A few points made I definitely agree with.
I have worked at an event hall as waiter myself for a period of time for pocket money back in school. I have never expected any tips and haven’t seen a cent from the tips they have surely charged on every bill (I actually didn’t think about it at the time and thought all was square, l was naive, lol) and have been given a tip by the guests exactly twice: one ‘Mercican gent gave me a dollar bill, on which he wrote “first tip” and the date (not sure what he was thinking; I’d rather he kept the dollar); the other was an elderly couple who gave me a 20 and said they greatly appreciated the exceptional service (that was more than half of what I made per event worth of work). Edit: no, I was also given a tenner once, so I was tipped thrice, not twice.
I never expected any tips either, really. Why would I? I was told I would make a certain wage per hour (it was a quarter above minimum, if I recall correctly) and that was my expectation when I took the job. I understand pocket money vs providing for the family. However, the attitude described in my post somewhere above, in particular:
Tipping is about making sure the people who are performing that service for you are getting paid what they’re owed
That is laughable and I would likely never tip the person who made the statement. That’s ludicrous, imo. Everyone is owed what their hourly wage is multiplied by the hours worked, as reflected by the paycheques they receive from their employers. Expecting a tip, and generous one at that, for making and handing me a cup of coffee is a recipe for disappointment and bitterness, poor job performance and general unhappiness.
Furthermore, as noted, the keypad demanding a minimum tip of 15-18% is also pretty crazy. One may consider it an extortion because many people sure find it hard to press “other” followed by “0”. Psychologically, it makes some people (most people?) feel like they are being seen as cheap and ungrateful if they choose to give anything from zero to below the minimum percentage indicated on the keypad. Especially, when they were at that place last time, they paid 25% less and no one asked for tip and none were expected to begin with. And, again as mentioned, these keypads seem to pop up in most unexpected places.
As far as the percentage of the meal goes… Let’s say we celebrate an anniversary as a family of 4 at a restaurant and spend $200-300 on dinner. Let’s say the service was excellent and so was the meal. Is the expectation of a 20-25%, equating to $40-75, reasonable? Of course not. I’d consider it nuts, even. If we decided to go to the same restaurant on a “regular” day getting some cheaper options, perhaps $100 worth in total, yet having the same great quality of food and service, should I still leave a tip of $40-75? Of course not. That would be nuts. I’ll gladly leave a 20-dollar bill though. My work pays me the same wage, regardless of the quality of the output: if the quality is subpar, I don’t get the business or get fired, depending on the circumstances. No other place should expect any different. How am I wrong in this thinking? Because that dude quoted above sure thinks I am, but doesn’t help realize how. Luckily for me, we cannot afford having $200-300 meals at a restaurant, so I don’t have to worry about “feeling bad” not treating the waiter the same “fancy” meal we are having, lol. Frankly, I’d rather do something else with $240-$375 too, haha.
And then who gets the tip and who doesn’t? I don’t get the concept either. Many hard jobs out there paying minimum wage. Barber tipping is also kinda weird. It costs me about $30 nowadays to get a haircut that takes about 10 minutes. What is the expected tip? Sure, I throw a couple ($3-4) extra bucks usually on top of the bill because it is a “tradition”, but what is fair and what is expected? $30 is probably fair and what should be expected because the guy had set that price of his service himself. If I hire an electrician, does he get a tip or is his “relatively high” wage sufficient? A plumber? Do I tip a lawyer? The mailman? The garbage truck driver? The cashier at the grocery store? Is that a hard job that also pays minimum wage more often than not? Damn straight in my mind - standing there in one spot all day with “beep, beep, beep…” in your ear and a few random rants about the high prices and incorrect/missing pricing in the computer that the the cashier has no control over would drive anyone crazy. What about the bank teller? Or the the phone company’s representative that you talked to on the phone the other day and who happened to be extremely helpful to the point that the quality of service was even unexpected, do you send them a cheque? They probably don’t get $50 an hour. This is a true story, by the way: talked to a Rogers rep that took care of all my concerns and “wishes” and was super pleasant and knew exactly what she was doing, extremely helpful, I was amazed (arguably my best experience with any phone rep ever); granted, that was after 3 other tries where I spent close to 7 hours on wait and talking in total with zero help or progress made, and I mean nada. That rep saved Rogers a client too because I already started inquiring at other providers and was willing to pay more in order not to deal with incompetent (knowing that the other providers have the same incompetent working for them as well, lol). I promised her to fill out the survey that they usually email after every call (and sure did after the three previous calls), but they never sent one. I did give her some compliments and told her pretty much what I wrote above (not the tip debate, that’d be weird, lol) and she was genuinely haply and flattered.
Tipping was created when people were underpaid (or unpaid at all) for their work, so the customers provided them with the means to live, so you bet one had to make sure the service they provided was at the very least on par and at least exceptional in order to improve your living situation. Making $15 an hour and expecting to be topped up to $40-50/hour is definitely having pretty high expectations.
I tip and I tip pretty generously (by any reasonable measure, really) more often than not. Even when service or/and food is mediocre. I choose to do that. But if I see or hear the attitude that I owe that to someone, good luck living on the wage you are getting because I don’t owe you squat.
And if you got to this point, lol, here is a bonus rant for you. When they ask if you want to donate $2 to whatever charity today at the cash register in grocery stores. I can see many people cannot say no. I learned to say “not today”. And whatever, it’s only a couple of bucks. The thing that ****es me off is when I see that big sign saying something along the lines of “this store donated $145,750 to whatever charity”. It isn’t “this store” that donated the money but the customers of the said store. That really ****es me off.
Ok, I am done. I have more, but I am done, lol.
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