Tipping wait staff has become second nature for most Americans. We don’t think twice about handing an extra 10-25% (though you 10%ers need to reevaluate your life choices) over to our waiter; it’s customary. However, this wasn’t always the case. The word “tip” is an acronym for the phrase “to ensure promptitude.” Tipping your waiter or waitress only became a thing in America around the Civil War when wealthy Americans would travel back and forth from Europe and show off their worldliness. But Americans considered it anti-democratic. Anti-tipping laws began to crop up, but by the year 1926, they were abolished across the States. However, there are some today who still believe tipping to be a nuisance.
Recently, a man in South Carolina left his waitress at a Cracker Barrel a tip written on a napkin and of no monetary value. He claims that “The woman’s place is in the home” and that “while you're in here working your husband must see another woman on his way home from a long day at his work.” He then went on to suggest that she “hows about going home and cleaning your house and cooking a hot meal for your husband and children, the way your husband and God intended.”
As a server at a restaurant, I am here to tell you that this tip is garbage. The average wage a server makes is $2.13/hr. If working a full 40-hour work schedule, this adds up to be $85.20 a week, which is $340.80 a month, and a grand total $4089.60 a year, and that is before taxes. I don’t know about the rest of America, but at least where I live in Nashville, TN, that barely covers the cost to live for 3 months. So when I am running around with a smile on my face, writing your order down so I don’t forget your many modifications, constantly refilling your drinks, making sure your food gets to your table the way you ordered it, and doing the same for 3 other tables at a time, I am working for a tip. A monetary tip. One that can help me pay my bills and pay off my student loans (because yes, I am also far more qualified to work as a server, but here I am) and maybe have some money left over to pay for my own food.
In response to this small-minded man and his outdated opinions, I have a few things to say.
Pick up an English grammar textbook, please. Your misuse of the words “your” and “you’re” is giving me a migraine, not to mention your misplaced commas and apostrophes. I mean...I know you come from the South, but I’ve met 3rd graders with better grammar skills than you.
Why yes, sometimes my place is in the kitchen…for $10/hr. Because some days I work in the back to ensure that your food is delivered to your table, not somebody else’s and that it is cooked the proper way, garnished with the proper ingredients, and will satisfy your hunger.
Do you think I want to spend my Friday and Saturday nights putting on a smile and playing nice and acting like it’s okay that your 3-year-old is throwing food all over the table and floor?
To the rest of you: I know tipping your server seems like something that should not be your responsibility. It should be up to the restaurant to pay them decent wages. But the fact of the matter is, it is 100% your responsibility. If you plan on “treating yourself” and going to a restaurant for a meal where somebody else takes your order, prepares your food, delivers it to you, and cleans up after your mess along with dealing with your whiny complaints and constant neediness for more Ranch, make sure you leave the house with a little extra cash. Don’t bother taking your lazy self out if you won’t leave a decent tip. 15%-25% should be the tipping range in America, 15 for less-than-stellar service and 25+ for exceptional service, yet I have met people who justify a 10% tip every time they go out to eat. Work in a restaurant, live off your tips, everyone. See what it’s like. If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat out. Period.
