Restaurant Tipping Hints for the American Public

A Harsh Economy Causes Citizenry to Abuse Servers

Sep 11, 2009

In these times of economic woe, America continues to eat out of the home. A scurge of inconsiderate tipping, however, has developed and become a grim status quo.

Most people enjoy eating-out. Plenty of television shows, magazines, and books revolve around the dining experience. Consequently, the general American’s defenselessness to marketing and advertising combined with his or her gluttonous laziness adds up to millions frequenting restaurants nationwide. Though these hordes of consumers have mastered the fine art of shoveling food into their faces, they have yet to learn one of the basic social responsibilities inherent in the restaurant business, tipping.

Basic Tipping 101

A perceptive waitress once said that “if you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat-out.” Diners should consider these words before they set out into their local eatery. The fact is that restaurants could not exist and thrive without paying servers basically nothing. Servers usually make a wage of two to three dollars an hour, so their livelihoods depend on tips.

While some tipping methods are frowned upon, others are simply insulting. Tipping a single dollar per person is simply not conscientious. Standard service requires decent gratuity. A tiny stack of change does not constitute such. Please refrain from leaving pennies. And why not just round the tip up when leaving, say $2.69? Otherwise customers leave servers disgruntled and jaded, wondering, “Really? Was it not even worth it to them to leave an extra thirty-one cents for a measly, three dollar tip?”

As for non-tippers, those who "stiff" their servers, penal law should concede upon them the use of cruel and unusual punishment, for they are the beyond the scope of sympathy.

Family Tipping

Tipping is a form of respect, a basic custom, rooted in dignity and community. Therefore, tipping and family values share much in common. Both are social imperatives.

Families, especially those with large groups of small, loud, and destructive children, should consider what goes into their accommodation. Though people enjoy the sight of sleeping babies, they hate the sound of them screaming. Generally speaking, when a child is being an unruly nuisance, the entire surrounding section has a sullied dining experience, and tips all around drop.

Additionally, large families with many children tend to leave in their wake a mass of filth and slop unimaginable. Substantial amounts of food on the floor, crushed and ground into crumbs, sugar packets strewn about, and salt and pepper dumped around, this and more they callously leave behind while they set aside a three dollar tip, which does not seem so bad to the parents because the bill was small. Everyone was allowed only water, the kids meals were cheap, and the parents shared a meal. The bill was low, and they need to save money for the family, regardless of the server, slaving away for their relentless demands and a few crummy, crumbled bucks.

Tipping Hints for the Elderly

Everyone understands that many elderly people are on a fixed-income budget. This fact does not alter anything for them in regards to tipping. Everyone is on a budget, especially servers, so the common status of the elderly surely does not exempt them from proper tipping (customarily 15-20% of the bill upon standard service).

Older folks, please do not leave the standard tip from 1954. And please do not leave religious pamphlets or coupons. Grandparents should tip good servers the way they would like their grandchildren tipped. And if their budget simply does not allow for respectable tipping, then stay at home, save some money, and eat mayonnaise sandwiches by candlelight.

Tipping Concluded

In summary, individuals have an ethical duty to return standard service with reasonable tips, in the generous, socially acceptable sense. Frugal, penny-pinchers, though economic, typically leave what is considered the lowest of “reasonable” tips. This is not reasonable. It is simply irritating and promotes general ill will.

Indeed, if there is any justice in the afterlife, tippers beware. If there is karma, then bad tippers might likely return as feral, diseased felines in a Chinese restaurant back-alley. Or if there be hell, then for them there is an especially vicious section, partitioned, full of flesh-eating maggots, pitchforks, and pain indescribable.

The copyright of the article Restaurant Tipping Hints for the American Public in Culinary Travel is owned by William Padgett. Permission to republish Restaurant Tipping Hints for the American Public in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.