Some tipping tips for non-American GDC/PyCon attendees (and American ones too)
- February 26th, 2012
- Posted in Uncategorized
- By Rob Galanakis
- Write comment
Games Developers Conference and PyCon are both coming up, which means lots of familiar international travelers in the US. A post on G+ asked about how the tipping system works in the US. I’m not going to list the percentages and people (though I will say aim for 20% and always tip taxis and servers), but I will explain three very important things about ‘how the tipping system works.’
The first thing to understand is, tips are generally a part of wages. The federal minimum wage is $7.25, but may only be $3 or so for an employee that earns tips, because the rest of the money ‘must’ be made up in tips. Tipping is never “extra” money to a tip earner (takeaway, baristas, etc., are generally not ‘tip earners’).
Second is, servers do not generally declare how much they made- there is a standard percentage of sales they must be declare as tips (differs per state but generally something like 10-13%). So if they make $1000 of sales and make $250 in tips, they are allowed to say they only made $130 (%13) in tips and only pay taxes on that (I say allowed, this is ‘illegal’ but everyone does it and there is no expectation to report everything you earn). However, this has an inverse- if you make $1000 in sales and only make $100 in tips, you pay taxes on the $30 you didn’t even make! So if you tip someone 10%, they may be paying taxes on money they didn’t make- you are taking money out of their pocket.
Last and most important is, many servers need to ‘pay out’ to other staff, such as bussers and food runners. This can often be 5% of sales or so. So they may only be taking home 10% of your 15% tip. And the blowback from not tipping is far worse here- if you tip 5%, that server may be earning exactly zero dollars from your table. If you skip on the tip entirely, you are taking money out of your server’s pocket.
So, Europeans, and Americans too, please understand- tipping should never be considered optional, even for bad service. Unless you think it is OK to take money out of someone’s pocket for a job poorly done, or even just if they made some mistakes. Imagine if your pay was docked for each bug you wrote! The only time I would ever not tip is if you were to walk out of the restaurant (for lack of service or some other dealbreaker). Likewise, your server is almost never getting as much of your tip as you write (taxes, payouts to other staff). So if you get good service, tip generously, then add a dollar or two. And if you get bad service, tip anyway.
Enjoy the conferences!
PS- laws are different in each state and restaurants are different. These are just general guidelines. Please don’t nitpick exceptions.
I disagree with one point. If you get bad service (not not-great, but bad) then don’t tip. That IS the whole point of tipping. The reality of servers tipping out other support staff and the fact that many illegaly report a fixed percentage for taxes doesn’t change the reason for tipping. These people aren’t making too much money, so if the service is adequate then tip. If the service is good, then tip well. But if the service is bad, don’t tip.
I have to argue , as an American, that while much of what you say is true – it seems tip inflation is becoming quite common. 15% is generally recommended for good service. Beyond that is reserved for “exceptional” service.
But more to the point, we should not encourage this system! Why should celebrity restraunteurs , and other business owners get away without paying their workers salary! !
Tip inflation only encourages the system further. If people would not tip so much, eventually the business model (or taking advantage of employees model) would be forced to change.
Actually, there is one point that I will nit-pick – in California, the minimum wage for waiters is _above_ the federal minimum wage requirement (currently $8 / hr I believe). I still agree with you in principle – even if the service is poor, the waiter’s tips also go to the cooks and other staff, so unless you have a _really_ horrendous experience, you should always tip at least 10%.
How can a programmer that presumably uses logic and evidence, come to the conclusion that since some gentlemen and ladies in Washington DC or some state capital have decreed these arbitrary rules regarding a voluntary act (tipping), if you chose not to leave a tip for bad service you’re doing the same as stealing money from the wallet or purse of the individual who didn’t provide good service?
Wow! There is a fair bit of nonsense here!
I don’t understand why we’re so caught up with the world ‘tip’? If we called it ‘froggle’, and it was part of a worker’s expected wages, would it be less optional? Tipping a minimum amount should not be optional and it should be as much a crime as skipping out on your bill.
John- Do you really think that it’s a matter of ‘taking advantage of employees’? Employees want tips- a business is free to include tip in the price and not have tips, but they don’t. Because it is popular because it allows people to work harder and make more money. Aside from that, a very small number of restaurateurs are in any position to ‘take advantage of employees’- I doubt there is any business that goes bottom up as often as restaurants. It is probably the most difficult industry around, due to competition and conditions, and the people that own and manage restaurants are usually in it as a labor of love (or they are lifelong screwups). I will admit tip inflation may be a bit out of hand but I have a soft spot- either way, just cause there’s been some inflation doesn’t mean we should remove the floor.
Joe- once again, tips are part of wages (with exclusions such as Ken’s above). I explained how servers have money taken out per-dollar, if they don’t get tipped that, they are working for free (or paying you for the privilege of serving you). How can a member of the human race and society in which compassion is a virtue be so heartless and naive as to punish hard-working individuals because their obviously superior intellect disagrees with the philosophical underpinnings of a minimum wage law.
The rule of thumb I have, which I’d urge you all to have, is- the only reason I’d not tip is if I either 1) didn’t get service at all or service stopped and I couldn’t find anyone (both have happened), or 2) the experience was so horrible I will never go back, period (maybe, the food had a bug in it and they refuse to comp it, or the waiter was openly hostile and yelling at you?).
And another thing- one reason why I say, tipping isn’t optional, is not only do servers have bad days/tables/moments that are sometimes not their fault- customers do too. You may be a douchebag (or behave like one sometimes) and not realize it. And then you have some percentage of people who shouldn’t be allowed into a full service restaurant at all. So remember that you may be partly responsible for your bad service, and avoid punishing your server.
Thanks for writing this post. I think a lot of service professionals are unfairly looked down on. My general rule is that if I can’t afford to tip a server 20%, then I can’t afford to eat there and I better be prepared to make the meal myself.
GDC China – no tipping at all ;) Enjoy the event though, I hope I can be there one day.
I’m afraid you have a distorted sense of accomplishing “compassion” via legislation. If congress passes a law decreeing that 50% of new software will have to be written in the Foo language because Foo programmers are malnourished, that doesn’t induce compassion in the citizenry (but it does cause resentment by programmers of other languages). If congress says “tips are part of wages” (as they have), and legislatures come up with arbitrary percentages of what has to be declared as tip income, it is not out of a sense of compassion for the hard working individuals, but because somebody has lobbied for those laws (cui bono?) and it’s unlikely it was those individuals who lobbied since they were much happier with the status quo ante.