Timeline for In USA, am I expected to tip if a restaurant has no employee other than owners?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
19 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 5, 2023 at 12:20 | history | edited | Relaxed | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 1 character in body
|
| May 5, 2023 at 12:15 | history | edited | Relaxed | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 27 characters in body
|
| May 5, 2023 at 11:14 | comment | added | WoJ | @ZachLipton: thank you for the details. Still, this is something that is really awkward for a tourist. In that vein, the prices could also be aligned with some kind of index, which would make them truly immutable and practical for the sellers. Instead of having a burger at 3 USD, and after 6 months at 6.5 USD (which forss a reprint of the menu), it could be something like 2.36% of the Dow Jones of the day + tax. The buyer would sooner or later adapt to knowing approximately what the price is (because today they also only know the approximate price). /s | |
| May 5, 2023 at 3:00 | comment | added | Zach Lipton | @WoJ One distinction is that the US has many, many sales tax jurisdictions and rates (on the order of 10,000 or so) and they can change periodically. One city may have an 8.5% sales tax, but the next town over passed an extra transportation tax so their rate is 8.625%, unless you're in the stadium district where it's 8.725% for a 20 year period to fund local infrastructure around the stadium, and so on. Restaurants could account for that and show post-tax prices on menus, but it would be administratively complicated for some types of business to change all their price tags if tax rates change. | |
| May 4, 2023 at 19:40 | comment | added | dan04 | In general, the expectation in the US is that waiters will receive most (50-80%) of their income from customer tips. | |
| May 4, 2023 at 18:29 | comment | added | Criticizing Israel not allowed | I like this answer a lot better than the "yes, tip because it's normal" that currently has twice as many votes. | |
| May 4, 2023 at 16:22 | comment | added | WoJ | a restaurant must post prices that are way below what is actually required to run the business this is one of the things we Europeans discover as we come to the US. The advertised price for the meal is, wow, really good compared to our standards, and then comes the tax and the tip and suddenly it costs the same or more. While I can understand the tipping thing because of a stupid law, the tax past is completely cosmic. | |
| May 4, 2023 at 7:14 | history | edited | Relaxed | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 1 character in body
|
| May 3, 2023 at 22:08 | comment | added | Makyen | Nearly everything mentioned above (in the answer and comments) about minimum wage laws varies from state to state (other than that the IRS expects tips to be reported as income). In some states, employers are required to pay minimum wage, without regards to tips, and that all tips must go to the server or to some sharing agreement among the employees (i.e. the employer can't keep tips). In other states, the total, including tips, must meet the minimum wage requirements. There are multiple variations, many very poor for the servers. What exactly it is will depend on the jurisdiction. | |
| May 3, 2023 at 21:37 | comment | added | Relaxed | @EvilSnack Yeah but it only makes a difference is business is really slow and there is no way that you can influence any of that individually in most situations. The fact remains that the prices listed on the menu are based on the expectation that the waiters' wages will actually be paid by the patrons on top of the price of the food and withholding your tip will only reduce their income because the employer will be made whole by other people's tips before the waitstaff get anything beyond the federal minimum wage. | |
| May 3, 2023 at 21:26 | history | edited | Relaxed | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 110 characters in body
|
| May 3, 2023 at 19:24 | comment | added | EvilSnack | This all came about because the IRS was getting frustrated by the general failure of servers to report their tips. After many things, they hit on the offset scheme, which gives the employer an incentive to report tips. This totally blew away the legal status of tips; previously tips were a gift from the customer to the server. Now they are really extra that the customer pays to the employer, some of which goes to the server. | |
| May 3, 2023 at 19:21 | comment | added | EvilSnack | It depends on the difference between the minimum required (the employer must pay a minimum of $2.13 per hour as of this writing) and the minimum wage (currently $7.25). If business is slow, then the first $5.12 per hour of tips has zero effect on the server's take-home pay. Some jurisdictions do not allow the offset; the employer must pay the published minimum wage rate without regard to tips, and all tips are extra money for the server (and the IRS). | |
| May 3, 2023 at 18:39 | comment | added | Michael Richardson | @DJClayworth That is incorrect. During a busy evening, a waiter can make considerably more than minimum wage. As a delivery driver, I would generally average between $25-$33 per hour, with some hours hitting $40 and a very rare few spiking higher than that. | |
| May 3, 2023 at 17:43 | comment | added | DJClayworth | @EvilSnack So in reality when you tip you are just reducing the amount the restaurant has to give the waiter out of their pocket, not increasing the amount of money the waiter actually gets. | |
| May 3, 2023 at 17:25 | comment | added | EvilSnack | In all jurisdictions, the server must be paid at least the prevailing minimum wage. If the tipped employee rate, plus tips, exceeds that, fine. If not, the employer must add in the difference. If you don't tip, the employer has to bring the employee up to the minimum wage. | |
| May 3, 2023 at 17:06 | comment | added | Glenn Willen | Note that the "tipped minimum wage" (being below the legal minimum wage) is not a thing in certain states, such as California. Here, servers must make at least the regular minimum wage. (Whether that affects how much they actually get will depend on what their wage would otherwise be, I guess.) | |
| May 3, 2023 at 15:48 | history | edited | Relaxed | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 198 characters in body
|
| May 3, 2023 at 15:20 | history | answered | Relaxed | CC BY-SA 4.0 |