How Do You Tip? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

So, last week fellow Yakezie blogger Len Penzo wrote an interesting post on tip inflation. The post got me so worked up, I responded and told why I hate people who give bad tips.

I am curious what side most of the Yakezie folks fall under. Please take a few minutes to read both and let me know what you think, either here or with a comment on my site. I will check both.

20%.  Always.  If 20% is under $5, I give the $5 minimum.  Unless the person I'm receiving a service from is a real a-hole.  Then they get a penny.  They have to really earn that, though.

20% – 25%… but I will go over 30% if service is really good.  Both of my parents worked in restaurants growing up, and they struggled on their feet several nights a week in order to buy me nice things and pay my college tuition! Those people work hard for their money, typically do not receive benefits, and make on average about $2.50 an hour without tips.

I usually round to up the first dollar that is over 15% if I pay cash. I do the same if I pay credit but I can better estimate 15%. now after reading this I realize that I should be tipping more but 15% is the standard I grew up with.

My baseline tip is 15%.  20% for great service, and sometimes as high as 30%.

On the other hand, the tip goes down for bad service.   That's the nature of the "tip".

I don't buy into "20 is the new 15".  That's pure crap that servers are trying to push to get more money.  Good for them, but I'm not playing.  When the cost of living goes up, so do food costs, which raises my bill, which automatically boosts a 15% tip.  

I used to double tax but 15% was too hard when I moved to Oregon (we don't have sales tax) — 20% was MUCH easier math. So now it's 20% at minimum if there's food. If I'm drinking, a tip of $1 a drink is sufficient, even if it's a $10 drink. The exception for me is when there's those "convenient" tip calculators on the receipt — that's insulting, and the server will only get the minimum.

femmefrugality said:

20%.  Always.  If 20% is under $5, I give the $5 minimum.  

This is what I do, especially since I can be pretty demanding with drink refills. 

Tip means To Insure Promptness. If I did it that way they would pay me but being that I am in the game I do 17-20 unless someone pisses me off… Then I pay 0

For sit-down service, I'll usually figure our 20% and then round up to the nearest dollar. For situations were the "server" is little more than a bus-boy (like at buffets where they bring you a drink and take your plates), I'll usually only leave a dollar or two.

Delivery people, I'll take back any bills $5 or higher and tell them to keep the rest of the change. If paying my card, I'll figure out 20%. I always try to tip high with delivery drivers to make up for the years that I didn't know you were supposed to tip them and so I didn't.

But I get the point about tip inflation. When I was in high school, the standard that most people quote was 15%, then it was 18%, now it's 20%

I usually tip 15-20% for most things, unless the service is really bad. In those cases I'll leave a small tip – or if it's really bad – no tip.