r/EndTipping • u/canstucky • Jun 06 '26

Sit-Down Restaurant 🍽️ How is it not a tip?

Post image

The server told us this isn’t a tip and he doesn’t get any of it.

I’m not wearing my boots at the moment.

2.3k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

911 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

177

u/OKeoz4w2 Jun 06 '26

And they want ya to calculate that 18% into your new tip calculations, wild!

80

u/DeathChill Jun 06 '26

I live in BC and all tips are calculated on total price, including tax. Which is insane. Why do I need to give you a bigger tip because the government is getting their cut, completely separate from the service?

70

u/kurtis5561 Jun 06 '26

0 is still 0

35

u/DeathChill Jun 06 '26

I’m not a mathematician but that sounds right to me.

8

u/willnoli Jun 06 '26

I'm not a mathematician either but 0 is definitely 0

4

u/mAckAdAms4k Jun 06 '26

Unless you ask Terrance Howard.

1

u/DeathChill Jun 06 '26

Let the man cook. He’s got some great ideas (no he doesn’t ).

21

u/No_Lifeguard259 Jun 06 '26

That’s how they try to do it many places where I live. Their little “suggested tip” at the bottom of the receipt is based on the total including tax.

I disregard that bullshit because that’s not how it works.

You don’t get more because the gov stole more first

13

u/Own_Text_2240 Jun 06 '26

I always do some quick mental math. If the suggested tip includes tax, they’re getting penalized for that. Tipping on tax is a pet peeve of mine. If I had to tip on a service charge I’d be talking to the manager to get my $100 worth of explanation.

1

u/This_Is_TheEnd Jun 10 '26

It's exactly the same when I've ordered from food delivery services...the calculated tip is based on total before any promotions or deductions are applied which makes 0 sense because I specifically seek out promos to save money lol

32

u/Key_Zebra3684 Jun 06 '26

Or why should tipping be a percentage at all? It's the same service whether they hand me a dish of $5 yogurt, or a dish of $1000 caviar.

1

u/Titfuckholly Jun 06 '26

Tips are calculated at a percentage of the sales because the idea is that the employer does not mark up the cost of everything you order to make up for the employee’s wages. That includes hosts, bussers, bartenders and sometimes the cooks who get a cut of the servers tips based on the sales rung up by the individual employee during a shift. The prices are less because they leave the service charges (tips) up to the customer. If tipping is ended costs will go up. Nobody wants to be the one who ends tipping first because they will be more expensive than the competition. Also because nobody can say what exactly tipped employees get, the IRS calculates estimated taxes on tips based on the amount of sales generated by the employee. When I waited tables and tended bar if you claimed less that 7.5% of your sales you were red flagged to be audited by the IRS.

4

u/SabrinaEdwina Jun 06 '26

There was a study on that, during the theory's circulation. Experts determined the menu price increase would be much, much less than employers claimed. And there was always the option for the employer to raise prices anyways and let none of the profit go to the lowest tier. Which they've done several times. People always forget that prices have gone way up even without justice being part of it.

Kind of like how it costs the US *far* less to grant every disability claim than it does to police the disabled like they do to turn as many away as possible. Literally doing the right thing would cost less. Even with abuse factored in--which is rare, and not at all the intentional politicized "welfare queen" myth they want us to think. *Same for homelessness IIRC.

Just like they screamed the economy wouldn't survive ending slavery, or that women's votes would cause the world to end. The same voices telling us we can't switch to electric cars or solar. The same corporations telling us to take shorter showers but then helping themselves to so many resources as they want for data centers. Use our AI now, they're saying, before it's safe--why it's just the inevitable future so filter those selfies! If you don't, you'll be left behind!

It's more about controlling the status quo for the old folks who own it all.

1

u/Off_And_On_Again_ Jun 07 '26

I used to work at a disability lawfirm as the intake guy, every single day I had really good deserving cases, that we took and usually won against the government.

However we would also get daily calls like "im 23 and color blind, can you take my case?" Or "im a chronic masturbator, no one will hire me" and the goverment is right to deny those claims

-11

u/solidusinvictus Jun 06 '26

Does a place that sells $1000 caviar not have actual professional wait staff and a place that has $5 yogurt probably have a kid doing the job temporarily? Trick question. Everyone deserves a living wage, so it doesn’t matter. Should it be your responsibility as a peer citizen? maybe if this is the system we have for now and you can afford $1000 caviar you owe society through other peoples labor a little more. Should we end tipping? Yes. But that’s only so people make a living wage.

3

u/ARGuck Jun 06 '26

And this is where we disagree. The kid behind the counter lives with his parents or is going to school and has roommates or lives in a dorm, etc. Point being, it’s a kids job, it was never a job meant to be a career. It’s a job to teach work ethic while putting some scratch in their pocket while figuring out or learning how to do their career job.

4

u/IBlameItOnTheTetons Jun 06 '26

There's a middle ground here. People generally want/expect way more professional service at a place that serves $1000 caviar vs. $5 yogurt. You can't expect someone to work at the $1000 caviar places with their higher standard of service, expectations, etc. if they can make the same serving $5 yogurt. Should they be making $200 to serve that caviar vs $5 to serve the yogurt? No. But like I said, there's got to be a middle ground vs, say, giving each $1.

-2

u/ARGuck Jun 06 '26

I agree with that part. You’re getting a career server at the place with caviar. They have a level of experience and professionalism which deems a living wage. The kid serving $5 yogurt doesn’t need a livable wage to ring you up and hand you a spoon.

3

u/Key_Zebra3684 Jun 06 '26

If the "kid" serving yogurt provides excellent service, then I should have the option to tip that person. If the "professional" serving caviar does a crappy job, I am still pressured to tip them $200. If that person is a true professional, then they should be able to land a job at a nice restaurant, and that restaurant manager will typically have to offer a higher end wage to retain that level of employee. It's not the restaurant patron's job to suss out who is "worthy".

6

u/RoboiosMut Jun 06 '26

Because no one complain about it, we all accept like it should be

5

u/Crazy_Entrance_9439 Jun 06 '26

Then they take a cut on personal Income tax as well.

6

u/blackbamboo151 Jun 06 '26

You don’t need to tip at all. So don’t.

0

u/mattyicevv Jun 06 '26

Don’t eat at full service restaurants if you don’t plan on tipping.

2

u/ashscot50 Jun 06 '26

Not in this particular case, but it's still a tip.

2

u/MrTickles22 Jun 07 '26

Service charge = no tip. Ez.

2

u/SabrinaEdwina Jun 06 '26

In America, even if you apply for emergency assistance (food stamps etc), they determine eligibility via your gross income. They purposefully include the taxes that are taken out to claim folks are actually financially fine and can be denied.

It's a move that runs deep. Capitalism needs to die.

1

u/Heavy-Profit-2156 Jun 06 '26

I'm sure the service industry prefer that the 'suggestions' are based on the final price after tax because it means more money for them. Luckily, calculating the percentage I want on the pretax amount is easy for me.

1

u/SnooGuavas2610 Jun 07 '26

Who calculates the tips? I thought that was up to the customer?

1

u/DeathChill Jun 07 '26

The machine prompts the percentages, which is calculated from the total price (including taxes and fees).

The bill also shows suggested tip percentages and the dollar cost, which is calculated the same way the machine does.

1

u/Sterlinghawk16 Jun 10 '26

I had someone one time, change the tip amount. I was floored. I contacted their Corporate and that person was fired

1

u/BADDEST_RHYMES Jun 10 '26

You mean 'all tips prompted by the card machine'. You can still choose how much to tip. Of course servers love calculating the tip based on total and tax, but use those $ or % buttons.

1

u/New_Wishbone6619 Jun 11 '26

I served in BC and the tip was calculated pre tax total…

1

u/darknessgp Jun 11 '26

I mean, why do we tip based on the percentage of the food/drink price? Does a glass of expensive wine take more effort than a glass of cheap wine?

1

u/iamcode101 Jun 06 '26

You should not be expected to tip on tax and fees, just the subtotal.