[kenberg]

The other day I stopped at TacoBell to get a Burrito Supreme. Never mind the diet advice, I already know. One person rings the order up, takes my twenty, gives me change, places the order, it's filled by someone else. The cashier has a tip jar. Hmm!!

Unless a waitress dumps the food in my lap she gets her tip. I tip the guy who cuts my hair, something I never did in 1950. They wash my hair before they cut it (totally unheard of in 1950). I tip the gal who does this. Maid service in a hotel gets a tip. Etc.

I do not think of myself as cheap, but this seems to be getting out of hand. I should tip someone who takes my order and gives me change? What's next? I go to the supermarket and the guy who wraps my trout has a tip jar set out?

Are we moving to something along the lines of: I am working, I don't get paid much, would you mind giving me some more?

I will now return to thinking about the meaning of time, the horrors of war, and the end of the world.

Actually there are also a couple of hands I want to ask about.

[hanp]

Are honest minimum wages unconstitutional?

[jonottawa]

I agree about tips.

Speaking of other truly unimportant stuff ... anybody watching Farrah's Story? (Or am I being too harsh?)

[jdonn]

This is easy. Jar = optional. I just think of it as a convenient place to dump the loose change they give me back that I don't want to carry.

[kenberg]

hanp, on May 15 2009, 01:59 PM, said:

Are honest minimum wages unconstitutional?

A decent minimum wage is my preferred solution. I don't stiff waitresses because it's part of the accepted social contract that this is how they make their wages. Maybe not the best approach, but it's a settled way. But I would not like to see this spread so that everyone depends on my, and other's, generosity to give them a decent paycheck.

[kenberg]

jonottawa, on May 15 2009, 02:01 PM, said:

I agree about tips. 

Speaking of other truly unimportant stuff ... anybody watching Farrah's Story? (Or am I being too harsh?)

At the risk of sounding out of it, who is Farrah?

Permission granted for thread hijacking I think it was Y66 who started a thread a while back for useless posts. I thought it had merit.

[jonottawa]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090514/ap_en_..._farrah_fawcett

Sorry 'bout the hijacking. Didn't think it deserved its own thread but was curious how others felt about it.

[kenberg]

jonottawa, on May 15 2009, 02:26 PM, said:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090514/ap_en_..._farrah_fawcett

Sorry 'bout the hijacking.  Didn't think it deserved its own thread but was curious how others felt about it.

I was wondering if it was that Farrah. How many are there, I suppose. I never watched Charlie's Angels, not more than once anyway, although my wife did. FF's career went along a path that did not get me watching at all.

Now as to her illness, I didn't know of it. My mother, a smoker, died of cancer. Long ago, but I am not really up for watching tv about someone I don't know struggling with it. She certainly has my sympathy.

I meant it about the permission granted. If this evolves into a thread for posts not deserving a home of their own, that's fine by me.

[Phil]

This goes under the same file as the "tip" line when I buy food to-go.

A tip jar is optional. You see it, it sees you. You ignore it, but I sometimes throw my change in it. Sort of like throwing change in the guitar case of the guy playing on the sidewalk.

The "tip" line has to be consciously ignored. You get the honor of writing in $0.00 and totalling it below. Complete hassle.

There's a really good hole-in-the-wall Mexican place between Palm Springs and OC that I always hit when I drive home on Thursdays or Fridays. No indoor seating and about four metal tables outdoors. It's the most kickass Mexican food I've had in So Cal. The window gal knows me, and she's probably the owner.

She ALWAYS gets a tip.

[Winstonm]

The simple solution is to take your own tip jar with you - when you are seated in the diner, plunk down a tip jar of your very own and then match whatever comes in.

[barmar]

I don't go into fast food chains very often these days, I've never seen a tip jar at any them. I assume that the tip jar in the Taco Bell is not just for the order taker, it's split among all the minimum-wage staff in the joint.

We have a local chain around here, Anna's Taqueria, that makes some of the best burritos as well. I stop there every Tuesday night on my way home from the bridge club, they make the burritos practically instantly (when there's no line I can be in and out in 2 minutes). They have a tip jar, I always throw the change in it.

[h2osmom]

There is one thing I think is inherently more fair about tipping as substantial part of wages, and that is that people get paid according to how well they do their job. In far too many jobs, pay is based on length of service, level of education, and it's nearly impossible to fire someone who really isn't adequate; rather, they get a raise each year. In tipping, the customer pays, and often gives a different amount according to the service. Over time, I am pretty sure that better servers make more money than lesser ones. (This doesn't apply to tip jars; just to actual tips given directly to the server.)

[Chas_P]

Years ago I read that the origin of tip as used in this context was as an abbreviation for "to insure promptness". I can't verify it, but it makes sense to me. If someone gives me service above what I expect I'm happy to leave them a substantial tip. On the other hand, I detest getting a bill with 15% added just because 3-4 couples eating at the same table asks for separate checks. I'll pay it, but there won't be 1 cent extra.

The nicest tip I ever heard of occurred in 1993. Every year during The Masters in Augusta, GA a number of homeowners will vacate their homes and rent them to players in the tournament. The couple who rented their home to Bernhard Langer in 1993 did a little extra. They came by several times during the week to make sure everything was satisfactory, brought fresh flowers, etc. When they returned home after the tournament's conclusion they found their tip....the set of clubs with which Langer had just won The Masters. I think that was a class act.

[kenberg]

I agree, that is a fine "tip", really a gift of appreciation. Of course these things mostly happen at the upper levels.

I tip waitresses fully, and virtually always, because for better or for worse that is the way society has set things up. She would be drastically underpaid if everyone stopped tipping. Fairly often they get a little more than the minimum. In severe cases I might not tip, but mostly I would still tip, probably the problems are not her fault, and just not go back.

Recently I and several other people had a number of things to discuss and we met for dinner. We had the table for a considerable time. She gets an extra tip. Not because anything needed doing but because we are occupying her source of income.

This is ok, or more or less ok. It's the way we do things here and as the thread title notes, it's unimportant. But I sort of regret seeing the expansion of this to so many other areas. I would like to see people paid adequately. Somehow I get the feeling that the employer is tossing this task on to me. "I don't feel the need to pay the cashier and the burrito maker much but maybe you can contribute". Well, yes, I can. So far, I don't. She needs to pay her bills. I need to feel I can buy a burrito without thinking through what a proper tip should be. My guess is that she doesn't get much this way.

[zman102]

In Arizona waiters and waitresses make less than $3.00/hour. So I always tip them (15-20%) unless they are rude, mean or arrogrant Then I don't tip.

I don't tip in the taco bell.

In casinos I tip the drink person a dollar (so maybe they will find me again). I sometimes tip the cashier.

But I don't know how much to tip if I win a nice jackpot that requires a hand pay. Once I was just wandering around and put 3 nickels into a machine and won the progressive ($8,874). Didn't even sit down. I didn't tip when they paid me (a stack of $100 bills) as I was in a state of shock.

But I am not sure what a reasonable tip would be for a hand pay when you win a jackpot of some kind. Usually when I win a royal flush on a 0.25 cent viedo poker machine I tip each person paying me (and there are usually 2 at least) $10.00.

Last week I won $2,060 playing mega bucks. Most times when I go to the casino I put $21.00 (7 pulls) into mega bucks in case lightning strikes. I hit one red and white 7 with 2 other symbols that multiplied by 9 the amount that 3 of the sevens would have paid. I didn't have my social security card with me and they went to extra trouble to fill out more government forms so they could pay me. When they paid me they gave me 20 $100 bills and 3 twentys. There were three of them, so I gave each of them a twenty. I could tell by the looks on their faces that I had given them too much (or was it too little).

So i have no idea how much to tip when gambling. Maybe someone can give me a clue.

[kenberg]

I can see that it is best that I stay out of Vegas. I would have had no idea I was supposed to tip at all and the three guys would probably have hammered my kneecaps. And I thought the thread was unimportant!

I'll be interested in learning the answer.

[onoway]

One thing which started in Edmonton a couple of years ago ( so don't know if this is elsewhere or not) was that the MANAGEMENT was taking a portion of all tips that came in. Friends who used to be regulars at one place were told by their usual waitress she was leaving and why; since then I have heard of several others. I don't go to those places any more..how would other people deal with this?

[PassedOut]

onoway, on May 17 2009, 07:42 PM, said:

One thing which started in Edmonton a couple of years ago ( so don't know if this is elsewhere or not) was that the MANAGEMENT was taking a portion of all tips that came in. Friends who used to be regulars at one place were told by their usual waitress she was leaving and why; since then I have heard of several others. I don't go to those places any more..how would other people deal with this?

Could it be that the management is withholding a percentage for income taxes?

[Al_U_Card]

I always try to leave a decent tip and since here in Quebec they "tax" the meals twice AND they calculate at 8% what a waiter will receive on average, (and if the tip is written on the receipt they tax the entire amount) I always leave the tip in cash even when I pay by plastic.

[blackshoe]

PassedOut, on May 17 2009, 07:55 PM, said:

onoway, on May 17 2009, 07:42 PM, said:

One thing which started in Edmonton a couple of years ago ( so don't know if this is elsewhere or not) was that the MANAGEMENT was taking a portion of all tips that came in.  Friends  who used to be regulars at one place were told by their usual waitress she was leaving and why; since then I have heard of several others.  I don't go to those places any more..how would other people deal with this?

Could it be that the management is withholding a percentage for income taxes?

It could be. If it were, I would expect management to have said so.

I think the best way to deal with an establishment that takes tip money from employees without explanation is to not patronize that establishment - and to tell the management why I'm not.

It is, of course, entirely possible that the government has somehow put the employer on the hook for the employee's proper adherence to the tax laws. If that's the case, it's probably time to leave the country.