A new tipping concept: tipping on amount of time waiter spends on you
Feb 15, 2016, 10:34 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: California USA
Programs: AA Million Miler, AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 384
A new tipping concept: tipping on amount of time waiter spends on you
Tip your server by the amount of time he caters to you.
If your server spends an hour with you, pay him an hourly wage. The hourly wage should be $ 10 per hour.
This is not a job that requires education or technical skill. $ 10 equates to about $ 20,000 per year.
For this task, no one should be making 50K, 80K or 100K.
If the server does not want to improve his education and other skills, why should we be pampering him with huge tips.
For a $ 200 dinner where you spend two hours, you should only tip him $ 20. Remember that the server is double and triple dipping as he is serving other tables at the same time. Maybe then $ 10 per hour is also too much.
The restaurant owner should be responsible for their server's income, not the patron. The owners have been reaping profits without paying their due to their staff.
The servers have also become very greedy and feel that they are entitled.
If your server spends an hour with you, pay him an hourly wage. The hourly wage should be $ 10 per hour.
This is not a job that requires education or technical skill. $ 10 equates to about $ 20,000 per year.
For this task, no one should be making 50K, 80K or 100K.
If the server does not want to improve his education and other skills, why should we be pampering him with huge tips.
For a $ 200 dinner where you spend two hours, you should only tip him $ 20. Remember that the server is double and triple dipping as he is serving other tables at the same time. Maybe then $ 10 per hour is also too much.
The restaurant owner should be responsible for their server's income, not the patron. The owners have been reaping profits without paying their due to their staff.
The servers have also become very greedy and feel that they are entitled.
Feb 15, 2016, 11:04 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: London & Sonoma CA
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Posts: 10,222
Well, in the real world as opposed to planet USA, waiters are paid properly and any tip (if they even receive it) is extra. Which is why 10 - 12% is pretty well maximum.
Feb 15, 2016, 12:07 pm
#3
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: ORD
Programs: 2015 kettle
Posts: 653
A new tipping concept: tipping on amount of time waiter spends on you
This should be fun.
Feb 15, 2016, 2:03 pm
#4
Join Date: Apr 2015
Programs: AA
Posts: 286
I would prefer to live in a completely tip-free world where we are charged on the bill/check to include certain "tippable" services (server, bellhop, taxi, maid, coat check person, yadda yadda).
However, in the US, with the exception of a few high-end restaurants, that is not happening. Those of you who refuse to tip on the basis of "principle" or because you think the employee should get a higher paying job are being subsidized by those of us who are decent enough to understand the system and augment the wages of those employees whose employers assume they are tipped. [Removed due to violation of FT Rules]
If there are sufficient people who would like the tips to be built into the bill by the proprietor having to pay higher wages, maybe in a decade, things will change. However, my read of Europe which has been historically tip-less, is that tips are increasingly expected. I make this statement from the statements of relatives currently living in Europe.
However, in the US, with the exception of a few high-end restaurants, that is not happening. Those of you who refuse to tip on the basis of "principle" or because you think the employee should get a higher paying job are being subsidized by those of us who are decent enough to understand the system and augment the wages of those employees whose employers assume they are tipped. [Removed due to violation of FT Rules]
If there are sufficient people who would like the tips to be built into the bill by the proprietor having to pay higher wages, maybe in a decade, things will change. However, my read of Europe which has been historically tip-less, is that tips are increasingly expected. I make this statement from the statements of relatives currently living in Europe.
Last edited by cblaisd; Feb 15, 2016 at 3:47 pm Reason: Removed sentences that violated http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php#offensive
Feb 15, 2016, 5:44 pm
#5
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Philadelphia
Programs: BAEC Silver, SPG Gold
Posts: 465
Can we put a stop to this whole "tipping issue" on FlyerTalk. I seem to see a new "tipping is horrible" post every few days by those who have never had to wait on the public to earn a living? I've waitressed for over ten years while in college and to supplement my first job earnings at an investment firm so I could travel. I learned so much more about the public (good, bad and truly ugly) working in bars & restaurants that it definitely helped me dealing with C-level staff and folks around the world. You are making blanket assumptions that they don't want to improve education or technical skills? I really can't believe I just read that sweeping generalization.
The US definitely has a problem with tipping (it's gotten worse IMO) - I earned $2.01 an hour and had to declare to the IRS a % of sales whether or not the table covered the % or not. I had to tip out to others from my tips - tip the bartender and about five others (if I was lucky others) so you assume folks get to keep those tips - you are served by a village not one person in a restaurant. The host(ess) who seats you, the bartender makes your drink, the sommelier, the food runner, the guy who refills the water glass, the person who clears the table and a few others. I paid taxes on the whole pile of tips, not the net after paying out to the others. So for your $200 dinner, if you did tip 10%, the server doesn't keep that $20 as they need to tip out to everyone.
The US definitely has a problem with tipping (it's gotten worse IMO) - I earned $2.01 an hour and had to declare to the IRS a % of sales whether or not the table covered the % or not. I had to tip out to others from my tips - tip the bartender and about five others (if I was lucky others) so you assume folks get to keep those tips - you are served by a village not one person in a restaurant. The host(ess) who seats you, the bartender makes your drink, the sommelier, the food runner, the guy who refills the water glass, the person who clears the table and a few others. I paid taxes on the whole pile of tips, not the net after paying out to the others. So for your $200 dinner, if you did tip 10%, the server doesn't keep that $20 as they need to tip out to everyone.
Feb 15, 2016, 8:10 pm
#6
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: GLA
Programs: AF/KL FB Plat 4L, VA Vel Silver, BA EC, LH M&M
Posts: 1,825
Can we put a stop to this whole "tipping issue" on FlyerTalk. I seem to see a new "tipping is horrible" post every few days by those who have never had to wait on the public to earn a living? I've waitressed for over ten years while in college and to supplement my first job earnings at an investment firm so I could travel. I learned so much more about the public (good, bad and truly ugly) working in bars & restaurants that it definitely helped me dealing with C-level staff and folks around the world. You are making blanket assumptions that they don't want to improve education or technical skills? I really can't believe I just read that sweeping generalization.
The US definitely has a problem with tipping (it's gotten worse IMO) - I earned $2.01 an hour and had to declare to the IRS a % of sales whether or not the table covered the % or not. I had to tip out to others from my tips - tip the bartender and about five others (if I was lucky others) so you assume folks get to keep those tips - you are served by a village not one person in a restaurant. The host(ess) who seats you, the bartender makes your drink, the sommelier, the food runner, the guy who refills the water glass, the person who clears the table and a few others. I paid taxes on the whole pile of tips, not the net after paying out to the others. So for your $200 dinner, if you did tip 10%, the server doesn't keep that $20 as they need to tip out to everyone.
The US definitely has a problem with tipping (it's gotten worse IMO) - I earned $2.01 an hour and had to declare to the IRS a % of sales whether or not the table covered the % or not. I had to tip out to others from my tips - tip the bartender and about five others (if I was lucky others) so you assume folks get to keep those tips - you are served by a village not one person in a restaurant. The host(ess) who seats you, the bartender makes your drink, the sommelier, the food runner, the guy who refills the water glass, the person who clears the table and a few others. I paid taxes on the whole pile of tips, not the net after paying out to the others. So for your $200 dinner, if you did tip 10%, the server doesn't keep that $20 as they need to tip out to everyone.
Feb 16, 2016, 8:50 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: California USA
Programs: AA Million Miler, AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 384
Then the restaurant owner needs to correct the problem. Fight the IRS.
Feb 16, 2016, 10:21 am
#8
formerly known as Tad's Broiled Steaks
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,412
The best restaurants are those where the waitstaff are prescient, but not omnipresent.
Feb 16, 2016, 2:26 pm
#11
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: SJC/SFO
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Posts: 6,284
I am not going to respond to OP's remarks on how much total compensation waitstaff "should" earn. But I will note that I do already adjust my tip up or down, relative to modern US/local norms, based on how much attention the server pays me/my party. Minimum service? Smaller tip. Attentive service? Bigger tip. Handled a lot of time-consuming requests with aplomb? Generous tip.
Feb 17, 2016, 6:37 am
#12
In memoriam
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: IAD, BOS, PVD
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Posts: 7,203
Anyhow, I think most people are trying to formulate a more equitable
system than that that exists in the US, not to advocate starving out
the staff who wait on them.
Feb 17, 2016, 9:17 am
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: IAD/DCA
Posts: 31,797
now illegal in many places in US
tipping has changed from the great idea it was originally
but UK exports it more than US does
tipping has changed from the great idea it was originally
but UK exports it more than US does
Last edited by cblaisd; Feb 17, 2016 at 1:57 pm Reason: Removed unnecessarily personalized comment
Feb 17, 2016, 9:31 am
#14
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Indianapolis
Programs: Hilton-Diamond Lifetime Platinum AA UA, WN-CP, SPG Gold.
Posts: 7,377
The server spend a few minutes on your Steak Dinner, compared to the prep staff, cooks., and even the dish washer..
Servers are over rated, and we all wait on the public.
Servers are over rated, and we all wait on the public.
Feb 17, 2016, 10:26 am
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2004
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I'd rather reverse it and tip by the amount of time the server doesn't NEED to spend with me interrupting my meal. In a good restaurant, the service should been seamless and unnoticed since everything is working as planned.
The person who takes my order should stop by once to see how we're going. I know I'm splitting hairs, but the server isn't usually the person who takes the orders anyway.
The person who takes my order should stop by once to see how we're going. I know I'm splitting hairs, but the server isn't usually the person who takes the orders anyway.