I read an article recently – Tipping Point: What It Takes to Make Your Waiter Like You – written by Wall Street Journal columnist, Neal Templin. Good article. (Click article title to read.)
Templin, who once worked as a busboy, says tips have been on the rise for a while now. In the 1950’s tips were commonly 10% of the bill. They now average around 18% in the United States and are expected to go higher.
As a 
former waitress, after reading the article I was curious about tipping – the history and reasons. Found more than I needed to know by clicking on Wikipedia.
In their detailed article on tipping, Wikipedia says that “a tip is a payment made to certain service sector workers in addition to the advertised price of the transaction.” The percentage given is in appreciation of good service.
Hourly, waiters and waitresses in the U.S. are paid less than minimum wage. Tips are expected to make up the difference. Our culture sees tips as a way of assuring good service. But the practice varies wildly worldwide. In some countries, such as Japan, it is an insult to leave a tip since it implies workers must be paid extra to do their jobs. In others, such as Iceland, a service charge is included in the bill.
Does tipping work? As mentioned above, in my younger years I worked briefly as a waitress in a coffee shop. I learned quickly who tipped generously and who didn’t. Since I depended on tips to pay my rent, I worked hard to give the best service possible to everyone. It made a difference to me and, I think, to those I served.
How much do you tip? Click “comments” at top of article to share.
Sara
3 comments
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December 7, 2008 at 10:21 am
dyricci
Most of my friends are in food service…whether waitstaff or bartenders…so I don’t hesitate to tip generously. Almost always, I tip 20%…unless the service is noticably bad and it’s obviously the servers fault (then usually 10%). On the extremely rare occation that it’s just total nuclear-disaster-type bad, I have been known to leave absolutely nothing…but I mean really, really bad, like where’s the manager bad…and I can only think of a very small handful of times that I have ever so.
Bartenders tend to get 25-30% from me…I think because it’s just easier fo both of us if I just tip a buck on each drink…and I end up getting more for my money and a heavy tip generally means a heavy pour on the next round!
November 27, 2008 at 12:35 pm
CheyAnne Sexton
I’m the same, My honey and I always tip at least 20% but if they suck it varies
@ my last knowing there are only 11 states left that pay the minimum of $2.13 and New Mexico is one of them
November 25, 2008 at 8:20 am
withonebreath
When I do go out, I always tip 18-20%. My girlfriend was a waitress for a number of years, so we are both sensitive to the monetary needs of waiters and waitresses, but also extremely picky about the level of service we receive. If the waiter sucks bad enough, that tip is considerably lower, though I don’t usually dock a waiter if it is obvious that they are slammed unless the service was atrocious.