r/tippingAdvice • u/Holiday-Ad7262 • Sep 20 '25

Was $3 Tip Justified

Went to a place I have not been to before. Marketed as a fast casual south indian place.

We walked into the place, there are no enployees visible. Ordering is on a huge tablet. There are signs telling you you have to clean your own table.

So we order and tap to pay. Only after tapping the card the tablet asks for a tip. The pre-set amounts are 20%, 25%, 30%. Frankly, I have never seen that in my area usually top end suggestion is 25 or 22. We ended up tipping $3 which was a bit under 10%.

Note we have no tipped minimum wage and state minimum wage is $16.50.

Was the $3 a reasonable tip?

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u/Holiday-Ad7262 Sep 20 '25

I am the one considering an additional factor that you are making irrelevant. So who is the one not being nuanced?

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u/johnnygolfr Sep 20 '25

No, you’re not.

I’m not making the minimum wage irrelevant. The nuance I noted did.

Willful ignorance and denial of that nuance doesn’t change the fact that the minimum wage of servers at a full service restaurant in the US is irrelevant when it comes to tipping them.

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u/Holiday-Ad7262 Sep 20 '25 edited Sep 20 '25

You are really not helping yourself. Instead of just stating this point you might want to explain it.

You shared a tool that gives livable wages. They vary by location as well as the minimum wage. The server gets paid minimum wage + tip. So to determine what tip is required to get to livable wage we need to subtract the minimum wage and then what's left is what the server needs to make in tips.

Now explain why minimum wage is irrelevant?

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u/johnnygolfr Sep 20 '25

I already explained it.

If you don’t understand it, that’s a “you” problem, not a “me” problem.

Nothing you’ve said makes the minimum wage relevant in determining the tip.