Top 8 things to remember about tipping:
8. Don't blame the server for kitchen/restaurant error. If your food takes too long, and your server can do nothing about it, then why take it out on the server. I've seen countless people say they refuse to tip when the food is slow, but try to remember who the tip is primarily going to.
7. Tip a percent. If the bill is 80 dollars, don't think a couple of toonies will cover the tip. That equals 5 percent. Normal tipping for good service is 15 percent. I know that since Harper came along, doubling the GST doesn't really work anymore, so you'll have to do a little math in your head.
6. For older folks: inflation HAS occured in the last 50 years. If the breakfast that used to be a buck when you were 20 is now 10 bucks, how do you think I am to spend the 25 cent tip you've left on the table? As much as I love those little candy vending machines in the lobies of travel agencies, I can't live off them.
5. More server work = more tip. The relationship in restaurants seems to be the opposite these days. The people who come in and just want a burger w/ fries, and don't leave a mess, tip the most! And the people who come in and ask for the most nit-picky orders with 50 substitutions and extra this and not quite too much of that, and who leave a monsterous mess all over the table by the end of it, tip the least! Come on people. Who do you think picks up the fries your children have mashed into the floor? That's right, the person who waited on you hand and foot, and who you left a buck for in return.
4. Don't leave a big fucking mess (this isn't about tipping, but it needs to be said)! This one I hate particularly (closely connected to #5 above), how people treat a restaurant table like their own little pigsty. "Hell, I don't have to clean it up, so why not just abandon all sense of hygene and common decency for the next hour?" Try to treat your restaurant as though you would your own dining room; a place where the informal rules of politeless, cleanliness, and common respect for the time and efforts of others are generally practiced.
3. Remember that servers must tip out. This means that at the end of the night, I forfeit an extra 1.5 percent of my sales to the restaurant, which is then split between the kitchen and bussing staff. Some restaurants tip out as high as 8 percent. This means that if you go in and eat a 50 dollar meal, and leave no tip, you've just /cost/ me 75 cents. I've had to pay that much money to be able to serve you, which, ultimately, is subtracted from my wage. Higher tipouts mean even more cost. If a tipout is 5 percent, and you leave no tip on a 50 doller bill, you've cost your server $2.50.
2. A restaurant is not a bank. PLEASE try to remember this. Tipping is /not/ an opportunity to unload that pile of nickles and dimes you have in your wallet all over the table. It's just transferring a whole whack of inconvenience to your server, who then must buy rollers, roll the stuff, and take it to the bank just to make spendable money out of it. Servers cannot in turn use it to pay the restaurant in their cashouts at the end of shift, because restaurants refuse to deal with it as well. Just think this way: if it's an inconvenience for you, it's just as much of one for your server. If it's not enough money to buy anything with, it isn't for your server either.
1. Try to remember that servers make minimum wage, always. I emphasize my own niche of serving here: Late-night (11pm-7am shifts, usually). The job is very hard and very tiring, probably one of the hardest minimum wage jobs in town. Given this, why would people such as myself do this job when I could just as easily make the same wage during the day, while not working as hard? The reason is that I rely on tips to make it worthwhile. Think for a moment. Some people don't tip. If you are one of those, consider the following: Would /anyone/ in their right mind work for 8 bucks an hour, at three in the morning, waiting on you hand and foot, when they could easily get a better paying job with better conditions and hours? Of course not. The only way they'd do it without tips is if the employer paid a /lot/ more. But, most employers (including Denny's) refuse to pay more. So do the math: if you don't tip, there won't be a late night restaurant for you to stumble into after the bar closes.
7. Tip a percent. If the bill is 80 dollars, don't think a couple of toonies will cover the tip. That equals 5 percent. Normal tipping for good service is 15 percent. I know that since Harper came along, doubling the GST doesn't really work anymore, so you'll have to do a little math in your head.
6. For older folks: inflation HAS occured in the last 50 years. If the breakfast that used to be a buck when you were 20 is now 10 bucks, how do you think I am to spend the 25 cent tip you've left on the table? As much as I love those little candy vending machines in the lobies of travel agencies, I can't live off them.
5. More server work = more tip. The relationship in restaurants seems to be the opposite these days. The people who come in and just want a burger w/ fries, and don't leave a mess, tip the most! And the people who come in and ask for the most nit-picky orders with 50 substitutions and extra this and not quite too much of that, and who leave a monsterous mess all over the table by the end of it, tip the least! Come on people. Who do you think picks up the fries your children have mashed into the floor? That's right, the person who waited on you hand and foot, and who you left a buck for in return.
4. Don't leave a big fucking mess (this isn't about tipping, but it needs to be said)! This one I hate particularly (closely connected to #5 above), how people treat a restaurant table like their own little pigsty. "Hell, I don't have to clean it up, so why not just abandon all sense of hygene and common decency for the next hour?" Try to treat your restaurant as though you would your own dining room; a place where the informal rules of politeless, cleanliness, and common respect for the time and efforts of others are generally practiced.
3. Remember that servers must tip out. This means that at the end of the night, I forfeit an extra 1.5 percent of my sales to the restaurant, which is then split between the kitchen and bussing staff. Some restaurants tip out as high as 8 percent. This means that if you go in and eat a 50 dollar meal, and leave no tip, you've just /cost/ me 75 cents. I've had to pay that much money to be able to serve you, which, ultimately, is subtracted from my wage. Higher tipouts mean even more cost. If a tipout is 5 percent, and you leave no tip on a 50 doller bill, you've cost your server $2.50.
2. A restaurant is not a bank. PLEASE try to remember this. Tipping is /not/ an opportunity to unload that pile of nickles and dimes you have in your wallet all over the table. It's just transferring a whole whack of inconvenience to your server, who then must buy rollers, roll the stuff, and take it to the bank just to make spendable money out of it. Servers cannot in turn use it to pay the restaurant in their cashouts at the end of shift, because restaurants refuse to deal with it as well. Just think this way: if it's an inconvenience for you, it's just as much of one for your server. If it's not enough money to buy anything with, it isn't for your server either.
1. Try to remember that servers make minimum wage, always. I emphasize my own niche of serving here: Late-night (11pm-7am shifts, usually). The job is very hard and very tiring, probably one of the hardest minimum wage jobs in town. Given this, why would people such as myself do this job when I could just as easily make the same wage during the day, while not working as hard? The reason is that I rely on tips to make it worthwhile. Think for a moment. Some people don't tip. If you are one of those, consider the following: Would /anyone/ in their right mind work for 8 bucks an hour, at three in the morning, waiting on you hand and foot, when they could easily get a better paying job with better conditions and hours? Of course not. The only way they'd do it without tips is if the employer paid a /lot/ more. But, most employers (including Denny's) refuse to pay more. So do the math: if you don't tip, there won't be a late night restaurant for you to stumble into after the bar closes.
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