But tip your f**king servers! Especially when you can see that a single person is running the whole restaurant. If you take your family for a $100+ meal and praise me for my hard work, thank me for the delicious food, tell me that your kids love my place then don’t you think $0.50 or even $1 would be okay to drop in that little jar? Your thanks won’t feed my kid. Every single day of my life. Please, Halifax. —Your thanks won’t pay my bills.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2015.
17% on top of my bill for good service, like how you describe. Doesnt matter if its $2, or 400. i worked for a gas station when i was young, and got a tip from the tour busses of 15% on 600L+ of fuel. the strippers that worked down the Niagara falls strip stopped for gas and would tip $50 on avg each stop. not too bad for a $6.50/hr job at the time. LOVED tourist season!!
You should have stayed in school.
Three things:
Having worked very briefly as a server during university I can say that most people tip adequately, a few are generous and a few are less than generous. It averages out. And the fact that this was so noticeable that it merited a Bitch tells me that it doesn’t happen very often that the customer leaves no tip.
Sounds like OB is the owner of the business. Customers know they should tip staff but if it is just the owner then it creates a bit of confusion over whether to tip or not.
Have you ever wondered why we have tipping in some services but not in others? If you go to a shoe store and try on half a dozen pairs the staff is working just as hard as a restaurant server. I find staff in non-tipping retail are just as competent and pleasant, on average, as staff in food services so I don’t think tipping is a necessary incentive for good service. And I find the whole tipping thing a bit deceptive. I’d rather the restaurants and cafes include the “tip” in the price and pay a decent wage to staff. Let’s drop this whole tipping farce.
Sorry but tips are not a requirement. Why do you think a server should be tipped but other low income/minimum wage jobs shouldn’t be? You chose what you do, you get paid according to the law so quit your whining.
Ossifer Bro is feeling a little callous today it seems.
Since they obviously enjoyed the experience,
I don’t think a buck or two is too much to ask.
$100 for a family meal? I take it you’re working at one of those themed ‘restaurants’ in an industrial park. Those places don’t exactly bring in the swankiest of clientele. Sorry.
I’m pretty sure..no, make that positive…that it’s not my responsibilty to pay your bills. I tip well, but it’s my choice. If I choose not to tip for whatever reason, it’s still my choice.
As others have pointed out, why is the service industry so out of whack over who does and doesn’t warrant tipping? All service jobs are demanding ones, one type doesn’t deserve extra income over another.
Well, part of the reason servers expect to get tips is they get taxed on it an income. They can pull your sales from the restaurant and will expect that you claimed 15% of those as income, in the form of tips.
It’s standard, and our meals are cheaper because of it. Go to Australia, there is no tipping there, but the servers make a lot more in their hourly rate.
I always tip as long as the service is adequate, if the servicer is extra helpful and friendly, I may tip more. I absolutely do not think tips should be automatically added to the bill. This allows for poor service because they will get a tip regardless.
Tipping in our society is part of eating out. 15% is good enough. If you don’t like it, then don’t go out. These are people trying to do things like save for university, pay off their student loans, or feed their families, not bums who should have “stayed in school”. It’s 2015 not 1985… shit doesn’t work the way it did when you were a kid anymore.
Besides, TSB is right in that the CRA expects servers to claim some tips. I may know of a restaurant where a whole bunch of servers got audited because they were trying to claim no tips whatsoever… now those guys were dumb.
service people have to put up with enough whiney, entitled, scheming shits to worry about someone high and mighty that cant put up a few bucks for a tip for good service…if you are that much of a tightwad, order delivery. Service industry regardless of what it is thats being serviced, i believe should be tipped. I try to tip at mcdonalds but they have a stupid policy where the employees cant accept it….if its my money im giving to them, then they should be allowed to accept it. I also dont like places that dont include a tip option on interac. i have utmost sympathy for the types of assholes that service workers have to deal with. Halifax the friendly indeed….
thanks don’t pay my bills either. Yet that is all that i get because tipping is not universial
The problem with tipping, and this has been created in general by servers themselves, is that we are expected to tip to ensure a base-level, adequate service. So basically we have to tip to get a server to meet the minimum requirements of their job, which is friendly service, knowledge of the menu and quick service. So we’re not tipping for going above and beyond. The only benefit the tip gives the patron is the thread of not giving it if the server turns out to be rude or gives bad service. We’re basically bribing servers to not be tools.
People don’t like facts here M2A, they’d rather the BS explanation like lonelyd has spit out. Tell me, how do you get shitty service for not tipping when you tip at the end of the meal? Servers have some sort of foresight the rest of us don’t?
If you want friendly, prompt, knowledgeable service, expect that person to make more than minimum wage. If service isn’t important to you, go to McDonald’s where you can fill up your own drink.
Mentioning McDees in a discussion about foodservice does not help in any way.
I also tip well, and thanks to Bitches like this, also tip a lot more responsibly.
“People don’t like facts here M2A, they’d rather the BS explanation like lonelyd has spit out. Tell me, how do you get shitty service for not tipping when you tip at the end of the meal? Servers have some sort of foresight the rest of us don’t?”
What the fuck are you talking about? They don’t give shitty service in advance because they know you aren’t going to tip. The give good service in advance, or should, in anticipation of getting tipped at the end.
recently, i took my wife for our anniversary to a hotel that has Yuk Yuks in it. We were seated in the restaurant for a nice meal but were put into an area that had two absolute winners looked fresh out of big hair 80’s, blonde, dressed attrociously tacky(stuck in 80’s) who were obviously part of the main act’s entourage. they ordered the most expensive dish on the menu, as did my wife and I. Bbq’d lobster. Most people dont really like bbq’d lobster because its got a different texture and taste, but when done really well it is quite tasty. Well…these two women(if you can call them that) were loud, drunk and not hiding the fact that they were going to be difficult with their food…they were trying to get their meal comped. So they eat about half their meal then the show starts…this isnt good enough, my steak isnt cooked right, the lobster is bad etc…get the manager!! sure enough they get comped a bottle of wine and new plates are brought out to their “satisfaction” then they SKIPPED THE BILL!! got up and left!! THATS why i tip well…because these poor people, servers, cooks, managers etc have to deal with THAT shit every day all over the place…there is nothing more awful than people like those two women, except maybe a screaming kid at a nice restaurant. lol
“The problem with tipping, and this has been created in general by servers themselves, is that we are expected to tip to ensure a base-level, adequate service.”
That’s what the fuck I’m talking about. I do agree with your point about the threat, but that seems to be lost on most people in this thread against tipping.
“The only benefit the tip gives the patron is the thread of not giving it if the server turns out to be rude or gives bad service. We’re basically bribing servers to not be tools.”
It also makes your meals cheaper. If servers we actually paid what they make by the owner we’d all be paying more for meals.
Sorry Cujo, I ain’t responsible for other people’s actions. I also find some servers to be whiny and entitled. When everybody gets tips for their minimum wage jobs then I might reconsider, but as far as I;m concerned a server is no more special than any other worker.
“It also makes your meals cheaper. If servers we actually paid what they make by the owner we’d all be paying more for meals.”
By tipping were ARE paying more. Bannishing tipping with adjustments to food prices increased 15 – 20% to upgrade servers salaries would mean they’d receive what, 15 to 20% more on their paycheck? The price to the customer would remain about the same, unless you are a non-tipper.
I could see the complaint if OB was working in the States where most states’ minimum wage for tipped staff is – wait for it – $2.13 an hour. However, they are not. They are working in Nova Scotia, where the minimum wage for tipped workers is $10.10 per hour, _marginally_ less than the minimum wage of $10.60 an hour for non-tipped and experienced workers. Explain to me, then, why I am _expected_ to pay not merely 15% as the etiquette books say, but 20% in a tip when the server’s already earning close to a living wage and should not be relying on tips for the bulk of their income. The American restaurant tipping culture has managed to sneak its way in thanks to our tourism industry preying on the guilt of American tourists who think our servers get the same shit wages and shared tips as they do back home, and it’s spread among servers the idea that they can and should get the same percentage from local diners. Tipping in Canada has become a racket.
Name one person that had CRA audit them for not declaring tips.
To tip or not to tip? I will first say that I do tip and tip well. I am not sure if I do it out of societal expectation or just out of habit. I tip better for better service.
But tipping is one of those things I ponder from time to time. There are other minimum wage professions that don’t receive tips….why just food and drink servers. Also, if I order a hundred dollar bottle of wine why does the person who brought it get at least 15 dollars and the person who brings me a 20 dollar bottle of wine only get 3. The time and effort were exactly the same. Also, 15 percent is automatically expected even for crappy service.
Most importantly, as someone mentioned above, we are not in America. We, in Canada, have adopted American tipping practices. This is probably due to proximity or through seeing it on American TV shows or whatever. Most people don’t realize however that when Americans are getting tipped 15 to 20 percent it is to compensate for an extremely low minimum wage in the service industry. They are payed less (even less than the state’s regular minimum wage) because the tips are factored as part of their income. This is not the case in Canada. People are not paid beneath minimum wage in the service industry. So to have the same tip model as a country that has an entirely different pay model does not make sense. People think our tipping is on par with the rest of North America but it is in fact EXTREMELY inflated.
That being said, I get that because extreme tipping has become a cultural expectation in Canada that people have learned to and do rely on them. This is especially true when work is part time etc.