I have a question about New York City (suggested gratituty)

[Texacon]

Interesting thread

Hawkeye-X  (1000+ posts)        Tue Apr-07-09 09:13 PM
Original message

I have a question about New York City (suggested gratituty)
 Why is it that we are forced to literally buy someone else a dinner for a 18% gratituty? Tonite we went to dinner with my BIL and SIL and even though we did request seperate checks and yet the manager screwed it up and totalled it together. It came out 133 dollars (BIL ordered too much) and we did the calculations and we discovered that our share was less than 55 and BIL was 55, totalling at about 114, and with the 18% gratuity it came to 133. Now where I live, it is usually 10 to 15 percent, but the service tonight was atrocious - we all finished our dinner except my SIL, and waited over 30 min since finishing dinner for her to get served. It is a small restaurant. We are seeing that 18% gratuity all over nyc. What is the deal with that? Is it mandatory? It did say suggested, but we all paid 60 per family. 120 is wayyyy plenty after the lousy service too. Am I in the wrong?
 

Ok, here we have a cheap bastid.  And there are a few other cheap bastids on there but what I found interesting about the thread was this comment;

ShareTheWoods  (72 posts)      Tue Apr-07-09 10:18 PM
Response to Reply #25

30. The staff is getting screwed by the tax and the employer
 I'd like to know what party added that mandatory tax to the law. When I was a cook the wait folks only
paid tax on actual tips.

Pay the staff a decent wage and let them keep their tips tax free. Service will be better that way.

How come DUmmie can't equate this with corporations?  If it works on the small scale it will work on the large scale.  DUmmies can NEVER see the big picture ... only what affects them.

KC

[Ralph Wiggum]

Now where I live, it is usually 10 to 15 percent

Freaking cheapskate!  I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've tipped less than 15 percent, and it wasn't even "mandatory".

I'd like to know what party added that mandatory tax to the law.

It's New York State, you figure it out, doofus.

[djones520]

Freaking cheapskate!  I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've tipped less than 15 percent, and it wasn't even "mandatory".

It's New York State, you figure it out, doofus.

I don't know.  I have a hard time paying even 15% when I eat at those restuarants that charge twice the price of what the food is worth, because their those "good" places.

Just doesn't make much sense to me that I should give someone a $15 tip when I could have gone to Applebee's, gotten more food for half the price, and over tipped them with $8.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I don't know.  I have a hard time paying even 15% when I eat at those restuarants that charge twice the price of what the food is worth, because their those "good" places.

Just doesn't make much sense to me that I should give someone a $15 tip when I could have gone to Applebee's, gotten more food for half the price, and over tipped them with $8.

I understand.  I don't eat at them there high-falootin' restaurants all that often, but I still tip accordingly.

[Lord Undies]

My standard tip for bad service is two and one half times the tax.  My minimum tip is $3.00 (even for a cup of coffee).

DUmmies, think of tipping as a tax.  You love taxes, right?  You should pay your fare share plus some.

[USA4ME]

Good find.

ShareTheWoods

Pay the staff a decent wage and let them keep their tips tax free. Service will be better that way.

Higher wages equals higher food prices equals less customers equals less tips.

And from the example given, the "staff" knew they didn't have to put out the effort because the 18% tip was guaranteed.  That's pretty much socialism in a nutshell.

Also, if you have a waiter who's pride in his workmanship is determined by his wage and tips, then you've got a problem employee.  There's way too many people with jobs whose only concern revolves around when is payday and quitting time.  Someone's going to have to do a lot of convincing to get me to agree that it's not the case that a waiter/waitress who is conscience about his/her job just does the right thing knowing the money will follow.  In my own industry, I never did a mortgage loan worrying about how much I was going to make.  I just worked hard and, when all the commissions of all the loans were added up, the money naturally was there.

.

[Vagabond]

My largest tip was 100%, to a waitress I had known for a long time.  It was meant as a wedding gift.  It totaled about thirty dollars, but I didn't have much at the time either.

My smallest tip was $.01, to a waitress that seated us at a very wet table.  Then didn't dry it.  Then waited over 30 minutes to take our order.  Then had the audacity to ask us how we wanted to tip her.  There were only four other tables occupied in the restaraunt, and she was talking on the phone.  I figured if I left nothing, I was just a jerk.  If I left a penny, she would have to figure out why.

[AllosaursRus]

I have always tipped 20% for good service and 5% for lousy.

[JohnnyReb]

Here's a tip, get outta NYC, the muslims are going to flatten it.

[AllosaursRus]

Here's a tip, get outta NYC, the muslims are going to flatten it.

Heh, heh! H5

[The Village Idiot]

Interesting thread

the tips are now a tax/ thank god I don't live in a cesspool like NYC

[Chris_]

If memory serves, who was it that imposed strict tax regulations on server's tips.............it's coming to me........wasn't it Bill Clinton?

Democrats screw the little people again, and yet they continue to worship them......cognative dissidence anyone?

doc

[Lacarnut]

What these dummies at the Dump do not realize is that management at many med. to high end restaurants take a cut/percentage out of those tips.

[BlueStateSaint]

Here's a tip, get outta NYC, the muslims are going to flatten it.

The main reason I'm going nowhere near the place.

[md11hydmec]

Actually, if she was smart, she would've had the waitress take off the automatic gratuity for parties of 6 or more( they will do that) and then  tipped accordingly.  I usually tip about 20% and go from there.  I had one waitress not charge me for a meal because it wasn't exactly the way I wanted.  I then tipped her 20% + what the entree cost.  I am very particular about service, having worked in it before.  I tip well for great service, I tip lousy for lousy service.

[happy1ga]

My husband tips people at the drive thru. I swear to Obama. I thought I'd die the first time he did it, but now I am used to it. They look at him funny, but now, the places around our house give us all kinds of extras. LOL>