This would be a good argument for tipping a higher percentage at a moderate-priced establishment and less at a higher priced one. However, I think that the customers turn over faster at the less costly places in which case the server has more opportunities [tables] in the same time period. If the ratio were 2:1, then the tips would even out between the 2 restaurants.

Because.

I think you are forgetting about Uncle Sam. A server is taxed on the tips that he/she makes, and that amount can be no lower than a certain percentage of their sales for the year. So a server at a pricer restaurant will be taxed more than their counterpart at a casual dining restaurant. If you tip both servers the exact same dollar amount, despite the difference in cost of food, you are forcing a loss on the fine dining server--in effect this person will have LOST MONEY to wait on you. Multiply that by the number of tables that server has in a year and that is quite a loss! (And that doesn't even touch the subject of "tipping out", where the server pays the bartender, busser, and runnner after every shift, which is also based on their sales for the night--not on their tips!)
If you go out to eat at a fancy restaurant, (or ANY restaurant!) you should have the common courtesy to tip appropriately--or please just stay home. I'd rather have no tables than lose money just by waiting on you. It's hard enough in these times to pay the bills without taking a loss at my job.

RtSO ! Perfect.

The argument of less costly places vs. higher cost places doesn't work when it is the same place. One can go to the Prime Rib and order chicken for $25 or a Prime Rib for $50. One could also order a $50 bottle of wine or a $300 bottle. It is the same restaurant, and the same amount of effort. Now, that being said, there is still going to be higher tip. Why, as RTSO said: "Because". It just is.

Of course it is not a law. You dont' have to tip higher, but you do becuase of social pressure. I think when people complain about tipping, what they are really complaining about is the price of social acceptance. We are not willing to give up our social acceptance by tipping say 8% on a $200 bill. We don't want to be called cheap or whatever. So, the price for social acceptance is 15% to 20% of the bill regardless of whether the price of the service is that amount.

What you are failing to realize, and what most waiters and bartenders fail to realize, is that the job is as much sales as it is service. Waiting tables is about selling you what you want for dinner. I worked at a very high end restaurant in the area and if I was waiting on you, by the time I got done with my specials presentation, thats what you were having for dinner. I could pick an item and sell it to 75% of everybody that sat in front of me. My goal was to sell as much food and drink as possible and make my "commission" as large as possible to. And trust me when I tell you that people enjoy the experience much better. Nobody wants to read a menu in a dark restaurant. Tell them what they want to eat. SELL IT. I accept that someone buys the $10.95 chicken dinner as there choice, as long as they here how awesome is the $24.95 Filet Chesapeake.

bra1nchild writes customers turn over faster at the less costly places in which case the server has more opportunities

But then they have twice the work, too.

I like your idea of tipping higher percentages at lower priced places than what I tip at higher priced places. That seems to relate more to the work involved.

Anna, the Feds taxing tips based on percentage of sales started well after the custom of percentage tips was started. My memory is that it was Reagan who started taxing tips based on percentage of restaurant sales. It might have been Bush, Sr.

I stopped waitressing about then.

I'd prefer the European system, where staff get paid a living wage, with health care, pensions and all, and don't get tips. The whole concept that certain types of jobs require immediate financial reward in order for their holders to be motivated to do a decent job is insulting. It is on a par with the argument that working is bad for a woman's emotional and physical health, therefore women should stay home and provide free cooking, cleaning and childcare services, because those aren't work.

Lissa, I completely agree with your comments about the European system. I also think they, in general, have better vacation benefits, a more relaxed attitude (with less preachy morality), and seemingly a bigger appreciation for the enjoyment of life. Also, with their true living wages, health care, pensions, etc., they do not seem to have turned into some fascist dictatorship socialist communist regime that I keep hearing that we'll become on WBAL in the morning!

You know how it is, Joyce. The right in this country uses "communist," "socialist," "fascist" and dictatorship in exactly the same way that 2nd graders on a playground use "gay" or "fag". With a complete lack of what the words actually mean and the surety that they mean something indefinably bad.

Come to think of it, so does the so-called "middle."

Waiting tables is about selling you what you want for dinner.

How true. Our daughter was at a restaurant-not-to-named [because I can't remember which it was] for Restaurant Week. There were 8 or 10 people in the party. When they ordered wine, the server suggested something else which he said they would like. [Yes, I know we discussed this a long time ago] They enjoyed the wine but not the $100 price tag which he had not mentioned. While the promotion is designed to get new customers, this waiter probably cost the owners lots of repeat business because of his "sales" tactics. I don't know much they tipped.

Comment 1: It is my hope that the "better" one gets as a waitperson, the "better" the place one will get to work in, and therefore the better one's income will be. In my experience, the ratio of price to service works out about 80% of the time. (But no, I'm not sure what "better" means.) It is my hope that one can pick a profession and get good enough at it to make a good living at it. I am, evidently, an optimist!

Comment 2: I fall in a similarly odd category, with respect to income. The IRS considers me an employee and my taxes are calculated and deducted accordingly. But the Social Security Administration considers my kind to be self-employed, and so I pay SECA at the higher rate. I have nothing but empathy for folks who have to fill out weird forms this time of year.

yippee!! another tipping post. just when i thought they were all done.

what you tip says far more about you than it does the service.

are you irritated that you have the pay separately for the server's fee? why isn't included in price? grrr. or is it just so nice to have someone else take care of things and just let you eat? or are you living a life of quiet desperation, and the only thing you feel you control is the tip at a restaurant, so you can over-examine everything your server does?

a wise server once told me ' people are who they are, and tip how they tip. only really horrible or ridiculously good service will change that.' how right she was.

so yeah, tip based on the bill. you have my salary to pay, and i appreciate it. the servers at cheaper places are making good money on turnover, or they are trying to get a job at a nicer place to make more money that way.

and finally, think of your glass as half full, not half empty. you are getting the same service that you would be if you were ordering the $50 prime rib, but you are only paying for the $12 chicken. aren't you lucky tonight!

There is no end to tipping posts. :-) EL

Joyce W., doesn't your radio receive NPR? No one can force you to listen to rants against your will!

Ha ha - Dahlink, of course I get NPR but at 4:30 (a.m.) when I want weather and traffic - I have one choice-WBAL. And, I do actually find listening to "the other side of the fence" somewhat interesting, if not infuriating! LOL!

I used to have a very retro VW bug that had an original AM only radio. I used to llisten to WBGR. It was classic gospel music and ads for nail salons. Sing it Mahalia! Plus news and weather. Testify! and holla!

Like NPR isn't rants too?

One of my close friends is a waiter. He pretty much judges people's character based on how they tip in the restaurants. Predictably, he tips generously when he eats out. When it comes to tipping people of other professions, however, it's a different story.

Mr. Grene when you buy a new car whether it be an expensive German model or an inexpensive Japanese model, the sales person does the same amount of paper work. Although, I'm sure one of those salespeople is making more than the other. You know most servers don't receive a pay check they live off those tips. So find someone else to pick on. If the service is poor leave 15%.

So if I give you more money today than yesterday my character is better? I think not. The act of judging another's character, particularly by using money as a metric, is demeaning to the judger. Tipping in America is a particularly vulgar exercise indicative of Americans' shallow materialism.

Every political group (and most ostensibly non-political groups) have their own code words for what they hold dear (such as "labor friendly" for the left and "conservative values" for the right) and what the other groups hold dear ("overblown executive perks" and "soak the rich mentality" respectively). The trick is to recognize the code words in what your friends are saying and analyze them as you would your enemies'.

There seems to be a basic contradiction in the logic here. Is a tip a sales commission or payment for the quality of service provided? They are inherently mutually exclusive. It is not a service to me to upsell food and drinks; it is a disservice.

In what other job can someone completely fail at their job and still get a 15% tip? Let's not forget that there is an element of coercion in tipping. Tipping in America is in partly a bribe against future disservice. Because every customer is like an independent client, tipping should be completely voluntary. In other words, each client should be able to fire their server. In other countries, like France, tipping is a gesture of gratitude. Because it is never a significant amount of money, one doesn't cross the line into bribery and/or noblesse oblige and mutual economic objectification. I think tipping in America is a moral quagmire, one in which everyone leaves covered in the slime of monetary objectification and dishonesty. When you have to pay someone to be kind and honest, there is no honor. Worse than that we denigrate ourselves by being forced to withhold money to coerce competence and compassion. Not to mention that tipping and tip-baiting are used to steal from the restaurant or bar owner.That free dessert is tip bait. Bartenders and customers work out non-verbal systems of tipping extra for free drinks.

It's a sick system and should be destroyed. Only when people treat each other with dignity and compassion without being coerced or bribed or financially rewarded will there be harmony in restaurants.

Do they still include a "Service Charge" along with the Value Added Tax in Europe? They did when I lived there a while back. "Service" was 15 - 18% so anything additional was, as OMG and others have pointed out, a "gesture of gratitude" or just rounding up the check. Yes, staff there were more professional and career oriented, but they still received a Service Charge. You just had no choice in the matter.

Lissa, are you making the claim that only the right and the middle use labels for the opposition? If so, what am I to make of the...ummm...labels made by the left against the right, such as reactionary, nazi, racist, zealot, bible thumper, wackos, wack-jobs, crazies, etc...

I tend to agree with Retired that everyone has codewords or labels. Yes, this applies to the left as well, or if you will the liberals, progressives, socialists, commies, maxists, reds, pinks, tree huggers, etc...

Anyway, back to the tipping. Does any restaurant around here use a service charge as a normal practice other than for large parties? The only restaurants I could think of that uses a service charge regulary are the restaurants in country clubs.

I'm checking myself, maybe when service is poor leave whatever you want, and when it is good or great don't be a cheap skate!

No, RoCK, I'm not making that claim. Everyone uses labels and code words. As a leftie, I think the labels I use are more accurate than the labels that the left and the middle uses.

I was refering, as stated, to the specific terms "communist" and "socialist", which most Americans have a very, very inaccurate view of. This is due to the right using them as terms of hate, not as terms of content.

I have always heard that waiters in the "best" New Orleans restaurants actually pay for the right to be there. Could be Urban Myth. Could also be another thing that the recent administration killed in NO.

If so, what am I to make of the...ummm...labels made by the left against the right, such as reactionary, nazi, racist, zealot, bible thumper, wackos, wack-jobs, crazies, etc...

Truth telling.

Robert: Both Valentino's in Parkville and Italiano's in Morrell Park (which are run by men who are related to each other) will regularly tack a 15%gratuity onto the bill for any eat-in service, regardless of your party's size. I'm not thrilled with this but if the service is especially good I'll leave an additional cash tip behind.

I tend to over-tip on breakfast because, in most places, the prices are likely to be relatively low compared to the rest of the day's menu. This is not the fault of the server who had to be up at some ungodly hour.