This may sound odd to many here, but yes, I have no idea how to tip! Here in NZ we never tip for anything. Ever. You pay your bill for whatever and that's it. I don't really understand why tipping is a requirement in the US but that's not really important I guess.
Anyway, what should you tip for and what shouldn't you? What's considered a decent tip? Being from an international country, would I even be expected to tip?
15-20% is the standard in eating and drinking establishments. I've paid tips as high as 75% if the service is really, really good. And, don't forget to tip your cocktail waitresses and Keno attendents if you win. 5-10 dollars per $100 won is pretty much the standard.
The reason for tipping in the US is that the wage for food/beverage service is extremely low because most of their income is based on tips. Some establishments for example only pay their waitresses $3/hour. If you're a drinker you'll notice in increase in attention from your bartender if actively tip him/her each time they bring you a drink. If not, unless you're sitting by yourself at the bar, you may be waiting between drinks.
In the casinos.. remember you're drinking for free while you're playing. So, tip your waitress or bartender. They're almost working for free when bringing you your drinks.
Finally, if you play at a live table, (Blackjack, Poker, etc.) tip your dealer. Even if you lose. And, especially if you win.
In restaurants, 15% is standard; 20% is for good service. Generally, I'll take the tax and multiply it by three (depending on that state's tax).
In general, $2-$5 is my standard for other services... ie, cab driver, pizza delivery, doorman, bellman, housekeeping, etc.
One service I do refuse to tip are coffee shops. I don't understand where this trend of tipping your barista came from, and call me Scrooge, but I think it's ridiculous. It's not like they're wasting their own gas like a pizza driver, and it's not like they're making $2.13/hour like a waiter. They generally make $7/$8 an hour.
Thanks for the tips, it's helped alot
Still a weird concept though, lol. Here in NZ, people in these jobs get paid at least minimum wage and like any job, as they become veterans of it they start to move up the pay scale. It's illegal here to be paid below minimum wage no matter what and if as an employer you get caught then it can put you out of business.
xFenshirex wrote:
I agree! I hate that businesses allow for tip jars. Especially places like Starbucks and the dry cleaners. I have a friend who owns a Starbucks franchise in Arizona. He told me that his employees start out at $12/hour. Yet.. there's the tip jar stuffed to the top during the morning rush hour. And, to make matters worse.. the magic marker used to mark your cup with your order has a period at the end of it if you tipped.. meaning get that order done first. Its like extortion.
Matt.. if you have a mobile device like a Blackberry or iPhone.. download one of the hundreds of tipping apps available for free to it. It will help you with tipping a lot.. and you'll be able to avoid the currency conversion math as well as you try to figure it out in your head.
Fromage wrote:
xFenshirex wrote:One service I do refuse to tip are coffee shops. I don't understand where this trend of tipping your barista came from, and call me Scrooge, but I think it's ridiculous. It's not like they're wasting their own gas like a pizza driver, and it's not like they're making $2.13/hour like a waiter. They generally make $7/$8 an hour.I agree! I hate that businesses allow for tip jars. Especially places like Starbucks and the dry cleaners. I have a friend who owns a Starbucks franchise in Arizona. He told me that his employees start out at $12/hour. Yet.. there's the tip jar stuffed to the top during the morning rush hour. And, to make matters worse.. the magic marker used to mark your cup with your order has a period at the end of it if you tipped.. meaning get that order done first. Its like extortion.Matt.. if you have a mobile device like a Blackberry or iPhone.. download one of the hundreds of tipping apps available for free to it. It will help you with tipping a lot.. and you'll be able to avoid the currency conversion math as well as you try to figure it out in your head.
I have a Blackberry for work, but I probably won't be taking that with me since I don't think they'll be overly happy with me running up a huge roaming bill for non-work stuff
Matt_NZ wrote:
Thanks for the tips, it's helped alot Still a weird concept though, lol. Here in NZ, people in these jobs get paid at least minimum wage and like any job, as they become veterans of it they start to move up the pay scale. It's illegal here to be paid below minimum wage no matter what and if as an employer you get caught then it can put you out of business.
Here are a couple of referance sites in reguards to Tipping. As tipping is expected, and servers with tips generally make well more then Minimum Wage, and Tips are Taxed as wages(if they are reported like they are supposed to be). It is common for thier "wage" to be less then the Minimum. Tips really are more like a Modified Commition job, like in Real Estate where a Salesperson will get 10% of the Sale price of the home. The Modified part is that they do get a small salary even if there is no sales that day(unlike working on pure Commition).
Some sites that talk about Tips in the US:
BBC.co.uk - Tipping Etiquette in the USAtripadvisor.com - United States Tipping & Etiquette uk-2-usa.com - Absolute beginners: Tips and Tipping This one has a fairly good explination of why we Tip in the US from the PoV of a Pro-American Brit.
One thing the sites I linked I didn't see talked about is the fact that you should NEVER not leave a tip at places that it is expected like Table Service Resurants the reason for this is because if you don't leave a tip (especally as a Forien Visitor) it could be miss-construd as not knowing any better or being forgetful(as it is not normal for you). Therefor, if you DO reseive what you deem to be Very poor service you should leave a minisual tip, like say 1-2% at most. Though again this is for VERY bad service, like never getting Water refills, No bread, cold food that should be hot(or visa versa) or rude wait staff. If it is just below average then tip 10%, Average service 15%, exceptional service 20+%.
Also be aware that "average" service is relitive to the type of place you are going to. For exsample, Average service at at 5-star resturant would be exceptional service at a Coffie Shop(like Denny's), While Average service at a Coffie shop would be exceptional service at a Buffet or Fast Food place.
::EDIT::The Clark County Sales Tax appears to be 7.75% so for average service doubling the sales tax will get you fairly close to the 15% number.
Also you do NOT calculate tip based on the Total Bill(after sales tax), you calculate it based on the Pre-Tax Sub-Total.
I personally don't feel right leaving alot of Coin for the wait staff, so I generally will round-up(almost never down) to the nearest dollar(if I have fifty cents($0.50) I might round-up to that)
Fromage wrote:xFenshirex wrote:One service I do refuse to tip are coffee shops. I don't understand where this trend of tipping your barista came from, and call me Scrooge, but I think it's ridiculous. It's not like they're wasting their own gas like a pizza driver, and it's not like they're making $2.13/hour like a waiter. They generally make $7/$8 an hour.I agree! I hate that businesses allow for tip jars. Especially places like Starbucks and the dry cleaners. I have a friend who owns a Starbucks franchise in Arizona. He told me that his employees start out at $12/hour. Yet.. there's the tip jar stuffed to the top during the morning rush hour. And, to make matters worse.. the magic marker used to mark your cup with your order has a period at the end of it if you tipped.. meaning get that order done first. Its like extortion.Matt.. if you have a mobile device like a Blackberry or iPhone.. download one of the hundreds of tipping apps available for free to it. It will help you with tipping a lot.. and you'll be able to avoid the currency conversion math as well as you try to figure it out in your head. I have a Blackberry for work, but I probably won't be taking that with me since I don't think they'll be overly happy with me running up a huge roaming bill for non-work stuff
As long as you don't use it for anything other then Tip Calculating and Business calls you should be fine, as the Tip Application would be something downloaded onto the Blackberry itself, and therefor should not incure any roaming charges.
::EDIT::Also don't forget that everyone with a Fan Faire Badge is a friendly face and most are more then willing to join you for a meal, and they can then help you through the tipping process. As it is generally heavily discussed right befor a large group gets ready to leave, as everyone needs to kick in thier share.
Thanks for the links, Kela As for the Blackberry, I'm not sure I'd wanna take it just for the purpose of calculating tips, as handy as that might be. I'll probably be taking my personal phone though, so I might see if there's anything for that
Is Las Vegas a Right to Work state? Some states allow jobs which get tips to work for less than minimum wage, as they're supposed to make it up in tips. I met a waitress in a diner in MAssechusets who made $3.50 an hour (I think min wage was $6.35 at the time).
Also, most places exempt part-time workers from minimum wage rules, and that accounts for a lot of people in positions like waiting tables. As Calthine says, those jobs are supposed to make it up in tips.
Tipping is a huge benefit for the business, because it allows them to share the risk with the workers. When business is slow, both the worker and the business suffer, which creates a big incentive to work hard when business picks up, and that will attract more return customers. I used to live in a country that didn't tip, and the quality of service was very uniform, HORRIBLE!
Oh, I don't recall if this came up yet, but tipped people like waitstaff have to pay taxes on their tips. The IRS has a formula for what you should be making in tips, and back when they implimented it (I worked at Denny's) it was frighteningly accurate.
I think everyone should have a crappy tipped job once in their life to appreciate how hard a good employee will work to earn that dollar you leave her.
Don't forget the hotel housekeeping staff.
Getting closer to late June !!
As someone who actually lives/works in Las Vegas and will be attending the FF, please tip your waitresses/bartenders! When gambling (tables, slots) you get free drinks, so please always tip at least $1 (a dollar a drink is kind of the standard, but obviously the more you tip, the more the staff loves you and will take care of you better. IMO if someone tips me a dollar, I'm going to take care of them. If they throw me a $5 or more, your drink will never be empty). Also, as far as Vegas is concerned, tipping rules everything. Valet is never full (whatever the sign says), and you never have to wait in a long club line. It all just depends on what it's worth to you. And yes, people in tipping jobs do get allocated $X per hour for tips, and we get taxed on it, whether we make it or not. Tipping however is not required, but very, very much appreciated.
I read an interesting quote from "Miss Piggy" of muppet fame today.
"There are several ways of calculating the tip after a meal. I find the best is to divide the the bill by the height of the waiter. Thus a $12.00 bill brought by a 6 foot waiter calls for a $2.00 dollar tip".
This goes along with another favorite quote of mine "Mathmatical computations are not contusive to my medical stability"". - unknown
Getting closer and closer to late June *w00t
