tipping

[Silver Dollar]

I still disagree with the concept of tipping. Of course the wages for a waitress are diabolically low...they are anywhere. I don't want to come across as rude or patronising...but it is WAITING on tables...it IS the lower end of the pay spectrum, like people who work in factorys or pick tomatoes/oranges for a living. Why do people deliberately become waitresses? NOT for the low wages but because of the anticipated tips! So therefore they are not earning $3.50 per hour...that is what their employers are paying them. Add up the tips from several tables per hour and their wages are significantly higher so stop snivelling!! English people aren't tight, but in Europe we expect a higher level of service simply because you are paid to do so. I prefer our attitude that if you are over and above 'the norm' we will recognize this with monetary appreciation. I really don't think that a Denny's server IS over and above 'the norm'. It's a standard service for a standard meal - the equivalent of our 'greasy spoon' - it's not a high class restaurant or anything.

As for tipping a bartender....no I'm sorry this is where I draw the line. Call me tight, I'm tough skinned enough to take it, I don't care. I refuse point blank to tip a guy a dollar for a small budweiser costing me between $4-6. That's way over and above the cost of a budweiser anyway...even HERE! Passing me the beer and flipping the lid for something I already paid way over the odds for is NOT a service worth tipping. We'd never consider it in England and our bartenders and waitresses are badly paid too! Infact our pubs would be empty. You cannot compare £4.50 per hour to $3.50 per hour because of our cost of living. Everything we pay for here is far more expensive, houses, cars, clothes etc...so stands to reason that our wages have to be somewhat more in line.

I'm sure I am going to be real unpopular with the servers in FL at the end of this week again when I return...but tight, or not, I just don't buy "have a nice day"......NO sentence is worth my five bucks!

PS Before any waitress in FL thinks that a girl on $6.20 per hour here is better off than a waitress on $3.50 there. I'd put it to you...1. you are usually compensated pretty well from the tourists who are happy and jolly on holiday and have bundles of money to spend so that automatically takes it up past our waitresses average of $6.20. Remember to be tipped in Europe as a whole you have to be seen to be really over and above average service (for anything) before someone recognizes that. 2. you file tax returns ...here you are employed...end of. You get paid, the employer takes out your taxes and that's that. There is no recompensation from the tax man at the end of the tax year. In England, unless you are self employed you see NOTHING back. You pay your taxes (quite heavily too) and you wave bye bye to them forever. I've known way too many waitresses who walk out with $150 tips a night and then complain that they only get $3.50 per hour........uhhhhh NO YOU DON'T!!!

[chrizzy100]

http://www.payscale.com/salary-surve...ALARY/fid-6886

Here is a salary survey.....

[Silver Dollar]

I've had a quick look at it and judging by those figures I don't think waitresses have anything to gripe about. They are marginally behind cashiers and only $6000 short of an office clerk BUT bear in mind an office clerk doesn't get tips so I reckon the average waitress earns more than they do even!

Also what was surprising to note was that a FL waitress earns only marginally less than one in NY. Considering what an expensive city NY is to live in, in comparison, I think the FL waitress is far better off. Also lets still not forget the filing of taxes and any tax returns here.

Finally, let's not forget tipping is in CASH. A lot of people who tip will pay what they deem appropriate and not a percentage so I really don't believe that all waitresses are honest enough to declare what they really received from a table...how would you prove it? Tell me honestly, if you were left $30 on a table in $5 bills...would you really declare $30? or hold back $10 and declare $20 at best? No one would ever know would they? And I believe most waitresses would think like this...therefore they wouldn't pay out as much taxes etc. If a waitress only earns $32 a day from even an eight hour shift that automatically takes her gross earnings up to $7.50 an hour (assuming she already receives $3.50 an hour from her employer). Waitresses BRINGING HOME $3.50 an hour? I say pshhhh, no one could survive on that as a net income and no one would turn up for work. Let's stop feeling sorry for waitresses because as a regular visitor to the buffets there, I say I bet they earn more than a lot of people!

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Silver Dollar
I've had a quick look at it and judging by those figures I don't think waitresses have anything to gripe about. They are marginally behind cashiers and only $6000 short of an office clerk BUT bear in mind an office clerk doesn't get tips so I reckon the average waitress earns more than they do even!

Also what was surprising to note was that a FL waitress earns only marginally less than one in NY. Considering what an expensive city NY is to live in, in comparison, I think the FL waitress is far better off. Also lets still not forget the filing of taxes and any tax returns here.
[/quote]

I just found out my hubby is underpaid......and that for his job....he'll get the best pay in FL......the trouble with staying with a company to long is that you fall behind in pay.......he missed out on a pay rise last year because of the buyback......and he'll never regain that money......[msncry][msncry]

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Silver Dollar
I've had a quick look at it and judging by those figures I don't think waitresses have anything to gripe about. They are marginally behind cashiers and only $6000 short of an office clerk BUT bear in mind an office clerk doesn't get tips so I reckon the average waitress earns more than they do even!

Also what was surprising to note was that a FL waitress earns only marginally less than one in NY. Considering what an expensive city NY is to live in, in comparison, I think the FL waitress is far better off. Also lets still not forget the filing of taxes and any tax returns here.

Finally, let's not forget tipping is in CASH. A lot of people who tip will pay what they deem appropriate and not a percentage so I really don't believe that all waitresses are honest enough to declare what they really received from a table...how would you prove it? Tell me honestly, if you were left $30 on a table in $5 bills...would you really declare $30? or hold back $10 and declare $20 at best? No one would ever know would they? And I believe most waitresses would think like this...therefore they wouldn't pay out as much taxes etc. If a waitress only earns $32 a day from even an eight hour shift that automatically takes her gross earnings up to $7.50 an hour (assuming she already receives $3.50 an hour from her employer). Waitresses BRINGING HOME $3.50 an hour? I say pshhhh, no one could survive on that as a net income and no one would turn up for work. Let's stop feeling sorry for waitresses because as a regular visitor to the buffets there, I say I bet they earn more than a lot of people!
[/quote]

My daughter works in a shop.......the start pay there is $7.25.....a lot of the women leave to work as a waitress because they say the pay is better........they start in places like pizza hut......and try to get into places like the Olive Garden........which is the top place to work where we live......I wonder if a lot of the time....we mix up the pay a waitress would get in a little cafe.....which is very bad......with ones that work in a chain........I can still remember over hearing the waiters in a breakfast place in FL talking about buying a second home by the sea........and a new boat.....so who knows......I still give a tip for good service.....less for bad...

[Silver Dollar]

Precisely my point! Let's not forget that Florida is a state visited by millions of people every year. It's not an inexpensive trip for any person coming from overseas. The average English family of four shells out around $10,000 (often before they get there, if they book with a high street travel agent). For a lot of families it incurs years of savings and for some it only occurs once in a lifetime or the visits are far and few in between. So therefore when they have saved that long and paid out that much money to go, they want to make it a worthwhile, no scrimping and s[bad language filtered out]ing, trip of a lifetime and these are who these waitresses benefit from enormously from these tourists generous often over and above tips because they DON'T want to appear tight. I've been to FL for numerous trips over the recent years and I can tell you that these waitresses are CREAMING it in and whether I appear tight or not, I don't work all year round to save for our family holidays only to throw good money up the wall to give some high school drop out or any other waiter/tress for that matter OUR holiday money for simply bringing me my dinner.

No waitress in Orlando, especially within decent distance of Disney, earns $3.50 an hour.....as in BRINGING that home as a whole wage. Stop whinging waitresses and bartenders. I for one don't buy it.

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Silver Dollar
Precisely my point! Let's not forget that Florida is a state visited by millions of people every year. It's not an inexpensive trip for any person coming from overseas. The average English family of four shells out around $10,000 (often before they get there, if they book with a high street travel agent). For a lot of families it incurs years of savings and for some it only occurs once in a lifetime or the visits are far and few in between. So therefore when they have saved that long and paid out that much money to go, they want to make it a worthwhile, no scrimping and s[bad language filtered out]ing, trip of a lifetime and these are who these waitresses benefit from enormously from these tourists generous often over and above tips because they DON'T want to appear tight. I've been to FL for numerous trips over the recent years and I can tell you that these waitresses are CREAMING it in and whether I appear tight or not, I don't work all year round to save for our family holidays only to throw good money up the wall to give some high school drop out or any other waiter/tress for that matter OUR holiday money for simply bringing me my dinner.

No waitress in Orlando, especially within decent distance of Disney, earns $3.50 an hour.....as in BRINGING that home as a whole wage. Stop whinging waitresses and bartenders. I for one don't buy it.
[/quote]

I agree that I can't see many waitresses taking home just $3.50 an hour....I think we just all have to do what we think is right.......I don't like to be told what to tip......I dislike it when its added to the bill.....I never go back to a place that does that......the thing is.....women at one time took jobs as a waitresses for pin money......and now they are trying to keep a family on that kind of money....$6-9 an hour....a good wage for a college or school kid...but I'd not like to have to keep a family on it...I'm more then happy to give a tip I feel OK with.....I'm not happy being told its a % of the bill.....I may give more or less....that is up to me......and me alone.......

[bellaepovera]

The $3.50 an hour is their hourly pay which does not include tips. I am guessing on that one and assumming its around that sum hourly as the last time I did this job it was under $3.00 hour but you got your tips also. I am not whining or anything else I was just stating facts. You all have good points and I have to agree on many. That is just the way it has been in the states since I can remember. You went out and ate, and you tipped at the end. If you want to go deep in a servers life, and say oh yeah they make loads of money..well remember this most places do not offer health insurance, paying for your hospital bill etc etc...car insurance..not to mention raising children and all they have to dish out for them. Here in Italy going to the doctor is free and going to the hospital too...I am not sure how it is in the UK or any other country..but living in the USA is very expensive. My girlfriends father just died recently and it costed the mother $10k just for the ambulance to pick him up and a half hour to try to save his life at the hospital..His insurance only covered $200. So yes going home with anywhere between $50-$100 a day on a sometimes 8-12 hour shift, 5 times a week is peanuts for what they have to dish out monthly on paying just to have all the services needed to live.

[gromit]

I have to say this one more time - When in Rome do as the romans do! Even with a tip the food is still good value for money and people on a once in a life time holiday who have saved for years usually have read up on the customs and know about tipping. (Silver Dollar) It isn't always where you eat either, can't remember who said it, but Denny's well yes it may be a cheap standard restaurant but it's how nice and attentive etc the servers are and not just the food that you are tipping for. It has to be said that Denny's do a cheap $5.99 grand slam breakfast, the servers have to come with OJ, coffee and the meal and refills etc, bear in mind breakfast times are really busy, yet tipping on this meal is not a lot for a lot of service is it? I know someone who only ever orders water as it is free and they therefore can pay a smaller tip, everyone yes has a limit to spending but penny pinching like that is sad, afterall the server still has to get the water and do refills but it costs nothing for them to get a tip on!

I guess because I have travelled around the world with work I can just accept the different customs a little more easily than some. I visited the Palace and mosque in Istanbal years ago and it was on the condition that to enter you have to remove your shoes and cover up your shoulders, I knew this before going inside and accepted this was the custom for this religion - just like when travelling to America I realise tipping is customary, if I didn't want to tip then I shouldn't eat out, just like if I didn't want to remove my shoes then I don't visit the palace etc. We don't have to agree with other countries rules and customs and we don't have to like them either, but you have to accept these for where ever you go. If you can, then you'll have a far better time than moaning everytime you go into a restaurant.

My advice is to just pay your tip and spend more time planning your fantastic holiday, thinking about the interesting people you'll meet, the weather, the shopping, lounging by the pool, no work for a week or two and less time getting worked up about the concept of tipping!

Have a great holiday everyone.....

[bellaepovera]

When in Rome indeed!! In Italy you have to pay $1.00 for the bread they put on your table each person whether you like it or not. And this doesnt even go to the server as it goes into the owners pocket, not that to me is a bunch of bull....