Tipping

[deird1]

Read an article on tipping (with, yes, quite a lot of discussion about Aussies) this morning, and got interested...

Poll #4972 tipping

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27

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How much should you tip in restaurants?

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0%
0 (0.0%)

0% ...but then, I'm Australian
4 (14.8%)

5%
0 (0.0%)

10%
5 (18.5%)

20%
15 (55.6%)

25%
0 (0.0%)

30%
0 (0.0%)

50%
0 (0.0%)

ridiculously huge amounts
0 (0.0%)

it really depends on the service
3 (11.1%)

Tipping...

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sucks
5 (19.2%)

is great
5 (19.2%)

is annoying, but can't be helped
12 (46.2%)

I'm Australian, and laugh at people who tip
3 (11.5%)

I'm a waiter, and glare at people who don't tip
2 (7.7%)

why be stingy?
15 (57.7%)

why not just pay the waiters properly?
17 (65.4%)

ticky!
12 (46.2%)

tip!
7 (26.9%)

ticky again!
9 (34.6%)

My general position:
- America, for some insane reason, underpays people and expects them to earn most of their salary through tips. Were I in America, I would (reluctantly) tip everyone. After all, it's not their fault their work conditions stink.
- Luckily, I am in Australia, where tipping is not expected. So I don't tip - unless the place was really brilliant, in which case I might add my spare change to their tip jar...

Comments

[deird1]

In America? I would absolutely tip.

But it's still a REALLY stupid system. How the US gets away with paying people like that... baffles me, it really does.

[angearia]

It's a shitty system, I agree. It's especially awful when you work yourself to the bone and a stingy person who's demanded all of your time to the point that you've been neglecting other customers then stiffs you.

[deird1]

And $3 an hour??? How do you survive???

(I worked as a waitress for a while. I earned $15 an hour, which was cheap because I was still a teenager...)

[angearia]

Actually, correction. My last waitressing job paid $2.13/hr.

A few years ago, the government tried to make restaurants raise the minimum wage to $3.13/hr, but they reversed that decision because I think too many restaurants were going out of business.

Serving jobs are pretty horrible that way. Bartending jobs are better because you'll either have a base of at least $4/hr + tips or even up to $10/hr + tips.

Sometimes it's awful and you make nothing. Sometimes you can make oodles. It's very capricious. Also, the better you are as a hustler (double entendre intended) the more money you'll make. I've known servers who work a double shift and walk home with $200 for 9 hours of work, but that's not the norm.

I'd average $10-15/hr waiting tables, but the problem is that your hours are often limited, so you don't have the opportunity to work full-time unless you fight for shifts.