How Much Should We Tip the Restaurant Server?
Most servers make around $2.13 an hour. Therefore they rely only on their tips to make any earnings. The hourly wage is usually taken away to pay taxes on the tips they earn. Restaurants frequently take around 2-4% from the total sales that the server has accumulated through out their shifts. This is what we call "Tip Out" those tips are shared between the other staff members. The bus person, bartender, silverware roller, and host are all part of the tips sharing.
An average server only gets to keep around 95% of there tips. If they have been tipped 15% through out the night a server has to sell $1000 in sales to make $110.00 in tips. Even at high volume restaurants you will have to work at least 10-12 hours to reach that goal. That is one of the main reasons many servers will try to "up sell" on your order. They are trying to increase the total bill so that they might have a chance in getting a bigger tip.
Never tip based on the amount of people you have in your party. For example if you are on a date and the bill is $100.00 and you tipped $5.00 the server only gets to keep $2.00 of the tip. You should always follow the rule of tipping 15-20% whenever dining out. However, always tip on the service. If the service was poor, as in, your drinks never got refilled, entrées was wrong, and your server was rude, you have the right to dismiss a tip. Even if the service was tremendously terrible I still recommend that you tip at least 5% to cover the tip out. Another important factor is that if your party decides to stay at a table for an unreasonable amount of time you should increase your tip. You are technically holding up the amount of customers that the server could have had.
Questions to ask yourself before tipping your server:
Were you greeted in a timely matter?
Was the server courteous and friendly?
Did the server offer you specials or recommendations?
Was your drinks filled at all times?
Was your order correct? If not have been corrected in a timely matter?
Did the server return promptly with requests?
Did the server take away finished plates promptly?
Did the server clean away excessive trash on your table throughout the meal?
Published by WRITER
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43 Comments
Post a Commentleave 25% if you want to leave a great tip. leave 20% if you want to leave a good tip. leave at least $5 minimum regardless of what your check size is.
All the bottomless things you get at restaurants are nice and cheap but require your server to work his/her butt off to get you your cheap endless things. tip more on these types of deals or find yourself in the bad tipper category. remember when paying in groups to include tip. most of the time people leave it to one person to pay the tip but they only do so for their own food, thus the server finds you in the parking lot... lol jk?
Not long ago my wife wanted Italian so she went to this restaurant close to our place and ordered to go, at the paying point she noticed that her bill was way larger than what she had calculated so she asked the person why the bill was much larger, the explanation she got was. I have to look up for my servers therefore i'm collecting a tip on their behalf. Was my wife furious she made the man remove the amount being charged for tip, she gave the man a few chosen words not allowed to use here. And we have never been to that place again even do it's only a couple of minutes from us. What that owner was doing was illegal in my opinion, one only tip for excellent service rendered by a particular server.
If you are eating at a cheap restaurant, and hasseling your server for refills all night and your total bill is $20, don't think you are doing him a favor by leaving a $4 tip. Like Ken said, GO TO MCDONALDS. Don't come out for service if you don't want to pay for service.
Saying that you have to OPTION to tip well, Is like saying that your server has the OPTION to spit in your drink before he brings it to you. Decent Service requires a minimum 20% gratuity in the States. If you don't want to tip 20% or more, stay at home or go to McDonalds.
Interesting topic!
In Slovenia waiters are quite well paid (3-6, or even 7 EUR/h; 4,7-9,5 or 10$) so giving tips is not as usual as in the US and rest of Europe. Nevertheless more and more people do it, when they liked the food and service; 10-15% is common.
I despise when they try to up-sell. I will leave 20% for job done well. However, bringing me a salad at the same time as my meal is no way to earn a good tip :-)
I did cocktail waitressing for a summer while I was in school. Since then I've become much more compassionate to waitstaff. I always make a point to tip closer to 20% unless the service is really bad.
It never ceases to amaze me that people refuse to tip. I work in a casino (the business is all about cash) and still get people who don't understand that people who work for tips make less than minimum wage from their companies. While the company should be required to pay minimum wage it doesn't happen that way. As such servers and others who work for tips generally go out of their way to provide top notch service. I agree with the idea of not tipping 15% if the service sucked. Folks need to remember that tipping is about the service recieved. If there's a complaint about the quality of food, take the issue up with management, not blame the waiter/waitress.
Great suggestions to consider when tipping. I always feel bad for servers so I generally tip a bit on the excessive side.
This is an excelent article! My daughter used to bea server for Cracker Barrel, and I cannot begin to tell you how many nights she called me up and told me about how rude a table was, and put her through the ringer, sat at her table for two hours, had her running back and forth, etc, and then would leave her a $2.00 tip, if she was lucky! It was rare that she would make more than $70.00 for a 7 hour shift, and that was counting her hourly pay! My daughter was a great server, and those who appreciated her service tipped her well, but there are so many people who just get a kick out of running a server ragged, just to leave peanuts behind after staying at their table far too long! Great job on this article!