Full waiter experience (seated, handed menu, food brought to table, plate cleared) gets 20%.
If the level of service is less than that, the percentage starts to go down proportionally.
Counter service is flat-rate $1 per person served.
This is the same every time regardless of quality of service (unless something truly malicious happens, but I’ve never experienced that.)
I don't understand this. Why do you Americans tip for this? Isn't being seated, handed a menu, food brought to the table, and plates being cleared part of a waiter's job?
Why does the customer have to 'reward' waiters for doing 'a good job'?
Why do restaurants not just drop a flat 10% service/cover charge (it's 10% where I am) and be done with it?
And some restaurants are starting to implement a standard service fee, it’s more common at high end restaurants.
1. Because nobody you'd want waiting a table wants to be a waiter for minimum wage.
2. And because restaurants don't want to pay waiters more than minimum wage on slow nights.
Your options if you don't like this situation are:
1. A ~20% price hike in the cost of your food.
2. Significantly worse service.
3. Significantly limited hours.
Pick two.
I have implemented the same policy of 20% BUT with strict process to make sure it isn't 20% of the full bill:
1) I tip 20% on the Sub-Total amount after subtracting all alcohol (see #2). I am not tipping 20% on the sales tax as well. So don't make a common mistake and tip on the total, go with sub-total.
2) Subtract alcohol from sub-total, calculate 20% on that new sub-total and then I add $1-2 MAX per drink or $5 for a bottle.
With the price gouging on alcohol at restaurants/bars (particularly wine - which they literally charge for a glass what a full bottle costs in the store) I refuse to tip 20% of their inflated prices. Sometimes wife and I can have 3-4 drinks total at a long dinner and can be like $50-100 just on alcohol. No WAY I am over-tipping our waiter $20 to walk the drinks over to our table.
This process drives my wife crazy sometimes and she calls me cheap, but just flat out giving 20% on the full total of the bill is over-tipping. Steakhouses drive me nuts too because they can be very expensive and 20% tip on the full total could be $60! That is just dumb for someone performing the same job at Applebees of taking order and bringing food/drinks to table.
I usually still tip for these because it's tying up the kitchen for the in-restaurant diners which might slow down the service for the staff. But not the full 20%.