lol at the **** in ****tails being filtered. This is one thing my dad and I have talked extensively about, as he remembers 10% being the norm and I generally tip between 15-20%. I think some of it may be that we're a richer society in general and there is a stigma attached to being a poor tipper. Its almost like keeping up with the Jones' on a micro level. Nobody wants to be seen as the tightwad even if they're unlikely to ever see their waiter ever again, and they want to prove their "superiority" by tipping better than the next guy over.

Bartenders should get tipped less than waiters. The effort that goes into pouring a $5 drink and handing it to a sitting customer at the bar 4 times is much less than the effort that goes into serving a $20 meal to a customer at a table. However, the bartender will often get more rather than less (especially after you consider than most restaurants force waiters to give a percentage of their sales to bartenders and hostessses).

I'm from Tennessee

10% is probably standard in very rural areas, in poor parts of urban areas, and in mid income parts of urban/suburban areas that tend to attract residents moving from the first two areas. In more affluent areas, especially those with better educated residents or residents who were born middle class, 15%+ would be considered the norm.

IMO, its about "a little more isn't actually that much, and i come out looking quite generous.."

For example, here in thailand when we play golf we get a caddy.. Standard tip for nine holes is 100 baht, or $3.. I say f--- it and give 200 baht. Someone woman just carried my bag around for 2 hours, I can give her $3 extra... It will mean a lot to her, and I really don't care about that $3..

Pretty sure it's because of former waitresses who urge everyone they go out with to tip more. Lots more I could elaborate on, but that's the main point.

Rap music and general influence of "ballerness" on American culture. A few people start throwing down big tips, and the rest of the heard feels the social pressure.

Actually nights with rap / hip-hop generate the lowest tips. Same club with the same staff. Friday nights is their hip-hop night and the average tip is 0.25 beer. Thursday and Saturday night tipping is normal. None of the staff wants to work Fridays.

This is the way I feel too. It's all about perspective. We make hundreds of dollars an hour with little effort. A person who has to wait tables and deal with a-hole customers all night will attach a lot of value/happiness to an extra couple of bucks that's meaningless to us. If I can make that persons' day much better for an extra 5 or 10 bucks, that's a great thing, IMO.

D,

I think it is your perceptions of tipping practices that has changed. I know that I've become a much more generous tipper since leaving college and making my own money. I think its a combination of eating out more, having more money, and having friends who also have similar spending and entertainment habits. I still think a lot of people are horrible tippers. Eg, this weekend I rented a car in vegas. About 10 people were on the shuttle bus, and my wife and I were the only ones that tipped the guy who unloaded our bags (and we were the youngest on the bus).

Isura,

Please see my response to Iron, thanks.

It's actually less than 16% because it'll be 16% pretax. I'm guessing it'll be something like 14-15% of actual tip post tax.

no, it's 16% (if tax is 8%) because tips are calculated pre-tax.

...I wrote a longish bit and the new forums ate it. abbreviated response:

Earlier in the thread it's been mentioned "people tip more b/c they want to be above-average, better than the norm". And I think the writing/journalistic rhetoric here reinforces that. above-average is "most generous" and below-average is "stingy" (well, that's Benholio writing ) or "desultory". (wtf, "desultory"? this means "random/purposeless" or "disappointing" - I'm going with "disappointing")

But how out of context this is. It's only 1% less than average, and only 1.5% less than the highest here, anyway. That's enough to be disappointing? and a point-five percent higher is somehow meaningfully more generous? really, all of these are good/pretty good tips, 18%, 19%, 19.5%. They're not 20+% great, and they're not 15 or 12 or 10%. But 'below average' doesn't necessarily mean inadequate or inappropriate. Yet the way we write and talk and think about these kinds of things makes it seem so.

Reminds me of a recent (?) psychological study which may have been referenced here before. Where, given the choice, people would rather earn $30k a year in an office where their peers make $22k a year, than to earn $42k a year in an office where their peers make $50k...

These people haven't spent much time in flyover country.
Even the most upscale places here probably don't average 18%

Zagat survey responders are a pretty skewed sample if you're trying to figure out tipping habits for the general public.

In principle, the cost of restaurant food tracks inflation. So if in 1950 people tipped 15% and in 2000 people still tip 15%, that would mean that servers salaries exactly tracked inflation.

But the average salary in the country has increased by MORE than inflation between 1950 and 2000. So why shouldn't servers be similar? In order for this to happen, the amount we tip as a percentage of the bill has to increase. Going from 15% to 20% is a 33% increase in real wages for servers. I don't know how this matches up with increase in real wages for everyone else, but it doesn't sound unreasonable to me.

yad,

Very interesting point.

Random sampling of real wage stories/articles from Google search:

NYT article

Money article

Labor Research Organization

PACE Atlanta

Economic Policy Institute

Even at the highest increase levels (high earners), doesn't look like wages have increased outpacing inflation by all that much.

The 15% 'guideline' is akin to a speed limit.

at restaraunts i think a lot of it has to do with credit cards. its easier to write in a number than it is to give away cash for most people. i have an easier time giving away cash though, and tip way too much for even decent service, but it makes me feel good. if i get great service at a burger and shake place i dont have a prob tipping 10 bucks on a 20 dollar ticket. that will easily make the persons day and they will probably remember it and feel better about themselves etc. the 10 bucks wont change my life in any way but could, at least temporarily, improve theirs. this is only on good service though, if its ****ty service they can **** off and are getting 15% at best.

yeah when i get ****ty service and i'm pissed off, i love sticking it to those bastards and only tipping 15%. seeing the look on their faces when they see i only tipped 15% is priceless.

not everyone short stacks and hit and runs

Absolutely.
At a lower-end bar when I am paying $3.50 or $4.25 or something for a drink I will still tip $1 per drink which is obviously way more than 20%. But am I really going to sit there and dig out the change and tip $0.70 for a $3.50 drink. That's just silly.

And the effort they have to put into it combined with the amount of customers they serve ends up working out pretty well for them I imagine.


I briefly dated a girl who was a bartender at some fancy private bar. She would pour a $100 drink of some fancy liquor I knew nothing about and get a $20 tip each time she did it. Obviously it helps to be the type of person who gets along with the snobby customers and does well in such an environment in general...but overall she would just get tipped $20 for spinning the cap off a bottle and pouring a drink.

Diablo - I thought he made a really odd argument here as well.
Nobody sits there thinking that they need to tip more to compensate for the rising wages that other workers there might be getting. That makes no sense. Strange Cause and Effect kind of conclusion trying to be drawn there.

I also think the credit-card thing is a big factor.

One other aspect that I think a lot of us poker-nerds around here might miss is that it's actually not the easiest thing in the world for a lot of people to do the math for 15 or 20% in their heads.
I honestly think a lot of people have no idea what percentage they are tipping and they don't really think about it. They just tip generally what feels 'about right'.

Thoughts on this article?