dining experience so enjoyable.
We are pretty generous as a nation when it comes to tipping in restaurants. Americans typically tip 15 to 20%, while the Europeans are happy with 10% or so. They leave a great deal less if they are not pleased with the service or food. Most diners know how minimalist salaries are for the person lavishing attention on you. The average hourly salary for wait staff is around $2.63 – not exactly a living wage.
Sometimes things don't go quite as planned. We've all had experiences where the wait person looking after us seems not only to not be enjoying their job, but strangely bent on misunderstanding even your simplest requests. Now everybody has the odd bad day, but as the person paying for a meal you should expect reasonably decent, attentive service and of course you should get it. Here's the rub, your waiter is really not getting paid a "wage" at all. Nobody is expected to live off their meager salary. They depend on tips for a living which is why they are motivated to work so hard to look after you. If we don't get the service we deserve then we are supposed to adjust the tip accordingly. You know the idea, leaving 10% instead of 20% if you feel that the waiter was less than interested in your dining pleasure. But for some reason this doesn't seem to work. How often have you had a bad experience and had to listen to your dining companion ranting about bad service only to see them give full 20% for the tip. This “passive, aggressive tipping” syndrome is very common.
There are some things that a waiter can't help. If the chefs having a bad day (and they often do) or if your shellfish contains the odd bad one, that's not really their fault. Provided that they react appropriately and take care of the issue, then obviously you still want to tip them. |
