Do You Tip Enough? — Molly Weinberg

Jan 27

Jan 27 Do You Tip Enough?

The reminder text to the girls is sent, the perfect outfit is picked out, the cab is on its way. You arrive at your fave restaurant with five of your closest girlfriends and order pretty much one of everything off the menu. Yolo right? Everything is perfect. Now fast forward almost two hours…. the worst part of the dinner gathering has arrived – the bill.

Everyone voluntarily throws their cards into the center of the table saying how they want to split it. As one girl takes the lead on how to explain to the waiter how the bill should be divided, everyone else is talking about their plans for the rest of the night, or counting the likes on their most recent IG foodie pic. #eeeeeats

Not even 10 minutes has passed and the now split checks are handed back. This is when the hard part comes – the tip.

You see, tipping is something everyone seems to have a different opinion on. Is tip based on percentage? The tax? The feeling you have towards your waiter? I’ve asked friends, colleagues, classmates, friends’ parents, pretty much every age group you can imagine and I have found over and over no answer is exactly the same.

Last week I even surveyed my Uber driver and she told me if her bill was $50 and service was average her waiter would be getting a total of $5 for the tip. FIVE DOLLARS?!?! I thought to myself, what a cheap chick. 10% for average service is absurd. You can’t take money away from a server just because you don’t have the means. Just sayin’.

What is the appropriate tip you ask?? Well having once been in the food industry (don’t worry I was a hostess, not a waitress, so I’m not being bias) I know how hard waiters and waitresses work. In the United States the average hourly rate is $4. One…two…three…FOUR. That’s IT.

With that being said, tips are what keep waiters alive so, the appropriate tip for good service in 2017 stands at, drum roll please… 20%. For anyone who tells you 15% is average, they are wrong. That was the average in 1965. Yes, I’m being serious. So unless you have a time machine to travel back 53 years, cough up those extra few bucks when tipping.

Let’s recap, shall we? 20% is for good/great service, 25% is for exceptional service, 18% is for just okay service, and a measly 15% is for subpar service. Just remember, eating out is great and all, but if you can’t afford an appropriate tip, you can’t afford to dine at said restaurant in the first place.