The Ugly Table (#20)

1. hell I’m lucky to even be able to afford to join a friend out for dinner…let alone pick up the entire tab. BTW, I tip very generously..average is 20% but one would never know it by looking at me…being a middle age woman and all…

2. Sorry Heide, but 20% isn’t VERY generous. It’s a standard minimum for decent service.

3. In this economy 20% is OK. If service is only average, then 15%. I’ve never had a middle-aged woman treat me. I think you have to be a boy toy.

4. 20% is standard for good service, but most people around here tip 10-12%.

   And Heidi, I didn’t say middle-aged women were bad tippers, just not very generous to their friends.

5. It used to be 15% was standard and customary for tips – and yes for good service. Sub-par service was typically closer to 10%. Then the 15% turned into 18%, now people are trying to convince me it should be 20%.

   Somehow I don’t see this as a sustainable trend.

6. I have three words for all of you hippy fucker’s that bitch about your lousy tips and trailer park customers:

   GO TO COLLEGE!

7. “fucker’s”?

8. “Somehow I don’t see this as a sustainable trend.”

   It’s not, and is because of the economy. My tip percentages about 2-4 years ago were much higher, and I was a lousier waiter. I guess I wouldn’t car much about percentages, but in SD, a right to work state, the restaurant business owners convinced the state they only have to pay $2 an hour, which doesn’t even cover my payroll taxes and tip share. So usually you are paying to work at a place.

9. I guess I wouldn’t car much about percentages, but in SD, a right to work state, the restaurant business owners convinced the state they only have to pay $2 an hour, which doesn’t even cover my payroll taxes and tip share. So usually you are paying to work at a place.

   Wow. The things I learn from blogs. That is unf’n believable.

   I guess that explains why a watered down tap beer at places like stogeez is ONLY about 4 times a waitresses hourly salary.

   Right to work? Yeah…Right.

10. Customers ask me from time to time if I get to keep 100% of the tips and I tell them what I said above. They are pretty shocked. A regular that usually requests me said that it ‘was bullshit’ that we had to tip out. I don’t have a problem with a tip out, but it should NEVER exceed my hourly wage. If I made $8 for for my shift, my tip share should not be more then $7.99.

11. Most waiters I know vastly underreport their tips, and even if tehy are expected to share tips to some degree, they pocket a good portion of the cash to keep it quiet.

    Some bartenders are the same way.

    I’m torn on this one because wait staff deserves to make a good wage doing what they do, but at the same time if the margins are that close then perhaps it is time to find a new line of work where you know what you will be paid for an hour’s work. If enough wait staff didn’t put up with it, the supply would be reduced and employers would be forced to pay more in order to be fully staffed.

    However, I know wait staff in nice places can make very good money. A few years back I knew a girl who worked at a country club and she paid for her college as she went due to the income she made there. When she finally graduated and found a real full time job in her chosen field… she worked more hours and made less money. She did get benefits though, and she assumed there was more upward mobility, so she was willing to accept the tradeoff.

    I just don’t know. When I see someone with five or six tables and my party is at the table for about an hour and leave $8 for a tip, I do the math in my head and figure even if every other table only tips $3 on average that should be a minimum of $20 for that hour… and that is on the low side. Obviously if you ahve five tables of bad tippers each of which only tosses on a dollar or two you might only pull in $10 that hour, but if you have a table of 10 and the tip ends up being $35 or $40 you’ve done pretty well.

    Factor in a lack of taxes on a portion of that (because we all know it happens if there are cash tips) and then compare it to jobs working retail at Walmart or Best Buy or The Gap or other customer-facing positions… waiting tables starts to look pretty good.

    Not to be rude, but waiting tables is not supposed to be a career generally. It should only be a job until you sell your screenplay, finish college, or maybe make it big in the art world.

12. “Most waiters I know vastly underreport their tips”

    We are not allowed to. Any CC tips are automatic and any sales that are reported cash or checks we have to report 10% or we are not allowed to punch out. It is kind of a sham, because that is one of the perks of cash tips, but not where I work. Big corps get nervous because they don’t want the IRS breathing down there necks so they stick it to us.

    Do I make good money? Sure. In fact I make just as much, if not more, as I did as a graphic designer. But it is not easy work and the hours suck. What often amazes me is that I work the same amount of hours each week and I usually make the same amount each week, so the pay is pretty consistent and reliable.

13. Sort of sucks to have to report 10% of cash payments if you happen to only collect 6% or 8% in tips that day. I’m sure it all balances out in the end, but at least you know what to expect.

    Now the barista who takes 30 seconds to whip up a coffee and then expects a buck for a tip? That seems so incredibly out of balance I don’t even know where to begin.

14. Here’s my take on that. First off you have to remember, they get an hourly wage, they don’t need tips.

    Pour me a cup of coffee. No tip.

    Make me a complicated coffee drink? Change is your tip.

    Make me a sandwich, bring it to my table. $1.

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