[Dixielandjazz] TIPS

[Stephen Barbone]

Rob McCallum wrote: (polite snip)

"Therefore if someone orders a $100 meal and only leaves $5, $3 goes
back to the house and at least $8 has to be claimed for taxes.  What's
the point in serving?  Generally in the U.S. a 15% gratuity is
considered reasonable for adequate to good service and 16 to 20% for
exceptional or outstanding service.  This is why even in less expensive
restaurants a gratuity of 15 to 18% is automatically added on to larger
parties, if sales are high and the gratuity is neglected, the server is
losing money and the house loses quality people.  Good quality servers
(customer service reps in general) are not easy to come by as it is,
especially because restaurant serving is a difficult and often thankless
job."


Rob & List Mates:

I often work in a Baltimore Restaurant where dinner is provided to the
band. And it is a $25 dinner and we have a trio there. It is served on
our break by one of the waitresses. We always tip $5 each for that as
the timing is critical. We have to rush eating if it is late.

One time I was there with one guy who refused to tip even though we
pressured him, so the other guy and I covered it. Needless to say, we
never hired him again.

Waitstaff in the USA do not get paid a living wage as Rob pointed out. I
always will tip at least 20% where the service is good and 10% if it
sucks, and I tell the serving person why if it was not good. Overseas
visitors should not short waitstaff on a tip because they disagree with
management's pay policy, they should still tip the waitstaff and perhaps
voice their protest by withholding a portion of the check.

When in Rome, etc. Like all those underpaid bands in England. Should we
not tip because we think management should pay you an adequate wage? Not
bloody likely. There would be no OKOM in England if management had to
pay a decent wage to all those Dixieland Bands working in clubs.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone