Tipping views vary greatly from 'should it even be a thing' to 'how much is appropriate and on what', to 'what type of establishment should tip and which should not'.
In my lifetime (I am 52) I have seen a dramatic evolution in tipping.
This was pretty much the norm:
- tipping used to be almost solely limited to restaurant table service
- the expected calculation used to be 10%-15% applied after you removed the tax and liquor costs from bill
- of course bars focused on liquor got tipped (and usually generously) on that service alone or primarily
- food delivery service like pizza delivery used to get the coins or maybe a buck or two
Today what do I see:
- tipping has evolved past the restaurant, and in the next wave became common place in all/most service locations from grabbing a to go coffee from a shop or picking up your dry cleaning.
- tipping amount expectations have bumped up from 15% - 25% often pre-loaded on debit/credit machine as the expectation and requiring you manually change it if you want to do other.
- this tipping amount is on the full bill total including Tax and Liquor making it actually much more as compared to the past
- food delivery service now almost by default on the Apps include a standard 15% tip on the bill total. Meaning you see your 'Total', if you buy %60 of food as $69 with a $9 tip built in when you accept unless you go in and manually change it
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What are your views on tipping in these areas or others:
- Restaurant, Coffee shop, Food Delivery, Dry Cleaning P/U, other
- percentage? Pretax? Post Tax? Liquor in or out?
- delivery service
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Dispelling this myth before we start since it often pops up in this discussion.
- 'tipping is wrong, period. I should not be forced to pay the servers wage, the restaurant owner should pay that. That is why I refuse to tip.'
This argument is false. There is only one consumer and they pay the restaurant portion and the server portion regardless. If tip is removed the restaurant does eat that amount and simply pay his server more. Instead they
build it in to the service costs, including tip portion, into the bill. So you end up paying the same or more as you now tip a set percent on every bill, built in as a service charge. It 'socializes' a payment (equal for all) as opposed to keeping it merit based (you the diner have discretion based on quality).
FreeRiders love to make that argument above but most are simply cheapskates and using that rationale as cover.
So lets stay away from the fallacious argument that it should be the restaurant owner and not you who should pay. YOU will always pay. The discussion is do you want 'discretion based on merit' or do you prefer 'no discretion, pay all servers the same via requirement'.