Why do waiters & waitresses think they deserve tips for doing their jobs???

Question

Other people in other jobs do not EXPECT a tip for them doing their jobs, so why do these people think they deserve a tip for doing theirs??? My husband is a surgeon,
since insurance & medicare keep cutting the amounts he is paid for doing his job, should he expect tips from his patients?? Should I tip the mail man? How about the grocery checker? The Police & Fire Department?
Why just waiters, waitresses, hair stylists, etc. THEY chose the job they have, it should NOT be up to everyone else to suppliment their income.....
I expect nasty answers from people, but that is another reason we don't tip. SURLY attitudes from the waiters & waitresses UNTIL the bill comes.

That is NOT accurate. These people get paid minumum wage (at least because that is the law) or more. I know one waitress who talks about making up to $500 a night in tips only plus her regular minimum hourly wage.

O.K., so according to some of you, we are expected to pay someone $15 to $20 for a $100 meal when all the service person did was take our order & bring it to us & maybe refill a beverage once or twice? Well, wat about the hostess who seated us? What about the person preparing the food, etc. I happen to know that persons in the service industry do NOT claim all IF ANY of their tips on their tax returns to their tips are actually free money correct?

Hey Mitch, I'm sorry about your son, but the reason doctors, surgeons & hospitals charge so much is because they know that when submitted to insurance or medicare the amounts charged will be cut nearly in half. They must cover the money they know they will NEVER get from insurance companies, medicare & those who are uninsured. Many like my husband must write off 10s of thousands of dollars each month because of the services they have provided to uninsured people, but he sure does not scimp on the job he does regardless of whether he will be paid for it or not....

I drive a Toyota Rav4 thank you very much & we do NOT have a maid. We can & do clean up after our selves.

Now Now ndn: that is untrue. We are very generous to worthy causes & as far as I am concerned, when my husband knowingly provides emergency surgery on someone when he knows VERY WELL he will never see a penny from it, that is MUCH better that restaurant servers who get pissy when they don't get tipped.

Pardon me Jennifer, but I am NOT angry or bitter. I asked a simple question, so thank you for answering, but leave the psycho babble for another question. Mine was about TIPPING. Thanks again...Would you like a "tip" for your unsolicited analysis?

latinbebe: I DO work, we DO have kids & I DO know how to cook, Thanks for asking though. Going to school to be a lawyer huh? Better work harder on the spelling & grammer skills then..Good Luck to you!!!

Kate: my husband is primarily a trauma surgeon. People do not know if or when they will be in need of his services in most cases. He also does orthopedic work, mainly knees, hands, shoulders & elbows.
My husband will NOT turn a person away when they require surgery due to their inability to pay. That is unethical & cruel. Money is NOT is soul purpose for doing his job.

Answer 1

I'm with you 100%. Additionally, servers aren't obligated to pay their fair share in taxes, either. They are allowed to pay 9%, but scream bloody murder if their tip is less than 15%. I think ALL tipping should be eliminated and servers should be paid at LEAST minimum wage.
The same with all other service jobs, most of which already get over minimum wage (hair-dressers, i.e.). Tipping has become an obcession, and it is promoted primarily by people who receive tips, are related to people who receive tips, or are very friendly with people who receive tips. This whole system stinks, and is akin to begging.

Additional: When a steak cost $3.50, the acceptable tip was 10%. Now people are expecting a 20% tip on the same steak dinner which now costs about $35. Come on, how does this make ANY sense to anyone.

As the cost of living goes up, we'll be paying $60 for the steak, and will they want us to tip 30%. At that thinking and rate, eventually our dear waitress will get equal in tip to what we spend for food. This system NEEDS to change.

Answer 2

When I was a waiter in a high scale restaurant a few years ago I only got $2 an hour. I was never scheduled for more than 5 hours a night. Tips were all I had to live on. I also worked other jobs to help make ends meet (which they never really did) I never got benefits as a waiter. When it was slow I went home with little or nothing. Some nights were better than others, but it was a crap shoot.

I don't understand why people have a problem with tipping. If I did a bad job at someone's table I wouldn't expect a tip and, in fact, there have been a couple of times that I gave my tip back because the food wasn't very good, not because of my service. I was always a pretty good waiter and I took pride in it.
I feel sorry for anyone who has to wait on you.

If your husband is a surgeon then you're probably not hurting for money. It has been my experience that people with the most money are the ones who piss and moan about having to part with it. Waiters and waitresses usually aren't rich but like other non-rich people they are more likely to be generous with their money than say a surgeon's wife.

Answer 3

I know where you're coming from, to some degree. I believe that waiters and waitresses hourly wages are low because employers know that they will receive tips. I don't know how it got to be this way or long ago it was.

However, mail carriers wages are based on them not getting tips.

I will say, nothing gets my goat more than getting the impression that a server EXPECTS a tip even if they give poor service. Generally, I tip 15% of the bill, unless the service was subpar.

There was only one time that I can remember leaving no tip for a server at all. We were in an airport restaurant for breakfast. We were the only customers in the restaurant and our waitress was terrible. She was too busy chatting with other servers and on the phone to bother waiting on us. I got up and got my own coffee a couple times even, and that didn't seem to phase her. She took our order (after we waited forever for her to do that) and brought our food, that was it.

Answer 4

Going into a restaurant, you know the wait staff is making below minimum wage and depend on people tipping based on service. They have one of the very few performance based pays. The better job they do, the better the tip, and vice versa. Does your husband get paid more or less depending on how good his sutures are?

There is a federal minimum wage for non-tipped employees. There is another minimum wage for tipped employees. The difference is roughly half. As soon as I find the link, I will post it for you.

OK. Here is one link to get you started.
http://legallad.quickanddirtytips.com/minimum-wage-for-tipped-employees.aspx

The IRS assumes a tip of 15% for tax purposes. Whether or not they got that is irrelevant. If they don't claim what they actually got in tips, it is technically tax fraud, or "free money", yes, correct.
Also, some places share tips between servers, waiters/waitresses, cooks, etc.

If you get poor service, let the tip reflect that. If you get great service, the tip should also reflect that.

Answer 5

You stupid, greedy woman! Wait staff make $2.00 an hour. They DEPEND on tips to survive! They usually only get a check stub on payday, because after taxes, THERE IS NOTHING LEFT! You are a horrible woman who should get your nose out of the air so you can see reality. You are provided for by your surgeon husband and can t even tip your wait staff. What do you do, besides look down your nose at people? Stop acting like he doesn t make an obscene amount of money as a trauma surgeon! And, another thing; the wait staff must tip out to the other people in the restaurant. They tip out to the bartenders, the cooks, the bus staff and the hostess. But you didn t have any idea, did you? A snooty person like you would never lower yourself and work a lowly job like that would you? After all, you don t have to work. You ve got a free ride.

Answer 6

Generally, waiters and waitresses are only paid minimum wage by the restaurant owners and it is custom in the United States to tip them 15% to 20%. The IRS assumes that they are always tipped 15% of their total meal/beverage receipts so they are taxed on that basis whether you've tipped them or not. There are some restaurants that don't pay their wait staff anything as a salary and the only money they receive is from tips.

Answer 7

I have been a server for years, and I would like to say that first of all, servers get paid. $ 2.13 per hour at the majority of restaurants. The paycheck is normally 0 , due to taxes.
If you believe that all we do for you is take your order and refill your beverage, you are sadly mistaken. There is so much more work that you are obviously unaware of. All that goes in to your dining experience.
I would say that you should wait tables for one week , and your opinion on tipping your server would change.
Furthermore, perhaps you should consider this : without the server that you are so against tipping to make sure your dining experience is enjoyable ...........there would be NO dining experience.
Here's a thought..... If you are so against tipping, why don't you stay home and cook for your husband ????

Answer 8

Minimum wage for servers is $2.13 per hour, not $5.25. Since they are not full time they do not get benefits. Yeah they make a lot of money when they are busy, but they make nothing when it's slow. If the server takes your order and rings up your ticket, they have to claim 10% for a tip regardless if you tip them or not, so there's little room for fudging with tippers such as yourself. Tipping is a means of positive reinforcement and gratitude for good service. You wouldn't want a crappy hairdresser to chop away at your head for the same price that you pay your current hairstylist. It's the same for the service that you receive when you eat out. Why should a restaurant owner pay a higher salary to lazy employee that they would pay for the hard working one? Car salesman, real estate brokers, and investors operate under the same principal. Businesses operate with the philosophy that If you sell yourself in a positive way then it makes us both money.

Since this concept baffles you so, I highly encourage YOU to get a job in the service industry. I can testify as a former server during college days that it's very hard work. You have to deal with customers that don't want to read the menu, make their order so complex that it takes half an hour explaining it to the cook, or argue with you about how the prices/menu keeps changing. The general public is disgusting and rude. I've had to clean up feces(by an adult) and vomit, not to mention bratty kids, and demanding people that leave a huge mess and no tip. You can't argue with people despite how obveously wrong they may be.

With this experience I too have the belief that the server should be tipped according to the level of service that I receive. When I dine out I start at 10% and work up or down. I don't hold against the server if they are really busy or my food takes a while, because that's on the cook. If I see my server goofing off or don't see them for a while and I need a refill then points are deducted. If the server checks on me throughout the meal, provides refills, offers a to go box, or gets me the things that I request the first time that I ask then the tip goes up.

Answer 9

I have not read any of the other answers to your question.

The one thing I did want to comment on was the doctor portion & money. I live in Michigan. There are not any doctors here that write off thousands of dollars every month because of people that can't or don't pay. Everyone is told in advance if you cannot pay in full the doctor doesn't see you today.

I went to a specialist before I had a procedure done. My insurance was paying for it. The doctor's office said my portion after the insurance would be about $160.00. They wanted me to pay it that day.

My idea was your husband should move to Michigan where the doctors get paid BEFORE they do something. By the way, I refused the services. I didn't want a doctor that needed money that badly.

Answer 10

I make 2.13 a hour and I do pay taxes based on my sales so your 100.00 meal I pay 8% in taxes on your meal and I tip out 5% to bar tenders and bussers that's 13% of your 100.00 meal so when you don't leave a tip I have to still pay taxes on your meal that you didn't have to cook or clean up after .....so it cost me money for you to eat and when I get my check it's always 0 and so if some one tips me 15 % on their meal I get 2 % of that true I chose this type of work but NOT everybody thinks like u do I have to take the good with the bad yea I get some people that think they are sooooooo much better than just a server and leave me nothing or 1 or 2 but karma is such a bad thing to have to look forward to IF IT WASN'T FOR SERVERS YOU COULDNT GO OUT TO EAT AND HAVE A SERVER WAIT ON YOU HAND AND FOOT .but hey you can always go to McDonald's

Answer 11

minimum wage is 7 something depending where u are..but its 7.15 in new york..as a waiter u get paid under minimum wage..the tips help get the money back tha tur not getting paid and also do add to it.. but thats just the way it is. the reason ur surgeon husband isnt getting tipped no offense is because he already gets paid a large amount.. but i give absolute credit and repsect to surgeons and doctors and police cuz both my parents are police officers... but they make a lot more money an hour than waiters and waitresses as they should.. but waiters and such make like 5 something an hour