Ok heres my tipping schedule:

20% excellent service,
15% standard service,
0% poor service

I would say about 20% of waiters provide excellent service, 75% of them standard, 5% poor service.

I tip pretax not post tax, and I do include drinks in the tip.


If your employer is taking some money from the tip I'm leaving, I'm sorry but its nothing I have control over.

On the other hand I wonder how many waiters include cash tips in their income tax return?

One thing that irritates me the fact that if I leave a $18 dollar tip (say 20%) for a waiter and they don't seem to even care, yet I leave a $4 tip for a cab driver and they think I'm the greatest guy on the planet.