A little chat.

I had a pretty darn productive day - there were crystal views of the snow wrapped San Francisco Peaks as I returned from some errands, and I was in a great mood to go work at The Wine Bar and hit the gym.

The night started steady to slow - which was a good sign - a steady to slow night means I leave around 8:45 allowing all the time I need at the gym before it closes at 11pm.

I didn't make it to the gym tonight - I had a table of 6 parked on their tushes till 10:15 and to add insult to injury they only tipped 12%.


So let's have a quick discussion about tipping. Unlike what Mr. Pink says in Reservoir Dogs, servers really don't get paid by their restaurant to serve you - they pretty much only make tips. With the exception of California, Oregon, and a few others - servers make between $2.03 and $3.48 per hour. Technically, a restaurant has to make up the difference if your tips don't add up to minimum wage... technically. And servers pay tax on their tips, maybe not all of them, but if your reported tips are regularly under 8% of your total sales (and the restaurant is required to report average sales to the IRS) the IRS will come after you. All tips put on a credit card are automatically reported. If everyone pays me with a credit card one night, then all of my tips get reported and all my tips get taxed.

Servers don't rely on tips because they're used to getting them, they rely on tips because they'd be working a different job otherwise (nobody who's competent enough to serve well would work for minimum wage.. do you really want the sort of person who would work for minimum wage serving your food???).


When you go to tip a server most people Tip on Total. They base their tip almost entirely on a calculated percentage of their total bill.

But it's also important to Tip on Time. If you sit around talking for 2 hours and only ring up $15 worth of purchases - you are not leaving your server a good tip if you leave her $3. Yes - it's 20%... but in the mean time, she's still spent two hours refilling your water, and keeping an eye on you, just because you don't order a lot, doesn't mean she doesn't put in just as much work to take care of you. (We'll not even discuss the table turn she's missing).

Thirdly - you should Tip on Tolerance. What has your server had to tolerate???
Now, if your server is rude and obnoxious, then she hasn't been very tolerant, and the imperative to tip her based on it, is low - however, if she's tolerated quite a bit with good cheer and humor then you should compensate her for the tolerance of your childish behavior that she has shown.

Tip on Total.
Tip on Time.
Tip on Tolerance.

Please people - please!!!


I don't care when people sit forever in my section, I don't care when they don't order wine and spend pittance compared to what they might have. I'm not saying you should feel guilty going to a restaurant if you're not going to be the biggest spender. But you don't order the second most expensive thing on the menu, sit around past closing, even though you've already finished your wine and dessert, make a point to not let anyone else pay the bill - and then tip 12%.

That earns you bad Karma... bad, bad Karma.