It seems as though nobody commenting here as actually waited tables or worked in or owned a food service establishment. I have. So here is how it is in America:
Waitstaff are paid slightly less than minimum wage, because it is the custom here to tip waitstaff. If the place has buspeople, the waiter/waitresses will share 20% of their tips with them. A good busser makes the waitperson's job easier & helps to make happier customers and bigger tips. Often shifts are short, so they don't really have a full time job.
If it is a slow day, they all work less, and earn less tips; if it's a busy day, maybe they make more because they are serving more people (but maybe not proportionately more because they can't provide the best service if they're too busy): that is the economic justice of the tipping system. Think of it as production bonuses.
You people who have salaried jobs and a slow day: is your income impacted? Probably not. And your compensation is built in to your salary.
Some of you get year-end bonuses or commissions on sales: waiter's tips are the same thing.
For a restaurant owner, wages are a huge expense, make-or-break actually, even with waitstaff hourly wages so low. If you want them to give the waitstaff higher wages, they will have to raise their menu prices: are you willing to pay more?
I don't believe in adding the gratuity to the bill except in cases of large parties (8 or more). Working a large table is much harder work, and if one or two of the people there (if it's a split ticket) don't put on a decent tip, the waitperson is getting cheated. Sometimes it can be a misunderstanding about who is covering the tip, so it is better to have the gratuity included in such cases.
I don't tip the hairdresser because that custom stems from the time when ladies' hairdressers were their maids doing an extra service. I don't look at hair stylists as servants -- I consider them professionals who set their own prices.
Aurchaepiyo, I used to own a franchise few years ago ... we ,the management team had stringent performance measurement systems for the staff that included the waiters...
We realized that free hand tipping lead to the waiters running for more tipping and that affected the customer service , we used to get a lot of complains from customers who felt ignored or had longer waiting periods...
therefore to reduce the complaints we implemented various strategies ... for waiters , we ultimately concluded that :
the waiters put more attention and dedication in the customer service when they knew that the bonus or tipping was going to come to them from the management and it was going to be based on their over all and consistent performance .... We kept close tracks of the performance management and would ensure we pay them the deserved amount from the profits ( this was the employee bonus plan which is on top of the basic pay )
And we had introduced a reasonable service charge in the bill .. that ultimately went as bonuses to the staff ...
having said this , I cant say the system that is in America, I think this topic was started in general terms and not about how america does it ... so i am standing by my point on general terms ....
.. abey…
