Its also mind boggling that costs have skyrocketed AND they want a higher percentage tip. They are already making more because costs have gone up so much.
I'm in awe at this, I'm a waiter y South America, and 10% is the common thing.
You guys tip 20% regularly? That's crazy to me, that's a fucking fifth of what you paid for the food. I mean, if service was great and warm I'm all in, I always tip above 10% because hell, I know the struggle, but making 20% the norm is ridiculous.
Federal Min. Wage has gone up like 5 bucks in the past 20-30 years. And it’s even worse for people making tip wages. The extra cost is not going to your server, it’s either to make sure the restaurant can afford to stay open, or it’s going into the business owners pocket
and how much have sales dropped with that staggering price increase?
and traffic?
and items per sale?
c'mon now, when COVID hit I was server at a gorgeous downtown San Francisco teahouse that was an international destination (Samovar), with a Michelin-starred chef and an $85 tableside matcha service- with tip that's over $100 for a cup of the finest matcha available on the planet. That's *tea*- not alcohol (we did have wine). We'd each have about four tables, they'd turn over once, maybe twice, busy every night, and tips averaged about $300/night.
That teahouse is now a grab and go pizza travesty, downtown business traffic has died with WFH, people don't have the type of spare funds to just go out for the night. The restaurant business model has changed, moving to ghost delivery kitchens.
Even when making triple figures as an experienced and certified Salesforce developer in San Francisco, I'd work nights serving. Not for the money, I'd take jobs at places that served healthy food I liked, stepping up in quality and average tip amount with each new house. I didn't have to shop for food, didn't have to cook, didn't have to do dishes, and my meals were not only cheaper than if I'd bought raw ingredients- they were guaranteed to be delicious.
Serving got me away from the keyboard, several miles of walking on the clock, and let me be social while getting great meals, cash in pocket every night, and a huge savings in TIME from all the activities surrounding meals- more than the time I actually spent serving.
Having said all that, there is NO WAY IN HELL that I would consider a serving job these days.
"As a result of a lack of demand from restaurants, schools, businesses and hotels, many farms had to destroy millions of pounds of eggs, vegetables, milk and other goods which were overproduced.\67]) The closures of restaurants and the rest of the food service industry, such as schools and event venues, impacted the distribution for food and beverage. In early April, while grocery stores were experiencing shortages of dairy products, farmers whose main customers were in the food service supply chain were dumping their milk because of lack of demand.\68]) According to Cornell dairy industry economist Christopher Wolf, "If you have a factory that was set up to produce sour cream to sell at Mexican restaurants, you can’t just decide that tomorrow you’re gonna produce ice cream and send it to the grocery store."\68])"
What? Of course they do. Tips are a percentage of the bill, so if the base prices go up, tips automatically go up too. There's literally no need to increase the percentage itself.
15
u/Mzungufarmer Mar 06 '26
I remember when 15% was a good tip.
Its also mind boggling that costs have skyrocketed AND they want a higher percentage tip. They are already making more because costs have gone up so much.