When I was a bartender, I made $1000 a night in cash. A bad night was $700. I guess it's been a while since you guys have been in NYC.

 

During busy seasons, they have checks hitting the $10,000 mark. On average, they make $400 a night, with weekends being in the $700+ area. While not all of them work every day, some do work 6 shifts a week, and make a boatload of money. While the $250,000 a year isn't too common, especially now, we have had it, and not just once. Over 50% of my waitstaff make over $100K.

 

Here's the original Tipping thread. https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.ph...pic=421546&hl=

All arguments pro and con and paralleling rebuttals people could list in this thread has already been said in the old thread.

 

I was taking to a Canadian while on vacation in Mexico. Servers even in Mexico EXPECT tips now. He was bitching that us americans have royally screwed things up!

 

I understand that it makes you feel bad and underappreciated.

But the way I think of it is this: I tip proportionally to the difficulty of the task. At a restaurant, if I order $100 of food it comes with a lot of face time with the waitstaff. They check in after every dish, make sure I have everything I want, and are pleasant. Face time ~10 minutes. As opposed to eating at a diner where face time ~ 30 seconds. The nicer restaurants are there to make sure my dining experience is excellent. I pay for that as much as the food.

If a delivery guy showed up in a Hummer and demanded a tip because he spend $5 in gas getting here, I'd . If a delivery guy showed up in a Porsche and demanded a tip because his car operating costs were $1 a mile, I'd . It'd be like a waitress demanding a larger tip because she was wearing expensive shoes. I had no part in that decision and it did not improve / enhance my dining experience so I'm not likely to tip more.

I do tip delivery guys proportional to the difficulty of the task, though. If it's a snowy night and they had a tough time getting here, I'll tip more. If they have to come all the way upstairs at work, I'll tip more. If they have to make several trips from the car due to the amount of crap we ordered, I'll tip more. The sheer cost of the order is a minor factor.

Pizza is sort of the lowest of the low on the totem pole. And with the economy being what it is, less people are ordering out and more people "going DiGiorno." Pizza is cheap. People who order pizza are cheap. People who can't put a pre-made pizza in the oven are lazy. Did you really expect them to be super generous?

It's a demoralizing position to be in. I wish things were different for a lot of people. And the historic advice of "get an education" doesn't even apply in this economy, a lot of very smart people who trained a very long time are out of work through no fault of their own.

 

I stand corrected.

I guess you'd have to be absolutely lucky though to hit the 250k range.

 

fixed.

remember, waiting tables is a craft

 

Thats 100%. There is a big difference between an order taker, and a proper waiter/tress. It's a skill, just like any other, one that is almost impossible to teach. Being a people person is not taught in schools.

 

Maybe the cheap restaurant owners that don't pay their people enough can post this to guilt people into tipping more so they don't have to pay their employees a decent wage.