Originally Posted by trilinearmipmap

If you hate tipping, do as I do and just don't tip.

No one has given me a tip in 20 years of working. I served others every day. So I don't see why I should tip someone for carrying some plates to my table.

It is gullible for restaurant patrons to buy into the line that "a 15% tip is standard". Actually in the past few years this has changed to "a 20% tip is standard". In reality, more than 50% of customers do not tip, among those who do tip the average is about 10%. A small gullible few are subsidizing the rest of us by tipping 15% to 20%. As several relatives and friends have worked in restaurants in the past, I found this out during meals when they chided me after I would leave 15% tips. One of them told me she had never received tips, another remembered a tipper because it was the only time she was ever tipped.

The tipping scam works like this: make patrons think a tip is standard and almost required. Make them think they will lose face and look cheap if they don't tip. Make it the expectation that they will tip, and make them anxious about the embarrassment they will feel if they don't tip. If only a fraction of people fall for this, the tipping scam has worked.

I have noticed no decline in service since I have stopped tipping. I encourage the big tippers to continue subsidizing my restaurant meals.