Has the tipping culture reached a breaking point?

In BC the minimum wage is $17.40. The server makes the same amount as an employee at Walmart or a drug store. It goes up significantly for the server getting tips.

BTW, I tip well. I irritate myself when I tip on the total, not just the food/drink tip total. Why am I tipping on the total with taxes.
 

We go out to eat maybe twice a year so we tip then. Oh, I used to tip at Starbucks and other coffee places when I worked because I was there like everyday, but have eliminated that since retiring. We live in a condo so don't have to tip a mailman. I do my own hair so no tipping there. Oh, we do tip when we order out which is about once a month and that is it.
 
We still get home mail delivery so I tipped my postal gal $30.00 at Christmas time. And I almost always tip 20% or more to the waitstaff at Pubs and Restaurants.
 
Beezer said:
We still get home mail delivery so I tipped my postal gal $30.00 at Christmas time. And I almost always tip 20% or more to the waitstaff at Pubs and Restaurants.
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Yes, I leave a big Christmas tip to my mail person and my trash collector every year. I told my trash collector once that he was a hero and he just laughed, but I really do appreciate those guys.
 
Jeni said:
i think more people are upset that the card readers point of sale machines often come programmed to ask for tips .....
not like there is a different program for each type of business..
i think many who were purchasing the often cheap and portable card machines were service type business...and tips were just part of it.
seems like someone could program a more realistic approach to not ask for it in all situations.

the below minimum wage for tipped staff .......law Varies by state .... and yes it has been legal and a known practice for decades ....not a secret....

many people in a good restaurant made a lot and often the cash tips are not or under reported for taxes.
IRS has a formula stricter now but when i was younger waiting tables ........many only claimed a portion....

I feel the expectation of tips has really lowered the bar on service and doing a good job at serving .....
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I claimed 10% of my tips. Was that lying to the government. YES and I donā€™t care. At least I claimed something. My gay friend claimed nothing and got busted.. I made good money waitrasssing but I worked hard to earn that. I was working in order to put myself through school
 
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No one ever tipped me for doing my job, even when I would start earlier than my assigned hours, or work well beyond them just to meet someoneā€™s personal convenience. I have cut lunches short, ate at my desk, or even done without lunch to accommodate some people. Yet when time came to negotiate a new contract, members of the public would send letters to the editor of the local paper decrying members of my profession as ā€œgreedyā€ or ā€œunion thugsā€ for seeking cost of living raisesā€¦

That being said, I do tip people in service jobs if they treat me as human, are halfway pleasant to me, and render service in a reasonable and timely fashion. I do wish that the going attitude would be, however, that ā€œtips are appreciated, but not expectedā€¦ā€
 
PeppermintPatty said:
I claimed 10% of my tips. Was that lying to the government. YES and I donā€™t care. At least I claimed something. My gay friend claimed nothing and got busted.. I made good money waitrasssing but I worked hard to earn that. I was working in order to put myself through school
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when i was working some of my mentor waitresses told me 20- 25% would keep us safe ... it is hard work and being good at it could be lucrative.
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electronic tipping is easy to trace as opposed to cash as well....
From what I have been told it is harder now then it used to be...
 
PeppermintPatty said:
I claimed 10% of my tips. Was that lying to the government. YES and I donā€™t care. At least I claimed something. My gay friend claimed nothing and got busted.. I made good money waitrasssing but I worked hard to earn that. I was working in order to put myself through school
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I worked as a waitress to help pay my college tuition, too. I made 45 cents an hour plus "tips" which I rarely got at all because all the older ladies assigned me to the customers who they knew didn't tip.

I worked very hard, but not half as hard as I did at my minimum wage, bank teller job where I had a steady stream of drive thru customers, was on my feet constantly, had no breaks, and had to concentrate every single second or I would make a mistake -- we were required to balance to the penny every day at closing.

I often hear people say waitresses deserve tips because they work hard but, like @Fyrefox says, many of us work hard and there are far worse jobs than waitressing out there.
 
Jeni said:
when i was working some of my mentor waitresses told me 20- 25% would keep us safe ... it is hard work and being good at it could be lucrative.
.
electronic tipping is easy to trace as opposed to cash as well....
From what I have been told it is harder now then it used to be...
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Surprisingly, I made my best money waitressing , manly due to the tax break I gave myself. Many waitresses donā€™t claim; one of them being a gay. The tax people came directly to the restaurant where he was worked demanding their share. It made me glad I claimed. I claimed the electronic tipping knowing it ā€˜couldā€™ trip me . I enjoyed waitressing; cause I got good exercise, no time to eat which kept me in shape, I was always so busy that time flew by. On top of that, I made great money. I put myself through school.
 
Della said:
I worked as a waitress to help pay my college tuition, too. I made 45 cents an hour plus "tips" which I rarely got at all because all the older ladies assigned me to the customers who they knew didn't tip.

I worked very hard, but not half as hard as I did at my minimum wage, bank teller job where I had a steady stream of drive thru customers, was on my feet constantly, had no breaks, and had to concentrate every single second or I would make a mistake -- we were required to balance to the penny every day at closing.

I often hear people say waitresses deserve tips because they work hard but, like @Fyrefox says, many of us work hard and there are far worse jobs than waitressing out there.
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The biggest plus for me was that time flew and the harder I worked the more I made. Busboys and girls would fight to work with me cause I gave them a percentage of my earnings and tipped generously. Like yourself , it put me through school, paid my rent.

Waitressing was good on my back injury . Sitting down doing electric assembly paid well but was really hard on my back. By the middle of the day I was always in a lot of pain and would have to swim it off.
 
I'm a good tipper and now that the going rate is usually 20%, I don't mind tipping that or more if the service is very good or excellent. I have tipped up to 50% for wonderful service. If I have a little change left over, say at Dunkin Donuts, I'll put it in the tip jar. If it's close to a dollar or if the server wasn't particularly nice, I won't.

I have yet to see a checkout machine asking for tips but I have seen solicitations for donations to different causes tacked up near the registers, sometimes with individual cut outs (ie: in the shape of shoes) where a person can add his/her name. Sometimes cashiers ask if (I) want to donate.
 
At a recent hotel stay they offered an QR code to tip the room cleaners. While I think they should be paid fairly by their employer I tried to leave a tip using the code. Then up popped a messge informing me that the QR service provider was taking 50 cents of the tip, AND WOULD I LIKE TO ADD ANOTHER 50 cents to compensate the cleaning staff for that deduction from the tip. I did not respond. I assume the cleaning person got some of what I left her. I hope so.
 
Brookswood said:
At a recent hotel stay they offered an QR code to tip the room cleaners. While I think they should be paid fairly by their employer I tried to leave a tip using the code. Then up popped a messge informing me that the QR service provider was taking 50 cents of the tip, AND WOULD I LIKE TO ADD ANOTHER 50 cents to compensate the cleaning staff for that deduction from the tip. I did not respond. I assume the cleaning person got some of what I left her. I hope so.
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Wow. I leave cash. The cleaning staff can keep it all and the QR code can go ā€¦. Paying to leave a tip???
 
Jules said:
Wow. I leave cash. The cleaning staff can keep it all and the QR code can go ā€¦. Paying to leave a tip???
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I know right? I get that now if I give online to a charity, "Thanks you for your gift of$80.00. Would you like to add five dollars to the cost of handling it?" Jeeze.

It's like the way we've all gone along with the gradual increase in restaurant tipping from a standard 10% when I was growing up to 20% now. People think that's okay because of inflation but that's automatically been covered by the higher cost of the meal.

1965 A meal would cost $5.00 and we'd leave a 50 cent tip.
2025 A meal will cost $50.00 and we leave a $10.00 tip. Why not 5?

My husband drove a cab for a while and he would regularly take a waitress home. One of those poor overworked girls who would complain about making below minimum wage. She would sit in his cab counting the hundreds of dollars in tips, she made every night. She never once left him a tip.
 
I haven't been out to eat but once in the last two years. When I used to go out more often, once or twice a week, I would tip at least 15%, most always at least 20%. Since I pay cash for everything, I have not seen the tip line on card purchases. I don't think there is any place here that does that -- small town.

The people I do tip are the ones who do more than the normal work for me. Recently, it was the waste company guys, the ones who come around once a week and pick up the trash. With all of the construction and tree and brush clearing, there has been much more than the normal one or two bags and those extra bags can be very heavy. The company itself charges an extra $3 per bag over the norm. A few times, there have been up to 30 bags (the 55 gallon contractor type). The company gets that money but it's the trash men who do the hard work.

I call the firm the day before pickup and inform them so the two guys on the truck know in advance. The driver gets out, takes pictures of them, we count them together, and he calls the office to let them know. If there is something inside the bag that may cause injury (broken glass) or the bag is very heavy, I will tape a "caution, broken glass" sign on it or "careful, very heavy". I have also helped toss them into the truck. I tell them how much I appreciate their hard work, how important it is, and how we (all of the customers, not just me) depend on them. I usually give them each $20; that may buy them lunch.

As a result, now and then there will be an extra bag out there. They always take it and there is no additional charge on the monthly bill. They are always nice and friendly; they have a physically challenging, dirty, stinky job. God bless those guys!
 
I've been thinking about this myself. I've been avoiding the issue by not eating out. If I am expected to add 25% to an already inflated restaurant meal, this is going to lower my standard of living, and I'm starting to feel the inflation pinch in the last two months, where up until now, I was able to cope with it by not spending.

But yes, this tipping thing is no longer a friendly thank you, but an in your face annoyance. My favorite take out pizza joint now expects a tip for the people who do nothing but run the cash register. What's with that?
 
Nathan said:
Some people are 'bothered' by tipping. I have always tipped 20% + for the below minimum wage food service wait staff.
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PeppermintPatty said:
Here in Canada, paying waitresses below minimum wage is against the law. The restaurant would be shut down if they were caught paying below minimum wage.
People getting paid under the table might be getting below minimum wage but itā€™s usually favourable to both sides.
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I think minimum wage or below minimum wage payments can both be problematic for the server. It's no news that cost-of-living is high in many regions of North America (both U.S. & Canada).

So, as I see it, getting minimum-wage payment is just one part of the picture. I'm aware of very many good non-franchise cafƩs and restaurants that are barely surviving, because they don't provide their owner/operators with much of a margin. The underlying issue is that the proprietor of the business is often leasing space in the building, and rental rates in commercial districts are high. So are housing expenditures plus the other costs-of-living in relation to what a server usually brings home. Everything's a case of income and expenditures.

I believe we all recognize that, as a general rule, owning commercial real estate is a more secure and profitable business than operating a cafƩ or restaurant.

So I don't begrudge paying a tip, unless I've received disappointing service.
 
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I have Instacart deliver my groceries. Rarely have I gotten the same person more than once. When you go to checkout, there is a place for a tip, gong from 10% on up. I used to leave 20% but food was getting higher, so I went down to 15%, now the service has gotten a little sketchy so I am at 10%. One of the reasons I dropped in the first place was mistakes in the item, and people who could not at all speak English.

Now I have found more mistakes in brand and size selection and when I ask if tere were any problems, they (if they can) tell me no. I don't want to tip at all. This is a job, not a restaurant. If I had gotten tipped for every rescue run I made over the years, I'd be rich.

Next the mailperson, school bus driver, teacher etc will be expecting a tip.
 

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