The Tipping Points

A waitress told me recently that her tips have declined noticeably since the recession began. People still want to eat out, but they’re being stingy tippers to make up for the squeeze they feel. I’m not sure if it’s across the board, but I’d love to hear from servers on this. In the meantime: People, tip or stay home.

The onus is on you as the customer to sufficiently compensate your server. Restaurant owners pay them less than minimum wage, so tips are their livelihood. If you’re not willing to pay 20 percent for good service, please, get familiar with your own kitchen. Notice I say “good.” I have no patience for slacker servers and have no compunction about leaving less, though I think it’s just rude, petty and juvenile to leave a penny – if it was that bad, call over the manager and have a conversation right then and there.

For the record, I don’t like the system. I wish servers were trained well, treated as professionals and paid a full salary. But as Mom always said, “Wish in one hand and shit in the other, and see which one gets full first.”

True story: A friend of mine a couple of weeks ago went out to eat with a large group. Everyone chipped in, and they realized they were short. They all threw in more, and then one diner counted the cash, removed a small sum of money (no one is sure if it was a couple of bucks or more) and left in a hurry. In effect, he stole money from the server.

While this is an extreme case, I know from experience that most diners in groups who figure their bill forget to add the sales tax (in Phoenix and Tempe, that’s 9.3 percent), and they feign ignorance in math to avoid paying their share of the tip. I host groups on occasion and I tell people right up front: Round up the tax to about 10 percent, and figure on 20 percent for a tip, so that means whatever your bill is, expect to throw in close to 30 percent more.

If you’re in a big group, the server almost always deserves 20 percent; trust me. And don’t start the I-don’t-tip-on-the-tax argument; that is a negligible amount. Wringing your hands over whether to leave that extra $1 bill? Think about it. Are you really going to miss $1? But those dollars add up at the end of the shift, and could mean the difference between someone paying the rent this month or not.