Do I have any waiters/resses as readers? Let’s hope not, because today’s post is on tipping inflation. Here’s a hint: I may be slightly opposed.
As I’ve wrote before, I think tipping is kind of stupid. In theory, your little financial reward is supposed to make your server try harder to impress you. Without that incentive, she’d barely refill your Diet Pepsi and pretend to care how your meal is. She’d still laugh at my jokes though, mostly because my jokes are awesome.
In reality, tipping does very little to motivate your server. Wait staff quickly figure out the tip is coming for just mediocre service, so why bust their asses? Tipping has gone from a reward for extra good service to a form of institutionalized blackmail. If you tip your server, they’ll make sure the cook hasn’t topped your burger with his own special sauce. Restaurants know people are going to tip (almost) no matter what, so they use the allure of tips to underpay their wait staff.
True story: I went to a restaurant with friends 2 YEARS AGO and we got horrible service. The waitress was miserable and didn’t want to do anything. We asked for drink refills and got told “I’ll get around to it sometime. I’m pretty busy.” So I stiffed her on the tip for a $60 tab. And I’m still scared to go back in the place. What if she remembers? What if she farts on my steak?
Anyhoo, just in case you’re a moron and don’t know anything about tipping, there are all sorts of guides out there that have yo ignorant ass covered. I would know, I read all of them. It’s just part of the extensive research I do for every post. There’s no need to thank me, it’s really my pleasure. But some money would be nice. Please send it to:
Nelson Smith
Secret Military Air Force Bace
Yukon, Canada
Some Yukon-y sounding postal code
Half the PF community wants to kick me in the balls. I have to take precautions.
Most of these tipping guides recommend the following:
- 15% for okay service
- 20-25% for good service
- 10% for poor service
First off, giving 10% for poor service is such crap. Somebody gives me poor service and I still reward them? How did that become acceptable? Is this Soviet Russia? If tipping is all about incentives, then we need to take incentives all the way. If I’m dissatisfied I’m going to send a message by leaving no tip. What am I supposed to do, bitch to their boss? I’m a polite Canadian, I can’t do that.
And secondly, when did 20-25% become the norm? When I was a wee Nelson, 10-15% was the norm. As recently as 2004, Miss Manners (which is apparently a real person) suggested 15% was the acceptable amount. Are you going to argue with an unverified Miss Manners? She would give you a tongue lashin’, politely of course.
Tipping has increased 33-66% in just the past few years. I remember with double Canada’s 7% GST was a fairly generous tip. Maybe I just hang around cheap people who were crappy tippers, but am I the only one who can remember when tipping was cheaper?
Why are people so willing to accept tip inflation? There are a few reasons.
People tend to feel sorry for servers. I’ll admit, it’s physically taxing work. Carrying around trays of drinks and food probably gives a decent upper body workout, and I’m sure a waiter walks a few miles during a typical shift. Not only are people willing to shrug off below average service, but they’re more willing to open up their wallets for someone who they kinda pity.
If you’re an attractive female with a non-miserable attitude, you will do well as a server. Guys will tip her because they want to jump her bones, women will appreciate that she’s pleasant. Pretty much everything works out for you if your an attractive female. We should totally go out.
But here’s the big reason why we’ve been tricked into giving bigger tips – because we want people to like us.
Remember how I haven’t been back to the restaurant since I stiffed my waitress on the tip? The steak was GREAT. I wanted to lick the plate after I finished. But I haven’t been back because I know that waitress will not like me, assuming she remembers what happened.
I don’t really live in fear of people spitting in my food. There’s just too many potential witnesses. But a waitress could make things hard in more subtle ways, by taking her sweet time, not being attentive or whatever. It would make things awkward, which we generally don’t like.
By giving your waitstaff a generous tip, you’re telling them that you are somebody who has their back. We do it even with the service is pedestrian because we want the guy who we just made idle chit-chat with to like us. Restaurants and their lobby groups have figured this out and used it to push us to give bigger tips. This benefits the restaurant business in all sorts of ways.
So congratulations. Because of you wanting some 18 year old hottie to like you, I have to pay 20% every time I get an non-attractive waitress. I hope you’re all happy.
Great observation that we tip well because we want to make the server like us….along those same lines, many “experts” suggest you call the server by their first name and make small talk with them for just the same reason – to make them like you. That way they’ll give you better service. The fact of the matter is, I don’t want to spend my energy making a server I’ll probably never see again like me. I’d rather spend that energy on the friends / family / hot chick I’m already with.
But if you’re rude to the server, then the hot chick might not like that…
But yeah, I agree. There’s a difference between being civil to people and sucking up. And we too often suck up to servers, in a hope that our burger will come out 3 minutes earlier or something.
Can we just get rid of tipping altogether and have them pay their servers more and up the price of the food? I find it to be a lot of pressure when it comes time to tip. I go through the list in my head of: Okay, is this worth a 20% tip or just a standard 15%?
Frankly, I think people are seeing the new tip as 20% not 15%, although I was told the tip is on the total BEFORE taxes, not after (why would you tip on taxes!?).
A lot of pressure. Wish there was no tipping altogether, and things cost what they’re supposed to cost.
I find it hard to believe a waitress… in Canada… was rude. Is being rude in Canada like not showing family pictures to random people you meet?
I’m sure the rudest waitress in Canada would clean up in New York City. What a rude city.
Should have used the Postal Code “H0H 0H0″. Then a bunch of obscenity-laden letters would have been sent to Santa and he might have written back.
Tipping is absolutely out of control. My partner has a lot of experience waitressing. She tips 10% for OK service and 15% for good service — PRE-TAX (that’s a big deal in Ontario where HST is 13%). She says, in spite of what people claim, basically nobody actually does the 25%+ unless they’re guys pathetically trying to hit on her (did I mention she did very well as a waitress?). It’s easier to write a guide and say “OH I LEAVE LIKE A MILLION PERCENT TIP EVERYWHERE I GO” than to actually leave grandiose tips when you’re a hipster who writes tip guides.
I agree with the introduction of a living wage for wait staff and elimination of tips. Even after tip-out, waiters/waitresses make vastly more than dish washers and cooks but I consider the latter jobs to be harder work.
Finally attractive females are given a fair chance. Let’s hope they never find out! If they did they could use this to there advantage to get guys to give them money and stuff.
Wait. I thought it was always men who take advantage of women. You are opening my eyes to a whole new world Derek.
[...] This week the Financial Uproar shared some interesting news in their post on What’s the Deal with Tipping Inflation? [...]
Wow I just came from a tipping experience lol! I’m totally annoyed with it. When I was in Poland, I go to tip and the young lady at the table says, “this isn’t Canada, we tip for excellent service here.”
At some bars you can get kicked out for tips. That’s ridiculous.
At my buddies birthday one year, it took the server 20 minutes to bring a pitcher for every round. How do you tip someone like this? Are you supposed to reward poor service?
[...] This week the Financial Uproar shared some fascinating news in their post on What’s the Deal with Tipping Inflation? [...]
[...] This week the Financial Uproar shared some interesting news in their post on What’s the Deal with Tipping Inflation? [...]
[...] This week’s Friday Funny comes to you from the ever humorous yet informative Nelson Smith from Financial Uproar: What’s The Deal With Tipping Inflation? [...]
As an American now living in Canada (and as a former server), I am constantly amazed at the horrible service up here. I think that Nelson is right about Canadians being too nice and tipping for poor service – the servers have come to expect it. In the U.S., you can bet that poor service is met with no tip. We Americans have no problem making our point.
In Canada, I believe that 15-20% is a fair tip for good service, especially since the minimum wage that the servers are making is actually pretty decent. I say this in comparison to the multiple states were I served….my minimum wage was $2.15/hour. I wasn’t paid enough in a paycheck to cover taxes. I never actually received a paycheck with a dollar value, they were always $0. So, in the U.S., I beg of you to tip more than you do here….servers in the U.S. absolutely survive on tip money alone – there is no additional paycheck to rely on.
On a side note, when I served in NY state, we hated Canadian diners because we considered them such horrible tippers. We expected (and usually received) 20% and rarely saw even 15% from Canadians.
Interesting perspective, Sarah.
What system do you think servers would like better? Would they like a decent wage, or a crap wage with tips making up for it?
I’m pretty sure it depends on what kind of waiter the person is. I’m sure a lot of the people working at the lower tier restaurants would prefer to just get a higher wage.
I wish you would have touched on the logic of making it a percentage of your meal in the first place… I suppose there is some amount of logic to it, but I feel way better about giving a 20% tip to someone at an IHOP than I do to someone at a steakhouse for doing basically the same work. Why should we help stratify the service industry into fortunates and unfortunates? Waiters working at steak houses aren’t any better than the ones working at IHOP–they’re just younger and better looking.
By the way Nelson, 15% is still the norm for me. The first time I noticed it creeping up to 20% was at a restaurant where they print out some tip “help” on the receipt by calculating it for you: 15% 18% and 20%
Which of course implies poor, average, and bad service. Pretty clever.
Speaking of this place–what about places where it’s a family owned business and the wait staff are also the owners? Standardizing a tip at some % is a pure scam in that case.
Thanks for this post, it hits a nerve with me too. Tip inflation is working in other ways as well, nowadays, every coffee shop, corner store or gas station has a styrofoam cup with “tips
” written on the side of it. Where does it end?
And on your point of the tip being applicable to the before tax portion of the bill, isn’t it smooth how they have that quick select button to tip a percentage of the ENTIRE bill?
Oh, and one more gripe to throw in the ring, pizza delivery. I love the delivery charge they throw on the bill now and then the expected tip for the driver. Alright, now I am all spun up and have to dunk my head in the snow.
I just found your blog and have been going through it today, I am a circa 2008 couch potato index investor who’s is starting to broaden his horizons by possibly venturing into dividends and other stock picking scenarios (must do more reading first). I enjoy reading your view on things as your humor and outlook on things seem to be inline with mine and I find the politically incorrect narrative refreshing compared to the 100 or so other blogs I have been reading over the last few years.
Keep it up!
Tipping sucks. Yes I realize it’s a hard work, but that’s the profession you chose. You don’t see anywhere else in the world complaining. For the longest time I thought tipping was European thing only to find out it’s an American thing. Aussie and New Zealander friends says no tipping in their countries.
To get rid of tipping, I’d say everyone stop tipping so restaurants would be in violation of their minimum wage labor law and will have to pay their servers. Servers being tipped to serve food is just a BS. I’m a worker, how come I don’t get tipped for doing my job. I give at least 15% tip but i’m thinking of going back to tipping only 10% unless service was fantastic. 33% tip is BS that some waiter made up so you’ll caugh up to not look like a cheapskate. Add the tax and add the service fee with the food like everywhere else in the world. Another thing…why is $100 steak differ from $20 steak that waiter serving $100 gets $20 tip compared to $20 steak that gets only $4 tip. Was $100 much heavier? was it 5 times more work? it should be just a couple bucks a person not percentage if anything.
BTW it’s not customer’s problem that wait staff gets paid only $2 per hour. That’s the profession you’ve chosen and if you don’t like it, tell it to the person who pays your check, your manager/owner.
Hence going back to my original Theory. Everyone stops paying tips and management has to raise the minimum wage. So everyone should stop with tipping. Even with group of 6 or more with 18% you can contest and not pay or pay less. I’m not trying to be cheapskate, just brining to fact that servers are complaining about $2/hr wage so this is a solution to raise the wage. Of course they don’t want their minimum wages raised. They rather have tax-free tips.
We need buttons that say “We are supporting higher wages of wait-staff”. Then we can feel guilt-free about not tipping. After all, it’ll go against the cause. And waiters/waitresses can’t really complain about the initiative.
So win-win?