How many anti-tippers are former servers?

I do not believe you. Overpaid? Are you out of your fucking mind? I earned every fucking cent of every fucking tip through blood, sweat and tears! GTFOH with this nonsense.

Me.

As a former server, I am critical of service. A good server is a food service professional who has the experience, skill, and knowledge to advise guests on the menu, time the delivery of drinks and food courses to not 1 but several tables, clearing plates, upselling, billing. This attentive quality of service deserves 20% tips. It is challenging work. Bartending is easier. If a bartender takes time to reccomend wine, beer, etc and is pleasantly chatty, then I tip 20%. If I just walk up to the bar, order a wine and walk away, I tip 15%, & that is generous for a 60 second transaction. Buffet "servers" are glorified bussers inmo. They only fill water and clear plates, so that's worth 10%. For take-out and counter service, I don't tip a %, just some spare change.

In my younger days I worked tables, tended bar, and was a barista at various places and times. Tipping was always a way of life for me, but I only ever felt like I earned my coffee tips whilst the rest (food/booze) were just because that’s what people did. A busy night meant more tips because more people. But at the cafe, if I made decent tips it was because I put in the effort to make good coffee by measuring the grind, timing the pour, checking the crema, etc. all while maintaining conversations and getting to know the regulars.

The last few years, watching a cashier flip around a Clover with a 15-30% option for a plate I’m going to have to pick up from the counter myself… I just can’t justify it.

I am. I hate the lying the most. Servers act they it is a super hard job. I really fucking now, I did it as a teeneager with zero issues. And they act like they are barely making it, when myself and my coworkers were taking home double minimum wage more for unskilled work. I hated the job, not because of the customers, but because of the entitled culture. It's like the servers feel the customer should bow down to them and kiss their shoes, as if we weren't there, they couldn't just grab their own food from the window. It was just an unnecessary job. I did it for one summer.

I get a better sense of accomplishment in both retail and warehouse work. Even though the skill sets were about the same.

Yep. Many servers are extremely overpaid. Example. I travel a lot and eat breakfast at the hotel. It is a sit down place with one server. There are like 20 people an hour at least. Breakfast is pretty quick so tables turn fast and they also have a buffet which many people take. Most people tip 18-20$ which end up like around 100 per hour for the 3 breakfast hours. So tell me again that they are all struggling. Btw. Minimum wage for tipped employees in California is 16.

I'm the complete opposite. I tip extremely well because I was a server and know the kind of dickheads I had to deal with on a nightly basis.

I was but back in 2000-2007. Also worked BOH in that time. Currently I work in house cleaning/Carpet cleaning. Im anti tipping because I bust my ass and come home hurting a lot, I don't believe someone carrying a plate from A to B deserves more income then other blue collar jobs that are physically hard and still deal with customers. Also agree it shouldn't be a moral dilemma to pay the servers wage for the customer. Raise your menue price and pay them.

I feel like servers know better than anyone how overpaid we are in many establishments and it makes sense to me that we are against tipping when we leave the industry.

That sentence right there tells me you either were never a server, or served at one of the few places where servers make bank because of tipping

Been in restaurants for 48 years and I can agree with you to a point. Even on the suggested tips it is strictly on a percentage of the total. The number of tables the server has plus the volume of business at that time should be taken into account too.

You pull five 4 tops an hour at $1 per person and you are at $20/hr plus your hourly wage. $1.50/person and at bare minimum, you are pulling $32,35/hr,

I don’t think it should be absolutely ‘no’ tip though unless it truly was bad service. Being in kitchens, I have some respect for servers though. I’d be loosing my job dealing with some of these customers. And my tipping can go from $0.00 to 35%. It is strictly based on the type of service I get. (The upper end is more for more intimate times and not like a quick lunch)

So … did you hand the tip back and say “no thank you, that’s not necessary”? Or did you keep the money and pay some bills?

Yeah, some fine dining and bartending jobs pay really well. Others make under $40-50K a year including tips. It’s not just “fun money”, it’s bill money, with not much left after paying bills. These are working class folks. You’re not hurting anyone but them when you don’t tip. Totally tip on service. Don’t tip 20+% for bad service.

And 80% of restaurants go out of business in their first 5 years. Yeah, I guess they could pay their employees more and go out of business in 2 or 3 years …

I tip 20% IF the service is good. If we have to wait for refills forever, etc. My pet peeve with a sever is everyone gets their food, and you ask for ketchup for the 4 kids I have that have fries and the end up eating them because the server keeps forgetting it. That's when I get pissed.

All these anti-tipping remarks are easily dealt with by going to restaurants with no tipping policies. They exist. Go.

Former carhop, busser, and server. Anti-tipping.

Really, it both shifts the burden and expectation of paying servers from the employer onto the customer, and also creates unnecessary tension between the customers and servers, because the server gets upset with the customer for not tipping enough, when, really, they should be upset with the employer/restaurant for not paying them enough. And then the customer, instead of getting transparent menu pricing, gets mislead by a bait and switch, where they're lured in by artificially low menu prices, but then expected to pay more on top of that, and are even shamed for paying insufficiently more.

It also introduces math and math errors, where a customer gets a subtotal, speficies a tip amount, and then does incorrect addition for the grand total, putting the server in an awkward position of having to either abide by the total and often get a lower tip than intended, or put the correct tip and then risk an angry customer returning who complains they were charged a different amount than they specified. Not to mention how many people are bad at calculating percentages.

And there's the issue of theft. Cash tips can get stolen by other customers, other staff, etc. Credit tips can get stolen by the restaurant, and, in addition to dealing with math errors, there can also be alterations by servers, changing or adding digits to the tip and/or total to increase their tip, thereby stealing from the customer. One of the places I served, another server was fired for altering credit payments to increase her tips.

And then, it has all kinds of tax implications. Servers underpay their taxes, tax bases are distorted, etc.

But the worst aspect of it, in my mind, is it worsens discrimination, and even harassment.

If servers were just paid whatever rate directly by the restaurant, they'd all get paid the same amount. Maybe there would be steps for being more experienced, but they'd generally all get the same pay. It would be illegal pay discrimination to pay men and women differently, to pay comely women more than homely women, and to pay white women more than black women.

But, with tipping, women get paid more than men, attractive women get paid more than unattractive women, white women get paid more than black women, and, as an additional tension between customers and servers (beyond just an understanding the menu prices are practically a lie, and there's an expectation of paying a stealth fee while claiming it's optional), it also enables sexual harassment by customers, from inappropriate comments to groping and worse.

Tipping culture can put the server in a position of having to choose between grinning and bearing it, and hoping the tip makes it worthwhile, or standing up for themselves, whether directly to the customer, or via management, and then likely getting stiffed either way (at least if management confronts the customer). Sometimes, management will just tell servers to suck it up, to grin and bear it, because management is unwilling to scold or throw out a paying customer for fear of losing repeat business from repeat offenders.

Servers should never be put in a position of having to decide between enduring sexual harassment or being paid more generously, and if the employer were forced to pay them their full wage, directly, while it wouldn't eliminate harassment, it would eliminate the choice between tolerating it or making money, because their pay would be the same whether they bit their tongue or told off the offending customer. It would also make it easier to push the responsibility onto management, to require them to protect the servers from sexual harassment and assault, racial harassment, etc.

I'm against the entire idea of tipping, beyond truly optional gratuities that are neither expected nor used to justify reducing their hourly pay, but the fact that it enables pay discrimination and sexual harassment by making it a discretionary payment by the customer, rather than a mandatory payment by the employer, is the worst aspect of it.

The fact people are shamed for tipping insufficiently, or not tipping at all, makes it seem like tipping is not, in fact, optional, that it's mandatory, and if it's mandatory, and there's an expected rate of tipping, then it should just be incorporated into menu prices and paid to servers in the form of higher wages. Just raise menu prices 15% (or however much) across the board, do away with the expectation of tipping, do away with paying tipped employees less than minimum wage, do away with the tip credit, do away with the pay disparities for genders, races, and attractiveness, and play it out. If a restaurateur can't make the economics of the restaurant work under those conditions, then we, as a society, just don't need that restaurant. Nobody is entitled to operate a restaurant just because it's always been their dream, or because they like seeming like a big shot and comping their friends and family.

All of this, and more, is avoided by just directly paying servers more, adjusting menu prices as needed, and eliminating any expectation of tipping.

Only tangentially related, but I'd also add that menu prices should incorpate sales tax. It should be WYSIWYG: what you see is what you get. If a menu says item is $10, customers should be able to order that item and walk out the door paying $10, all-in. It should account for the ingredients, overhead, labor, preparation, capital, tax, everything. The only things that should be extra are substitutions/additions, and flat fees (eg, cork fee, plate-share fee, delivery fee, etc).

Where did you work, for how long, and when?

Vote for Trump he promises no tax on tips

What quality of service will you get when no one tips? I was tipped waitstaff, and yes made great money. That j.o.b. with zero tips? No thanks.

This sub just makes me angry. Dont want to tip? Fine. Takeout. PROBLEM SOLVED!

Say it with me, folks: CUSTOMERS ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING PROPER SERVER/STAFF WAGES.

Tipping to make up a person’s wages is just another form of employers committing WAGE THEFT.

Nothing will change my mind of this.

Nothing.

And I have worked as wait staff getting tips in the past. I don’t do business with any company that expects me to tip. At all.

I believe tipping is right and proper for good service. But i think servers should be paid at least standard minimum wage by the employer (nothing to do with the tip at all) and perhaps tips revert to a standard of 15% rather than 20% which would be less antagonistic to certain customers.

I'm not anti tip, just don't think people should be tipping their own hourly wage to a server for less than 10 mins of interaction. Every server wants to complain, they had to make coffee, roll silverware, carry a jar. Did I use all that silverware you rolled? I didnt even order coffee. Why would I tip you for making coffee? You carried a jar up stairs. It took you 2 mins, and it covers 100 sides. So say the side is $3 each that jar was valued at $300. They want $45 to carry that jar up stairs? You handle multiple tables, but they want an hourly wage from each table.

Just imagine if we turn them into hourly workers. How many in America would stay in the industry if they were just flat rate like the rest of the world with a 14/hr wage and diminish tipping. They would complain they don't make enough, but don't realize the people they serve are in the same boat doing much harder work.

To me delivery is a greater tip. Sure its 1 min of interaction, but they got in a car and drove from the store to my house to deliver. They didn't walk 30 steps to put in on the table.

It's gotten so bad, that places now have kiosks at the table. So I sit down, then use a kiosk to order. The server brings out the food and that's all my interaction, but they expect me to pay $15 as a tip. I would have gladly got up and got my own food to bring in back to my table to eat. That's not worth $15 of service that they want to get mad about. I wouldn't be upset if stores just dropped servers all together.

I’m anti-capitalist, but still have a job to earn money.

I hope anti-tippers are the same in that they hate tipping, but still do because that’s how food service workers are paid.

You're probably right. I imagine most servers are pro-tipping, mostly because I think everyone doubts that owners would pay a good wage. Let's be honest, some states are literally paying their servers as little as possible and letting them earn tips to cover the minimum before they earn more.

It seems odd that you'd be all for the system and enjoy the perks of it, and suddenly turn your back on it so quickly. I could see you maybe being neutral to it now that you've left it, but to be fully anti-tip is pretty strange almost hypocritical.

The bar I work at, we have 4 bartenders who all legit make 100k+ working 3 days a week. It’s astonishing. They make $750 a day and complain about it. The servers are the same but a little less.

Former industry worker here, against tipping.

I understand this whole anti tipping thing when it comes to stupid things like tipping a mechanic who gave you an oil change, Or tipping the construction crew who just did a paver job at your house. I will not tip anyone who just potentially screwed me over with the price they charged me or the work they just did.. But what’s the big deal about tipping a server?

To all the anti tippers.. If you had a dinner party at a restaurant with 15/20/30 people.. Would you seriously stiff the waiter/waitress and not tip them anything? If so then you’re just a POS.

I am absolutely against a server treating a customer differently/poorly for not tipping or not tipping enough. That’s just professionalism. But as a customer.. What’s the big deal? If your server was great and went out of their way to make you feel at home and comfortable then why not tip them and make their day better?

Everybody saying “I mAkE tHiS mUcH mOnEy ThErEfOrE oP iS wRoNg”

That’s called ✨ anecdotal ✨

Some of the people with the most money, most flexibility & generally happiest demeanor i know have been servers. Making $150-$300 on a single Saturday night, cash in hand, oh you poor thing!

Get over it. I work in sales, people who I don’t make a dime off of waste my fuckin time every single day. I don’t get on Reddit & bitch about it, because I chose this job & can switch careers if I get sick of it.

But if no one tipped how would you be overpaid?

Hey if you're ok with $2.13 an hour, that's fine by me.

I feel like servers know better than anyone how overpaid we are in many establishments and it makes sense to me that we are against tipping when we leave the industry.

Wait, what? This makes me think this is a shitpost. I'm not here to comment on tipping culture in general, it's not a black and white topic. But I never and I mean NEVER felt like I was "overpaid." Service industry people have to eat a lot of shit and take a lot of abuse. Again, not here to comment on the fairness of tipping, who gets tipped and who doesn't, etc., that's a loaded conversation - but overpaid? No.

It’s wild that you know how much these people get paid an hour and you still decide to not tip. If you think disagreeing with someone getting paid 5 bucks an hour and relying on tips gives you an excuse to screw them out of part of their paycheck, you are clearly self absorbed, and creating narratives to try to distract yourself from how you treat other people badly. You wouldn’t like it if part of your pay wasn’t given to you, but you don’t care if others don’t like when their pay isn’t given to them. Disagree with tipping all you want, you’re still screwing people over if you choose not to participate and you really don’t have any reason to complain when people think you’re not very nice for it

Important? Lolololol. You pass the butter.

I grew up in a time when tipping was a reward for good service. I still have that same mentality.

I’m a former server and bartender and made lots of money doing it. I’m not completely anti tipping. I just think a percentage system is crazy and it should be something you do to be nice bc they did a great job giving you a pleasant time. Most servers suck at their job and don’t deserve a tip most the time tbh. Every place I worked, maybe 10 percent of them were good and cared for the customer. Most just complained about tips if they were under 20 percent. Most can’t even do the job correctly. I also never complained about the bad tippers. What’s funny, when I got the bad tippers I usually got a decent tip. They tipped me bc I was excellent at my job and never expected a tip. I also went out of my way each week to pay the bill of one of the customers I waited on and told them it was on the house. I felt guilty for the amount of money ppl gave me. It’s crazy to make a few hundred cash on top of a wage.

How much a server makes entirely depends on where they work.

Also, “overpaid” is a weird concept. Setting aside actual economic theories and premises, whether or not someone is “overpaid” generally has to do with subjective beliefs about what someone should be paid. Those beliefs are entirely based on the observer’s subjective opinion of that job. You subjectively do not think people who work that job should be paid more than a certain amount. It boils down to this:

”I personally don’t like that X profession makes Y amount. The sources of my disapproval are my personal preferences, beliefs, values, and morals that are based in Z. Because of my personal preferences for Z, I declare that X profession is overpaid.”

Could 2 adults working for an employer for 40 hours a week raise their 2 kids on that pay? No? Well then they’re underpaid. Yes? Then they’re paid adequately. And even that is still a subjective belief about personal values.

bar tender here. I've always been against the idea of tipping even when I worked in the field. Saw too many times when people simply didn't get enough tips to make a livable wage for the week. Don't get me wrong I'm a very generous tipper when I do because of my experience, but I would prefer that congress make the practice illegal and force businesses to simply raise prices and pay for the costs of staff themselves.

Bar back, but was still a tipped position, my tips just came from shot girls, bartenders and waitresses. It’s part of the reason I won’t do this 30% tip nonsense. I tip, but 15-18%. For how much I’ve heard tipped positions complain about getting stiffed, they sure do love stiffing the guy that keeps them stocked, one bartender in particular was known for tipping $1 for a whole night and getting mad when he didn’t get tipped 25%

The range of skill amongst servers is quite expansive.

I've never met a decent server who had an easy job.

I was a server in the early 90's. We made the same minimum wage ($4.25) as all other minimum wage workers in our state. They still do and it's around $15/hr now. I get tipping when the state they are in has a lesser tipped wage, but not here.

20 years ago when I was a server. 15% was very appreciated, 20% was great, 25% was amazing, 30% made my night.

Suggesting 20, 25, 30% on the bill for food service is taking it too far. Don’t even get me going on expecting more than change for a tip at a coffee shop when they’re getting minimum wage.

I’m not completely against tipping but the expectation of tipping is a major turn off.

Wayyy back in 98-2000 I was living in Las Vegas, I worked as a slot tech, our company serviced machines in different locations like bars, gas stations and some grocery stores. Nightly I carried around $15,000 dollars in bills and another $5,000 in coins. The cash was for paying jackpots, one night I walked into a bar, a young g collage age woman had won a $1,000 jackpot, her first and as I approached her I heard her ask the bartender what she should tip me. Now we don’t ask for tips but yeah we hope to get one. But this night the bartender gave her different amounts with the last one being a dollar, I told the winner what ever you tip me you have to tip the bartender the same. He shut up and walked away.

Some of our location were known for the bartenders keeping our tips if the player had to leave.

We were basically a rolling ATM, I was lucky never got robbed, a few of our guys were, even our company was featured on one of those crime shows for getting robbed in the early to mid 90’s. So yeah every night I had to have my head on a swivel. Yes we had a safe in our van for the cash but not the coins. When leaving the establishment we stood at the door looking around our van to see that it was safe, yes we asked for escorts in the bad parts of town.

But I did have Art Bell riding shotgun every night.

I have a strong but mixed feeling about about tipping in America. If you go to a bar or a sit down restaurant, you should tip 20% if your service was good. Any other businesses that have that added tip, including Starbucks can just suck it. America bartenders and servers are paid 2 to 3 dollars an hour. if you don’t tip your servers and bartenders, do not go to those establishments.

Your comment reminded me of a lady who quit being a stylist after 5 years because she realized she made more money as a server. She was making what she made a day as a server - a week as a stylist.

I worked as a bar tender for 2 years. In the weekends I was responsible for taking orders at the tables also, because for brunch we only had one server on staff until 1pm, so I waited tables also effectively. I am anti the tipping system. It’s horrible.

I have worked a few places where tips were socially "expected". I never, ever, considered it mandatory. I was excited when I got a big tip, and disappointed when I got no tip..but not that damn disappointed. I do not tip mad amounts like people often proclaim as standard here. Generally $5 is the maximum, for great service..and not everyone gets $5 I can tell you. Today, I'd be excited about $5. If they're not, I wish they'd tell me so I could reduce it.

I absolutely do not tip services that are not wage adjusted for tips (IE: hairdresser/barber oil change service writer etc) and can't guess why anyone would, unless provided with some kind of over and above service.

That said, tips that aren't voluntary are mandatory, and as such, aren't tips, they're a "fee". There should be a law that any fees which will be snuck in at the end must be prominently displayed on a sign visible before you are offered service, so you can choose not to receive that service

You’re a psycho… psycho.

I sarved for 4 yrs at olive garden when I was young and it was by far the easiest job I ever had and I made at least 100 dollars a night usually more sometimes alot more. I work in a machine shop now and it's 117 degrees, loud, dirty oil all over me, didi I say hot, 10 to 12 hrs a day and I have to be there at 4:30 am and I make around 150 a day. I think most servers have it made. They get paid way more an hr than I do because they only work 4 or 5 hrs a day. I wish a server would come work In shop just 1 day and they probably wouldn't complain so much about walking food to a table and making bank for it. Jus my honest opinion

Not a server, but I was a line cook. I'm actually fine with ripping because it incentives good service. I like having the power to adjust how much I pay based on my experience.

However, I would appreciate knowing who to tip. You see people at cash registers requesting tips, or hostesses. I have no idea who's making < min wage. I want to make sure those are the folks in tipping.

For that reason, I tend to only tip the person who waits on me and does a good job. I ignore the rest.

Barman here and an anti tipping.

I'm also not American, though.

Whenever I see places that attract Americans I usually always see businesses take advantage of it, like adding service charges that don't legally have to be given to staff.

The worst are room service charges. They weren't even a thing in Ireland fifteen years ago, but because businesses saw how willing Americans were with paying more than the required price, hotels started adding them.

So I'm not a server so idk if my opinion counts but on my last job I was working with servers at a fancy hotel. Not only did they earn more than the rest of us and had benefits but they automatically included a gratuity charge on each bill and sometimes people still added an extra tip. Granted they did have to share it with the rest of the crew but they got the most of it and we live in a state where the minimum wage is in the double digits so i think for my state tipping should not be mandatory or even expected. Saying that I know there are other states that pay so little that people need tips in order to survive. So for those states I think tipping is fine the better solution though would be to pass laws to help the working man or for the restaurant to pay more. It's easier said than done but those are my two cents.

Overall I say no to the tip system especially now that everything is asking you to tip even the self checkout aisle. What people need to do is fight for better wages (I know, easier said than done). Still sometimes I do feel bad for not tipping so I tip when I can even if it is just a small amount.

Even with tips at $17 an hour we struggle to find servers. I think we will see the end of sit down service over the next decade if things continue on as is.

anti-tippers will never make sense to me. we are overpaid.. bc we make tips from everyone else that we rely on.. so you don’t wanna tip us..? cuz we make enough. okay cool.

but let’s say everyone stopped tipping and they paid us a “livable wage” I wouldn’t serve for an hourly wage and no other server would. it’s not worth it and I would rather do something way easier. also service would not be as good and then yall would start complaining about that.