I guess it seems strange to me that the IRS isn't assuming 15% and making you prove you DIDN'T get it - isn't that what taxmen love to do

I will continue, as I do, to tip for good service. But then the vast majority of servers I get are good at their jobs. The couple of percent who are shockingly bad shouldn't be coasting by on 15-20% on every bill just because it is the done thing. I wouldn't let rubbish performance at work slide for those I manage (and that isn't even my own dollar!), nor will I do it when I am paying for service elsewhere. I don't think good servers have anything to worry about, but I REALLY want people to stop tipping the ones who are terrible anything at all.

Emma, I was thinking the same thing especially for par or subpar service.

As a customer, I don't like that. I tip because of the server and the server only. So a server who goes the extra mile doesn't get rewarded the extra money because the tips are pooled? Unfair to those who work harder. Also, the server who does the minimum should partake in the same tip pool as servers who do more? I think that's patently unfair and worse it doesn't incentivize servers to provide top service if everyone shares the tips. What is the incentive for the server to give even better service if she has to share with the servers who don't do as much she does?

I don't like seeing a tip jar at retail stores that aren't sit-down restaurants, and I refuse to use them.

However, I did make an exception recently (between Christmas and New Year's): I put a few bucks in the tip jar at the medical marijuana store because I was feeling generous, and I did say "happy new year, and merry christmas" (can't say it the other way around if it's after Dec. 25). The two ladies working there were very happy!

I agree, and that is why I take it up with the manager if the service is shockingly bad. I do not just stiff the tip and then slink off into the night.

Yup.

Of course they were; they were stoned.

Uggh. Don't get me started. A large socially-responsible coffee chain makes a big deal out of doing just that, but they still allow their barristas to have a tip jar.

Once you have left the tip, the money is no longer your money. What the server does with the money is the server's business, not yours.

Different establishments have different means of dealing with pooled tips. When my husband was a bus boy, the servers gave him a cut of their tips at the end of the night, and similarly gave the cooks and others their cuts.

A pleasant restaurant experience is the sum of all the service personnel doing their jobs. You are seated promptly, without having to walk by a bunch of empty, un-bussed tables, finding your own table neat, sanitary and tidy. (Thanks, bus boys.) Then you are served by your waiter, the food is cooked by a chef and sometimes brought in by a food runner. The restroom is clean and tidy. All those people contribute to your pleasant evening meal, and there's nothing wrong with the tip being shared by all who contributed. Team effort, team compensation.

Remember, your tip is still 15-20%. You don't tip anything extra just because a waiter and a food runner are involved.

It's optional. While they do pay better wages, the workers aren't earning middle-class wages either, and some of them have child support or student loans to pay. I always leave some change in the tip jar. It's just a few cents for me but it adds up for them over the day.

You also don't push for a system to change by "abusing" the people who have little or no power to change that system; that simply spreads a lot of collateral damage while having very little effect.

Employers won't care if their servers get short-changed by customers; even if a server quits, turnover in the industry is so high that someone else will gladly take that server's place. Employers will only notice if they can't adequately replace their staff because nobody wants to work at a place where they're getting stiffed on their income, but in making that happen, all the people who already got stiffed have suffered.

If you're against tipping because you feel the employer should pay their employees a living wage, trying to make that happen by denying the employees the money you feel they should be getting just makes them even more of a victim. To make an analogy, do you also feel that closing down free clinics (which are supported with your tax dollars) would somehow force an employer to improve its health coverage? (Recent "health care reform" notwithstanding.)

Finally, I ask: if tipping were suddenly to be outlawed and restaurants instead increased all of their prices by 15-20%, would you be fine with that? If so, why? You're paying exactly the same amount regardless.

Ask an accountant or check the IRS website. I've given you the link.

As others have noted, your server is not the only person involved in your service. The busboys ensure your table, seat, dishware, and utensils are clean and clear; the kitchen staff ensures that your meal is properly prepared to your liking; the host(ess) ensures that you get seated appropriately. They are all part of your service, even if they are "behind the scenes."

You misunderstand. Tip-outs are almost always based on a percentage of the tip income - if you leave a larger tip, the server does get extra money, they just have to share some of that extra money with the others in accordance with their tip-out percentage. Let's say they have to tip out at 10%; if you leave a $10 tip, they get $9, while if you leave a $20 tip, they get $18. They do get rewarded with that extra money.

Although I'm sure they exist, I don't know of any "real" restaurant where all the tips are pooled and every server gets an equal share. (I put "real" in quotes because I'm not considering places with tip jars, where the tips are by definition pooled; I am referring only to restaurants where tips are allocated "directly" to the server.) Also, I know of know restaurant where other servers benefit from the tip-out; to my knowledge, only employees who don't receive tips (e.g. hosts, busboys, etc.) benefit from the tip-out.

Could have been said in this long post already, but here in OZ (Australia) we don't tip unless its extra good service then only about 5%.

Interesting thread let me share my experiences.

First let me say that I may be a bit biased since I worked in the restaurant industry for 5 years (1st as a waiter and then as a bartender) while I got my bachelor's and masters.

I got paid 2.13 an hour when waiting tables. My weekly check after taxes/insurance was usually 10 dollars or less. It wasn't uncommon to not get a check at all. I never once got a raise because based on my employers logic if I deserved a raise I would make more in tips therefore negating his need to pay me more.

You must report at least 8% of your sales as income. If you made more then you were supposed to report it (tax fraud) if you made less over the course of the year you could try and fight it but that required very detailed daily records which most college students do not keep.

Whatever I made each night wasn't mine. I had to tip out 10% of my total tips to the busser and 1% of my sales to the bar. Every place is different but it is uncommon to find a restaurant where the waitstaff doesn't have to tip out somebody. Not to mention that most restaurants make their waitstaff do 1-2 hours of side/cut work before they can go home. During these hours you are not taking any new tables (just finishing off the ones you have) and are still getting paid 2.13

So for example if a party had a $100 tab and didn't tip me it actually cost me money to wait on them as that is $8 of taxable income and $1 of tip out. Thankfully, getting stiffed at the restaurant I worked at was rare, every waiter will get stiffed at some point. Sometimes it is your fault (we all have bad days/moments) and sometimes you just get unlucky and get a cheapskate or someone unfamiliar with tipping.

This isn't meant to be a sob story, obviously I didn't starve to death and there are advantages to working in the restaurant industry as a college student.

There are some truths to the post earlier about reading people. Waitstaff with experience become very good at that. I could bang out a thousand words on that easy but I don't want to bore you.

As for tipping guidelines here are few

Service is terrible = 0% and talk with a manager
Service is poor = 10%
Service is average =15%-18% (most menus will state the gratuity they charge for large parties that is a good baseline)
Service is good = 20%
Service is outstanding = more than 20%

Obviously this is just my personal range. I know people's views and expectations can change. But I highly recommend tipping at least the large party gratuity %age unless the service is poor)

The 8% is a number IRS came up with to take into account several factors.

1) Not everyone tips
2) Waitstaff often have to tip out from the money they get in tips (they don't get the full 15% you leave them)
3) They are getting paid 2 to 3 dollars an hour some of their tip money goes into making sure that they make at least minimum wage as required by fed law
4) In fancy restaurants it isn't uncommon for people to subtract the alcohol from the total bill before they tip. Which doesn't bother me. As a former waiter I never felt like I deserved an extra $7-8 because someone ordered a $50 bottle of wine. However, most restaurants base their tip outs on the total sales as does the IRS.

Obviously you are free to leave whatever you feel like, and I wouldn't feel obligated to leave 15% on sub-par service. Just remember that most full time waiters make around 20-30k in my area. So it isn't like we are living in mansions rolling around in the money that you leave behind for us.

Are you reading the same thread I am reading?

My first sentence says that you don't change the bad system of tipping by participating in the practice of tipping. My later sentences were a direct response to the foolish notion that people who don't tip shouldn't eat out. I participate in the restaurant system by enjoying a meal when I feel like going out and paying for one.

Nothing inconsistent in those two statements.

Your suggestion that non-tippers not eat out is analogous to those who disagree with your politics telling you to "love it or leave it". Silly and insulting.

A housekeeper who was doing "her" job for "her" employer who is getting "her" paycheck to do "her" work. She is not hired to pimp her services out to the highest bidder. She is an employee, nothing more. Don't like the pay? Change jobs.