Posted on 02/27/2012 12:04:08 PM PST by Repeat Offender
Just when you may have thought the ongoing battle between the 99% and the 1% was dying down, it may have been reignited. A wealthy banker left a $1.33 tip on a $133 lunch at the True Food Kitchen restaurant in Newport Beach, California.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This reminds me of the best tipping story I have ever heard:
A reasonably well-off woman was traveling alone, and was staying for a week at a posh hotel with a fine restaurant where she planned to dine most evenings. On the first night, she was treated shoddily — seated near the kitchen door, provided inattentive service (there is or was a perception among service personnel that women traveling alone are poor tippers) — nonetheless, she left a lavish tip on the order of 25% of the sizable bill.
The next night, she returned, was seated at the best small table in the restaurant, had the staff attending instantly to her every whim. At the end of the meal, she asked that the head waiter be sent to her table. She opened her purse, and, handing him a penny, said “The tip last night was for the service I got tonight. This is for last night.”
I’m going to correct these two big, old, fat whoppers of a lie, right now.
____________________________________________________________
“You do realize that their pay is ratcheted down so that if they get the tip level the social mavens insist upon they will then achieve minimum wage?”
“Because their minimum wage per hour is $2.13.”
____________________________________________________________
In states that don’t have minimum wage equal to or greater than the Federal Minimum wages, there are sometimes special exceptions to the WAY a minimum wage is met. I have worked in this industry for many years, in mmultiple states. Saying that the minimum wages for Waiters and Waitresses is a BIG FAT LIE, and waiters and waitresses don’t make minumum wages for long.
The way it works is that the employer must from an amount of $2 (and change), towards the hourly wage. Then the tips get factored in and credited towards the minumum wage. If those surpass the $7.25/hour, then the employer pays no more. However, if that does not reach the FEDERALLY required $7.25/hour the EMPLOYER MUST pay more wages until it gets to the $7.25/hour. Now, in my years of food service, AND restaurant management., I have never, ever, ever, once even HEARD of someone not breaking minumum wage with tips added. If they didn’t they wouldn’t have a job long, because they’d have been fired anywa, and replaced by management for someone who could get the minimum through tips.
The average tipped restaurant employee makes between $30,000 and $50,000/year PART TIME. This argument about tipping is not about meeting minimum wage, it’s about getting $15 /hour, rather than $10 (if you are terrible at the job), or about getting $25/hour, rather than $20.
Don’t believe the liars, and the bleeding hearts that claim that service people don’t get paid enough. They can always find a job with technical expertise and training if they don’t like working with people. But the fact is, that the minimum wage is NO different for people who are waiters/waitresses, than for the rest of us. If they don’t work well enough to get tips, then the employer still pays the difference, by law. So let’s end that lie, here and now.
Waiters and waitresses work for tips. It’s part of our economy and culture. Europeans do it differently, but we’re in the USA. It is understood and agreed between the govt (that exempts restaurants/bars from paying the standard minimum wage) and the restaurants/bars that the bulk of a waiter/waitresses income will be from tips.
The alternative, for a restaurant to afford to pay a waiter/waitress in lieu of tips, is to raise prices of food and beverages to incorporate higher waiting labor costs. Your $100 tab would be $120-130, quality of service notwithstanding. As it is, you might leave a $20 tip on a $100 tab. Or you could leave a $10 or $50 tip. Customer’s option. Our current system is voluntary; waiters/waitresses take their chances that by providing good service they will be appropriately rewarded. Or not.
In this case, it could have been poor service; it could have been a cheapskate, who really knows? But a 1% tip is offensive, which may well have been the point. Or, it could just be a manufactured story.
People stiff waiters all the time. This is national news?
How about a study on tipping based on racial demographics? That’d actually be worth a read.
Regardless of the circumstances, nobody is entitled to a tip, period.
I have left 15-20% tips at times when service was less than sterling but that is my decision. I had a waitress follow me out of a restaurant complaining that the 20% tip that was left was not enough because she had to wait on my then pre-school grandkids who left a small mess (most of which we had already cleaned up). I worked for 4 years in a restaurant and I understand tips and service and ran her snotty rear back into the restaurant when I told her to get her manager so that we could discuss the matter. They lost our business for over 4 years as a result.
To me, the service is almost as important as the food. 20% is for outstanding service. 0% is for anything less. Actually, I’ll tip 10%+/- sometimes. Depends.
When I was a bartender we always had a little special surprise for stiffs when they showed their face again,and they always did since stiffs are self-absorbed morons.Also I worked at a fancy restaurant on the Jersey Shore that got alot of wealthy patrons and they always took care of the help.The biggest stiffs were always kids or big mouth libs.
As in "Blazing Saddles" it's twu, it's twu.
White males 35-55 are the best tippers followed by females in the same age group. Younger early 20 something males and older males 65+ are low tippers...unless they were in food service.
I did plenty of food service when I was younger.
It left no doubt how many truly pathetic a-holes there are in the world.
As for people who say it's not "real work" -- you wouldn't last a week.
I agree 100%. Pay thee real wages, and fire them if they don’t do the job.
You're right, I remember seeing that somewhere. It still doesn't sound right. I would guess it's either some kind of twisted prank between the "employer" and the "employee" or that it is now an ex-employee, because someone who's that big of an asshole wouldn't tolerate a snitch working for him (or her).
Just in case you’re curious, the IRS doesn’t always tax you based on sales. What they do, is that they have a certain percent that they know is customary for the industry, say most tipped employees get %8 (to use your figure) of their total sales, in tips. So they know people don’t pay on the cash, all the time. So what they do is if you’re reporting below that 8% average, they charge you on top, to stop the people who are hiding the cash tips. Not saying it’s right, or that you were, but that’s the reason why. It’s not meant to be an “extra” tax (on top of what you pay), but an alternative minimum, per se, way to catch the skaters.
The one time I can remember NOT leaving a tip was when the waiter was a sloppy looking mouthbreather with stringy, greasy hair wearing an obama hope and change button.
Lunch entrees there average about $12. So it was either a large party or they were drinking heavily.
I wonder if folks know that bartenders and servers don’t really get a salary at all.That measley little 2.13 an hour vanishes after you claim your tips every week for the IRS.When I worked behind the bar I got a paycheck for ZERO dollars every single week.The only income you make at all comes from the tip.On the other hand you do get to mess with alot of snotty libs
I agree 100%.
And as you mentioned, the wait staff REMEMBERS. They have minds like elephants when it comes to this. All the people that say they don't tip and visit the same restaurant over and over...well that extra seasoning may be "special". I'm not saying it is right but it happens.
Besides working in food services everyone needs to watch the movie "Waiting"
Me too. But then again, 99% of the time I'm eating at local Mom and Pop joints where the servers are, more often than not, their kids. Or friends of their kids.
Funny, in the small town I live in, there have been a number of chain restaurants (or higher-end chain-type restaurants) that have opened and closed in the past few years. Usually in the same locations. People shake their heads and sadly say that the area just won't support dining out. But the local Mom and Pops....who provide good food and service at an affordable price .... just keep on motoring along.
IMHO, I'd rather eat at a BBQ joint, run by a guy who's been perfecting his art for the past 20 years (and who likely learned it from his Dad, who learned it from his, and so on) than some Olive Garden or Applebee's. Or a ripoff lookalike of them. And, judging by the local economy, I'm not the only one who thinks that way.
They would not last a slammed Friday or Saturday night. You know what I mean.
I could never figure that out.
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