Why Should You Tip?

Why should you tip? It is amazing how often this question is asked and debated. To me the answer is painfully obvious. When someone asks me why people should tip, I answer their question with a few of my own. Do you want hot food? Do you want your drink refilled? Do you want the person taking your order to care about the quality of food you are going to eat? The answer to these questions is always yes. So why would a person that is getting paid hourly whether you eat there or not care about any of those things if there is nothing extra in it for them?

T.I.P.S. - Tipping Insures Prompt (or Proper) Service. The argument above is usually very hard to argue against because there is no doubt that servers give good service based on what they perceive to be a carrot on the end of a stick. They will work hard for you and you will reward them at the end for a job well done. So to me, the question is not really to tip or not, but rather how much to tip.

Tipping standards vary greatly from region to region and country to country. To complicate matters, tipping standards change over time and what services require a tip also change. Back in high school I had a friend who believed that tipping on drinks was not necessary. I never did figure out his logic on that one but it does go to show that there are many ideas about tipping.

When figuring your tip, you should consider the following circumstances that may or may not apply to the server depending on which state you are in.

*Hourly wages are typically significantly less in the service industry, because tips are considered part of the servers income.

*Your server is likely being taxed 8% to 10% of your bill weather you tip them or not. Many restaurants automatically deduct this percent from the servers pay check to keep the server in the right ball park at tax time. This is not the only income tax that the server must claim. So if you do not tip the server, it has actually cost the server money to serve you. This also means that the first 8% of a 10% tip goes to the government and not the server.

*Believe it or not, servers do not always get a paycheck. Sometimes, because of the taxes they pay and/or deductions, servers must pay in to the company rather than get a check.

*Your server has to tip too. It is very common for a waiter or waitress to have to tip out their supporting staff, ie; the bartender, buss person, food runners and others. Bartenders may have to tip out their bar backs. These tips are based often on the sales of the server, so if you don