I've seen a couple of articles (including one posted in the "Seattle $15 minimum wage" thread on P/R) recently where restaurants cited the average tip based on their credit card receipts as being around 17-18%.

This suggests that people are still pretty well divided between the 15% and 20% numbers which have been typical throughout my adult life (although I remember older folks grumbling that it used to be 10%.) For some places, that would also suggest the "twice the tax" rule of thumb many Californians use, but in the case of the Seattle article, they have an above-average (9.5%) sales tax and that rule of thumb puts them up at 19%.

I just know how many times people get stiffed and how hard some people work to make eating out a nice experience. Granted, it's not an especially difficult job once you know the flow of things, I just feel like it's not much skin off my back to make someone's day/night at work a little better than it may usually be. I know most people won't follow suit, but most of my restaurant coworkers tip similarly.

As to the suggested amounts and pre- or post-tax, I haven't actually checked myself, but I will at work tomorrow to see how my employer's checks print out. As to what I tip on (assuming there's not suggested numbers), I have to admit I just tip on whatever the larger-font number is, LOL.

Would be interesting to note; from what I've seen as a customer, there's no consistency to which restaurants do.

*lol* That'd be the after-tax, if they differ in printing at all -- on a lot of printed checks, it'll be the same.

How big a difference this is depends hugely on the size of the check, and for me, how much attention I'll pay it depends on that as well. At a very inexpensive place (say, under or around $20 total bill), I'm much more likely to round up in ways that put it over 20% on the net amount (and more likely to be paying cash, where rounding up and leaving a full-dollar amount is much easier.)

On an expensive bill (starting at around $100, say) I'm never going to be paying cash and am much more likely to tip an exact amount on the pre-tax price (often 17.5% because the "twice the sales tax" rule of thumb works well around here and up in the city where I'd tend to be having pricier meals, the sales tax rate is 8.75%) -- and even if I round up or down to a whole dollar, it's not going to change the percentage any appreciable amount.

We ate at a place in NYC last week, and the bill had a gratuity already added to it. 18% I think. When it came back after the CC imprinting, there was another line added which stated "additional or less gratuity ". I thought this was different than a line for "additional gratuity".

DD

I can tell you after looking my restaurant, a large national chain steakhouse, and a member of a very large restaurant group (you can probably figure it out), prints suggested gratuities based on the post-tax total/amount.

Thanks for the data point!

The last place I ate with a suggestion (Ajisen Ramen, part of a big international chain albeit one relatively sparse on ground here in the US) showed pre-tax, but from what I can see there is no consistency to it between places. The Mexican place I ate at tonight with family (part of a small local chain) used to post suggestions on the bill and does not any longer.

I'm not sure what to make of their choice of percentages... 18, 20 and 22%? I thought standard tip was 15-18% Perhaps the new standard is now 15-20%. But starting at 18% is just tacky IMO.

I would say it's pretty tacky even if it's a large party. Why does the size of the party matter?

Perhaps there is a difference between mean and median. A few very generous tippers (former restaurant workers, guys trying to flirt with waitresses, etc.) would bring up the mean a lot. I would guess that the median tip at an average casual dining place is about 17%, as someone cited above.

A few years ago, when the IRS decided that automatic gratuities would be taxed as service charges instead of tips, some restaurants tried to argue that they were still tips because there was an option provided to reduce it or not pay it at all, thereby making it voluntary. Perhaps this is a remnant of that.

We went to a Latin restaurant in Norcross, GA on Saturday... had a Restaurant.com certificate. Before I gave the certificate, the receipt had three recommended tips already populated (post-tax) of 20%, 25% and 30%! Once the deduction of the $20 Restaurant.com certificate was taken, the tip amount was recalculated off the new price... even though you should tip off the pre-discounted price.

I took the receipt and found the manager... and had a conversation over the issues.... and I added that those tip percentages are especially bad given that it took 15 minutes to get our diet cokes at the start of the evening.

The standard's been 15-20% for at least two decades now, although some folks who take that to be "no, 20%, really" as oppose to that being the high end of a range where 15% is perfectly reasonable are blowing smoke.

18% is pretty typical as the add-on for a large party, though.

I agree.

In terms of that reminder, I think it is a bit less tacky because a lot of places DO add a mandatory gratuity to the bill itself for larger parties, and some people might assume that it was.

Wow, that's some stones. 30%? Haven't heard of that being suggested even at some of the major tourist sites where they're pushing 25% as an alleged new standard.

I've never seen any place with suggestions get the "tip on the pre-discount amount" right in their suggestions, which is a pity as a lot of people don't seem to know that rule. (I do draw the line at places that are perpetually discounting for everyone; in that case, the "discount" is just the real price.)

The travel guides that I have seen seem to say 15-18%, but I guess that is too small a range, so it gets broadened, obviously upwards.

Most places have discontinued this practice ever since the IRS ruling a couple of years ago that said that mandatory gratuities would be taxed as service charges.


I don't think their software can handle that. It just sees the total and calculates the tip. The tip calculation function does not see the individual line items on the check.

Being a local, I've never much looked at travel guides for the US.

I haven't noticed many places removing it, but I haven't gone to many smaller independent places with a large party in order to see if they had one to begin with.

In principle, the tax obligations didn't change, just the reporting requirements -- places that have a good POS system and good 3rd-party payroll processor see very little impact, especially if a lot of their bills on credit cards. It's definitely an imposition on smaller restaurants (or ones that facilitate servers dodging their taxes.)

I've never heard much good about restaurant POS software, but in principle using a pre-discount subtotal when dealing with gift cards or flat $/% off discounts should be dead easy. Calculating for comped items, specials, BOGO, etc would be harder.

I would guess that restaurants find that this is a net-positive thing, or they wouldn't include it, but you can't please everyone and every circumstance.

Personally I like the suggested amount. I'm always going to tip at least 15%unless they screw up really bad. How much more they get is up to them.

I will tip above 15% when I think it's warranted, but I find suggested tip amounts off-putting, especially if they start above 15%. Seeing suggested tip percentages and amounts on a bill make me that much more determined to take the time to calculate and tip no more than 15% of the pretax amount.

It doesn't make sense to me to tip on post-tax totals. For the same quality of service, if that's what tips are really about, why tip more in, say, downtown Chicago, because of higher city and county taxes, than for the same meal and service 20 miles out in a suburb? There are several reasons I prefer living near Chicago to living in Chicago, and the higher city and county taxes are at the top of the list.

Many places bring the itemized bill when they want to get your credit card from you, but only bring you a bill with the total (with tax) amount when they want your signature. I make a mental note of the pretax amount when I see that first (itemized) bill. Some may think that makes me seem stingy, but I do think the tipping culture in the US has long been silly and is getting sillier.

Once in Washington DC many years ago, I went to a bar with a group, and one in the group picked up the tab (including tip, which I remember was an entirely adequate amount for the time---this was about 20 years ago). He was not a cheap guy at all; we would all have pitched in, but he wanted to pay the whole bill himself. As we were leaving, the server actually threw the tip, which included bills and change, at the back of the head of our host as he walked out. He didn't stop to pick up the money---he was too shocked---so I presume the waiter went to gather up the money. Or maybe the tip amount was so beneath him he left the money on the floor for others to pick up, who knows. Guess we Midwesterners were supposed to know that you tip more in the Big City. Ridiculous.

Surprise! Ate lunch at a restaurant today at which the tip amount calculations (15%, 18% and 20%) were correctly based upon pretax amount. I happily added my (slightly over 20%) tip and left a satisfied customer.

This happened to be at an Amish-run restaurant, so no booze on the menu ...

We stopped off for lunch on our back back home from the beach yesterday. We were a party of 7. I was a little surprised to find the 18% gratuity already on the check. I thought 8 was usually the tipping point. However, it was correctly calculated on the pretax amount and there was a line to add or subtract from the number. I left it as is.