Why should you tip the pizza guy (or waiters and waitresses)?

Question

I look after sick people all day at the hospital cleaning private parts, yack, spit, and anything else between. I have patients hit me, call me names, and on occasion they bite me...to top it off, I have to do it with a smile and ask if there's anything else I can help them with...and Do I GET A TIP??? NOOO...its my job!!! When did you guys ever tip your mom's nursing aide, PT aide, dental assistant, LVN, CNA, RN, xray tech?

Who ever said we HAVE to tip the waiter/waitress/pizza guy??? Its their job to serve us! If the service sucks do we get a free meal? NOOOO!! The only people I will tip are maids in the hotels, cooks, laundrymat personnel, and janitors because they are greatly unappreciated and they're probably supporting a family of 4-6. But for waiters/waitresses/pizza guys to expect a tip, its just crazy...NOW don't get me wrong, if the service is exceptional...I will tip...but to stand there and expect more money for something your already paid to do is just stupid.

Answer 1

I work as a server at a buffet style restaurant. A LOT of people don't tip us because they think we don't do anything but bring plates and refill drinks. Let me explain why that's an ignorant assumption:

When you dine there, you go through the front line, get your drink, silverware, and plate, and you pay for your meal. Then you pick where you want to sit. Your server--who, depending on the day and time, has between 7 and 25 (sometimes more, seriously) tables to tend to--brings you dinner rolls, clean plates, and keeps your drink refilled as well as gets you any extra condiments you may want. We also clear your dirty plates as you finish with them, and bus the table when you leave. Our restaurant doesn't have bussers, we do it.

While waiting tables, we also have to switch out the soda syrups when they go out, and those weigh over 40 pounds. A time consuming process that takes you away from your tables, much like cleaning the dish room. Every server is required to clean the dish room at least once per shift. This entails dumping all silverware, changing the water, sweeping and mopping the floor and stacking trays. It takes quite a few minutes and can be killer on tips if it's busy. We also have to do bar checks (where we go wipe down the bar, stir the food, fill the dessert and soup bowls, and stock the bread station) every 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how busy. These don't take long, but you have to stop whatever you're doing to do it, so that can affect tips. We brew coffee and tea, fill ice, cups, mugs, and plates, and make sugar water as needed.

But that's not all. When we're not waiting tables, we're also responsible for cleaning the entire front of the house (dining areas), wait stations and bathrooms. We have to sweep the carpet floors, clean the table bases, chairs (including legs), walls, windows and blinds. We clean the table tops and stock them (refill napkins and sugars, clean sugar caddies and bottle caps, fill low condiments, replace empty ones), stock the wait stations with condiments, ice, coffee, tea, napkins, cups, plates, mugs, filters, straws, paper towels, etc., sweep and mop, clean the soda machine, and take all highchairs to the dish room and spray them down and wipe them out. During all this time, we get paid $2.13 an hour, and it usually takes at least an hour and a half to get everything done. The larger tasks are broken up by week. We do one task each night. However, that $2.13/hour is actually more like $1.13/hour for us because we have to pay $5 per shift to the silverware roller so that we don't have to stay 2 hours at the end of the night rolling it ourselves. (State law allows employers to "pool" employees no more than 15% of all tips received for such things). This is not an option, however, it is required. So we can't choose to roll it ourselves. Because shifts are around 5 hours, it averages to a dollar an hour. If you pull a double, you pay twice. So we basically get paid $1.13/hour where I work.

Also, we don't get breaks. On a busy day, you don't even have time to go to the bathroom. Doing so risks your tips. If you work a double--typically 8 hours, sometimes 12 or more--you get one 30-minute break to eat. For servers that smoke, you can ask to "move your car" and management will allow 3 minutes for them to smoke.

People that don't tip are remembered. And word does spread from one server to another that certain customers don't tip. So the service goes from all those things mentioned above you getting what you pay for:
If you don't think I deserve a tip for services rendered, if you think I don't really do anything, by all damn means, have it your way. I won't offer you bread, I won't refill your drink, I won't bring you clean plates or take your dirty ones. You want A1 sauce? Too damn bad. Find it yourself. I'll do what you want when you stop and ask me for it. And you only get that much so I don't get fired. Go to a restaurant and get no service, then you'll realize that the server is working hard. A lot harder than you realize.

And as someone else mentioned, the people that don't leave tips are the ignorant assholes that will run you hardest. We call them "the entitled" where I work. The people that act like you owe them something. I don't owe you sh!t. And Sundays are the worst. Huge groups of people will stay for hours and leave nothing. Like last night; 20 people, 5 tables, 2 hours, toddler vomited on the table and the filthy, nasty parents left it there, $4 tip. Shameful. I was good to them, and they told me as much. Many thanks from them all, but guess what:

THANKS DON'T PAY THE BILLS! My mortgage company, the cell-phone company, my utilities company, and the doctors office DON'T TAKE PAYMENT IN THE FORM OF THANKS! Your gratitude, while appreciated, is worthless to me. Gratuity is expected for good service. If I sucked as your waitress, I don't expect a tip, but when I serve you well, damn straight I do.

And that lame "you choose to work it, so it's your own fault that you only make $3/hour, and that's all you deserve." BS. We do a job that you need. You're the one that wants to go eat without having to do anything yourself. You want to be waited on. We're providing you a service. You appreciate that, whether you acknowledge it or not. What it is, is you take it for granted. Too many people do. It's hard work. Harder than you know. And it's such a blow to go home after a 12-hour Sunday, in physical pain and totally exhausted to know that you only made $60 in tips. If every person left just one dollar, I'd make $250 on a Sunday. $1/person. How is that too much to ask?

I waited on a homeless man once. He left me $2. That was touching. If he can leave a tip, you soulless bastards making 10 times more than us, can drop a couple bucks.

Answer 2

I actually almost never get pizza delivered, so I wasn't sure what the accepted tipping rate was. In the future, I'll take it into account. But, as someone above pointed out, waitresses are tipped because they earn $3 an hour. Tips are figured into waitress's pay. Delivery is just another minimum wage or above job... there's not really a reason that delivery people should get tipped anymore than the guy who cooks the pizza.

Answer 3

Personally I agree that in some cases it should not be the patrons duty to pay the employees wage, but in this society, it is the way it is. Some instances require tips where others I don't think should.

Here are my rules:
Delivery guys....definitely tip because they are driving to your house to do something that you could have done yourself. If you can't tip delivery driver, then go get the pizza or food yourself, use your own gas and time. No tip less than 2 dollars, anything above a 20 dollar order should be 10-20 percent based on if they are friendly, not because the pizza is cold, late or wrong order, because most of the time the driver does not have control over that.
Same with waiter/waitress at a bar...either tip or go to the bar yourself which at the bar I don't tip unless mixed drink (they will make better drinks if you tip).
Everyone else, tip at your own desire. I have been in the industry. I figure, it is the right thing to do. One day you may be in the same shoes as them and karma is a *****.

Answer 4

What you need to look at is waiters/waitresses and pizza delivery people do not make all that much per hour. Waiting tables a combined total of 6 years I can tell you it's ruff trying to make a living doing it. You get paid $2.13/hr + tips. If people don't tip you don't make $. You work in a customer service job and get all the nastiness from people on the same as a waiter/waitress and feel the pain. The difference should be that you get paid more per hour to deal with it, where as the server does not. Servers have to deal with all the rudeness, yelling, name calling, and just down right rudeness of people. They have to do it with a smile and good attitude, and don't hardly make enough to pay the taxes out of their pay checks unless people tip. I can't tell you how many pay checks I've gotten less than $10. So many years of this is what was the reasoning for me to get out of the customer service field and now I work in IT and love that I don't have to deal with it, but coming from the other side I'll always tip well, if the service is good. If the service isn't good i'll only tip a little. Oh yeah, the pizza delivery guy makes a little more per hour and gets compensated some for gas. Also if you ask you'll find that most pizza places charge a delivery fee included with your total that you don't know about. Usually $1-$1.50. No need to tip the pizza guy too much, but they as well don't make as much per hour.

Answer 5

The pizza guy gets a tip because the store doesn't pay for their gas (most of the time). They make competitive minimum wage, but that goes to their bills (the tips pay for the gas they use to bring you the pizza). Yes, it's unfair for that to be your problem, but I just consider it a service charge.

Waiters are a little more important to tip, as they don't even make minimum wage. The standard pay is $2.15 per hour... the tips are understood to make up the rest. If a server doesn't make enough in tips to bump that up to at least minimum wage, the store has to add money to the check... they don't like to lose money to the employee that way, and will give you a hard time about it. Waiters work harder than you'd think, and their tips ARE their pay. All taxes are taken out of the $2.15 that ends up on the paycheck, and quite often waiters will have a zero paycheck. I used to work 25-30 hours a week and the biggest check I'd ever get after taxes was about $12 every other week.

A lot of the time the fault of the service IS the server, but a lot of the time it's the kitchen, too. Use your own judgment, but keep in mind if you don't leave the server any tip, you may be preventing them from paying a bill.

Answer 6

Theres a difference between Delivering Pizzas and Working in a hospital. Im pretty sure you make a decent living in your kind of work if not I doubt you would be doing it. Delivering Pizzas is at most a minimum wage Job. I Deliver Pizzas and we get less then minimum wage because the government considers us a Tipped Employee therefore we are not required to get Full Pay. Most Waiters or Waitresses don' t make more then a couple of bucks an hour and Pizza Guys/Girls make a few dollars more around 5 or so. If you don't want to tip, make the food your self, serve yourself, or pick up the damn pizza yourself.

Answer 7

Sounds like you need a new job, not to happy are you? Waiters/Waitresses/Pizza Delivery people work for tips. They make minimum wage and delivery people get 50 cents for each delivery regardless of what the delivery fee is. That delivery fee is all profit for the business. Why do you tip a maid, don't you pay the hotel for a clean room? Should you tip the front desk person for giving you a room? A janitor doesn't work relying on tips, it's their choice. Waiters/Waitresses/Pizza Delivery people depend on tips as part of their income and some have families too, they have to deal with traffic, gas prices, wear on their vehicle, rain, snow, rude customers, etc. Most waiters/Waitresses don't even make minimum wage before tips. These are all "tipping" positions, yours is not. If you don't want to tip these people, stay at home and don't order out! If the service sucks then you have reason not to tip. If no one tipped waiters/waitresses/delivery people then believe me there wouldn't be anyone doing these jobs.

Answer 8

I know what you mean and I used to feel the same way when it came to tipping. Once I became a hotel valet though, everything changed.
Tipping usually gets the employee to work harder and deliver better customer service. For instance, I would run my butt off to get people's cars because I wanted them to see me working hard. I was also extremely polite and friendly. It was fake, but the customer doesn't care and in the end, they got great service and I got a decent tip so we’re both happy.
The other thing is that these jobs are usually under paid and often make well below minimum wage because they are expected to make up the rest in tips. If they provide good service, you are really hurting their income by not giving them a reasonable tip.
On the flip side, if they provide poor service, you now have the power to give them a low tip or no tip at all. If the employee continues to have a bad attitude, no one will tip them well and they will need to move on to another job because they won’t make enough money. It’s a way of making sure that only the people who are suited for such work do it for very long.

Answer 9

We don't HAVE to tip the server/delivery person. Tipping began as a method to encourage those who did an exceptional job and has now evolved into something that's expected by every server/delivery person. As a former waitress, I never expected a tip even though it meant I made less than minimum wage. If I got a tip I felt that meant I did a good job or at least a good enough one to deserve at least a little something. You should tip if the person does a decent job of serving you. Keep in mind how busy the place is while you're there too. That impacts how you are served.
Some restaurants will withhold a portion of the server's wage because the tips are supposed to supplement up to minimum wage. A place I worked for did that. (The restaurant paid me $3.25/hour and my tips were to supplement to $5.15 which is South Dakota's minimum wage). Keep that in mind next time you go out to eat. The person serving you may be making less than minimum wage whereas people who do caregiver jobs are most likely being paid a little above minimum wage.

Answer 10

hey have to do it with a smile and good attitude, and don't hardly make enough to pay the taxes out of their pay checks unless people tip. I can't tell you how many pay checks I've gotten less than $10. So many years of this is what was the reasoning for me to get out of the customer service field and now I work in IT and love that I don't have to deal with it, but coming from the other side I'll always tip well, if the service is good. If the service isn't good i'll only tip a little. Oh yeah, the pizza delivery guy makes a little more per hour and gets compensated some for gas

Answer 11

Hi,

You may or may not be aware that the minimum wage for a server is far below the federal minimum wage for most other occupations. Servers in restaurants EARN their tips by serving us. It's quite a bit different than going through the drive through at McDonald's. A good server will do everything he or she can to make sure you have a pleasant dining experience. They greet us with a smile, keep your drinks filled, make sure your food is prepared properly, and work as our personal liaison with the kitchen. When something is wrong the servers usually take the brunt of the customer's dissatisfaction even though they generally aren't the cause of the error. A professional attentive server is worth far more than the minor stipend of $2.13 an hour the set by the federal government. Also many servers have to share their tips with the bartender and or bus boys. We should gladly pay for their great service.

I hope this helps answer your question.