If you recall the surprising comments, please post here. I have heard some whining from regular-pay employees when they are not given a gratuity by the customer -- unbelievable!

Is this true? In California waiters make $6.75 an hour?

In that case I see no reason to tip at a restaurant at all. Non-tip dependent wage and no smoking section (part of the restaurant service IMHO) ==> no tip.

Usually I eat at In 'N Out Burger.

Most of you people are hilarious. Are you serious? I would love to see you all exist on $3.00 (or even $6.00) an hour. Republicans.

I'd love to see all these people making $6.00 an hour react to the amount of money I spent educating myself...

I believe I heard somewhere that Wal-Mart may be putting tip jars next to its check-out lanes. That would help the public who may be concerned about compensation being inadequate.

"I'd love to see all these people making $6.00 an hour react to the amount of money I spent educating myself..."

And what does that have to do with the issue? Or are you that self-centered?

This is something of a pet peeve, right up there with companies trying to collect charitable contributions from customers rather than giving them themselves.

The jobs in question should be paid on salary. If you get to a situation where tips get significant, it WILL be noticed by the company, which will cut salaries, tell employees to live more off the tips, and then not pass on any of the savings to customers. Just ask skycaps.

Not only that, but as soon as one company starts doing it, others will say they have to follow suit "to be competitive."

Of course, what goes around comes around. People have to have money if they're going to buy your product. That's a big part of the reason the U.S. economy hasn't done so well in the past 5 years, and if you pull out the psychological support from home-price appreciation, it could get far worse.

In research for the other tipping thread, I came across this BBS entry:

"California does not permit tip credit, so your compensation must equal at least your local minimum wage. In San Francisco Minimum wage just went up to about $9 with c.o.l.a."

If accurate, this means that in San Francisco, the base pay for waiters and bartenders is not a sub-minimum-wage, but is nearly 10 dollars/ hour. Can any current SF resident confirm this?

If true, this would remove the normal and customary reason to tip waiters and bartenders in San Francisco. It would be interesting to know how many people have adjusted their behavior accordingly.

.....

is now 8.73 per hour...and I have no doubt it has affected people's tip behavior....but look at our COL and you will understand that isn't as much as it sounds...

plus you pay taxes on EXPECTED tips - if you declare less than 15% tips on your tax return you will be charged for under reporting income.

This is drifting a little off-topic, but I believe that the New York Times ran an article this past weekend about supermart discount store employees who do not get paid health insurance and so they work a limited week in order that they remain below the poverty level and thus qualify for taxpayer-financed health care, i.e., Medicare. I don't know how many employees such a situation represents however.

If I saw a tip jar at a place like that, I'd turn right around and walk out (in much the same way as I do not purchase products made in China, when discernible).

What's wrong with "Made in China?"

It's likely a product that was made by a grossly underpaid and possibly underage person working for a totalitarian government.

plus you pay taxes on EXPECTED tips - if you declare less than 15% tips on your tax return you will be charged for under reporting income.[/QUOTE]

From the IRS: "If you are a large food or beverage establishment (more than 10 employees on a typical day and food or beverages consumed on the premises), you are required to allocate tips if the total tips reported to you are less than 8% of gross sales."

Servers must report tips of 8% (or more) of gross sales, or their employer will come under the scrutiny of the IRS. In recent years the IRS has been trying to hit restaurants with more FICA and Medicare taxes which the restaurant (and worker) must pay on tip income. Many servers are not happy that they must now report almost 1/2 of their income. A friend that's a waitress says to always leaves the tip in cash, even if paying the bill with a credit card.

Exactly. What alot of people do not realize is that servers are not always paid minimum wage. I know some who are only paid $2.00/hr legally. They also have to pay taxes on at least 8% of their total sales so their paychecks are often $0.