Interesting. I always went with 15 percent and then at some point I kept hearing about 20 percent being the standard so I upped it with a grimace and a bad feeling that I was yielding to peer pressure.

But it sounds like your definition equates "acceptable" with "good", so it seems like we're in the same place but via different paths. You give 20 percent because your typical service is "good" (i.e., acceptable) and I give 20 percent because I view that as average (i.e., acceptable).

Based on the research quoted earlier in this thread, I have come to the conclusion that you were a slender white woman in your thirties with large breasts during your serving days.

Then puberty developed his skills.

No, nobody was pretending that it was completely removed from the equation. Quite the opposite. The restaurant was actually vocal to customers about the included 18%, and referred to that as justification for why they didn't accept tips. They weren't trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes at all. Employees weren't "Golden" simply by removing tips. They still have to provide proper service, or they'll get fired. Tips aren't the sole reason for a waiter to provide proper service. That's complete fallacy.

Industry standard for good service is 15%. You waited tables so you know that. The fact that you walk into a restaurant knowing you will not tip more than 8-10% is just bullshit. You may dream of restaurants that let you get your own food and drink so you can cut out the server, but when you patronize a full service restaurant you are expected to pay for the service you receive. You obviously have the right to tip what you want, but your way of doing things is unfair to the people who work there.

You're not alone! There are more and more restaurants that provide great food with no wait staff. From what I've seen, it's a fast growing part of the market. That sounds more your speed. Or cook your own damn steak.

I always got a kick out of people stating that increase was due to inflation and was necessary for servers salaries to keep up. :shake:

They obviously didn't understand that inflation automatically increased the size of the tip.

I have 2 friends that work at Dominos here and they make less than $5/hr and make anywhere from $5-35 a 4/hr shift in gratuity/gas reimbursement. Pizza hut(NPC) cut all of their employees to $4.25/hr, whereas it was just new hires. Papa Johns pays $4.50/hr here so i'm not sure what you're talking about.

I have waited a long time for someone to accuse me of being slender! Though not even close to long enough to have been in my 30s 20 years ago. :)

I never got automatic hot tips. I am very tall, and was very athletic, so much more likely to be considered intimidating than hot. I am also an introvert, not an extrovert, so flirting for increased tips was never going to happen.

Unfortunately, that research isn't actually linked, though it was done by the same Cornell researcher. I'm going to look it up to see how the research was done. The justification by the restaurant owner writing the article that tipping doesn't lead to better service isn't supported by his quoted research.

I just read the first quoted study, out of curiosity, and I don't think the Linkery owner actually read it. It doesn't say that at all. It confirms that tipping is associated with perceived better service, and further that the incentive is increased by the incentive to increase sales. All it says is that some people increase 1% per 1 point better service rating out of 5, and some people increase 2% per 1 point better service. That it is varied does not mean that it is not an incentive.

I am curious about the discrimination argument as well and plan to read up on that. I did just as well in Oakland/ Emeryville with a clientele comprised of many more "likely bad tippers" than the other locations, like in KC. The studies seem to deal exclusively one sided. They either study the tippers or the tipped, and with extremely low sample sizes. I would like to see more information about how a study can quantify service and tip motivations in order to really assess the potential for discrimination. While I was a server, the only ones who complained about discrimination were the white men, but that may have just been they were more likely to be vocal about it.

I would also be concerned with a large scale shift to a non-tipping culture where salaries for servers start in a comparable place, but as sales and prices change with time, the salary stagnates and doesn't keep pace and it is just another minimum wage shitty job where there is no incentive for sales and personalized service.

I say that having lived in New Zealand where tipping is not required, and service is still quite good in most places. Employees are well compensated and seem pretty happy. The business environments are different though, and the social structure of flat tax and socialized medicine are very different, so I'm just not sure is correlates well.

This is an interesting time to have this discussion.

I've also wondered if it had something to do with my location. I lived in a small town growing up, and then went to St. Louis, then to Austin, then to Denver. Somewhere in that St. Louis/Austin era I started hearing the 20%, so I'm not sure if perhaps small towns tip less and I was just getting educated, or if Missourians tip less and I was just getting educated, or if the standard really changed.

But then it sounds like there's not unilateral agreement that 20% is the standards since at least two people have said 15% in this very thread. I guess it's a little less regimented than I thought.

I too came up on the 15 percent rule. If service doesn't warrant I'll go lower. If it goes above and beyond so do I. I've given 50 percent tips.

I tell you what clown I would be more than happy to substantiate mine with a claim from a franchisee in this area. Can you do that. Didn't think so.

I don't cook, ever. Next time I go to a nice restaurant, I should ask if I can decline a server. Ask them if I can pick up my shit from the window and fill up my drink on my own. Then just watch their bewildered look

Shit, for a short time in the 80s there was actually a Playboy Club at a hotel here in Omaha. I worked there for a few days as a "service assistant" and it was the biggest crock of shit ever. The Bunnies (waitresses) took the food order and got the drinks for the table, and the SA did EVERY ****ING THING ELSE. Then at the end of the night the Bunnies were suppose to give us a percentage of their tips, can't remember what it was but they basically gave each of us a couple bucks and some would flat-out stiff us. It was pretty much the worst job I ever had. I hated that goddamn place.

well good thing for bug, is he has loved every job since.

Did they let you look at their breasts in lieu of your tip share?