TippingFollow

I worked as a cook for 6 months. I can vouch for that. Waiters didn't even notice me... Until I told this one charming ******* who always got high tips that if he rushed me again to make up for his laziness and then forget to pick up the order I would shove his plate of pasta up his butt sideways. I'm a big fella I think I could pull it off. Apparently so did he. I never again got any late order from him.

But then it is no longer a tip. If you want to insure someone makes a minimum amount there is a federal wage standard for that.

I waitressed for about 17 years. I made far more than the staff that was paid hourly - and that includes the restaurant managers. So yes, while I did work my butt off and many people were jack-asses, and very occasionally I'd get stiffed completely, I made very good money for an unskilled laborer. Also I paid little in income taxes on it as the law made it easy to do so.

I don't have a problem with asking for a 18% minimum tip on larger groups. More often than not you'll find that with big parties you'll get 20% almost always if not more. So adding in something less you'll likely be ******** yourself over.

Arresting people for not tipping is going way, way to far and I just don't see the legality of it. I also think this establishment is going to garner some pretty negative publicity.







Edited, Nov 23rd 2009 8:57pm by Elinda

Lol. Classic!



So why were you arguing?




Full circle is funny...

I don't think intentionally scrimping on the tip is "forgetfulness."

By definition a "gratuity" cannot be mandatory.



If they don't get stiffed on the gratuity, absolutely.


And yeah. It was a tangent. What was interesting was the number of times that tangent kept coming around to an argument about how bad it is to work a large table and then get stiffed on the tip. While we can debate the specifics of when and why one size of table might be better than another for any of a number of reasons, can we agree that the potential to get stiffed on what should be a rather large tip is the leading concern for a waiter with regard to large tables?


My whole point was that this is the primary reason why the gratuity is included on the bill. As I stated then (and you apparently agree with), it's not because of some other inherent cost with larger tables. If that was the case, they would charge more for the larger table *and* still request a full tip. They don't though, do they?



I am right about the first argument. Period. Tangent or not.


But obviously the "middle ground" on the tangent argument supports my position on the first. If larger tables are no better or worse on average than small ones in terms of potential revenue over time, then the reason for including the gratuity in the bill on larger tables *can't* be about that. It has to be what we've both stated it is: Because larger parties tend to stiff waiters on the bill.

Edited, Nov 23rd 2009 7:57pm by gbaji

The thing is they can't technically include it in the bill, well they can, but they'd have to exclude when doing the books as it doesn't go to the establishment as income. It's done because most people will just accept it, but legally I don't think the restaurant has a leg to stand on - a tip is a tip.