Why is a tip considered a percentage of the meal cost?

Question

You often hear people say that they tip 10% or 20% - I say it too - but why is the tip you give based on the cost of meal?

Its not as if you're partially responsible for reimbursing the waiter/waitress, that a more expensive meal meant more work (not necessarily, anyway) or guaranteed a better service.

Does anyone have any light to shed on this issue?

Answer 1

Your tip should be based on the quality of service and about 15% is usually an appropriate tip. Also, many restaurants now include the gratuity in the bill (a practice I detest because tipping and how much I tip is my choice.) Most waiters and waitresses receive less than minimum pay and management depends on tips to raise their income. Also they often have to share their tips with the busboys and kitchen employees. Tip however much you feel comfortable with. I once had dinner with a friend who left a tip of one cent to express his dissatifisfaction with the service. The service was bad (and rude) and I think he expressed his displeasure appropriately.

Answer 2

As a server, I tip 20-30%. It isn't necessarily the employers choice to pay hourly what they do. In Ny I make 4.65 an hour. Those who say we choose that, I'd like to see them be a server, and then talk about tipping. Serving is something I do part time while in school. It is better than working something minimum wage, which is about 7 an hour, where I would make half as less, if not more than that.

If we were paid more hourly, the prices of the food would seem insane to people. Think about it. On any given friday there are 20 servers working, making 4.65 an hour. If you had to increase the price of the food, it would be too much for people to want to pay. Especially, when thinking 20-30 dollars now is expensive for a meal. Although not for everyone most would think so.

Another thing to think about. As servers, we receive tips based on our service. I'm unsure why it became whatever percentage of the meal, but that's how it's generally figured as a standard. If we weren't getting tipped. Whose to say you would ever have good service. If servers were making 10 dolllars hourly, no matter what service they gave, why would they ever go above and beyond to give extraordinary service?

Answer 3

You might be getting mixed up between what happens in America, where's it's entirely innapropraite not to tip*; and the UK, where it's done as a gesture of thanks for exceptionally good service or decency.

* In America waiters/waitresses are paid below minimum wage, it's assumed they'll recoup it through tips, which is where the majority of their income comes from. The waiter loses out big time if you don't tip, which is why they seem so much more polite and upbeat over there (some people don't like it, mistaking it as faux sincerity). If I feel like tipping I usually give £5 but in America I'd say 10% as standard, 15 or 20% for good service.

Answer 4

Many restaurants do not pay the waiters and waitresses much for their work. It is understood that they will work for "tips" in addition to the small hourly compensation they receive. Therefore, the tip you leave is part of their pay. The federal government requires that they pay taxes on their tips and that they are reported accurately The tip guide of 15 or 20 percent is totally at your discretion. If the service was good, then I tend to tip higher, if it was poor, then I tip on the lower scale.

Answer 5

I don't tip based on the cost of the meal. I base it on how much work they do and the server's attitude.

I've been known to give a better tip for a $5 hamburger & fries tab than for a $20 steak dinner.

Answer 6

Yes, its funny isnt it? I mean in England you dont have to tip if you are not impressed with the service, but feel obliged to do so.
When I go abroad it is included in the service charge, 10%, but I feel obliged to tip again as I feel sorry for the waiter or fancy the waitress!

Answer 7

It's just a guideline, to be followed out of courtesy. It's meant as a way of commenting on the quality of service you received. If I went to a diner and ordered a cup of coffee and a piece of pie, I don't need to tip the $12 I might tip if I were going to a seafood restaurant for dinner.

We don't HAVE to follow the guidelines but for those of us who want to tip appropriately, it's helpful.

Answer 8

The envy of the left has given upward thrust to the term "Obscene income". They use this whilst attacking great companies for procuring funds and don't have the enterprise sense to comprehend that maximum of those companies at an identical time as make a great earnings selection, they do it at an identical time as making a small earnings on each transaction. government has no place placing earnings limits.

Answer 9

Why should you tip at all? Okay, they'll tell you that most servers are paid below minimum wage. Boo hoo!!

I normally leave $1 or $2 regardless of the price of the meal, and I see no reason why restaurants that charge no less than $25 per meal couldn't take care of their servers accordingly.

Answer 10

its just a guide

10% is the norm 20% is seen as quite extravogent.

Think of it this way, if you eating at a realy fancy restaurant you would tip more than at a greasy spoon.

I for one, hate the almost forced idea of tipping, if the service was good then I would tip, But if there slow and/or rude why should I feel I need to pay extra for that?