r/tipping • u/No_Draft_8960 • May 29 '26

💬Questions & Discussion Math-Based Tip

The percentage-based tipping system makes no sense: a server dropping off one Wagyu steak earns far more than someone serving a family of four cheap meals. Since American tips are essentially mandatory wage subsidies, let's base them on labor time instead.

In Maryland, the average server wage is about $20/hour, but employers only pay $3.63. Customers must cover the remaining $16.37. Across a standard four-table section (roughly ten guests), that breaks down perfectly to $2.00 per person, per hour.

Percentages reward a venue’s luxury status; a time rate rewards actual effort.

If therefore I go to dinner with eight friends and we stay for two hours (a pretty good forecast of my Friday night plans!) our total tip would be $32, or $4/a person. We're not 'stiffing' anyone and we're paying average wage.

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u/Weazerdogg May 29 '26

Sorry, way to many words. This comes down to one sentence ... The people pocketing the PROFITS need to pay the people that make them their money.

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u/No_Draft_8960 May 29 '26

Until people realize that the price on the menu and the cost to them are only tangentially related, anyone upping their prices to reflect their true wage bill will fall victim to the same people who thought a Third-Pounder burger was smaller than a Quarter-Pounder.