Originally Posted by JayhawkCO

Keep in mind, it is not up to the server's discretion whether or not we WANT to add the gratuity. It is blatant discrimination to choose whether or not you want to add a gratuity to a table. If I see some rich looking businessmen and don't add it, and then I see some elderly people, or people of a different race and I DO add the gratuity, that's discrimination. My restaurant has a policy of always adding the gratuity on 6 or more.

I've had more than one person tell me "Why did you put the gratuity on? You're missing out." And then I tell them, "well, it's restaurant policy, not up to me, and you can of course leave more if you'd like." And then they promptly leave without anything additional. That's almost more insulting than a bad tip. I think I'm gonna start a thread dispelling the common myths of the server. It'll cut down on my stress levels at work if I can reach the masses.

Chris

Originally Posted by JayhawkCO

90% of people tip post-tax as far as I can tell. So, your server probably just thinks you're not quite as generous.

The way I look at corkage fees is thus: your server is doing all of the "service" of your wine; you're just not paying for the wine from the restaurant. So in my opinion, I would tip on the corkage fee plus some. Let's say for food etc., your bill is $100. The bottle you brought in might go for $70 on the restaurant's wine list. So, your bill would be $170. A 20% tip (in my post-tax world) would result in $34. Instead, you have a corkage fee of maybe $15. So your bill would be $115. I would think $25-30 would be appropriate. Again, this is assuming competent service. I'm the first one to advocate not tipping well if you don't receive a superior product. Keep in mind, servers "tip out" on the corkage fee too. So if you don't tip on that amount, the server is losing money on the fact that a) you didn't order wine from them thus keeping your total smaller, and b) they are tipping out on sales from which they didn't receive a gratuity.

I think the biggest misconception of the restaurant industry is that servers get paid by the restaurant. In all reality, we don't. In most states, we get $2.13 an hour from the restaurant. But, we tip out anywhere from 3% to 10% of our total sales, which is ALWAYS more than $2.13 an hour. We essentially pay to wait tables in a restaurant. Our "employment" at the restaurant is merely their willingness to have us "rent out space" in their building. So, if you don't tip, we actually lose money on whatever revenue wasn't tipped upon.

Chris