Restaurant bans tipping. Guess what happened?

[007]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

And it was 15% until I was about 30. I have no idea when the norm suddenly became 20% and how that happened.

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

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

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Guru

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

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

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.