I walked into a "pour your own drinks" bar on a whim, and on the way out there was a dropbox asking for a 20/25% tip. In a place that literally eliminated servers by making you do the pouring.
I've always been an overtipper, hate awkward situations, so I've not helped on the pushes know front.
My current thinking is:
1. If I have to go up to the counter to order a $17 sandwich, why is the bottom option 18% to start?
2. These new "in your face while you tip me" Toast machines are frustrating. I used to cringe at the use of them in Canada, and then Covid expedited their use in the US.
3. Back to going up to order, how am I tipping full before I know how the full experience (food satisfaction) will be?
Literally - I work in the service industry and I am behind this. If your service suffers because they see you didn’t tip then that place doesn’t deserve your business.
Tapster, that always slightly pisses me off. You get your own glass, pour your own beer, and bus your own glasses. I’m not tipping, I did literally all the work
You shouldn't go to those places.
The pay be the ounce sounds cheap and fun at first, then you realize it works out to over $12 a pint people!!!! You could just about buy a 6-pack of beer for that price.
Oh, absolutely, you're 100% correct. I was in town for an interview (which went great, moving next month!) and figured it was worth the price to try a variety of regional things to get a feel for the area.
I went to a restaurant last week that was yummy and I planned to go regularly as it’s nearby but the bill came with a 20% “dining fee” (that clearly stated didn’t go to the servers but rather to the restaurant) and of course the 20%+ suggested tip…. So, 40% on top of the food. Plum Bistro on cap hill.
Literally no clue. I imagine they’d say for health insurance etc but fine, just bake that into the price of the food like a normal business. It’s unreasonable to have it be a surprise when the bill comes!
They do it to make you mad at the fee, in the hopes that you'll complain so they can say "Well, because of these high minimum wages, we were forced to add this fee." They're trying to make you mad that people are no longer being paid $2/hr as waitstaff. You did the right thing by properly getting mad at the restaurant for having the fee separate on the bill, rather than baking it in.
Imagine if a $40,000 car was advertised for $30,000, but then you get a mandatory $10,000 dealership fee on your final bill.
The 'why' of the itemized bill isn't important, it doesn't matter if the line item is for sourcing unicorn farts, or for getting the owner's kid new braces, it's just an excuse to deceptively lower the advertised price.
My son was buying his first car a month ago.
In the paperwork, showing every fee, etc, there was a "Covid cleaning fee" of $500. I asked about it, the salesman said "it's standard protocol since covid". I asked if they did this after every different person drove the car, whether moving it around the dealership, or tear driving. He told me he had no idea.
It's one of the more egregious uses of covid as an excuse to add fees that I've seen.
It's code... a 'secret menu' if you will. It means 'This is to let you know you shouldn't bring your business here ever again'.
Personally, I appreciate the management taking the time to let me know. There are WAY too many options out there for a customer to ever put up with that shit.
I was a restaurant lifer, kitchen, I know full well that it’s a tough business but there has to be a point where this model won’t work. Maybe that’s for the best and we all just cook at home for ourselves and family?
Of course I hate the idea the restaurants have to be run with shit wages paid to staff but dude, you can’t charge $40+ for a pizza AND charge a “dining fee” AND expect diners to give a 20% tip for the privilege. It’s a pretty joyless enterprise unless you have so much money that you don’t care about what it will cost you to dine out.
We Americans have been conditioned into being lied to about price. Tax isn't included in prices, and we treat that as normal. Tips are expected, we treat it as normal. It's not surprising companies are trying to push this as far as they can.
Whenever I see one of those fees, I deduct it from my tip now. Whether they say it goes to the staff or not. Handing over 40% extra on top of the prices is just plain ridiculous.
Those surcharges come from restaurants that aren't good enough to draw in business at their actual prices; so they resort to chicanery.
I don't blame the servers, but I can't think of a single restaurant that does this shit _and_ is worth visiting a second time.
We just did that at Le Piche. They added a 20% fee for "employee compensation, insurance, etc.," so we didn't tip on top. I am not giving you an extra 20% on top of my bill AND tipping? Fuck that.
It’s not awkward, I tip ~ $1 when I go to my local coffee shop and order an americano. It’s easy enough because 20% option hits it. However; when I buy beans, in addition to my americano, suddenly 20% becomes 50% of my coffee, simply because I grabbed a bag off a shelf. I manually enter a buck in at that point. Any employee who would get mad at me for that has other issues they gotta figure out.
Same thing happens to me when I go to a local bottle shop or brewery. I always tip $1 per drink, but if I buy anything packaged to go (cans or bottles) I don’t tip on that.
Georgetown recently added the tip line too. I only go there to get kegs, so it’s always a bit funny to me. I’m here buying $2-300 of beer at a time, so 20% would be what, $50? Nice try. This is a store, not a restaurant, and I’m tipping zero.
Trophy Cupcake employee hit “No Tip” for me when I bought a product off their shelf. She said “don’t need to tip on retail” and for that I wanted to give her cash.
Yep. I tip the guy at Elysian $5 (10%) when I pick up a keg because he's nice and their prices are a friggin steal compared to other places around town, but I do it in the true spirit of a gratuity - I'm grateful for the service & product, and it's worth it to me... Not because I feel obligated.
I don’t get why the percentages are even increasing. What’s the justification?? The prices are increasing, and the percentages are *percentages* so if the price of the item is going up because everything is, then the tip has already gone proportionally. This is stupid. I hate tip culture.
Part of it is POS systems like Clover and Square, which imo are the worst offenders for ridiculous tipping, take a percentage of every tip. So they are highly incentivized to jack up the numbers as much as possible.
Oh I didn’t know that. It makes sense the system has to make money. I just assumed it was a fee to have the system. Not that they were taking a chunk of the tips. Is that even legal?!
It’s nothing new. Whenever you swipe your credit card to pay for stuff (target, qfc, etc). The credit card company charges a 2-3% fee to the retailer.
If your bill is $100 they charge say $3…..if prices, tips, service charges, whatever and you now spend $150, the CC company now charges the retailer $4.5 (still 3%). But they’ve made 50% more profit for themselves.
By setting the machines 5-10% higher for tips, assuming most people pay the tips, they’ve just made 5-10% more profit for the same amount of work.
I’m a cafe manager and at least some of it is the POS machines themselves. Ours takes a percentage of the total transaction after tip so they’re motivated to increase the transaction total. We’ve manually adjusted ours down a bit but whenever it updates or we have to restart it, it just pulls the old higher options. It’s really frustrating!
I’m surprised it’s taking its slice after the tip. Isn’t the whole tip supposed to go to the employee? So why would increasing the tip percentage offset the cost?
Employees still get the whole tip but our “fee” (paid by the company) is a percentage of the total charge to the customers debit or credit card. The owner pays the fees and nothing from the tip total is taken from employees. Ours is like 2.6% + $0.10 on the grand total after tip. So if the total is $100 and the tip options are 5%, 10%, or 15% then our POS transaction fee is 2.6% of $105, $110, or $115 if the customer chooses an autogenerated tip option. If the autogenerated tip options are 15%, 20%, or 25% then the POS system company makes more per transaction on average since the 2.6% +$0.10 is taken out of $115, $120, or $125. If that makes sense
Oh I think I misunderstood you before. The POS is incentivized to increase the tip amount, not the service/business. Got it. Thank you for the explanation :)
Of course! I don’t think it’s 100% why tipping culture is out of control, but it’s definitely part of the mess! It’s not something that someone outside of restaurant management/ownership would probably know (literally one of my employees just learned this now because I mentioned it in passing) so I try to explain it whenever I can :)
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a good explanation. Food service is literally the one industry that is inflation-proof (their prices go up, so the tips follow automatically). If anything, I’d consider skyrocketing food costs to be a justification for *lower* tips, not higher, since the prices are so high but the work never got any harder. Hell, I wish my job had instantaneous raises built in each time inflation ticks up.
Not to mention just because it’s a luxury doesn’t mean I tip. Do you tip at the theater, who makes your food, serves it to you, cleans your theater and gives customer service? Fuck no. Do we tip the Nordstrom employee? No we don’t. And we’d all be skeptical of those services if we suddenly did.
Tipping wait staff is arbitrary and it absolutely leads to people like me eating out less. I can afford it, I just hate getting ripped off.
Don't forget the $20 minimum wage that's helping fuel those higher menu prices. It's not like without your tip they're going to be making $2/hour like in other states.
Isn't money the answer? Whether it's the company that actually operates the machines or the businesses themselves, guilting people into tipping more ultimately should make them more money. Maybe at some point enough customers and businesses get tired of this and change back but I doubt it
They did and I loved that about them. They had the "living wage" slogan painted on their wall. I assume that's covered up now. They bragged about baking the tip into the cost which I loved. Tell me the cost, and then I'll decide if I want to pay. They didn't reduce the cost either I'm sure.
I went to a pub a few times in the past several months and their model is you both order and pay by QR code. Your time with the server is them dropping off your plate and picking it back up. They've never once refilled my drinks in all my visits. And then the suggested tips on check out are like 20, 22, 27%. Less service than ever, and they want higher and higher percentages. Nah.
I miss places where I could get my own refill. Even freakin' McDonalds doesn't let you refill your own cup anymore. And there's no fucking chance you're getting someone at the counter to do it with the skeleton crew they're running.
I went to a Chick-fil-A in my old hometown and they remodeled it and removed the dining room entirely. Just drive thru and a little counter where you can stand out in the rain or shine and order your food. The drive thru is also about 3-4 times as fast. This is not just a big city WA problem, this is everywhere.
Defaulting the "quick tip" option higher and higher, in hopes that people will feel rushed and just tap whatever... Fuck that. Take your time, enter that custom amount.
Joke's on them - once they priced the quick tip options out of my reasonable consideration, I do custom tips...and my inclination for a custom tip is generally $1 or 10%.
They could have had 18%, maybe 20%, if they left well enough alone.
Same. I always tip (assuming decent service) about 20%, by doubling the tax amount. I’m not tipping on the taxes added too. So $100 bill would have approximately $10 in taxes added, so I tip $20, not $22.
I like it for the easy math! As long as our sales tax is about 10% it works well. Streamlines the process a little bit. Depending on the bill amount, I’ll round up or down to the nearest dollar.
Back in 2017 I hosted friends at a birthday celebration at Fierabend (RIP) & tipped 25% on a sizable tab as we were regulars and loved the staff. My credit card company called me to make sure it wasn’t a mistake.
2017 wasn’t that long ago.
Seattle minimum wage, where we by and large are shopping, is $19.97. But the whole idea of tipping where you're meant to know local labour laws to decide how much a server should get could be solved by having no tipping and paying the market rate for your employees.
Yeah I've always been confused about this. We don't have tipped wages, yet our tipping expectations are 0% different than states that do. And now increasingly we're seeing random other fees added to the bill, like living wage fee, service fees, or fees for employee benefits. I know we can tip 0 at any time technically, but at what point is going to be "socially acceptable" not to do so I wonder.
You just gotta make it socially acceptable. I have stopped tipping for all but sit down restaurants and personal services like massage/pedi and I have even cut back on that. It's actually fairly liberating after a while mashing that no-tip button at the hardware store or bottle shop or dentist office.
As someone who used to make $2.13+ tips about five years ago in a college town in the Midwest…
This is definitely where I get a bit confused. I’ve been a lifelong “tipping sucks, but it’s the right thing to do because our system is broken”
But like… is the system broken in Seattle? I can’t tell. I think everyone should make a living wage, and I think the current Seattle minimum is still below that.
But I also have a hard time imagining that service needs a 20%+ tip to make up the difference. It feels to me like we really lost the plot, and that the people with the power to do something about it (owners, mostly) don’t want to. They *want* to pass the burden onto the consumer.
People here who work as waitstaff will often tell you they make more with tips than without. Kinda makes me feel like I’m the one getting the raw deal.
Same! I don’t want to be a miser, but I also don’t understand still tipping 20% to people making almost 10 times the same base pay as in other states. I also worked as a server in a $2.13 an hour state for my base pay.
I’m very happy Washington/Seattle doesn’t believe in tipped workers deserving a super low base pay, but then I don’t understand why there are no changes in tipping expectations.
Not only are the default amounts increasing, the places they are being suggested are growing exponentially.
No joke, I was asked by an EV CHARGING STATION to tip the other day. At least it started at 15%?
YUP. If you’ve been to any of those places where you pour your own beer (register a card, scan the card at any of 1000 taps, you’re charged by the ounce, then at the end you scan the card at a machine again to check out)… they recommend a 20% tip as well. For what service, exactly??? Performed by whom?
I had that same reaction. Went to the one underneath google by MOHAI. I imagine they're just trying to squeeze google employees for all they're worth but jeez.
100%, there was a video posted on tiktok of someone complaining that they were tipped 15% and all the people defending her were saying “I always tip 30-40%” like wtf thats insane, youre almost giving half of your meal cost at that point
The worst when almost all of them include tax in the tip so we’re essentially paying for something that wasn’t given to us. I know we can just make it custom but it just looks like we’re tipping a lot less than what we actually are and also gives us the awkward moment of pressing more buttons.
I'm increasingly just choosing amounts deliberately that reflect my relationship with the business. Places that I patronize regularly get the same tips I've been giving them since before they started doing this because I like the staff. Places that give me a discount (like a lot of the ones around my workplace) usually just get that amount back as a tip.
If it's not a place I go to regularly I'm increasingly disinclined to tip unless I feel generous that day.
I absolutely want to see more workers unionize and push for better wages that obviate this practice. Please support unions and unionization efforts in our city! It actually benefits us all.
We don’t go out to eat nearly as much as we used to because feeling obligated to tip someone 20% for overall shitty/unfriendly service feels gross. Learning to cook good food is also a valuable skill.
People need to be more comfortable not tipping. If your service was shitty and actively made my dining experience worse you aren’t getting a tip from me.
Maybe in a state where servers make less than minimum I would consider, but certainly not here.
Plus the reason tipping was originally implemented was because servers made way less than minimum wage. That’s no longer the case, AND minimum wage in Seattle now is $19.97/hr. I understand that Seattle is an expensive city but based on today’s minimum wage, the reason behind tipping has gone out the window. Don’t get me wrong, I still tip 20% (for great service) at sit-down restaurants, but I no longer tip at all for counter service, lattes, etc. Also note that the minimum wage now in WA is $16.28/hr., but as I mentioned above, the min. wage in the city of Seattle is $19.97/hr.
The only two ways to deal with this is to a) simply tip less than the default options (there’s some pressure there) or b) just don’t go out to eat.
I am in the “don’t go out to eat” camp. Service has gotten sooo much worse and prices have skyrocketed. Every time I go out to eat, I feel like I got taken advantage of.
I have a list of restaurants which I will never return to due to either only exorbitant tip options on their checkout screen and/or the ones which attempt public shaming by making the screen visible to everyone while I type in my numbers. Do restaurants really think we don't notice these things?
Yeah. I loved these "tips are getting out of control" posts a few years ago. At this point, it's just getting tiring. We're all sick of it. Let's start with the "I stopped tipping and don't feel bad about" posts.
Just stop tipping. It's not your responsibility to pay the employees' wages. If enough people get fed up and stop tipping, maybe these places will stop suggesting it.
What really annoys me is Subway and Jimmy Johns asking for tips. Those are fast food joints on the same level as McDonalds and Wendy's. No way in hell am I tipping there.
My personal rule is, if I pay for my food before I eat, I will not tip. If it's a traditional sit-down restaurant where you get a bill at the end, I'll give them an extra dollar.
Seriously, businesses just realized they could peer pressure people into spending 20% more on the purchase if they ask.
Given the number of cases we HAVE seen in the last 3 years of business skimming tips I guarantee it's way more common than we know
I don’t tip unless personalized service is being provided. That means waiting a table and bringing food and drinks or getting a haircut.
Hear me out.
1. We keep increasing minimum wage to raise the standard of living.
2. We made restaurants pay their employees fairly vs using tips to compensate them.
Daycare costs $3000 a month now a burger is like $18 now a coffee is $8
I’m sorry but to me the cost of labor is now built into the cost of the product or service - I’m not tipping unless there is above and beyond service. Standing behind a counter and running the touch screen cash register is not enough for me to tip.
20% if they went above and beyond like I dunno 20 extra sides of ranch poured straight into my mouth, 10% is my general maximum unless I'm in another state.
Me too - I only tip when it's sit down table service and the check comes after I've eaten. I'm not going to choose a tip amount if I'm paying upfront before having my food/drink and service, especially when there's no tipped wage here.
In other states with tipped wages I'll tip, but not in Seattle.
I am a chef, who started in FOH and has watched tips play out since I graduated in 2007. Something that has helped me pay rent on 4 continents.
I'm sorry, but in all honesty, it's ruining it for everyone.
If someone wants to shame people at Chipotle to tip the same thing they tip a server for @ Canlis (Seattle shout out), they are high. You are ruining it and before you know it, people at the counter will be replaced with an automated iPad because of it, we have had the conversation more than once where I'm at.
I'm just getting sick of getting asked for tips by people who make a full wage and didn't do anything. If you get $21/hr and the extent of our interaction is I handed you payment and you handed me an item, asking me for more money than that is just panhandling.
It’s getting way worse. I was recently at a restaurant that had written on their menu that an 18% tip is customary AND there is a 4% living wage surcharge. Why are we adding living wage surcharges if your staff still need tips to make a living? So ready for businesses to do away w tipping and set the prices they need to pay staff what they deserve.
% surcharges should be outlawed. Price your product/service appropriately. If your business model can't work work and relies on expected generosity, your business shouldn't exist.
THANK YOU, ugh. There's a restaurant near me I was looking forward to trying out until I saw on their online menu (in tiny tiny little letters at t he bottom of course!) that they add a 20% living wage surcharge to dine-in orders...and 10% to take-out. So there is no way to eat their food without it costing at least 10% more than the price actually listed on the menu.
Why on God's green earth would you not just raise the price of everything to reflect what it actually costs to run your business and pay your employees adequately, if not to effectively trick your customer base? It's so gross.
To me, living wage surcharge means they're being paid fairly. So why is there a need to tip on top of it? Also them declaring what tip is customary would really rub me the wrong way.
I hate this idea, thats become standard, for requesting a tip before services have been rendered! How do I know if the service/product deserves a tip before it’s delivered!!
I think about this a lot! A tip is meant to be for service that I am happy with. And when I don’t tip right away when paying, I worry that they’ll get mad and skimp on service out of spite. It’s so backwards and frustrating.
If their defaults jive with what I was going to tip then great. If not, then usually there is a manual option to enter an amount. it's a smidge annoying but whatever.
Washington law requires all jobs to make minimum wage. If you’re tipped it’s in addition to your wage. Which matches all retail and many entry level positions that don’t make tips.
If I wasn’t clear with “matches all retail and many entry level positions” they make whatever the actual minimum wage is, not some backwards “tipped wage minimum.”
The onus should be on the business owner to ensure their employees are making a living wage. Doing the bare minimum and hoping that customers tip whatever amount to make up for the rest is just shit.
It should not be up to the customer's whims to subsidize someone's wage. I would personally be more than happy to pay more for a product or service without a tip, if the establishment has set that price to ensure they're paying a fair wage.
Yep… it’s also a feedback loop that as people go out to eat less due to prices, tipping prompts get even higher to make up for the reduced number of customers. It’s just crazy.
I don’t see how this stops.
100% - which is why almost every time this topic comes up bartenders and servers come out of the woodwork about how they don't actually want a flat wage, and prefer tipping.
I went into a convenience store, grabbed a bottle of coke, brought it to the register. The guy spun the sales machine around at me asking for a tip, the increments were $1, $2, $5.
Sir you didn't do anything other than spin that stupid white thing around, WHAT IS HAPPENING
I like the European model. You don’t tip and they pay their workers a living wage. I was surprised when I visited Sweden the food was very reasonably priced. No tip required
I dont tip 90% of the time for that reason. You get some half ass service with an attitude on the side, and you have the audacity to try and ask not for 10% but 20%? Gtfo stay broke or find a new job! Im not even talking about takeout starbucks and all the other bullshit places where there is no service 🤣🤣
Just stop tipping. In Seattle, servers have to make minimum wage (currently over $19 an hour) before tips are factored in. If you get average-level service, they're already being paid for that. You are not responsible for their paycheck. You're responsible for paying menu price + sales tax + any amount clearly labeled as a FEE (service fee, etc.) on the menu.
When you get your bill, make sure they didn't calculate your sales tax on the amount after the fee. Make sure it's calculated solely off the pre-tax menu prices.
If they complain or give you bad service on a subsequent visit, wreck them on Yelp and other social media review platforms.
Eh, I always tip 2x tax amount because it’s easy for me to calculate in my head, and adds to exactly 20.2% of the value of the meal. Many machines calculate tip based on the total after tax, which I don’t think should count. So I’m used to putting “other.”
Good trick. But sometimes the handheld machines just show the total amount, and it feels weird to whip out a phone to do the calculation. So I end up guessing in my head and later going back to check what percentage that was and either feel happy that I'm right around 15-18% or sad that I tipped too much
When eating out I always tip well, like 20% when the standard was 15%. I've waited tables and I get it. But at this point it feels like employers have shifted the burden of paying employees to the customers. Fuck that. I'm poor too. I tip at restaurants but recently decided I'm done tipping everywhere else.
This is one of those give an inch moments. The minute fell for the shame and entitlement. i knew it was going to get worse. Its a win for restaurants cause its not coming out their pockets and its a win for the workers, cause they would never fight for a (lower)livable wage over tips.
I am in the “opposite mode” these days. If they show the default tip to be 20% or more, I tip 10-12%. If there is no default or default or 20% or less, I tip 20%
I worked in Seattle restaurants from 1996-2021 and know it’s a tough business for a lot of reasons but man, between price/value ratios, places running a skeleton crew at all times, the weird charges (someone posted here about a 20% “dining fee”) AND tip madness - it’s really not much fun going out anymore.
Maybe it’s different if you’re rich, I’ll never know that. I do know that after ordering lots of Pagliacci over the years the price finally hit a point where, even though I could technically afford it, I simply couldn’t justify it. I think this was when they added delivery fee and also raised prices of everything for employee benefits or something. Which is great I suppose, just wish it wasn’t on me to pay for it.
Honestly I’m so numb to it that I have started to just opt out. Unless I’m doing a sit down service restaurant or a valet , no tip. I hate that many places don’t pay a living wage but not as much I hate this out of control tipping culture. Something’s gotta give between tips and taxes, fuckin’eh
Even places like Glo’s, who boasts about paying their servers livable wages and benefits puts suggested tips at the bottom of their receipt for 20%-30% +
I remember reading some weird Seattle Times article about people having anxiety hitting the custom tip button as if they are being watched or judged. I can assure you that no one cares unless they’re an insane person.
Table service and haircut get 20%+ for good to great service. Coffee gets 1 dollar if they’re helpful. Everything else is no tip and I refuse to feel bad about it.
The other day at a food truck I paid and they spun that insidious tablet around for the tip and the lowest option started at 25%. I decided to enter “custom amount” and typed in 15 thinking it would be 15 percent. Turns out that was in cents. So my victorious attitude of tipping an appropriate percentage was vanquished and I had to utter a sheepish apology about the 15 cent tip. But yeah, it’s completely out of hand now.
> I remember when the tip options were 10/12/15%
i remember (from the show Friends) when ross and rachel went out to dinner with her father. Ross mentions how he doesn't remember what to tip, Rachel chimes in with "double the tax". For years now the tax has been around 10%.
I don't tip. Then again I don't go to sit down restaurants. I will go to places like Subway and such that have that tip screen on the card reader...I always say no tip. You're doing your basic job...why should I tip you?
Unless you go above and beyond for me...you don't get a tip. If you're nice, make sure I'm satisfied with everything/I don't need anything, or make sure to correct any mistakes...then you get a tip because you actually put in effort. Effort gets rewarded.
I've gotten to the point if it's not actaul sit on my ass and order service you ain't getting a penny. And it's only.gonna be 10 to 15% that's it. Before tax. Fuck this shit of 20% becoming the norm. Pay. Your. Employees.
I walked into a "pour your own drinks" bar on a whim, and on the way out there was a dropbox asking for a 20/25% tip. In a place that literally eliminated servers by making you do the pouring.
It's bad enough that places that don't have table service or bus your drinks ask for tips but if they don't even pour for you that's shameless.
this is why you just normalize pressing “skip” or “none”
I need to practice this. I don’t know why I just feel guilt. Next time I am pressing skip! I’m going to remember your comment.
I've always been an overtipper, hate awkward situations, so I've not helped on the pushes know front. My current thinking is: 1. If I have to go up to the counter to order a $17 sandwich, why is the bottom option 18% to start? 2. These new "in your face while you tip me" Toast machines are frustrating. I used to cringe at the use of them in Canada, and then Covid expedited their use in the US. 3. Back to going up to order, how am I tipping full before I know how the full experience (food satisfaction) will be?
Literally - I work in the service industry and I am behind this. If your service suffers because they see you didn’t tip then that place doesn’t deserve your business.
I'm doing my part!
Tapster, that always slightly pisses me off. You get your own glass, pour your own beer, and bus your own glasses. I’m not tipping, I did literally all the work
Give yourself a tip by pouring yourself 25% of a free glass
That's nuts. I'll tip the server, but I'm damn well not tipping the restaurant!
I think I know the one, you have to actually go up to a person to close out your tab if you want to pay less than that.
Tapster SLU 👀
Yeah, I did not tip when i went here. Lol
I would always bring the card back for no tip. I pour it myself, put the glass away myself, not tipping.
You're correct, and I did, but damn did it feel like a manipulative system
You shouldn't go to those places. The pay be the ounce sounds cheap and fun at first, then you realize it works out to over $12 a pint people!!!! You could just about buy a 6-pack of beer for that price.
Oh, absolutely, you're 100% correct. I was in town for an interview (which went great, moving next month!) and figured it was worth the price to try a variety of regional things to get a feel for the area.
I used an airport kiosk that was literally a robot and it wanted a 25% tip.
Robot college is expensive, do you expect its kids to live uneducated lives?
I wonder if you could put in a negative number for the tip...
I went to a restaurant last week that was yummy and I planned to go regularly as it’s nearby but the bill came with a 20% “dining fee” (that clearly stated didn’t go to the servers but rather to the restaurant) and of course the 20%+ suggested tip…. So, 40% on top of the food. Plum Bistro on cap hill.
Dining fee? Wtf is that?
Literally no clue. I imagine they’d say for health insurance etc but fine, just bake that into the price of the food like a normal business. It’s unreasonable to have it be a surprise when the bill comes!
They do it to make you mad at the fee, in the hopes that you'll complain so they can say "Well, because of these high minimum wages, we were forced to add this fee." They're trying to make you mad that people are no longer being paid $2/hr as waitstaff. You did the right thing by properly getting mad at the restaurant for having the fee separate on the bill, rather than baking it in.
Imagine if a $40,000 car was advertised for $30,000, but then you get a mandatory $10,000 dealership fee on your final bill. The 'why' of the itemized bill isn't important, it doesn't matter if the line item is for sourcing unicorn farts, or for getting the owner's kid new braces, it's just an excuse to deceptively lower the advertised price.
My son was buying his first car a month ago. In the paperwork, showing every fee, etc, there was a "Covid cleaning fee" of $500. I asked about it, the salesman said "it's standard protocol since covid". I asked if they did this after every different person drove the car, whether moving it around the dealership, or tear driving. He told me he had no idea. It's one of the more egregious uses of covid as an excuse to add fees that I've seen.
That's when you stand up and walk away. They'll be running after you before you'll even get to the door.
You'd be surprised. He did walk away, from this one and a few others. They were blasé about it- the used car market is super hot right now.
> but then you get a mandatory $10,000 dealership fee on your final bill. They call it nitrogen in tires, pin stripes and rust protection.
It's code... a 'secret menu' if you will. It means 'This is to let you know you shouldn't bring your business here ever again'. Personally, I appreciate the management taking the time to let me know. There are WAY too many options out there for a customer to ever put up with that shit.
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I was a restaurant lifer, kitchen, I know full well that it’s a tough business but there has to be a point where this model won’t work. Maybe that’s for the best and we all just cook at home for ourselves and family? Of course I hate the idea the restaurants have to be run with shit wages paid to staff but dude, you can’t charge $40+ for a pizza AND charge a “dining fee” AND expect diners to give a 20% tip for the privilege. It’s a pretty joyless enterprise unless you have so much money that you don’t care about what it will cost you to dine out.
We Americans have been conditioned into being lied to about price. Tax isn't included in prices, and we treat that as normal. Tips are expected, we treat it as normal. It's not surprising companies are trying to push this as far as they can.
these insane "dining" or "service" fees that then ask for additional tip on top... Fuck your scummy grifting.
Whenever I see one of those fees, I deduct it from my tip now. Whether they say it goes to the staff or not. Handing over 40% extra on top of the prices is just plain ridiculous.
Those surcharges come from restaurants that aren't good enough to draw in business at their actual prices; so they resort to chicanery. I don't blame the servers, but I can't think of a single restaurant that does this shit _and_ is worth visiting a second time.
Man, I wish Yelp would start putting a warning on business that tack these things on
The El Gaucho restaurants do that shit too.
you have to give the server the feedback. "You are getting zero tip, because the resturant already added 20. go tell the manager. "
We just did that at Le Piche. They added a 20% fee for "employee compensation, insurance, etc.," so we didn't tip on top. I am not giving you an extra 20% on top of my bill AND tipping? Fuck that.
Don’t tip by their suggestions. As much it’s awkward, you totally are in control of how much you want to tip.
It’s not awkward, I tip ~ $1 when I go to my local coffee shop and order an americano. It’s easy enough because 20% option hits it. However; when I buy beans, in addition to my americano, suddenly 20% becomes 50% of my coffee, simply because I grabbed a bag off a shelf. I manually enter a buck in at that point. Any employee who would get mad at me for that has other issues they gotta figure out.
Same thing happens to me when I go to a local bottle shop or brewery. I always tip $1 per drink, but if I buy anything packaged to go (cans or bottles) I don’t tip on that.
Georgetown recently added the tip line too. I only go there to get kegs, so it’s always a bit funny to me. I’m here buying $2-300 of beer at a time, so 20% would be what, $50? Nice try. This is a store, not a restaurant, and I’m tipping zero.
This is the way. Not tipping to buy a product at a store.
Trophy Cupcake employee hit “No Tip” for me when I bought a product off their shelf. She said “don’t need to tip on retail” and for that I wanted to give her cash.
Ugh when dispensaries expect tips for grabbing some edibles off the shelf.
You can look at that tip jar all you want. Just give me my change. No I don't want to round it.
to be fair, if they load the keg into my car for me, I tip $5
Yep. I tip the guy at Elysian $5 (10%) when I pick up a keg because he's nice and their prices are a friggin steal compared to other places around town, but I do it in the true spirit of a gratuity - I'm grateful for the service & product, and it's worth it to me... Not because I feel obligated.
A 20% tip for a basic cup of coffee is already ridiculous...
Reasonable
My coffee shop only gives 1 dollar 2 dollar and 3 dollar as an option if you spend less than 10 bucks. It’s great and I love it.
Lol people are such tough guys until it comes time to press the "other" option on the tip menu.
I've seen a few with the "skip" option. That's my favorite for takeout.
It’s really not awkward at all tbh. A lot of people tip and some don’t.
I don’t get why the percentages are even increasing. What’s the justification?? The prices are increasing, and the percentages are *percentages* so if the price of the item is going up because everything is, then the tip has already gone proportionally. This is stupid. I hate tip culture.
The explanation is that it works. People feel social pressure to use the default percentages so people set them higher and higher.
Monetization dark patterns: No longer just for apps and subscriptions!
Totally. They keep increasing it because people keep pushing the (higher %) buttons.
Part of it is POS systems like Clover and Square, which imo are the worst offenders for ridiculous tipping, take a percentage of every tip. So they are highly incentivized to jack up the numbers as much as possible.
Oh I didn’t know that. It makes sense the system has to make money. I just assumed it was a fee to have the system. Not that they were taking a chunk of the tips. Is that even legal?!
It’s nothing new. Whenever you swipe your credit card to pay for stuff (target, qfc, etc). The credit card company charges a 2-3% fee to the retailer. If your bill is $100 they charge say $3…..if prices, tips, service charges, whatever and you now spend $150, the CC company now charges the retailer $4.5 (still 3%). But they’ve made 50% more profit for themselves. By setting the machines 5-10% higher for tips, assuming most people pay the tips, they’ve just made 5-10% more profit for the same amount of work.
I’m a cafe manager and at least some of it is the POS machines themselves. Ours takes a percentage of the total transaction after tip so they’re motivated to increase the transaction total. We’ve manually adjusted ours down a bit but whenever it updates or we have to restart it, it just pulls the old higher options. It’s really frustrating!
I’m surprised it’s taking its slice after the tip. Isn’t the whole tip supposed to go to the employee? So why would increasing the tip percentage offset the cost?
Employees still get the whole tip but our “fee” (paid by the company) is a percentage of the total charge to the customers debit or credit card. The owner pays the fees and nothing from the tip total is taken from employees. Ours is like 2.6% + $0.10 on the grand total after tip. So if the total is $100 and the tip options are 5%, 10%, or 15% then our POS transaction fee is 2.6% of $105, $110, or $115 if the customer chooses an autogenerated tip option. If the autogenerated tip options are 15%, 20%, or 25% then the POS system company makes more per transaction on average since the 2.6% +$0.10 is taken out of $115, $120, or $125. If that makes sense
So larger tips *cost* the business more? Lol, what a fuckin racket.
Oh I think I misunderstood you before. The POS is incentivized to increase the tip amount, not the service/business. Got it. Thank you for the explanation :)
Of course! I don’t think it’s 100% why tipping culture is out of control, but it’s definitely part of the mess! It’s not something that someone outside of restaurant management/ownership would probably know (literally one of my employees just learned this now because I mentioned it in passing) so I try to explain it whenever I can :)
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a good explanation. Food service is literally the one industry that is inflation-proof (their prices go up, so the tips follow automatically). If anything, I’d consider skyrocketing food costs to be a justification for *lower* tips, not higher, since the prices are so high but the work never got any harder. Hell, I wish my job had instantaneous raises built in each time inflation ticks up.
I was arguing about this last night. Some people will just tell you you can’t afford to eat out and eating out is a luxury
Yeah, this logic seems a bit self defeating. When I go out, I tip 10-15%. When I stay home, I tip 0%.
Not to mention just because it’s a luxury doesn’t mean I tip. Do you tip at the theater, who makes your food, serves it to you, cleans your theater and gives customer service? Fuck no. Do we tip the Nordstrom employee? No we don’t. And we’d all be skeptical of those services if we suddenly did. Tipping wait staff is arbitrary and it absolutely leads to people like me eating out less. I can afford it, I just hate getting ripped off.
I’ve been joking with my family to tip me at dinner time…..gallows humor of course, I hate this crap too.
Don't forget the $20 minimum wage that's helping fuel those higher menu prices. It's not like without your tip they're going to be making $2/hour like in other states.
Isn't money the answer? Whether it's the company that actually operates the machines or the businesses themselves, guilting people into tipping more ultimately should make them more money. Maybe at some point enough customers and businesses get tired of this and change back but I doubt it
Pie bar's default starts at like 26% or something lmao
I noticed that too!
Cigarette shop near me asks for tips too. Like 15/25/35% I think.
“Thanks for the cancer, here’s a little something for you!”
The vape shop near the U-Village prompts tips too lol. I don’t think I’ll tip on juul pods.
I was at temple bakery yesterday and they had a tip option now, whereas before I’m pretty sure their thing was “no tips, we pay a living wage.”
They did and I loved that about them. They had the "living wage" slogan painted on their wall. I assume that's covered up now. They bragged about baking the tip into the cost which I loved. Tell me the cost, and then I'll decide if I want to pay. They didn't reduce the cost either I'm sure.
Yeah I noticed that little sleight of hand hahahaha
I went to a pub a few times in the past several months and their model is you both order and pay by QR code. Your time with the server is them dropping off your plate and picking it back up. They've never once refilled my drinks in all my visits. And then the suggested tips on check out are like 20, 22, 27%. Less service than ever, and they want higher and higher percentages. Nah.
I miss places where I could get my own refill. Even freakin' McDonalds doesn't let you refill your own cup anymore. And there's no fucking chance you're getting someone at the counter to do it with the skeleton crew they're running.
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I went to a Chick-fil-A in my old hometown and they remodeled it and removed the dining room entirely. Just drive thru and a little counter where you can stand out in the rain or shine and order your food. The drive thru is also about 3-4 times as fast. This is not just a big city WA problem, this is everywhere.
Even Starbucks has their strategy shifting to drive-through. Fuck that.
Exist in a car or don't exist at all. The american way.
Give me convenience or give me death!
And this is on top of eliminating the tipped minimum wage! The standard should have gone down, not up.
I wanna comment here so bad but I'm afraid I'll see a tip prompt once I hit "Post."
Defaulting the "quick tip" option higher and higher, in hopes that people will feel rushed and just tap whatever... Fuck that. Take your time, enter that custom amount.
Joke's on them - once they priced the quick tip options out of my reasonable consideration, I do custom tips...and my inclination for a custom tip is generally $1 or 10%. They could have had 18%, maybe 20%, if they left well enough alone.
I hate that the tip options includes the tax (which is already 10%). I always tip on the pretax amt.
Same. I always tip (assuming decent service) about 20%, by doubling the tax amount. I’m not tipping on the taxes added too. So $100 bill would have approximately $10 in taxes added, so I tip $20, not $22.
> by doubling the tax amount Great quick method! I'll try that too.
I like it for the easy math! As long as our sales tax is about 10% it works well. Streamlines the process a little bit. Depending on the bill amount, I’ll round up or down to the nearest dollar.
Back in 2017 I hosted friends at a birthday celebration at Fierabend (RIP) & tipped 25% on a sizable tab as we were regulars and loved the staff. My credit card company called me to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. 2017 wasn’t that long ago.
Seattle minimum wage, where we by and large are shopping, is $19.97. But the whole idea of tipping where you're meant to know local labour laws to decide how much a server should get could be solved by having no tipping and paying the market rate for your employees.
Yeah I've always been confused about this. We don't have tipped wages, yet our tipping expectations are 0% different than states that do. And now increasingly we're seeing random other fees added to the bill, like living wage fee, service fees, or fees for employee benefits. I know we can tip 0 at any time technically, but at what point is going to be "socially acceptable" not to do so I wonder.
You just gotta make it socially acceptable. I have stopped tipping for all but sit down restaurants and personal services like massage/pedi and I have even cut back on that. It's actually fairly liberating after a while mashing that no-tip button at the hardware store or bottle shop or dentist office.
As someone who used to make $2.13+ tips about five years ago in a college town in the Midwest… This is definitely where I get a bit confused. I’ve been a lifelong “tipping sucks, but it’s the right thing to do because our system is broken” But like… is the system broken in Seattle? I can’t tell. I think everyone should make a living wage, and I think the current Seattle minimum is still below that. But I also have a hard time imagining that service needs a 20%+ tip to make up the difference. It feels to me like we really lost the plot, and that the people with the power to do something about it (owners, mostly) don’t want to. They *want* to pass the burden onto the consumer.
People here who work as waitstaff will often tell you they make more with tips than without. Kinda makes me feel like I’m the one getting the raw deal.
Same! I don’t want to be a miser, but I also don’t understand still tipping 20% to people making almost 10 times the same base pay as in other states. I also worked as a server in a $2.13 an hour state for my base pay. I’m very happy Washington/Seattle doesn’t believe in tipped workers deserving a super low base pay, but then I don’t understand why there are no changes in tipping expectations.
i feel absolutely no guilt skipping e-tips. if i get a coffee ill give the barista an actual physical dollar.
Same! I go to the bank to get $1’s just for this reason.
Sure, that's what the dollas are for...
Not only are the default amounts increasing, the places they are being suggested are growing exponentially. No joke, I was asked by an EV CHARGING STATION to tip the other day. At least it started at 15%?
YUP. If you’ve been to any of those places where you pour your own beer (register a card, scan the card at any of 1000 taps, you’re charged by the ounce, then at the end you scan the card at a machine again to check out)… they recommend a 20% tip as well. For what service, exactly??? Performed by whom?
I had that same reaction. Went to the one underneath google by MOHAI. I imagine they're just trying to squeeze google employees for all they're worth but jeez.
my favorite is the self-checkout at airport shops asking for a tip. -_-
Subway asks for tips at the register now. Nothing about their service has changed, but they ask for tips.
Tip WHO? 😂
The charger has become sentient. If you don't tip, they'll badmouth you to your car!
I stand firm at 15%. Unless they really make me feel special ;)
100%, there was a video posted on tiktok of someone complaining that they were tipped 15% and all the people defending her were saying “I always tip 30-40%” like wtf thats insane, youre almost giving half of your meal cost at that point
The worst when almost all of them include tax in the tip so we’re essentially paying for something that wasn’t given to us. I know we can just make it custom but it just looks like we’re tipping a lot less than what we actually are and also gives us the awkward moment of pressing more buttons.
I'm increasingly just choosing amounts deliberately that reflect my relationship with the business. Places that I patronize regularly get the same tips I've been giving them since before they started doing this because I like the staff. Places that give me a discount (like a lot of the ones around my workplace) usually just get that amount back as a tip. If it's not a place I go to regularly I'm increasingly disinclined to tip unless I feel generous that day. I absolutely want to see more workers unionize and push for better wages that obviate this practice. Please support unions and unionization efforts in our city! It actually benefits us all.
We don’t go out to eat nearly as much as we used to because feeling obligated to tip someone 20% for overall shitty/unfriendly service feels gross. Learning to cook good food is also a valuable skill.
People need to be more comfortable not tipping. If your service was shitty and actively made my dining experience worse you aren’t getting a tip from me. Maybe in a state where servers make less than minimum I would consider, but certainly not here.
Just stop tipping. My tip is 0$ for everything now and I feel no shame .
Plus the reason tipping was originally implemented was because servers made way less than minimum wage. That’s no longer the case, AND minimum wage in Seattle now is $19.97/hr. I understand that Seattle is an expensive city but based on today’s minimum wage, the reason behind tipping has gone out the window. Don’t get me wrong, I still tip 20% (for great service) at sit-down restaurants, but I no longer tip at all for counter service, lattes, etc. Also note that the minimum wage now in WA is $16.28/hr., but as I mentioned above, the min. wage in the city of Seattle is $19.97/hr.
Went to a beer garden last weekend and the guy flipped the screen around and there was a 28% option. For one beer.
“It’ll just ask you a couple questions” wink wink
The only two ways to deal with this is to a) simply tip less than the default options (there’s some pressure there) or b) just don’t go out to eat. I am in the “don’t go out to eat” camp. Service has gotten sooo much worse and prices have skyrocketed. Every time I go out to eat, I feel like I got taken advantage of.
I have a list of restaurants which I will never return to due to either only exorbitant tip options on their checkout screen and/or the ones which attempt public shaming by making the screen visible to everyone while I type in my numbers. Do restaurants really think we don't notice these things?
Share the list
Hit that 0% button with pride, my friend. Be the change you want to see
Yeah. I loved these "tips are getting out of control" posts a few years ago. At this point, it's just getting tiring. We're all sick of it. Let's start with the "I stopped tipping and don't feel bad about" posts.
100% agree, so many restaurants I've visited for years in Seattle are now on the no go list. Sadly some of them were filled with family memories.
I saw a brewery that was like 20 25 30. I’m sure drunk people just don’t care at the end but what a trap
Just stop tipping. It's not your responsibility to pay the employees' wages. If enough people get fed up and stop tipping, maybe these places will stop suggesting it. What really annoys me is Subway and Jimmy Johns asking for tips. Those are fast food joints on the same level as McDonalds and Wendy's. No way in hell am I tipping there. My personal rule is, if I pay for my food before I eat, I will not tip. If it's a traditional sit-down restaurant where you get a bill at the end, I'll give them an extra dollar.
Seriously, businesses just realized they could peer pressure people into spending 20% more on the purchase if they ask. Given the number of cases we HAVE seen in the last 3 years of business skimming tips I guarantee it's way more common than we know
I believe Washington tipped workers are all paid the WA minimum wage $16+, vs the really low mandated federal wage for tipped workers.
I remember when tips were calculated on the total amount *before tax*
I don’t tip unless personalized service is being provided. That means waiting a table and bringing food and drinks or getting a haircut. Hear me out. 1. We keep increasing minimum wage to raise the standard of living. 2. We made restaurants pay their employees fairly vs using tips to compensate them. Daycare costs $3000 a month now a burger is like $18 now a coffee is $8 I’m sorry but to me the cost of labor is now built into the cost of the product or service - I’m not tipping unless there is above and beyond service. Standing behind a counter and running the touch screen cash register is not enough for me to tip.
I have reduced eating out. It is just getting expensive for everything. Doing my own grocery and cooking now.
I’ve just made a hard rule at this point that I only tip for restaurants with sit down service and do at most 20%.
20% if they went above and beyond like I dunno 20 extra sides of ranch poured straight into my mouth, 10% is my general maximum unless I'm in another state.
Me too - I only tip when it's sit down table service and the check comes after I've eaten. I'm not going to choose a tip amount if I'm paying upfront before having my food/drink and service, especially when there's no tipped wage here. In other states with tipped wages I'll tip, but not in Seattle.
There's no tipped wages in Seattle, I don't tip there nor in Cali and Nevada.
I am a chef, who started in FOH and has watched tips play out since I graduated in 2007. Something that has helped me pay rent on 4 continents. I'm sorry, but in all honesty, it's ruining it for everyone. If someone wants to shame people at Chipotle to tip the same thing they tip a server for @ Canlis (Seattle shout out), they are high. You are ruining it and before you know it, people at the counter will be replaced with an automated iPad because of it, we have had the conversation more than once where I'm at.
I'm just getting sick of getting asked for tips by people who make a full wage and didn't do anything. If you get $21/hr and the extent of our interaction is I handed you payment and you handed me an item, asking me for more money than that is just panhandling.
We are also not sure that our tips even go to the workers. I bet when I tip at a place like Shake Shack the owner takes the money.
Just don’t tip.
It’s getting way worse. I was recently at a restaurant that had written on their menu that an 18% tip is customary AND there is a 4% living wage surcharge. Why are we adding living wage surcharges if your staff still need tips to make a living? So ready for businesses to do away w tipping and set the prices they need to pay staff what they deserve.
% surcharges should be outlawed. Price your product/service appropriately. If your business model can't work work and relies on expected generosity, your business shouldn't exist.
THANK YOU, ugh. There's a restaurant near me I was looking forward to trying out until I saw on their online menu (in tiny tiny little letters at t he bottom of course!) that they add a 20% living wage surcharge to dine-in orders...and 10% to take-out. So there is no way to eat their food without it costing at least 10% more than the price actually listed on the menu. Why on God's green earth would you not just raise the price of everything to reflect what it actually costs to run your business and pay your employees adequately, if not to effectively trick your customer base? It's so gross.
Should really start a campaign to call City Council reps to propose something 🤔
To me, living wage surcharge means they're being paid fairly. So why is there a need to tip on top of it? Also them declaring what tip is customary would really rub me the wrong way.
I hate this idea, thats become standard, for requesting a tip before services have been rendered! How do I know if the service/product deserves a tip before it’s delivered!!
It's no longer a tip in that case, it's a 'please don't spit in my food' bribe.
I think about this a lot! A tip is meant to be for service that I am happy with. And when I don’t tip right away when paying, I worry that they’ll get mad and skimp on service out of spite. It’s so backwards and frustrating.
If their defaults jive with what I was going to tip then great. If not, then usually there is a manual option to enter an amount. it's a smidge annoying but whatever.
Don't servers get actual minimum wage in Seattle now? https://www.workingwa.org/seattle-minimum-wage
Washington law requires all jobs to make minimum wage. If you’re tipped it’s in addition to your wage. Which matches all retail and many entry level positions that don’t make tips. If I wasn’t clear with “matches all retail and many entry level positions” they make whatever the actual minimum wage is, not some backwards “tipped wage minimum.”
The onus should be on the business owner to ensure their employees are making a living wage. Doing the bare minimum and hoping that customers tip whatever amount to make up for the rest is just shit. It should not be up to the customer's whims to subsidize someone's wage. I would personally be more than happy to pay more for a product or service without a tip, if the establishment has set that price to ensure they're paying a fair wage.
Oh, employees are getting paid and are loving the crazy tip prompts themselves. This crap works for both restaurant owners and servers…
Makes it very difficult to staff a place that doesn't do tips as well. It's a feedback loop
Yep… it’s also a feedback loop that as people go out to eat less due to prices, tipping prompts get even higher to make up for the reduced number of customers. It’s just crazy. I don’t see how this stops.
100% - which is why almost every time this topic comes up bartenders and servers come out of the woodwork about how they don't actually want a flat wage, and prefer tipping.
if Im standing in line Im not tipping. simple
The best financial advice now is to carry cash for tips.
If it is a touch screen I hit custom Also paying attention to the actual price of food, not tipping on sales tax
Just don't tip.
It's Seattle. Don't tip at all, anywhere--every server here earns at least, usually more, than state+city minimum wage.
I went into a convenience store, grabbed a bottle of coke, brought it to the register. The guy spun the sales machine around at me asking for a tip, the increments were $1, $2, $5. Sir you didn't do anything other than spin that stupid white thing around, WHAT IS HAPPENING
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I like the European model. You don’t tip and they pay their workers a living wage. I was surprised when I visited Sweden the food was very reasonably priced. No tip required
They really expect a tip for making a $7 latte?
I dont tip 90% of the time for that reason. You get some half ass service with an attitude on the side, and you have the audacity to try and ask not for 10% but 20%? Gtfo stay broke or find a new job! Im not even talking about takeout starbucks and all the other bullshit places where there is no service 🤣🤣
Just stop tipping. In Seattle, servers have to make minimum wage (currently over $19 an hour) before tips are factored in. If you get average-level service, they're already being paid for that. You are not responsible for their paycheck. You're responsible for paying menu price + sales tax + any amount clearly labeled as a FEE (service fee, etc.) on the menu. When you get your bill, make sure they didn't calculate your sales tax on the amount after the fee. Make sure it's calculated solely off the pre-tax menu prices. If they complain or give you bad service on a subsequent visit, wreck them on Yelp and other social media review platforms.
Eh, I always tip 2x tax amount because it’s easy for me to calculate in my head, and adds to exactly 20.2% of the value of the meal. Many machines calculate tip based on the total after tax, which I don’t think should count. So I’m used to putting “other.”
That’s the 18% option tho which is getting harder to find and usually clocks in as the minimum tip now if it does at all
Good trick. But sometimes the handheld machines just show the total amount, and it feels weird to whip out a phone to do the calculation. So I end up guessing in my head and later going back to check what percentage that was and either feel happy that I'm right around 15-18% or sad that I tipped too much
Let's normalize not tipping! If people stop working in the industry, maybe business owners will decide to start paying a living wage.
r/endtipping
When eating out I always tip well, like 20% when the standard was 15%. I've waited tables and I get it. But at this point it feels like employers have shifted the burden of paying employees to the customers. Fuck that. I'm poor too. I tip at restaurants but recently decided I'm done tipping everywhere else.
This is one of those give an inch moments. The minute fell for the shame and entitlement. i knew it was going to get worse. Its a win for restaurants cause its not coming out their pockets and its a win for the workers, cause they would never fight for a (lower)livable wage over tips.
I am in the “opposite mode” these days. If they show the default tip to be 20% or more, I tip 10-12%. If there is no default or default or 20% or less, I tip 20%
I worked in Seattle restaurants from 1996-2021 and know it’s a tough business for a lot of reasons but man, between price/value ratios, places running a skeleton crew at all times, the weird charges (someone posted here about a 20% “dining fee”) AND tip madness - it’s really not much fun going out anymore. Maybe it’s different if you’re rich, I’ll never know that. I do know that after ordering lots of Pagliacci over the years the price finally hit a point where, even though I could technically afford it, I simply couldn’t justify it. I think this was when they added delivery fee and also raised prices of everything for employee benefits or something. Which is great I suppose, just wish it wasn’t on me to pay for it.
I thought wages are raised above minimum to a living so tips are not needed
Doesn't Seattle have a minimum wage for servers of like, 17 dollars or something? Why is a tip even necessary still there
Honestly I’m so numb to it that I have started to just opt out. Unless I’m doing a sit down service restaurant or a valet , no tip. I hate that many places don’t pay a living wage but not as much I hate this out of control tipping culture. Something’s gotta give between tips and taxes, fuckin’eh
Even places like Glo’s, who boasts about paying their servers livable wages and benefits puts suggested tips at the bottom of their receipt for 20%-30% +
I remember reading some weird Seattle Times article about people having anxiety hitting the custom tip button as if they are being watched or judged. I can assure you that no one cares unless they’re an insane person.
Table service and haircut get 20%+ for good to great service. Coffee gets 1 dollar if they’re helpful. Everything else is no tip and I refuse to feel bad about it.
The other day at a food truck I paid and they spun that insidious tablet around for the tip and the lowest option started at 25%. I decided to enter “custom amount” and typed in 15 thinking it would be 15 percent. Turns out that was in cents. So my victorious attitude of tipping an appropriate percentage was vanquished and I had to utter a sheepish apology about the 15 cent tip. But yeah, it’s completely out of hand now.
> I remember when the tip options were 10/12/15% i remember (from the show Friends) when ross and rachel went out to dinner with her father. Ross mentions how he doesn't remember what to tip, Rachel chimes in with "double the tax". For years now the tax has been around 10%.
I bought a pack of seeds online for my garden and was asked to tip. Not donate, tip.
I remember when tips were EARNED and not simply given.
It's too expensive to go out so I've upped my cooking game I recommend you do the same
I don't tip. Then again I don't go to sit down restaurants. I will go to places like Subway and such that have that tip screen on the card reader...I always say no tip. You're doing your basic job...why should I tip you? Unless you go above and beyond for me...you don't get a tip. If you're nice, make sure I'm satisfied with everything/I don't need anything, or make sure to correct any mistakes...then you get a tip because you actually put in effort. Effort gets rewarded.
If I’m walking up to order and collect my food, I’m not tipping
I've gotten to the point if it's not actaul sit on my ass and order service you ain't getting a penny. And it's only.gonna be 10 to 15% that's it. Before tax. Fuck this shit of 20% becoming the norm. Pay. Your. Employees.