So let's just say you're out on the town one night with your significant other, and everything is going so well. You're at a great restaurant and you're enjoying every single moment of this perfect night. But let's back it up here for a moment.
When you walk into the restaurant you are seated by a hostess who makes minimum wage, you pass a busser who makes $6.00 an hour, plus 4 percent of whatever each of the server's total sales are and you pass the restaurant manager who makes a salary of at least 60k a year.
You don't even notice these people who you pass by as you walk to your table, but then your waitress greets you. She greets you and your significant other with a kind smile and she asks what the two of you would like to drink, you reply and she heads on her way to retrieve those drinks for you.
The thought doesn't even cross your mind of who this waitress is or why she is working at this restaurant. So let me tell you some details about this waitress, she is 22 years old, she makes $4.00 an hour plus tips to pay for her undergraduate college education.
She has exams to study for and homework to work on, but she is at work because she has to be able to make payments on her tuition so she is able to graduate college one time. She relies on her job and her tips to be able to pay all of her bills associated with being an adult and being in college.
She brings you your drinks and takes your order, she quickly brings you your sides and refills. You don't even have the decency to thank her, but she continues being kind to you and your significant other because it is her job to do so.
She is waiting on other tables, not only yours, but you realize that you need extra napkins, while she is taking another table's order you rudely interrupt her to inform her that you need extra napkins, she smiles and says, "One minute, please."
After she completes taking that order she returns to your table with napkins, you don't thank her, you pretend like she doesn't even exist. She remains kind because it is her job to do so.
She brings you and your significant other your entrees and she asks if you need anything else, you shake your head no and she leaves the table. You enjoy your meal, and when the time comes she brings over boxes and the check. She lets you know that if you need anything else she will be there. You take the bill and assess it.
The bill is $40, you put your credit card down and she cashes you out, she returns the card with the receipt and a pen so you can fill out the tip portion of the receipt, you enter $0 in the tip portion because you figure she makes SOME money per hour, and that's enough, you don't have to leave her a tip.
So let's make some sense of all of this.
A $40 bill means she is tipping out the busser $2.00 for that check because each server tips out the busser 4% of their total sales.
So your $4.00 an hour just turned into $2.00 an hour. Oh, but wait.
She has to tip out the busser 2 percent of her sales, AND Taxes are taken out of her hourly pay, therefore her $2.00 now turns into just about $1.00 per hour all because someone felt like it was justified and appropriate to not leave you a tip. So for that one table who didn't leave a tip, she now owes more to her fellow staff than what she actually made from serving that table.
Tipping is not required. I understand that. But just imagine being the server in this situation, and then think about the fact that this scenario happens, for some servers MULTIPLE times a day.
Please, stop, and put yourself in your servers shoes before you decide to be cheap and not to tip.
If you can't afford to leave an appropriate tip, then you should probably reconsider going out to eat.
(The above scenario was slightly altered to replicate a real-life situation)
