known local places do away with tipping altogether. Of course this is also the city that generally expects you to leave 20% and buss your own table.

    http://www.oregonlive.com/dining/index.s…

    That said, we haven’t gotten enough real feedback on it yet, but I’d like to see how it plays out after a year or two.

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      CheeseSandwichMyrna Loy's Side-Eye
      3/16/16 4:08pm

      My favorite thing about servers in PDX is that they are all CLEARLY too good for their job and treat it as such.


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      Myrna Loy's Side-EyeCheeseSandwich
      3/16/16 4:13pm

      PDX servers are the artistic equivalent of Steinbeck’s “Temporarily embarrassed millionaires”.

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    Pending ApprovalHamilton Nolan
    3/16/16 4:21pm

    I’m going to be that guy. But don’t tip if you don’t want to.
    Its not my job as a consumer to basically crowdfund the business.

    You want a tip from me? Earn it, greet me by name, don’t fuck up an order, be polite, etc. Don’t expect me to pay you just because I was seated in your section.

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      Myrna MinkoffHamilton Nolan
      3/16/16 4:13pm

      In a field where even full time workers might pull down less than $2,000 per month, that is an enormous hit.

      For how many servers is this the case? My experience is anecdotal, I know, but most people I know who work/worked as servers would routinely pull down more than $100/shift just in tips — often much, much more — plus their hourly wage. (Obviously, this will vary based on what kind of place you work at and where, ie. pizza shop vs. steakhouse.)

      This still sucks for workers, but I feel like the servers who are missing out on $200 in tips a week now are more likely to be the people who were already making a pretty decent wage to begin with.

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        MysticalPepperSauceMyrna Minkoff
        3/16/16 4:30pm

        I was primarily a cook, but I worked as a server a couple of times and my experience was the same. I raked it in as a server - and I was Awful! As a cook, I was much better (and enjoyed it). What I didn’t enjoy was watching all the servers leave work early with their pockets full of wads of cash, buying new clothes all the time, going to clubs when I couldn’t afford to do any of that.

        That being said - I bet you speak well. You may be white, you’re probably attractive. You may have been in a well-populated area. All of these factors would probably have contributed to why you were bankrolling it.

        People in their late teens and twenties with the above qualifications probably do a Loooot better, but the whole profession is not made up of college students.

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        Myrna MinkoffMysticalPepperSauce
        3/16/16 4:38pm

        These are good points.

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