A letter to the Washington Post food critic.
I had to ask Grok about that 1-82/Bowser business. Answer: here. It's the problem of the "tipped minimum wage." The letter-writer is not a selfish bastard but a progressive reformer. I think. But I bet the selfish bastards are out there, ready to scale back tips to capture the tax break intended for others. But most of us participate in the proud American tradition of generous tipping. That's how the norm crept up from 15% to 20%.
When you read "Bowser," did you immediately know it meant the mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser? I had no idea. It struck me as absurd. The only Bowser I could think of was Bowser, the lead singer of Sha Na Na.
पोस्ट्स
१०४ टिप्पण्या:
No tax on tips = dumb idea.
Great promise for votes... but unfair.
Tips are wages. If everyone is taxed on their wages or income - wft? not really fair.
Didn’t know who Bowser was immediately — but it didn’t take long (“dishonest” was a good clue).
We have progressive friends in Seattle who, when the minimum wage there jumped up to... whatever it was that first time (I don't know whether it's gone up again), $18? $20 an hour? stopped tipping, as they viewed tips not as "thank you for good service" but as "I'm making up what your employer should have been giving you." I can see the logic.
It would be nice if people would just provide good customer service out of pride in their work, wouldn't it? But I've never worked for tips - straight from fast food to offices - so maybe my non-existent opinion is with $0.
Also, I thought Bowser was a derogatory nickname for Trump, because was isn't?
This is particularly pertinent in light of Bowser's dishonest effort (acting on behalf of the restaurant industry lobbyists) to overturn the will of the voters for the second time by repealing I-82
…get yourself a Hawaiian judge…
btw- I am fine with ending tipping. It's out of control. Everyone wants a tip for doing nothing but handing you a bag.
Like every advertised tax break, tips is limited. Tax free up to some low amount and then taxed regularly.
Normal earners never get a tax break, pretty much. Except the standard deduction increasing.
"the proud American tradition of generous tipping. That's how the norm crept up from 15% to 20%" Yes, 20 is more than 15. But 15 is more than 10. So why did that stop being considered "generous"? Some obvious hypotheses don't seem to work. As best I can tell, service has not in fact improved over the years, so 20+ is not pay for performance. Conventional shaming methods for enforcing a norm don't really apply to tipping. Americans are fine with not being "generous" or even stingy cheapskates in other areas, so why not tipping?
If you leave a bigger than suggested tip for Amazon grocery deliveries, the groceries get packed and left very very neatly.
I think Amazon grocery deliveries are the only tips I encounter. I never eat out or any of that stuff where you encounter outstretched hands.
I left a sizeable tip for the IRS this year, preferring to let the overpayment ride rather than figure out how to do an amended return to fix the error induced by a misleading question in TurboTax.
Tipping culture incentivizes the server to turn over tables quickly so that they can get to the next party and the next batch of tips. Most of the time, it's in our self interest to participate because we don't want to wait an hour for food. Europe shows that other incentives do win out for servers without tips.
And I don't think it's that big of a deal that tips are tax free. It's going to
Everyone wants a tip for doing nothing but handing you a bag.
Ok, this I do have an opinion on - a negative onbye. And the other thing? When the screen they hand you gives you the choice of 18%, 20%, and 22% tip, with 20% preselected, and if you're my, er, very frugal husband, you have to hunt for the Custom Tip button to tap.
And the other thing? This is less objectionable, but my HEB has gas pumps operated by big screens, and on the graphic that tells you how to select your grade of gasoline, the little cartoon hand goes for the (unmarked, in the graphic, but in the same position as the real-life) button for premium.
…there’s truth in the perilousness of a table service restaurant. All those places with the celeb foodie chefs…many of them exist because of charitable capital from wealthy patrons. We’ve only seen clients get roi checks from one or two places vs dozens of investments. Frankly a mystery to me what they get out of it. I’m missing something…
…and when I was a table server my tip income was estimated on my checks and was taxed accordingly but when I was stiffed for whatever reason I still had to pay. I’m surprised servers like the status quo…
Bowser is the bad guy from Super Mario.
Sophisticates who think America is dumb, and Europe has all the answers, often criticize our custom of tipping. Family members who work in restaurants, are fond of tipping because they can make much more than they ever would at an hourly wage.
They are not fond of restaurants with a policy of pooling tips.
Tipping is based on merit. Authoritarians aren't fond of surrendering power to customers.
Well, you can eat it, you can’t beat it
Leave a tip or maybe cheat ‘em at the dive
When the press starts spinnin'
You’re lickin’ on your chicken at the dive
Get the burning sensation that’s sweepin' the nation at the dive
Let's go to the dive
Let's go to the dive (oh baby)
Let's go to the dive (oh baby)
Let's go to the dive
Come on, let's go to the dive
Continued comment:
In the old days, most servers did a calculation between how much to declare in cash tips and how much to pocket. This is just formalizing it. I don't think it's a big deal.
And I still think 15% is standard. Just because 20% is a suggestion doesn't mean I'm going to do it.
I guarantee you that, for the vast majority of Americans, Bowser is a humanoid turtle with horns and an armored shell. The mayor of DC only shows up on page 2 of Google results.
We’re waiting to see some analysis on the bill re method to how it limits all of us from converting conventional compensation to tip income…
Jamie -
and the tip is often prior to the end of the transaction. waiting for someone to hand you the bag - and if you didn't tip, or tip enough, perhaps you'll wait a bit longer.
Jamie said... "It would be nice if people would just provide good customer service out of pride in their work, wouldn't it?"
That would be nice, but that's not how things work. One of the things I noticed on my first trip to England was how shitty the service was. Most employees were from Eastern Europe and couldn't give two shits about giving good service. They were paid the same regardless.
Tipping has gotten out of hand where every transaction seems to beg for a tip -- and a generous one at that. I have been in hospitality most of my life and I always tip well. But now it seems as if 20 % is not considered the high end of everyday tipping and the suggested tips on those little machines that process credit and debit cards start at 18% as a minimum (excluding the option of "custom tip")
Bowser's been in there too long for a newspaper reader not to recognize the name. You're telling on yourself again, sillyhead professory.
I worked my way through college waiting tables in the 1970's. There was no effective tax on tips then. It allowed me to eventually complete my education (PhD) without going into debt.
I believe that Trump proposed no tax on tips in order to win Nevada, and I have no problem with that.
I hate to break it to the letter writer but customers are entirely responsible for paying the cost of restaurant staff in whatever form, wages or tips. You can always tell a Leftist because they think other people have magic money trees.
Bowser was always in the news during Covid and the gay pride rainbow thing. I'm really really surprised you have never read a story with her name in it before...
Wow.
(You know what PWC and Montgomery County are, right, ann?)
"Bowser is the bad guy from Super Mario."
I know... after researching the name (and vaguely remembering).
It's also one of the more famous Pound Puppies (and, just generally, a frequent choice for a dog name).
I also thought Bowser was the guy from Sha Na Na -- who I just read on Mark Evanier's blog "News From Me" that he was on the TDS Train.
"Now that Trump and his lackeys in Congress have passed his crazy idea of no taxes on tips, I'm wondering how you think those of us who would like to see tipping go away should respond?"
It's kind of hard to take an opinion seriously when that's how it starts. The person clearly suffers from TDS, making them easier to ignore, regardless of the merits.
The letter-writer is not a selfish bastard but a progressive reformer.
If the selfish bastard gets his way, he's a selfish bastard and the waiters who get stuck with him suffer.
If the progressive reformer gets his way, the entire system gets screwed up and everybody suffers. But the progressive reformer feels good about himself.
[Insert C.S. Lewis quote here]
"The only Bowser I could think of was Bowser, the lead singer of Sha Na Na.?
Jon "Bowser" Bauman was not the lead singer of Sha Na Na. He sang bass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isvK4PzeA4c
How long will it be before A.I. starts demanding a tip? It has already reached peak insanity in the human realm. I noticed the other day, and now can't remember where, but I had a transaction that was devoid of any human interaction. I did all of the work, including checking out and bagging, and there it was - a suggestion to add a tip. It took a moment for the outrageousness of it to set in.
If this guy really is anti-tipping, the last thing he should be doing is encouraging people to tip less. There is no surer way to kill the practice than what the industry is doing right now with the relentless pressure to over-tip ever more obscenely.
Section II of this article reviews the history of the federal income taxation of tips. That history suggests that a statutory exemption has become a live issue only now because only recently has tip compliance and enforcement become sufficiently effective that the de facto partial exclusion produced by underreporting of tips is no longer a satisfactory alternative to a de jure statutory exclusion.
https://www.taxnotes.com/featured-analysis/why-nix-tip-tax-now/2024/10/07/7lsvb
They want their cut of...everything. This isn't about "fairness."
By the way, it's not at all strange that a Sha Na Na singer would suffer from TDS. The group was started by a bunch of Columbia University graduate students.
Exactly. People feel good when they give the barista a dollar tip for the starbucks coffee. It helps them and encourages good service. Its just skinflints who don't like to tip.
"Jon "Bowser" Bauman was not the lead singer of Sha Na Na. He sang bass"
I remember him from the TV show and I believe he led the group then. Maybe he was the lead in the spoken parts, the comedy, introductions, etc.
I agree that he was the bassman.
What percentage of cash tips are reported at all? Obviously, casino tips are carefully monitored.
They still have to pay FICA, which for part-timers and lower-end restaurants is probably higher than income tax. The benefit goes to those who need it less and who won't be hit as hard if people scale back their tips.
Bowser is still alive. He's 77. He's a big Democrat: "Bauman regularly campaigns for Democrats in special elections, including Mark Critz in 2010, Kathy Hochul in 2011, David Weprin in 2011 and Elizabeth Colbert Busch in 2013. He endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008. He has also worked as a spokesman for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and recorded wake-up calls for employees of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He is also a co-founder of the group Senior Votes Count, which is a political action committee designed to elect leaders to protect and advance the rights of elderly Americans. In the 2016 presidential election, Bauman endorsed Hillary Clinton, campaigning for her across the country, including in Iowa and Ohio" — Wikipedia.
Bow Bow Bowser.
I really tried to Rowser.
But I'm just a DC tipster.
And not a hipster.
Here's Bowser campaigning for Hillary Clinton in Iowa in 2016: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/bowser-sha-na-na-campaigns-clinton-iowa-36489337
A couple times I’ve used Bowser to quiz old hippies about their experience at Woodstock they’re bragging on about. That brief moment of deer in headlights when Sha Na Na is mentioned is the tell…
Didn't Sha-Na-Na have a variety television show in the late 70s? That was the period of peak popularity for Grease, as well as Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley.
"Tipping mainly benefits employers by transferring to their customers a large part of the responsibility for paying their staff ..."
This is why you cannot debate or argue with a Democrat. This is the absolute stupidest statement that has ever been emitted from a human being.
Customers are 100% responsible for paying all staff, you fucking idiots. The cooks. The waitresses. The fucking accountant doing the books. Everybody.
"I remember him from the TV show and I believe he led the group then. Maybe he was the lead in the spoken parts, the comedy, introductions, etc."
He is an actor too so that would make sense.
I'm a crazy tipper, often over 100%. $100 tip for a $20 Uber ride is a regular thing. I just love imagining it makes a huge difference to the person's day when it happens, as it would have for me during the years I was at subsistence level. I have too much money anyway. Despite that, I hate the tipping culture, the expectation, the pressure. It's messy, prone to misunderstandings, and hard on those without the means. I wish it was a rare surprise rather than a duty.
I guess I'm the problem, but I don't want to make someone think they suck at their job to change the culture.
Since the days of 10% percent tips, cost of dinner has also doubled.
"although in the long run getting rid of tipping would help both customers and workers"
It might help workers but it would NOT help customers. Has anyone ever experienced "service" in Europe? Customer friendly it ain't. Americans would riot if that was our day to day experience. Tipping sucks, by my glass is always at least half full in America (instead of always empty elsewhere).
Tips are wages. If everyone is taxed on their wages or income - wft? not really fair.
Well wages are business expenses so the business gets some tax break for paying wages. I'm tipping with after tax money, so why should it be taxed again?
They must really hate curbing progressive prices.
That said, capital feedback is a pragmatic and polite gesture.
bagoh20 said...I wish it was a rare surprise rather than a duty.
You remind me of a (true, I like to think) story I heard many years ago. A wealthy man eating with a friend at a restaurant where the waiter was slow, mixed up the order, didn't refill drinks, etc. When it was over and he was paying the check, he made a show of calling the waiter over, pulled out a $100 bill from his wallet and said, "young man, this is what I tip for BAD service." (The idea, of course, is to leave the waiter imagining what he tips for good service.)
Didn't Sha-Na-Na have a variety television show in the late 70s?
Yah. Syndicated. On around the same time as The Muppet Show and Hee-Haw Honeys…
"lackeys in Congress "
If Only! If only Trump HAD lackeys in Congress..
Think how much he could have gotten done, with clear majorities!
I've begun to see more and more automated tip suggestions on the receipts for straight purchases at the cash register without any table service. I have 0% problem selecting the No Tip option on these.
For table service and other personalized service transactions, I always select a custom tip based totally on the quality of the service or life situation of the server. I won't be shamed for properly responding to lousy service, nor will I be limited by automated suggestions for exceptional service (or a personal life situation of the server that I want to assist).
I think of Sha Na Na everytime I read or hear "Bowser".
When did the norm go from 10% to 15%?
Restaurants are suffering from fast food places that offer high quality food without tipping.
Why I only go to restaurants for special occasions.
And gladly volunteer to make lunch for my wife and I.
I’ve got more important things to spend money on.
tipping mainly benefits employers by transferring to their customers a large part of the responsibility for paying their staff
Does the letter writer really believe there's a magical income stream for restaurants other than their customers? What a bizarre complaint. What tipping used to accomplish is hustle, because the wait staff used to enjoy higher income from tips for provided above average service. When government started forcing employers to track tips and pay taxes then the employers also forced the staff to pool tips so they could be tracked and "evenly divided" regardless of service level.
Communism ruins everything.
“I believe that Trump proposed no tax on tips in order to win Nevada, and I have no problem with that.”
I can probably confirm that. There is a bartender at the DJT Bar at Trump International in Las Vegas whom we call “tips”. According to his story, he was talking to one of his patrons one night, and told him that the way for Trump to carry NV was just that - promise to eliminate taxes on tips. And the next day, Trump announced just that. Turns out that the patron was apparently the NV GOP chair.
Las Vegas is a huge tipping town, because of the hospitality industry there. My partner and her sister, both raised there, are both extremely generous tippers. For example, her sister typically tips $20 or so to valet there to get her car out of hock. Doing it once or twice I day, day in and day out, I tip $2. Valet there earn maybe $18 or so an hour, covered by the $30-$50 a night “entertainment” or “activity” fee automatically added to your hotel bill (always check that when comparing room costs in NV, because it is ubiquitous, and sometimes ridiculous).
I don’t mind not taxing tips, but I would cap it. My partner’s first husband was the Executive Banquet Chef at Caesars. He often got $10k, even $20k, as a tip for a large (>1k) banquet. He would pass most of it on to the hundreds of staff who made it possible. Not all Executive Chefs were as generous. And that was 40 years ago.
Final tipping story. She graduated at 15 from HS, and couldn’t start college until 17, so had a year’s gap. She went to floral school, and used that training to help her through college. She ended up managing the floral shop at the Hilton by the Convention Center, that got a lot of top acts. She, for the most part, didn’t accept tips (unless you really pissed her off by being an entitled AH). And ended up having a thing with Elvis. He was a notoriously large tipper. And she always refused his tips. It wasn’t professional. But they finally arrived at an accommodation - she would take front row seats to his shows and backstage passes instead.
A bowser is also a wheeled container used for carrying fuel. It's a military term.
Tips are wages
They are taxed on 15% flat rate though, as if every diner leaves that amount. So the system was NOT fair as set up, because with pooling some hustle harder and are not compensated and others skate by accepting 15% whether their service garners it or not. Prior to shifting the tip reporting to the owner it was up to the individual but your federal government didn't trust them with cash.
Pretty sure in California wait staff make the same minimum wage as everyone else (16$ish and that might have gone up this month) tips are on top of that. Since Covid it seems as though expected tip is 20%. With no tax on tips I will probably return to 15% tip.
“ Restaurants are suffering from fast food places that offer high quality food without tipping.”
Some fast food places now allow you to add a tip to your bill.
Rehajm: “ A couple times I’ve used Bowser to quiz old hippies about their experience at Woodstock they’re bragging on about. That brief moment of deer in headlights when Sha Na Na is mentioned is the tell…”
Well there is the cliche that if you remember Woodstock, you weren’t at Woodstock.
And a real hippie, confronted with a greaser doo-wop group, might pick that moment to drop the brown acid….
JSM
I bought something from on online store the other day and when checking they asked me for a tip. Seriously?
So they hate Trump so much they want to punish servers of their food....
Side note: we went out with a friend for happy hour yesterday (side side note: at what age does "happy hour" become "early bird special"?), and our server would not leave us alone for five minutes. It was a pizza place, but we were there at 4:30 because one of the happy hour specials was $3 off their rather good salads, and we all felt the need of leafy greens. We told our server it was our intent to order pizza eventually, but not until we heard back as to whether the friend's son would be joining us.
So she came to our table every five minutes asking whether we were ready to order pizza. But she did NOT ask, at 4:55, whether we wanted another round of drinks before happy hour ended at 5.
When the server came by at 5:01 to hit us up again about ordering pizza, my, er, very frugal husband, said, "Darn, we missed ordering another beer by one minute!" and asked her whether management would honor the happy hour price since we were so close. The answer turned out to be yes, but she made a point of "having to ask.".
At last (at 5:10 or so) we heard that our friend's son would indeed be joining us, so we asked if we could move to a bigger table, as we were already struggling with drinks and plates and one pizza rack thing at our too-small 4-top. (We'd told the hostess that we might be a party of 5 when she seated us, but her vague response was, "This is one of the tables we can put an extra chair at.") She again had to ask, but got "permission" to seat us at a 6-top in the back, which apparently they'd initially thought was too precious to give to a party of only 5 who would be ordering multiple pizzas and might be convinced to get another round.
I'm sure she was happy to see the back of us, and I'm also sure my husband didn't go over 15% for her tip, as - although she was attentive - all of her attention seemed focused on turning her table.
“ I won't be shamed for properly responding to lousy service, nor will I be limited by automated suggestions for exceptional service (or a personal life situation of the server that I want to assist).”
Partner’s first husband, who grew up in the restaurant business, in Las Vegas, taught her this. Normally, he was a very generous tipper. But one night, he left 1¢, and explained that that was a bigger insult than no tip at all.
Of course, as a woman, she won’t let me do that. Too worried about what they might think of her. Which is funny, because women have traditionally undertipped, compared to men.
Most of my tipping is for dining. I'm almost all cash now. I went that way, because my biggest pet peeve is being ready to leave and having to wait to make payment. Paying cash won't completely eliminate that wait (in some cases), but at least I eliminate an extra step of them making a card swipe somewhere else to get my bill and finish it out. It also leaves the reporting of the tip for tax purposes up to the individual and business. Recently, this has also made things a little cheaper, as I see more businesses starting to add surcharges for credit card use.
rehajm said...
" Hee-Haw Honeys…"
Huh? Hee-Haw Honeys? I missed that one. LOL
I am fine with ending tipping. It's out of control. Everyone wants a tip for doing nothing but handing you a bag.
Also, most places with the tip jar out (at least digitally) are required to pay the legal, non-tip minimum wage. E.g., guy working the drive-thru window or the guy working the counter at a non-waitered lunch place (grab-n-go type places) all make at least the minimum wage, but they swing that pay tablet around and the "suggested" tips run 20%, 25% and 30%.
The latest trend on Facebook is people "educating" how to calculate your tip - divide the total bill by 10, then multiply that by three (i.e., 30%) and chastise you that if you can't/won't pay at least that much, you shouldn't go out to eat.
I knew about Muriel, but I always thought "Bowser" was a dog's name so I asked our friend AI.
The name "Bowser" can refer to a few different things in the context of dogs. It can be a dog breed, specifically a hybrid of a Basset Hound and Miniature Schnauzer called a "Bowzer" according to Wag!, or it can be a name given to a dog character, like the one in the Movie Spoof Films Wikia. It can also be a common dog name, potentially derived from the Norman word "Bousier" meaning cowherd.
In Massachusetts, the minimum wage is $15.00 per hour. It is $6.75 per hour for tipped employees. If the tipped employee's pay, inclusive of tips, does not reach $15.00 per hour, however, the employer is obliged to make up the difference. So waitstaff have all of the upside of receiving tips with absolutely no downside.
If a typical waiter has 5 tables that turn over every 1.5 hours and average $100 per party and each party tips 20%, in a three-hour period of time that waiter will earn $20.25 in wages plus $200 in tips - 91% of that person's income is now effectively untaxed.
Meanwhile, I did a fishing charter a few weeks back. The mate showed up well before our 8am start, to get the boat ready, pick up bait, and get the boat to the dock where we met them. We cruised for about 45 minutes, then fished hard for five hours or so, before returning to the dock, at which point we got off and the mate stayed with the boat to put it back on the mooring and give it a good cleaning. Overall, he probably put in 8-9 hours that day, most of it working incredibly hard on a number of different things - baiting hooks, untangling lines, dropping/retrieving the anchor, fileting the catch, etc., all in the strong sun and moderately high seas. He did it all with a smile, provided good conversation, and really enhanced our enjoyment of the trip. And for all of that, he was tipped $200.
Maybe waiters in America really don't have it so bad.
I'm wondering how you think those of us who would like to see tipping go away should respond?
This is especially urgent now, as my USAID grant application to move to Europe to avoid having to tip has been denied.
Restaurants are a feast or famine business (no pun intended). By paying servers less when there’s no revenue assists keeping the business functional and in-business.
By increasing the wage to fixed and much higher wages offers severe challenges to restaurants.
Now, a lot will argue ‘look at the rest of the world!’ Yea, so? Those economies are significantly different from the US - lower wages overall, and the ability to excel is limited (UK is a prime example). You can’t just change one thing and expect no market response.
"When you read "Bowser," did you immediately know it meant the mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser? I had no idea. It struck me as absurd. The only Bowser I could think of was Bowser, the lead singer of Sha Na Na."
Sure, I knew who it was (sadly). OTOH, I could not have provided the name of the lead singer of Sha Na Na if my life depended upon it.
We spend a lot of time in Australia and New Zealand. No expectation of tipping is nice, until you actually want to tip someone. It can be awkward.
Even though tipping mainly benefits employers by transferring to their customers a large part of the responsibility for paying their staff
Ah, a complete misunderstanding of economics. The customer ALWAYS pays. Waitstaff understands this. Why waitstaff of any ethnicity hates large parties of one ethnicity... and I don't even need to mention any for everyone to know.
The best waitstaff make more then the worst. But, there are other factors- more attractive waitstaff- both males and females- make more then less attractive. This rule also applies to commissioned sales.
SO, why did America turn into a tipping culture when it is an amalgam of European cultures which are not tipping cultures? Good question, which I don't have an answer to.
The last time I had a commissioned and tip job was delivering newspapers. Some customers tipped generously. Some not at all. And the more newspapers I sold- the more I made. That was 52 years ago- and that job for young people no longer exists. Maybe in some small areas...
Is tipping good or bad? I've no opinion on that. I will note that there is a movie trope of waiters- surly insolent French waiters- no tips- and overly friendly American waiters- tips. True in real life? Never been to France, so I couldn't say. The second is more true then not true. I can recall but one instance of unfriendliness in being served- early morning breakfast while travelling and the waitress basically threw the breakfast dished down in front of my wife and I. I remember it because of how unique the experience was.
The customer always pays applies to business taxes. The cost to business goes up due to higher taxes- the cost to customers goes up to bring in the money to pay taxes. TANSTAAFL- There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
Huh? Hee-Haw Honeys? I missed that one. LOL
Yah you did. Kathie Lee Guifford neé Epstein AND Gailard Sartain!
"but your federal government didn't trust them with cash."
If there's anybody who shouldn't be trusted with cash, it's the government.
"and chastise you that if you can't/won't pay at least that much, you shouldn't go out to eat."
This attitude more than any other is what makes me less inclined to leave bigger tips. It's not my fault you are unsatisfied with your pay rate and expect me to make it up with a tip.
(although in the long run getting rid of tipping would help both customers and workers)
Consider this — at best! — an unproven assertion.
D.D. Driver said...
Tipping sucks, by my glass is always at least half full in America (instead of always empty elsewhere).
Ah- free refills. Which, AFAIK, exist only in the USA. And which started sometime in the 1970s- the first I can remember is free refills for iced tea at Denny's.
Restaurants and entrepreneurs did the calculations- sodas cost almost nothing compared to food. In fact, the biggest cost in the container in which the soda comes. I remember not being able to have a second soda when dining out when young. One soda, then water. Desserts are high profit margin items. You're far more likely to order dessert for yourself or a party of 6 if you don't have to order more soda (or ice tea or whatever) to go with it. Hence, free refills. And your glass stays full. You are paying (comparatively) more for that first soda then you did for one way back when. Inflation affects different things differently. Surprising myself when I just did the math- a small soda in 1970 using menu prices online was about 25% of a Big Mac. And going to my McDonalds app- the same is true today. My father ran a Burger King when they switched to "free refills". And I know for a fact they raised the soda prices as they did that. So there's a discrepancy there I cannot explain...
"Is tipping good or bad? I've no opinion on that. I will note that there is a movie trope of waiters- surly insolent French waiters- no tips- and overly friendly American waiters- tips. True in real life? Never been to France, so I couldn't say. "
Very, very close. I never really experienced "rudeness," just an extreme attitude of not giving a fuck.
I suspect that the Bowser of Sha Na Na would be a better may of Washington D.C. than Muriel Bowser.
SO, why did America turn into a tipping culture when it is an amalgam of European cultures which are not tipping cultures? Good question, which I don't have an answer to.
Tipping is voluntary, so free cultures like it. You can tip or not tip. It's up to you.
Leftists and socialists hate this freedom. They want to mandate prices and wages. They are crazy control freaks. Also, note that they don't actually like the poor. They just hate the rich.
Imagine being hostile to a tax cut that helps the poor! That's how insane the Democrats are now.
"What can we do to stamp out this charity that people are doing? I don't like it."
Ah- free refills. Which, AFAIK, exist only in the USA.
Soft drinks are a cash cow for restaurants. The soda cost them pennies and they charge $2 or more. Most of their profits come from the drinks. If I'm feeling cheap, I switch to ice water. But that's a good way to run a restaurant into bankruptcy.
I worked at one restaurant where we rented the soda machine, and all the soda we could sell was provided free. It was a sunk cost, so free refills were a no brainer.
Tipping is an acknowledgement of the basic economic fact that incentives matter. The expectation of a tip influences behavior. It’s like how only letting property owners vote creates more reliable government. But now the only incentive is to give way as much as you can for votes.
Some places allocate the tips between parties besides the waitstaff. Our son's gal said of her employer in TN that the cooks got 40% of the tip, the bussers got 20%, and the waiters got 40% - i.e., 8%, 4%, and 8% respectively, assuming a 20% tip. Our daughter, who was a bus person at Starbucks, got "allocated tip" income on each check in addition to a part of the cash tips. I don't know how prevalent this practice is, but it's not always just the server who gets the benefit from no tax on tips.
I view tipping as an opportunity for charity.
Waiters at upscale restaurants are privileged people (usually, they are the children of privilege). They are young and good-looking, and this will not be a career for them. I tip them the normal 20%. I might add a couple of bucks if I'm happy.
Waiters at cheap restaurants? They are older, and uglier. They are not privileged, at all. They have a hard life. And they are being punished, since they work at a cheap restaurant with cheap prices.
So I have abandoned the percentage basis for figuring out a tip for them. On a $10 or $12 bill at a cheap restaurant, I will tip $4 or $5.
On a percentage basis, that's ridiculous. I'm paying them a (much) higher percentage than waiters in upscale restaurants.
On a cash basis, I'm still paying them less. $5 versus $10 or $20 at more expensive places. But my tipping is substantially higher than what other people are giving them. So my service is better, my food is better, the whole experience is better.
Also, fast food has gotten crazy expensive. Meals that used to cost me $5 to $7 are now $10 to $12.
If you can find a cheap restaurant where you like the food? That's the best deal in town.
Actually, food trucks are probably the best deal in town. If you can find somewhere to sit.
You’d think Bowser would have put in a little more time at the gym building up his signature biceps. His guns were always skinny and ill defined. 💪
I keep confusing Sha Na Na with Bow Wow Wow.
@Saint Croix: Me too. I blow way past the typical tip percentages at the cheap restaurants. Assuming the service wasn't bad. It's of no consequence to me, but hopefully helps out the server.
One is supposed to tip the staff at a country house after an overnight stay, except not the butler. I believe that's how it works. Downton Abbey should have explained it all for us.
1. In close to 50 years in the hospitality industry, I have never met a competent server who would trade the tip system for, say, $25-$30 an hour.
2. I witnessed a man leave a tip at my dad's restaurant and when he got up and turned around toward the door, his wife picked up half of it. The waitress saw it and asked my dad if she could confront them and he said, go for it. Grace, the waitress, stopped the couple at the front door and asked him if the service had been acceptable. He said that it was and asked her why she was asking. She replied, "Well, you left me a nice tip but your wife picked up half of it as you got up." The man scowled at his wife and made her dig into her purse and give Gracie the retrieved cash and gave her $5 more (it was 1976).
There is no minimum percentage of sales that a server must report in the US as "tipped income"
Bowser made me immediately think of the King of the Koopas from the Mario games and I haven't even played them that much.
I love Sha Na Na and listen to something by them almost every week. Their story is quite wild, too. The original members went on to be professors and doctors and such, and new members joined to carry on the goofy music. Bowser was one of the new ones as I recall and he may have made Sha Na Na more famous than the original crew.
I wouldn't have voted for Trump in 2016 if I had known Bowser supported Hillary.
With Trump driving up the cost of eating out through his stupid tariffs, one of the few options available to those of us on fixed incomes is reduction of tip percentages. So you had better believe that I will get some money back by reducing tips since servers will make at least 12 to 20 percent more in take home pay when payroll taxes virtually disappear. Servers have long cheated on declared income by understating cash tips on their tax returns. Hourly wages paid to servers in most states are already less than minimum wage.
Gadfly, they have to pay FICA to claim the exemption of up to $25k from income taxes.
St. Croix, me too. The waitress at a Denny's getting 20% gets a pittance. The server at an upscale restaurant can do quite well. Turnover at Denny's is high. At the upscale place, nah.
FWIW I am a 20% giver fro decent service. More for better. exceptional service? I lay out a much better tip. And I call for the manager (who always approaches with a look that says, "What is today's gripe?") to applaud the server.
I've also had horribly bad service. More lately. In those cases I have added a $0.05 tip on the credit card adding a note like, "Generous" with an arrow to the tip line.
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