Have your (cash) tipping practices changed during the pandemic?

[BlkGS]

My friends that worked at chili's would walk outside during their shifts to smoke, drink, and bone. I'd say it's just a worse run restaurant because you don't have 100 dollar steaks, you have 15 dollar microwaved bag food.

 

[AZMark]

My friends that worked at chili's would walk outside during their shifts to smoke, drink, and bone. I'd say it's just a worse run restaurant because you don't have 100 dollar steaks, you have 15 dollar microwaved bag food.

I’ve definitely smoked and drank outside a restaurant I worked at, unfortunately no boning.

I need to see if chilis is hiring!

 

[Ronnie]

Are you Canadian lol?

While I somewhat agree on doordash, I simply don't support those companies because they screw the workers. They hardly make anything and DoorDash keeps all the money. If I have to use them I am tipping at least 10%. That entire thing is a scam and screws the buyers and the workers.
.

I don’t get the Canadian reference but in re door dash I think you are completely off base at least where door dashers in CA are concerned. My son has been door dashing for over a year. In NCal he averaged $27 per hour, now in Scal he is averaging $32 an hour which includes online tips and excludes cash tips. Not to shabby for an 18 year old with little other job experience. He can also get paid for the miles he puts on his car but he doesn’t which frustrates me since it works out to about $0.50 per mile driven and sometimes he drives 60 miles a shift. I’ve seen some of his pay statements which reflect that for instance he made $45 in three hours which is less than what door dashes algorithm says he should have made so door dash pays him the difference before they add in his online tips. Before he got hired door dash used to make up the difference with online tips before covering with their own money.

I went with him for 3 hours of a 4 hour shift, door dashers have a lot of leeway to optimize their income. He only works in affluent areas mostly at dinner time and he will move to those areas that door dash pays a premium for of at all possible (e.g. move to the next zone over a few minutes away when door dash offers a $1 to $4 bonus Per delivery in that zone). Also try to accept combo multi delivery jobs whenever he can.

I’ve typed a lot about tipping here but summarily CA does not maintain separate wage rates one for tipped workers and another for non tipped workers so on a city basis the waiter at Ruth Chris is subject to the same minimum wage as the server at McDonald’s. If all I’m doing is picking up the food I don’t feel obligated to tip at Ruth Chris because he didn’t do anything the McDonald’s guy didn’t and I don’t tip him whether I eat there or not. Lately I’ve noticed that even at some of the nice restaurants i go to the prices have increased but the service has gotten worse and the amount of food on the plate has decreased. Honestly, after having such an experience being brought a bill with a tip schedule and a suggest tip of 20% is insulting. I’ve stopped short of leaving nothing or a penny but been very tempted to leave a written tip, like “work harder” or “I paid $4 for a refillable soda and you didn’t refill it once over an hour during which you brought my food out cold, yet my total bill before tip was $130, so my tip to you is this, find a new line of work”.

 

[Ronnie]

I’ve definitely smoked and drank outside a restaurant I worked at, unfortunately no boning.

I need to see if chilis is hiring!

I’m going to recommend that my son apply at Chili’s but he told me there are a lot of hot door dashers some of which drive Teslas.

 

[Julian]

I don’t get the Canadian reference but in re door dash I think you are completely off base at least where door dashers in CA are concerned. My son has been door dashing for over a year. In NCal he averaged $27 per hour, now in Scal he is averaging $32 an hour which includes online tips and excludes cash tips. Not to shabby for an 18 year old with little other job experience. He can also get paid for the miles he puts on his car but he doesn’t which frustrates me since it works out to about $0.50 per mile driven and sometimes he drives 60 miles a shift. I’ve seen some of his pay statements which reflect that for instance he made $45 in three hours which is less than what door dashes algorithm says he should have made so door dash pays him the difference before they add in his online tips. Before he got hired door dash used to make up the difference with online tips before covering with their own money.

I went with him for 3 hours of a 4 hour shift, door dashers have a lot of leeway to optimize their income. He only works in affluent areas mostly at dinner time and he will move to those areas that door dash pays a premium for of at all possible (e.g. move to the next zone over a few minutes away when door dash offers a $1 to $4 bonus Per delivery in that zone). Also try to accept combo multi delivery jobs whenever he can.

I’ve typed a lot about tipping here but summarily CA does not maintain separate wage rates one for tipped workers and another for non tipped workers so on a city basis the waiter at Ruth Chris is subject to the same minimum wage as the server at McDonald’s. If all I’m doing is picking up the food I don’t feel obligated to tip at Ruth Chris because he didn’t do anything the McDonald’s guy didn’t and I don’t tip him whether I eat there or not. Lately I’ve noticed that even at some of the nice restaurants i go to the prices have increased but the service has gotten worse and the amount of food on the plate has decreased. Honestly, after having such an experience being brought a bill with a tip schedule and a suggest tip of 20% is insulting. I’ve stopped short of leaving nothing or a penny but been very tempted to leave a written tip, like “work harder” or “I paid $4 for a refillable soda and you didn’t refill it once over an hour during which you brought my food out cold, yet my total bill before tip was $130, so my tip to you is this, find a new line of work”.

As the brother (and part owner soon) of a restaurant owner I can tell you that the margins in restaurants are razor thin. Prices have skyrocketed as have wage demands (for the non tipped staff).

I always tip 20% now if the service was good/acceptable.

An example of price changes is wings. Used to sell for $40 a case 10 years ago, 6 years ago it was $80, it hit $160 last year, and is down to $120 now. When McDonald's briefly sold them....that was when prices skyrocketed...but it never went down.

If you want to do your restaurant owners a favor....tip in cash (otherwise the restaurant pays 3% credit card fee to pay the tip!! Which sucks for the owner).

Bar tenders make tons more....I tip them less if they are working an active bar.

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

An example of price changes is wings. Used to sell for $40 a case 10 years ago, 6 years ago it was $80, it hit $160 last year, and is down to $120 now. When McDonald's briefly sold them....that was when prices skyrocketed...but it never went down.

Part of the demand is those of us who have air fryers at home, Yum! ?

Jim

 

[jdkaeser]

We have eaten out more during the pandemic than ever before. I hate crowds and the pandemic has kept most at home so I have been loving it! That being said the restaurant industry has been changed forever due to this. Where I live, servers get $1.85 - $2.25 an hour plus tips. I don't blame people who get customers yelling at them saying they don't want to work in the industry anymore. Combine that with a lot of places now make the servers enter all their tips into the POS system and pay them out on their paychecks now. Which means they have to claim every dime of the credit card tips now. No skimming and not reporting all your tips like it was back in my day. Prices have almost doubled at most restaurants now and we still eat out. I also tip a minimum of 20%. The company I work for has restaurants and I can tell you those people bust their butts and deal with a lot of BS! Now, fast food is a different story, outside of Chic-fil-a all my experiences have been horrible the past year and a half!

 

[Ronnie]

I was tipping more soon at first after places opened up and up until just a few months ago but have gone back to my previous practice of starting at 15% and adding or subtracting in 5% increments from there (as low as 5% or what ever the coin / rounding change to the nearest dollar is and as high as 30%). I don’t ding them for slow service unless the food comes out cold, since getting my food and delivering it to me hot is part of their job in my opinion but things like not refilling my drink or more importantly my wife’s, I give one freebie on then the tip starts taking hits.
my son said he noticed this about his tips generally, that is tips were bigger earlier in the pandemic/sympathy tips he called them, now people are getting tighter with their tipping practices.

speaking from the perspective of one who does not own or know anyone close that owns a food service business, and never having a job that I could earn/get tips on, I have no empathy or sympathy for food servers when it comes to tips, especially living in CA where the minimum wage is the same for tipped and non tipped workers. Almost everyone has parts of their jobs they don’t like but in my opinion if anyone, doesn’t have to be a food service worker, feels they are not paid enough at their current job they should find another job.

Easier said than done some might say but is it? I told that to my son who got sick of working at an icecream shop for $13 an hour, he went out and became a Door dash driver/delivery person averaging about $27 and hour with a high of $55 in Ncal and now occasionally $35 an hour in Scal while in college. Was the job hard to get? no he applied on line, has spoken to but never met a manager in person and was on his first shift within 2 days of applying. Just needed a license since he intended to use a car not by bike, skateboard, whatever. I’ve also seen plenty of help wanted no experience necessary signs as well.

I’m paying for the food and for it to be served to me. If the establishment isn’t making it on their current pricing they should increase it but if / when they do they should not expect their patrons to tip the same way they used to as well as pay a premium for the food, especially if the quality of service or the food has decreased. If enough of my internal customers complained about the service or lack of service I’ve subjected them to, I don’t lose out on tips, I lose my job.

as far as tipping in cash instead of a card so that the server gets more of it or can avoid the taxes on it, again no empathy or sympathy, I get the tax breaks my account says I do and still pay a hefty federal and state income tax bills so I don’t see any reason to treat food servers be differently/better. Plus when it comes right down to it, I’m giving away money that I had to earn they way I want to give it away (cash or card), if they don’t like it I’d Invite them to give the cash back or scratch the tip off my bill but I’d bet the price of the meal no one ever would.

whether I tip or not, when I pay the bill the only thing I expect to hear is “thank you (for being a patron)”, I also don’t need them to surf my shoulder while I determine what to tip them. Lately, I stop writing and ask them to get me another drink, box, etc.

Rant over.

still what’s with the Canadian reference? Are they known to be really good or bad tippers?

 

[jdkaeser]

The stereotype is that Canadians are cheap! My old CEO was Canadian and he lived up to that stereotype! He was Scottish Canadian which might be part of it. The French variety maybe different.

 

[adrianp89]

Yeah Canadiens as well as some other groups are notoriously difficult and horrible tippers (at least here in FL).

The laws in California greatly differ. Servers here are in the $7/hr range. (Was $4 not too long ago) Door dash is by delivery, I think $4-5 per delivery. With traffic and current wait times around here. I don’t see how you could pull off more than 3-4 deliveries an hour at best.

Either way tipping is part of eating out in this country. The laws are set up this way and companies pay this way. If you can’t afford to tip then eat at home.

 

[Julian]

I was tipping more soon at first after places opened up and up until just a few months ago but have gone back to my previous practice of starting at 15% and adding or subtracting in 5% increments from there (as low as 5% or what ever the coin / rounding change to the nearest dollar is and as high as 30%). I don’t ding them for slow service unless the food comes out cold, since getting my food and delivering it to me hot is part of their job in my opinion but things like not refilling my drink or more importantly my wife’s, I give one freebie on then the tip starts taking hits.
my son said he noticed this about his tips generally, that is tips were bigger earlier in the pandemic/sympathy tips he called them, now people are getting tighter with their tipping practices.

speaking from the perspective of one who does not own or know anyone close that owns a food service business, and never having a job that I could earn/get tips on, I have no empathy or sympathy for food servers when it comes to tips, especially living in CA where the minimum wage is the same for tipped and non tipped workers. Almost everyone has parts of their jobs they don’t like but in my opinion if anyone, doesn’t have to be a food service worker, feels they are not paid enough at their current job they should find another job.

Easier said than done some might say but is it? I told that to my son who got sick of working at an icecream shop for $13 an hour, he went out and became a Door dash driver/delivery person averaging about $27 and hour with a high of $55 in Ncal and now occasionally $35 an hour in Scal while in college. Was the job hard to get? no he applied on line, has spoken to but never met a manager in person and was on his first shift within 2 days of applying. Just needed a license since he intended to use a car not by bike, skateboard, whatever. I’ve also seen plenty of help wanted no experience necessary signs as well.

I’m paying for the food and for it to be served to me. If the establishment isn’t making it on their current pricing they should increase it but if / when they do they should not expect their patrons to tip the same way they used to as well as pay a premium for the food, especially if the quality of service or the food has decreased. If enough of my internal customers complained about the service or lack of service I’ve subjected them to, I don’t lose out on tips, I lose my job.

as far as tipping in cash instead of a card so that the server gets more of it or can avoid the taxes on it, again no empathy or sympathy, I get the tax breaks my account says I do and still pay a hefty federal and state income tax bills so I don’t see any reason to treat food servers be differently/better. Plus when it comes right down to it, I’m giving away money that I had to earn they way I want to give it away (cash or card), if they don’t like it I’d Invite them to give the cash back or scratch the tip off my bill but I’d bet the price of the meal no one ever would.

whether I tip or not, when I pay the bill the only thing I expect to hear is “thank you (for being a patron)”, I also don’t need them to surf my shoulder while I determine what to tip them. Lately, I stop writing and ask them to get me another drink, box, etc.

Rant over.

still what’s with the Canadian reference? Are they known to be really good or bad tippers?

I can guarantee that tipped staff get paid less than others (because they get tipped).

Paying cash tips is really only about adding value to them for the server and the owner. Most people are paying electronically these days, so all tips are taxed. If you tip cash it will increase the tip value to the server. I do that for excellent service. I do it at my brother's restaurant because electronic tips cost HIM money right out of his pocket. He probably pays out $2000 in tips from cards per week. That is $60 per week right out of his pocket. $240 a month for nothing. I have heard of some restaurants charging the 3% fee to the server....but not many will go there.

To me its all about rewarding good service.

 

[Ronnie]

My son had a few weird door dash delivery jobs. The oddest being delivering a milk shake to a person living in their car parked at Levi (SF 49er) stadium, he thought he was delivering to a security kiosk, ended up making $15 on the delivery alone plus she gave a few dollars in cash. Door dash pays by an algorithm which accounts for the time it took to make the delivery and distance between origination and destination among other things I’m sure like cost of the meals.

i think that, unless or until tips become mandatory, if you can’t afford to work for discretionary tips don’t work as a food server.

related story, last night I ordered pizza at an Indian casino. When asked for my receipt, I couldn’t find it, ended up being in the tip jar with the tip I left at the counter. Later that night/morning I bought a bottle of pepsi and chips for the ride home, the costs was just under $5, i gave her $10. She didn’t make eye contact with me until I said keep the change, then she was all, “thank you, have a merry Christmas, do you want a straw, how about some napkins, totally fake and late but it’s Christmas and I could tell she is not used to getting tips in her position. Unlike the wait staff at the restaurants nearby. By comparison she works the counter at 7/11. Nobody tips at 7/11 at least not that I’m aware of.

 

[Ronnie]

The stereotype is that Canadians are cheap! My old CEO was Canadian and he lived up to that stereotype! He was Scottish Canadian which might be part of it. The French variety maybe different.

Thanks, I’d never heard that before and am surprised to hear / read it now because my son realized early on while scooping ice cream that some ethnicities tip better than others, in particular “white people” tip better than “East Indians” and he/we generally group Canadians in with “white or Caucasian people”, he worked in a predominantly “white” and affluent community.

when he door dashed here in NCal he would try not to take jobs delivering Indian food for two reasons, he didn’t like the smell of the food (not big on spice) and there was a good chance it would be to an East Indian person who didn’t tip when they placed the order and wouldn’t tip in cash when it was delivered. I didn’t like the logic but he came back at me with, you told me to do things which I think maximize my income dad and so far this is working for me, as he was rearranging his cash tips to better fit in his wallet.

 

[Ronnie]

To me its all about rewarding good service.

I can’t wrap my head around this, I think in part it is because I haven’t had a job that was subject to tipping (when I was a grocery store bagger in high school I was in a union which forbid a excepting tips). In the end the restaurant owner(s) and it’s staff all make money off of me. I’m already paying the price they demand / offer for the food so I don’t feel obligated to tip / pay extra for it as well just because they brought it to me unless I’m there for the service primarily and the food secondarily (think hooters).

 

[adrianp89]

I can’t wrap my head around this, I think in part it is because I haven’t had a job that was subject to tipping (when I was a grocery store bagger in high school I was in a union which forbid a excepting tips). In the end the restaurant owner(s) and it’s staff all make money off of me. I’m already paying the price they demand / offer for the food so I don’t feel obligated to tip / pay extra for it as well just because they brought it to me unless I’m there for the service primarily and the food secondarily (think hooters).

Unless it’s self serve, you are always there for service. You don’t get refill your drinks, you don’t go to the windows, confirm your food is right, and bring the food back to your table, you don’t take all your plates to the back. Hence why you don’t tip at buffets (unless you have a server but then it’s minimal). Like I said before, if you can’t afford or flat out don’t want to tip, don’t eat at these type of restaurants. Plenty of fast casual places to eat.

 

[Julian]

I can’t wrap my head around this, I think in part it is because I haven’t had a job that was subject to tipping (when I was a grocery store bagger in high school I was in a union which forbid a excepting tips). In the end the restaurant owner(s) and it’s staff all make money off of me. I’m already paying the price they demand / offer for the food so I don’t feel obligated to tip / pay extra for it as well just because they brought it to me unless I’m there for the service primarily and the food secondarily (think hooters).

Think of it this way....the restaurant owner only pays servers minimum wage BECAUSE they know they will get tips. The whole point of tips is to drive good service. In Europe, they pay everyone a normal wage as tipping is minimal. So if you don't want to tip and want the server to earn a living wage, you need to go out to eat in Canada or Europe.

The alternative is to get the whole country to stop tipping and for restaurants to raise their prices to put the tip wage into the food price so owners can afford to pay their staff a full wage.

 

[Ronnie]

Think of it this way....the restaurant owner only pays servers minimum wage BECAUSE they know they will get tips. The whole point of tips is to drive good service. In Europe, they pay everyone a normal wage as tipping is minimal. So if you don't want to tip and want the server you own a living wage, you need to go out to eat in Canada or Europe.

The alternative is to get the whole country to stop tipping and for restaurants to raise their prices to put the tip wage into the food price so owners can afford to pay their staff a full wage.

I don’t understand the last sentence Of your first paragraph, is it mis-worded? Should it be “to earn” not “you own”? If so wouldn’t CA be grouped with Canada and Europe because it does not have different wage rates for tipped and non tipped workers?

If the above is true wouldn’t another alternative to the second paragraph be that the rest of the US do away with the tipped wage rates and move to a single wage rate system like CA?

bringing this back to the me level, actually my wife (Sr. Buyer for a high tech mfg. in Silicon Valley), she doesnt I get tipped for providing exceptional service, exceptional service is expected of her all day, everyday and this is reflected in the salary she negotiated. Just like almost everyone else, on those years her annual raise is less than the rate of inflation she takes makes less money / has less buying power. If her performance drops too far for too long she would be out of a job, not just extra money all of it.

On the me level, I’m subject to a fat bonus every year as well as spot awards during the year so those could be considered deferred tips since they are all discretionary like tips and outside of my salary. But i have to pay taxes on all of it, as anyone similarly situated knows Uncle Sam is a greedy MF, more so over bonuses. Why should food service workers or people who get tips be treated any differently? Because they make less money? I think the federal and state governmentaddress that by applying different income taxes brackets depending on adjusted gross income.

last thought, I justify my salary with the fact that i stayed in school / taking the gamble it would pay off with at least one of the goals being earn a “good” salary. I wouldn’t go into a career knowing it doesn’t pay much and probably never will especially if a substantial portion of the income is tip generated. I realize some make think this is an over generalization but but would disagree with that. How many food service worker Are actually forced to work in the food service industry and how many of them have to do so for their entire Careers? Excluding them, my recommendation for the rest, anyone that feels underpaid or just want to make more money is “get a different job”.

 

[adrianp89]

Somehow I just read that as “I went to school to get a good job so I am better than servers”

Serving can be very lucrative. I would imagine high end servers in California can clear 250k. At premium high-end restaurants here they can clear 125k+. Granted these are hard jobs to come by.

 

[Ronnie]

I think you heard my message wrong. I went to school and paid to stay for an extended time / extra letters behind my name to better my chances of earning an above average salary compared to those of food service providers or other occupations requiring less or no college education. There are outliers like bill gates, many pro athletes, actors, singers and many many others that are financially successful even though they didn’t graduate from college and I’m sure there are waiters and waitress that make six figures but generally the higher your education level the higher your pay or at least potential pay whether your a food server or not. there are huge pay differentials between my college educated wife and her non college educated peers who share the same title. This isn’t an exception it the norm.

College educated people aren’t better than less educated people, just better / formally educated but that is what a lot of employers are looking for And without letters like bs, mba, jd, md behind your name many high paying jobs are simply out of reach / applying would be an exercise in futility for the unqualified / non college educated. My mom and elders always told me the above but I didn’t r realize or accept how true it is until just after navy boot camp, o was at McDonald’s on base and realized that I was getting paid a lot less money than the 16 year old that “served” me on just a 40 hour a week basis. Forget about the fact that you are pretty much on call anytime you are not actually on duty. Unless things have changed e1 through e3 are have the lowest pay scales ever, speaking of which I’ve never seen a tip jar out infront of an active military enlisted person but society accepts that as ok.

How ironic that the we are expected to tip people who bring us our food but not people who serve our country and took an oath to protect it with their lives if necessary. What about teachers? I’ve tipped my garbage guy and gardener for years but never a teacher.

 

[Julian]

I don’t understand the last sentence Of your first paragraph, is it mis-worded? Should it be “to earn” not “you own”? If so wouldn’t CA be grouped with Canada and Europe because it does not have different wage rates for tipped and non tipped workers?

If the above is true wouldn’t another alternative to the second paragraph be that the rest of the US do away with the tipped wage rates and move to a single wage rate system like CA?

bringing this back to the me level, actually my wife (Sr. Buyer for a high tech mfg. in Silicon Valley), she doesnt I get tipped for providing exceptional service, exceptional service is expected of her all day, everyday and this is reflected in the salary she negotiated. Just like almost everyone else, on those years her annual raise is less than the rate of inflation she takes makes less money / has less buying power. If her performance drops too far for too long she would be out of a job, not just extra money all of it.

On the me level, I’m subject to a fat bonus every year as well as spot awards during the year so those could be considered deferred tips since they are all discretionary like tips and outside of my salary. But i have to pay taxes on all of it, as anyone similarly situated knows Uncle Sam is a greedy MF, more so over bonuses. Why should food service workers or people who get tips be treated any differently? Because they make less money? I think the federal and state governmentaddress that by applying different income taxes brackets depending on adjusted gross income.

last thought, I justify my salary with the fact that i stayed in school / taking the gamble it would pay off with at least one of the goals being earn a “good” salary. I wouldn’t go into a career knowing it doesn’t pay much and probably never will especially if a substantial portion of the income is tip generated. I realize some make think this is an over generalization but but would disagree with that. How many food service worker Are actually forced to work in the food service industry and how many of them have to do so for their entire Careers? Excluding them, my recommendation for the rest, anyone that feels underpaid or just want to make more money is “get a different job”.

Server in california will be paid minimum wage (not a living wage) because they get tipped. So if you stiff them, then they won't earn a living wage.

Yes....the only alternative is to do away with tipping entirely (won't happen - I have seen some restaurants attempt this by saying "no tipping we pay our staff normal wages" but that is REALLY RARE.

So until any changes occur....no matter where you live in the US....tips are essential to servers.