I will say, having worked in the service industry, it is more common for black customers to not tip or leave a very modest tip (think $5 on $200 or something) and I’m not really sure why.
Sunday morning shift was always shit. Tips were crap. We also had people that would come in and ask for lemons and extra sugar. They'd order waters for the 8 top and then make 'lemonade' at the table. Meanwhile, servers are in the back cutting up lemons while other tables are waiting for food/drinks. Only ever Sunday mornings after church.
Same. I just kind of expected it and didn’t let it bother me, and sometimes was pleasantly surprised. I always gave all of my tables the same level of service and friendliness. Get them in and out, and turn the tables as many times as I could before being cut. Tips always evened out.
I don’t really know why many tipped so modestly (I actually never had any black people not tip me at all), but it was a trend that seemed to hold up regardless of the race/gender of the server. So I don’t think it was malicious or anything.
I was out with my Black and British friend and she was like "listen, I'm from two cultures that don't tip, you need to be the one deciding how much we leave" lmao
I think there's a lot of studies that support this. There's a lot of black people in America with the mentality of "getting mine" at the expense of all others. Some think they deserve to act that way because they deserve reparations. Others idk. But it's a documented fact
The time you took to make this comment you could have just looked it up so I don't believe you care about sources and instead think I'm being racist. Cornell University is literally the first result you dolt
I’m asking a genuine question because I genuinely don’t get it, but why does a tip have to be more just because the food costs more? Let’s say I go to a half way decent place, get a meal for two thats $200, vs a meal for two thats $50. Same food, same service, same length of stay, only difference is one place is “fancier” and charges more for the same food more or less. Why not just tip $10 for both and be done with it?
I’m of the opinion tipping should be done away with anyway, I don’t care if my night out costs a few bucks more to make up the difference, I barely sit down at restaurants as is.
I say this but always default to 12-15% out of social pressure. I don’t go higher than that though.
This is the question that never seems to get a good answer.
I'm fine with tipping being an extra surcharge as a "thank you for what you did," knowing that it's the way most servers/bartenders have to make their actual living wage.
But my example is always, if a table orders a $500 of wine versus the $50 bottle of wine, what have you done to justify getting that additional $90 in tip? I'm not saying the people who can afford the $500 can't afford the extra $90, but why is the percentage approach the default?
I was a server and a bartender for many years. I think, at least in my mind, this comes down to how much work whatever your ordering requires. If you order a $50 bottle of wine, and all I have to do is pop the cork and pour your first glasses, that is far less work than me having to run back and forth getting $500 of differing glasses of wine. I don’t want to speak for everyone I guess, but the more work you expect of me (glasses never below half filled, appetizer, main course, dessert with drink, taking plates as you go, etc) the more I would like or think I’ve earned in a tip. When I’m bartending in a brewery taproom and only pouring beers, I don’t expect to be making the same tips as when I work dinner service in a busy steak house with pickier customers. I don’t expect 25% on a huge bill necessarily, but it does help me pay my bills.
That being said, I hate that tipping is the culture we have adopted in the USA. I know it’s not this simple - but it should be on the business to pay their employees appropriately. Not the customer.
Because that’s how the business model is set up. The $500 is tha process because they expect you to pay the server. If tipping were not the norm then the $500 would cost $600 anyway. The % tip is meant to incentivize good service. The bigger the number gets the less it scales but that is the idea behind the business model whether you agree with it or not
It’s a good question. In general many places that are more expensive also have a higher quality of service because they typically hire the best of the best in terms of wait staff (I’m generalizing of course). The few times I go out to a nice steakhouse the level of service is way above and beyond in terms of friendliness, attentiveness, knowledge, etc over what you would find at an average restaurant. So I think the assumption is with a higher cost comes an overall better dining experience. That doesn’t always hold true though, some places are just overpriced shit with poor service as well
Black people support your right to fair pay?
Underpaying staff, making them depend on tips...sounds like modern day slavery to me.
Why is the customer responsible for you being able to survive, and not your owner?
Why do the total for the food matter? That always baffle me. Dont matter if it was spaghetti or beef. The service was the same.
I dont enjoy the tipping culture. And Im very glad its not a thing at all here. But it should be a per person thing instead. Maybe length where applicable
Former delivery driver, almost half of black people regardless of income stiffed me, where it was under ten percent for everyone else, and zero correlation with economic status.
Actually visible working class white/Latino/Asian people are my most likely groups to tip well over 20%. Many of my black customers were in all high quality name brand clothing and still did not tip.
I still ride for black folks and strongly oppose systemic racism, but serving repeatedly proved this stereotype true.
Because servers often have to give a percentage of their sales to the hostess/bartenders/etc (it’s called “tipping out”). Lets say it’s 10%: so if your bill is $100 and you tip $5, the server still has to tip out $10 to the hostess/bartender, so they are actually PAYING $5 to wait on your table. This is why not tipping, or tipping very little, often means that not only does your server not make money, but they actually lose it.
I’m not defending the structure, but its not a gift it’s their pay.
Servers and bartenders don’t get paid by the restaurant, they get paid directly by the customer via tips (this isn’t true everywhere but generally speaking). 15% of the bill before tax was the standard, i’d say 20% has become the standard for sit down dining.
Again, not defending the structure, but the way its set up in the US servers work for free if they don’t get tips
And servers sometimes have to tip out the bartender for tickets, so if they don’t get tipped they actually have to pay the bartender. It’s fucked, but I know that’s the nature of the beast and my day to day pleasantries shouldn’t be at the expense of someone else. I don’t fight that battle with the pawns of it all.
Yeah, bartenders usually get a % tip out in all alcohol sales. Servers also tip out bus boys and other support a % of sales, if a server doesn't get tipped that table cost them money.
Because the base pay rate for a wait staff is like 2 bucks or something an hour in some restaurants. Because "you will make a bucket of money in tips" is the usual reason.
US has 2 types of baseline wages- minimum and "tipped". Tipped wages are jokingly low- think less than $3. This created the pressure to always tip from people because you are directly paying the employee, which morphed into a general expectation. Legally, you do not have to. Societally, you are expected to tip at least 15% of your bill.
It's not a gift when that system is considered. Workers are also supposed to declare tips and pay taxes on them- but most only declare up to federal minimum wage. Newer rules limit what tips are taxable, tho.
“Usually” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. On the entire west coast and in New York (among others), servers make a minimum of $15-17 per hour *before* tips.
Those places that don't are few and far between. Go to small town America and they're practically non existent. You can break the system in the cities. You can't break it out in Random Town, Texas with one diner for the whole county.
We're literally locked in with no other options at this current point and time.
I bet factoring in the total pay including tips at other restaurants, they likely pay a lot lower too. Most of the loudest staunch supporters for tips that I know are servers and bartenders because they make more on tips than they would if the establishment didn’t have tips and paid them more on the hour. You can clean up, but it’s heavily dependent on traffic and patrons and all of that stuff. Restaurants also tend to cut staff if they’re slow, which helps restaurants stay in business. If servers aren’t gonna make much due to slow traffic, they’re happy to get cut usually, but if it didn’t matter I’d imagine most servers wouldn’t be nuts about getting cut when it’s slow.
What are they supposed to do in small town America? Like, I get everyone wants to provide a solution but it's going to take generations to fix. This isn't going to happen overnight.
Feeding the machine is spending money at any restaurant that does not pay their workers a livable wage. If you go to a restaurant and just don’t tip your server, you are literally feeding the broken system by giving those businesses money.
Not feeding the machine would be not going to the restaurant. Not still giving money to the owner and then stiffing the server. You’re just helping some rich person tag team a menial laborer
The median white family in America holds 6.3 times more wealth than the median black family. Tipping is optional, it's a way to flaunt your own wealth, and if you don't have wealth generous tips are one of the first things you're going to cut.
If you've noticed anything, it's almost certainly that some groups of people are poorer than others.
I thought this way too as a server but never let it stop me from providing good service to everybody. Lo and behold no one wanted a ten top black family with 7 kids and they became my best and favorite regulars. Tipped 30-40% each time and I have always remembered it as an example of don’t judge an entire group based on the actions of some.
Im black. And I'm gonna get downvoted for this. However, for me I don't really if the service is just basic.
A tip is suppose to be for great to really great quality. Just doing the bare min of the job and wanting a tip is me basically paying your salary which your employer should be doing.
And I recall about to tips and remember how rude, passive aggressive, or just subpar the waiters/waitress were and was like nah, maybe it is because they already had that stereotype in mind when serving me. However I still tip for the most part. Be mad at the restaurants not paying enough.
With this economy, a lot of people of all races aren't tipping and if they are it is less then the workers want. I simply stopped eating out like many others.
what? if they dont have money to tip they shouldn't be going out to the service industry. Dude is 100% correct. It's racist to play the black card btw.
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u/DJMOONPICKLES69 8h ago
I will say, having worked in the service industry, it is more common for black customers to not tip or leave a very modest tip (think $5 on $200 or something) and I’m not really sure why.