Being British I find the whole tipping thing bizarre, but the strangest thing for me was the printing of an 18% tip and a 20% tip on restaurant checks.
If you’re going to tip, you may as well go the whole hog and give 20%. Why scrimp on 2% and give only 18%? It’s such a bizarre figure. Why 18%? Why not 17.32%
There’s no point moaning because the US is not going to change the system. But I’m still going to say that I prefer to know where I stand. In the UK the price on the sticker is the price you pay at the register. Real clear and easy. And I don’t in general tip (in the UK) unless the waiter/waitress has gone over and above what I might reasonably expect them to do. Even then, I tend to prefer to give them a compliment to thank them rather than leave cash on the table on my way out.
Also, someone mentioned the difference between minimum wage and tipped wage was around $3 per hour. On my premium meals at WDW the 20% tip for a meal for two was running me up to $30 or more each time. Someone is making way over minimum wage, and not all of them were providing a service that I thought deserved a premium rate of pay. Sorry.
Reading this brought up an old memory. When I was in College - I worked at Trump Castle in Atlantic City. I worked as a pit clerk - basically a grunt that worked on the floor and among other things would bring people markers (money in chips). On occasion we would be tipped and that was always very very much appreciated. However the dealers definitely pooled the tips - tip wages were printed in the local paper - so people would know what to expect by working in which casino.
So back then - they would take all the lock boxes collected for the day and sort the chips out on a craps table. The table was FUN. So image a craps table with a pile of chips across it - and being about 2 feet in the middle. That is how much money was involved in tips there. Kind of funny
Do remember minimum wage is a salary of just under $17K annually which is right around the poverty line if single and well below if married with kids. I would presume most of the workers at a high end DIS restaurant would deserve to be paid more than the minimum legal amount they could be paid - remember we’re not talking average here, we’re talking the minimum. I would expect good Signature servers to make decent money at Disney thanks to the tips, but I would also presume they would have to be fairly competent to land a job at a Signature in the first place and thus be deserving of making well beyond minimum wage…
I see your point, but in 2 weeks we were only in a restaurant longer than an hour once. Our tips were around $45, so that server made $48 that hour. It’s a lot more than I earn. It’s about half what I earn in an 8 hour day.
Fair point - off hand I don’t know if tips are pooled at DIS restaurants or if the waiter takes it all home. If pooled, your $45 would have covered a variety of employees. If the servers kept it all, I’d presume we would see lots of “veteran” servers as they could clear $100/hour with just a few tables at a lot of places which would make it a nice career.
More likely you aren’t seeing “veteran” servers not because of the income, but because there are not likely any benefits with those positions (insurance, retirement, etc.). It would be safe to assume most of the servers do not get 40 hours, therefore no benefits. Also, without going into our legal systems too in depth, most of these employees are not actually reporting all or most of their tips to the IRS. Why? Because they don’t want to be taxed on them. What they aren’t considering? They also aren’t being used in calculating their Social Security and therefore have nearly no retirement fund when they need it. Granted, their weekly income likely far exceeds the minimum wage, and some one with a good financial sense could budget the costs of acquiring their own benefits, most of them do not. At some point they will need a job with benefits, especially if they have a family.
ETA: Also, having waited tables before, it was the best paying, least stressful job I ever had. BUT, it was also the most physically demanding. I can’t imagine the pain my back and feet would have been like today if I had done that my whole life. That may be another reason people don’t make a career of it.
I believe I have seen that they have to share tips with whoever else is working on their section. I tip and will continue to do so, because it’s expected over there. But I do still wonder why the US expects customers to make up staff wages, when surely employers should be paying them a proper wage to start with. Most businesses have customers, but it mainly seems to be waiters who you have to tip.
If you Brits manage to get rid of tipping in the U.S. to align us with Europe, please do the same thing with pharmaceutical ads. I’d like to keep free refills on drinks and free public restrooms though. Thanks!
It’s an excellent question on why we still tip and I don’t have a great answer. Realistically if tipping went away tomorrow, menu prices would just go up a commensurate amount to compensate for the employer’s higher employee costs so it’s not like it really costs us anything as consumers. And as someone pointed out servers like tips as it allows them to make more, particularly if they are good servers and in places they may be able to under report income to evade taxes. In many ways, it may be a better system for the server, at least at a busy restaurant than a straight (low) wage.
I do wonder at DIS if servers could get away with under reporting tips significantly? I’d presume the majority of tips are credit which would have to go through DIS and thus be reported. I don’t know if pooling would also force things to be reported or not. Lack of benefits could be significant but if they can clear $100 an hour even on 30 hours, that’s still $150K which would allow to buy decent health insurance and fund an IRA (at least if they reported enough to fund one ). I’m sure the physical toll is significant as well though. And we may be hugely overestimating the tips they actually see making it far less attractive…
When I was a child, there was a popular restaurant that still had pay toilets. It was fairly uncommon at the time. I used to absolutely FORCE myself to need to pee just so I could drop the dime in the slot.
Almost all public toilets (but not ones for customers only like in restaurants or inside a specific shop) used to be pay toilets. Me, my mum and my sister used to all have to go in the same cubicle to save the 10p or whatever, and I couldn’t go in front of them so I’d always pretend not to need it.
So I’m from Indiana and have a nursing friend that works part time as a nurse and 3 weekends a month flies to Disney and is a server at Cinderella’s royal table (she used to live in Florida and has since moved and they allow her to do this) I asked her about it cuz I felt flying there 3 times a month and only working Friday-Sunday that it would b silly and you wouldn’t make enough to warrant doing it… welp she said said she makes around $400 a shift so $1200 a weekend…
I agree with you but keep in mind that unless the tip is in cash the server may not see that tip till they get a pay check which should had ss taken out.
The thought of tipping in the US is so you get better service. The better the service the better the tip in theory. If the price included the tip the staff would not work harder in theory. I worked from age 16-21 at a job that paid by the hour, When I was 21 I worked on commission 25% of the net profit, I was told that the stand I worked was 25% mine that day so i worked my A** off to make more money. My boss loved me because of that so I got the better stands.
). I’m sure the physical toll is significant as well though. And we may be hugely overestimating the tips they actually see making it far less attractive…
