Tip as If Your Living Depended on It

Except for the occasional “walk-out” (bills not paid by the customer, which the server pays in many cases), restaurant owners receive what they charge the customer; servers receive a pitiful minimum wage and prayerfully a 15% tip. Some owners wrongfully assume that if servers give good service, they will receive at least 15%.

Many people simply do not know what to tip. Adolescents tend not to tip well. Senior citizens often tip poorly.

People who are angry before they even enter the restaurant often skip tipping. I waited on a family of seven whose patriarch was in a foul mood. Everything went well until the kitchen informed me that we were out of the item he had ordered. Because he waited for his second choice a couple of minutes after everyone else had been served, his meal was taken off the check at my request. The restaurant owner was paid; I was tipped nothing. Then there was the gentleman I waited on every week who tipped only 10% because he felt that his $1 dessert should be free.

One server is usually responsible for at least five tables, often more.

Once the server has shared the tip with the busser (between 15%-20%), the bartender and, in more upscale restaurants, the captain, the host and the back waiter, they must report all tips to the IRS.

Servers should be paid at least $10 per hour plus benefits for the back-breaking, foot aching and degrading work they do. Owners could do away with tipping altogether by paying a commission in addition to an hourly wage. This would better promote “upselling” (the owner’s requirement that servers push desserts, appetizers and premium alcohol to raise the total of the check).

Not all servers are aspiring actors. Some of us are mothers and fathers who are trying to make a living. Although there are some servers who move on to the entertainment industry, many interim servers are your future doctors, teachers, firefighters and police officers. Currently, I am a work-at-home mom who waits tables to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees.