Comments on: The Secret Art of Tipping

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:13:06 +0000

Valet’s confound me as well. I only use valet at the hospital and at Flemings in both instances there is a no tipping policy in place so I don’t worry about it. The valet at Flemings is a joke though, they literally park the car 10 feet from the entrance.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:07:32 +0000

That makes sense I guess, pay the smaller bills a higher percentage. I have never really thought of it like that but I think I inadvertently do that as well.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:06:12 +0000

I am curious to know if the “delivery fee” really does go straight to the driver? Are delivery guys paid minimum wage or sub minimum wage like waiters.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:03:09 +0000

The tip jar is usually a gimmick by people who aren’t relying on tips for their income. I worked at a Baskin Robbins for a while and we were paid minimum wage or above and not technically supposed to ask for tips. When the boss left the tip jar went out, it was a good way to make some extra cash. I was never upset when someone didn’t put money in it, since I wasn’t supposed to get it anyway.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:01:18 +0000

That is a tough one. I guess I would still tip him. The money he makes from the haircut goes directly to the business account. Portions of that money are then used to cover overhead, insurance, taxes, licensing and other intricacies of running a business. The tip is cash in his/her pocket and it is technically “under the table.”

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:58:36 +0000

I hate that sense of entitlement too. The best thing about being a waiter in the past is you can understand where the waiter is coming from, or should be anyway. That extra gauge lets you know when the waiter is just being a shitty waiter or where they are just stretched to thin. My biggest pet peeve is waiters who are just being lazy and don’t apologize for delays that are a result of them sitting out back smoking a cigarette.

By: ctreit

ctreit — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:38:33 +0000

Two things that annoy me about tipping. (1) Automatic tips for tables of 6 or more. (2) The tip jar at places like Starbucks.

(1) A few friends and I ate at Smith & Wollenskys in Las Vegas once. The service was terrible. For example, the waiter started cleaning the table and taking some of the food away while I was still eating! When the bill came, they had added 18% tip. I found that outrageous.
(2) Once we get used to the tip jar for the barristas at Starbucks, will we get a tip jar at the supermarket check-out since the cashier also provides a service for us? We may as well tip for that service, too, right?

As far as I am concerned, a good tip is meant to be an extra reward for service provided well. It should not be assumed automatically no matter how great or poor the service is.

By: MLR

MLR — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:17:19 +0000

Also a topic I enjoy… being as I have also been in food service and know a lot of people who were/are in food service, too.

I don’t have a minimum or a maximum. I baseline at around 18% and move up or down dependent on the service I get. I don’t think waiting is a hard job, especially based on what it pays. I’ve had jobs twice as hard that pay half as much as most of my friends make who still wait.

Thankfully, I only did that for a short while, but I’m glad I did because it allows me to dismiss the sense of entitlement a lot of service employees have.

By: Thirtysomething Finance

Thirtysomething Finance — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:04:53 +0000

Ah, tipping! Ah, humanity! (Bartleby the Scrivener — anyone?) I also worked in restaurants from when I was 13 to when I was 20 or so, and I know what it’s like to count on tips. In restaurants, I almost always go 20% — I’ll go as low as 15% for bad service and will stiff somebody for something egregious. I once didn’t tip a waitress at a bar because she wouldn’t take our orders and literally said our group was wasting her time (direct quote). Strange.

I like your methodology for tipping food delivery people, though I generally just give them a buck a bag (or $2, if it’s only one bag).

For cabbies, I usually just give them $1 and/or the change up to the next dollar of the fare (so if the fare is $4.50, I’ll give them $1.50 (don’t like waiting to deal with the 50 cents change) — or if it’s $7.80, I’ll give them $1.20). This is approximate but usually works out to 15-20% somewhere. I really hate tipping cabbies, though, especially where I wind up giving them a $1-2 tip on a $3-4 fare.

What do you think about tipping the owner of the business? For example, I get my hair cut by the owner of the barber shop, and I don’t tip him because he’s the owner. Agree or disagree?

By: Jeff @deliverawaydebt

Jeff @deliverawaydebt — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:08:20 +0000

One of my favorite topics, since part of my income comes from tips.

I deliver pizzas on the weekend to help my debt snowball. I make some great money by doing so, and without the tips I’d make crap. Here’s how I tip

Waiter/Bartender: 20%-30% adjusted by 5% based on service.

Hair Stylist/Barber: I cut my own hair now, but I use to tip 40% at the stylist

Pizza/Chinese delivery: 20%-50% again based on the speed of the delivery. Tipping more has always moved me to the front of the delivery runs. I know this because I ask the driver. I usually have the same driver and yes drivers talk about you. We know who orders, what they order, how much they usually tip. The delivery driver knows a ton about your habits No we are not like those people in “Enemy of the State”, we just like to know our customers.

Taxi Driver: 15%-20%

Some may ask why I tip so much. It’s all about Karma. Treat people well and in turn they will treat you well. Yes it doesn’t work out all the time, but I receive good tips so I give them out.

Thanks for the article Kyle,