Don't be that guy

Which is why tips are up to the customer, but tons of people don't leave tips even for great service. Understand that sometimes things happen that they can't control. I work at a very expensive restaurant, (the salads are upwards of 10$, and most of our entrees are 30$, our most expensive being 70$) and there are lots of times people come in to eat and, despite the prices being printed clearly, don't leave a tip because the meal was expensive. If you get shitty service, then go right ahead and do whatever you want, but always keep in mind that tips are their main source of income. Don't just tip poorly because you don't want to spend money, tip honestly according to service.

if the prices are that high, then you shouldn't NEED tips! that restaurant should have plenty to pay its employers- somewhere that expensive if you're being paid poorly then you find a new job!

The prices are that high to pay for the actual FOOD. We are a steakhouse and we serve imported seafood, as things /are/, the place is starting to go under because the owners have to take out a loan to pay the employees each month.

As it says at the bottom (it's small so it's understandable if you couldn't read it), most waiters in the USA are paid 2-3 dollars an hour, where minimum wage (which is difficult to live on) is about 8$ an hour.

Well that just sucks. The fact that restaurants are even allowed to do that ruins everything

Yeah, it's kind of ridiculous.

Because building airplanes actually gets you a decent wage, not 2-3 dollars an hour. Waiters and waitresses work hard for their money too; I suppose if you're not living in the US things are different, but here it is extremely rude not to tip just because you want to save. So do they.

Walking around with plates and writing on a piece of paper is not hard work. In the end its my money and ill do as i please with it.

My mom walks upwards of 50 miles a day, carrying plates weighing up to 50 pounds. She has to do this quickly, while balancing everything, and dodging anyone who might be walking along the path. Yeah, not hard work at all, but you're right, it is absolutely yours, but that doesn't make you not an asshole, no matter how many dislikes I get.

I'm not a server but unless you campaign and lobby for minimum wage for servers you are willingly participating in the gratuity system. It's your right to not tip but if you don't it's their right to think you're an asshole. And the whole "Just find another job" argument is just garbage. Yeah let me just go to the job store and pick one out right now! I apply to every single opening I can and not one call so far and it's the same for a lot of people I know. So just leave a damn tip or don't go out. Or accept that you will be thought of as an asshole.

missraven here's a comic you might enjoy http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tipping_tooting

Fun story: my stage crew friends and I used to have a tradition of going to red robin after the final performance, and after the final for Scarlet Pimpernel, we got this really great waiter who had an accent that sounded like it was from New York or somewhere around there, clearly not from around where I live (in the midwest). We all took bets on where he was from, but none of us got it right (he was from Rhode Island!) and so we all put the money we bet into the tip, it was like 110%, and I really just hope we made his day, because servers are people too. They have lives, some of them have children, and some of them are trying to get a better job or go to school, but there are people who don't have jobs at all in our country, and sometimes, you take the best that you can get. Someone has to work in the food industry, so just remember they didn't sign on to make conversation with people who would rather save money than help make sure a single mother of two can pay the gas bill in the

winter, because 90% of the servers where I work are living paycheck to paycheck, and 80% don't make enough to have savings. I still remember when I was 10 and we had the heating turned off for the entire month of December because my mom was 10$ short on the gas bill. It was freezing cold, even with 5 blankets and a cat to snuggle up with.

Have you considered that maybe it's not just servers that are living paycheck to paycheck?

If you're living pay check to pay check you probably shouldn't be going to restaurants in the first place aside from birthdays and stuff.

You could eat at home or at a fast food restaurant much cheaper than you can eat at a dine in restaurant and then you don't have to worry about tipping, Mgoveia. Then it'll help everyone involved.

Actually, no. Some restaurants would close if all the poor folk that can't afford to tip were to suddenly stop going because some people on the internet said they shouldn't.

Of course, and as I've said elsewhere, that's the point of tips, but they /don't/ here in the US and it sucks, but if you're living here you should always remember that. If you have shitty service, I certainly won't frown at you for tipping poorly, but quite often people get tipped poorly even for great service simply because people don't want to spend more money (money that they would have to spend anyway if restaurants were to pay servers properly, since then they would have to raise prices).

that's fair enough I guess, but still you shouldn't feel pressurised to tip. but I guess that'sthe whole not paying employees properly again

I feel that, if you're living somewhere where they pay as poorly as America, and where food is much cheaper for more of it, you should absolutely feel pressured to tip, but that's just my opinion.

Couldn't disagree with you more missraven! You should never ever feel pressured to tip..ever. The costof the meal I listed on the menu, you should never feel that you have to pay any more than what is listed on your bill if you've not had excellent service.

If you have terrible service, then don't feel pressured, but in America, I feel that if you had decent service, you should always tip, and that's just my opinion, but it is how I feel.

Totally different mindset here in the UK. It's not expected and is an added bonus for the server if you tip. Tipping should not be what servers rely on and if it continues in the US that way things will never change

Well, I'm glad things are different in the UK, but until laws change, it's not something people here should just ignore. :)

Have you ever thought that it's the people who are tipping that are exacerbating the issue?

Um, no. Not at all. Are we just supposed to let people not have heating and electricity until a law manages to get changed? (Which, by the way, in the US, takes ages if it gets changed at all).

If you continue to offer huge tips what is the incentive for restauranteurs to change their wages? It doesn't need a law change for them to want to pay their staff more! There isn't a law to say they can't pay them more...they just don't want to and clearly don't need to because of all the tipping!

The restaurants probably aren't going to change their wages regardless. We need a law change, not a bunch of people deciding, hey the way to do this is clearly to cause waitresses to starve and freeze. They don't pay them more because they're cheap, they're certainly not going to fork over more money just for the hell of it. And even if they do, it certainly won't happen before there are problems for wait staff.