Stiffing a server: leaving a poor tip or no tip for a server after they just worked their butts off making you happy.
In most areas, waiters and waitresses don't make an hourly wage. Some restaurants in some areas like Los Angeles, for example, pay their servers the federal minimum wage so that they can keep up with the cost of living. In Michigan, servers generally make around $2-4 per hour. That money is added to the tips we claim for the shift, and then the sum of those two are taxed the federal tax rate. Afterwards, the tips are deducted from the remaining balance after taxes (if any) and that is our paycheck. Nine times out of ten, I do not get a paycheck. And, yes, I work 40 serving hours each week, so don't try to tell me that I don't work enough.
These are average 2015-2016 expenses for a college student.
Tuition: $9,410 (in-state, public college, not including room and board)
Room and Board: $10,138
Textbook Fees: $1,122 ($561 per semester)
Car Insurance: $1,800 ($150 x 12 months)
Cell Phone Bill: $852 ($71 x 12 months)
Groceries: $1,200 ($100 x 12 months)
Misc: $700
[Totals were taken from various statistical blogs]
Let's look at the math of how far truly stiffing your server goes, i.e. leaving $0.00 as a tip.
This one's easy. Leaving no money, surprisingly, DOES NOT BENEFIT YOUR SERVER AT ALL! At the end of the night, servers have to tip out busboys, bar staff, and food runners a whopping 3-10% of their sales. If I sold $700 worth of product that night, I would end up having to tip $21-70 of my hard earned cash to the helping staff. If you leave me nothing, I am essentially losing money on you.
Now, let's look at the math of poorly tipping your server.
Bill: $96.17
Suggested Tip (20%): $19.23
What you left me (8%): $7.69
Alright, so I received an 8% tip from you for my service. I now have $7.69 to my name. I'm going to divide that into each payment I need to make to show you how this is doing me no good.
I have roughly 7 payments to make this year. This means that the $7.69 you left me will be divided into about $1.10 for each payment.
Tuition: $1.10/9,410 = .011690% of the bill
Room and Board: $1.10/10,138 = .010850%
Textbook Fees: $1.10/1,122 = .098039%
Car Insurance: $1.10/1,800 = .061111%
Cell Phone Bill: $1.10/852 = .129108%
Groceries: $1.10/1,200 = .091667
Misc: $1.10/700 = .157143%
That crappy tip you left me accounts for a total of .030489% of my annual bills ($7.69/25,222).
Tip me the proper percentage and I will have .076243% of my bills paid for.
That number should hurt your heart.
It hurts mine.
If you take anything away from this, let it be that servers don't make enough money to have to suffer through your horrible jokes, picky stomachs, and attitude. Compensate for that. Compensate for the fact that we don't make money hourly and that we rely on your tips. If you can't tip, I'm sure a McDonald's is right around the corner.
I'll leave you with what will definitely be my children's first words: Tip 20% (at least).
