Should tips be given for average service?

Question

A tip is something given for great service, when the waiter/waitress goes above the standards to make you feel welcome. Bad service (should) get no tips.

But what about average service? Should a waiter who does a standard job but does nothing extra to make you feel welcomed get a tip? Does simply taking your order then giving you your food deserve a tip? Alot of places the waiter doesn't even bring you your food, someone else does.

So are you all saying being paid poorly negates the need to perform well for your customers?

Answer 1

I pay my personal debts whether they're legally enforcable or not.

Going into the restaurant I can read what the prices are, and I know that if it's not a cafeteria (fast food) I've got to add both meals tax (in my state it's the same as general sales tax) and a tip. The restaurant owners are working hard and aren't getting rich, so I don't worry that it's a scheme to get me to pay the wages. If I cared I could search for places with "gratuity included" or automatically added.

I usually tip 15% for table service and 10% for a buffet, When I'm employed I'm making a lot more money than the waitstaff. For insultingly lousy service I leave a few coins, to make it clear that it's not that I forgot to leave a tip. (I have joked about the negative tip: the service is so bad that not only am I not going to leave a tip, but I'm going to come back just so I can stiff them a second time, but actually I just don't come back, or if the place is generally good I figure I got the lousy waiter, and by the time I come back he's gotten the message and is no longer working there.)

I leave the tip on the table, or add it to the credit card. I don't worry if the order-taker is the order-bringer -- I figure they've got it worked out internally, and that includes the busboys. I don't eat at places fancy enough that there are hosts or maitres d' to tip. If there's live music I tip the performer separately, and $5 for a request. Bartenders are supposedly very responsive to tips, so I tip well for a mixed drink, especially if I'll be ordering another (that night or soon enough that he'll remember me.) I figure $1 plus the change is good for a drink. (That is, leave $6 for a $4.50 drink.) Even if it's an open bar I leave a tip.

Answer 2

Depends where you're at. In the US, waiters generally don't make minimum wage and are expected to get tips for normal, average service too. Just look at it as service charges rather than anything 'extra'. In France tipping is customary but less than in the US, should probably vary your tips more and only give a little if you feel it was only average service. Here in the Netherlands, tipping is much less customary, service charges are included, most waiters are paid well and at nicer restaurants waiters may even take it as an insult, as if you think they need the charity. In Japan it's pretty much always taken as an insult, but I heard that you can occasionally take a small present if you go to the same place regularly and have gotten very good service.

Answer 3

The only time you should leave NO tip is for BAD service.
Remember, these folk's wages are based on the assumption of receiving tips. So, no tip at all is a severe punishment. If the service is just average, I just leave the minimum average tip of 10-15%. That way they still earn a living, but get the message.
For truly outastanding service, I've been known to leave tips that were more than the cost of the meal!

Answer 4

Yes, I do tip for average service.

Only once have I not tipped because of TERRIBLE service, and that was last night at a restaurant that wasn't even full. I left the waitress change from my bill, and the only reason I didn't want my change back was cuz I would've waited another half hour for her to bring it back.

Answer 5

seeing as how they are paid 1/2 of minimum wage
and have to make the rest up in tips

average service = 10%

if it's self service - you don't have to do a thing
but I still leave 'em a buck

***********
shoe on the other foot - what would YOU want to get paid
- yeah I know - I wouldn't be doing that job either
but we gotta have compassion

all the best !

make the world a different place - because YOU were there!

Answer 6

Servers get a very low salary - below minimum wage. They really rely on the tips. However, they do need to earn them. I tip for average service, just not as much.

Answer 7

I give them tips for average service, although not as big a tip as I would give for great service.

Answer 8

No absolutely not, just a smile would be suffice.