You can't even compare the two. Working in a preschool you are guaranteed to make minimum wage. Servers are not.Unless you are a server their isn't another job in this country that can legally pay you $2.16 an hour. Comparing your $6.50 an hour job to serving is asinine when you're making almost triple what they make.

Meh, we don't have tip jars, we have charity boxes, from McDonalds to pizza places and supermarkets. But the person behind the register always gives you the money and it's up to you if you take the change or put it in the box. Anyway, I agree with you that what that woman did was rude and inconsiderate. For rich businesspeople, some change may not mean much, but for students living on limited funds that's a whole different story. And it wasn't her money to decide how to use it.

I don't like tipping, but I do it anyway because I know first-hand how it feels to be working at those fast-food places and restaurants. Although I don't tip if I know that their minimum wage is a bit higher than others or if that particular person is just being a jerk.

In southern California, if a fast-food place gives their employees a high minimum wage such as $9-$10/per hour, then they won't ask for a tip. But I have noticed that all Starbucks have those tip jars. I've never been to one where the cashier has took it upon herself to dump my change into the jar. I think that's totally wrong and I would've complained to the manager as well.

I'm glad you complained to the manager, they will think twice about doing it again (I hope!).

Thankfully tipping isn't such a big deal here in the UK, but I think in the US it's gone too far. A friend was on holiday in America with a group of friends. They had a meal at a restaurant and he paid by credit card. He didn't add a tip as he was going to leave a cash tip at the table. Next thing he knew the chef came out of the kitchen and started threatening him! I think that is just totally ridiculous, even if he hadn't wanted to leave a tip that was his perogative and being threatened by the chef isn't going to do the restaurant any favours.

I hate coins. I don't know why and I don't really have a good reason, but I just do. So sometimes when I buy something and get coins back as part of my change, I'll dump it in the donation jar, whether it be a jar with a philanthropy purpose or one for tipping the cashiers, simply because I don't want to have to deal with them. Other than that, I typically don't donate to those little jars unless it's for a good cause. Most of the places where I see tip jars aren't usually places where it's common to tip- Starbucks, retail stores, etc. I only bother tipping where it's common to tip and if the service has been good, like at restaurants, salons, hotels, etc.

What state was this? The only place I've ever heard of someone doing that (and it was a waitress) was in Los Angeles, California at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. I hate that place with a passion! The waiters and waitresses there are mean and the restaurant is in a rundown area where there's gangs and stuff. I live in a really nice area like 2 hours away from Los Angeles so it's an adjustment whenever I have to go to that city, which is hardly ever. I've heard of a lot of restaurants and fast-food places there do yell at the customers if they don't leave tips. I think that's so wrong.

I don't care whether it's a top-rated restaurant, a tip-jar at Starbucks, or a delivery person....good service always gets a tip, great service gets a great tip! Crappy service gets...nothing. And any attitude or an expectation of a tip regardless of the quality of service gets.....nada lol.

I've been in situations where the server has questioned a low tip. It's hard to actually say "you didn't deserve a 15-20% tip" but when it's the truth you gotta say it. And sometimes, I've just miscalculated lol (must have been the um, ginger ale *cough*) and I've appreciated being able to correct it.

But taking my hard earned change and dumping it in a tip jar? No way. The silliness of it is that I'd probably have left a dollar or two as opposed to 43 cents if the service was great lol.

Well, that takes a lot of nerve. A tip is a kindly gesture--most people DO tip. But to question an amount of a tip?

And as far as being a preschool teacher compared to a waitress--the point is, both are low paying jobs. No one is twisting a person's arm to be in the food serving profession, no one is hiding their hourly wage. Why cry about something you KNOW about? It's not fair to make the guest cough up a percentage because you chose a job paying $2.00 (or whatever) an hour.

Some people can make a very tidy living waiting tables. I admire them (just dealing with the public is a headache). However, to EXPECT a certain amount of money (tip wise) is not right.

hah, i love that place. they are mean, but it's adorable imo

It happens often, in Manhattan at least. People DO depend on tips to make a living (I did during college), and I'm afraid it's more than a kindly gesture. It's practically a law here, especially at the best restaurants with the best service, but those can hardly be compared to some loose change in a tip-jar at Starbucks.

I see you are in NY too *waves* lol. I'm talking about the typical Bolo/Tao experience. Excellent servers in top restaurants usually deserve at LEAST 15%, for loads of reasons.

If you've had a great meal, and the service was terrific, and you just screwed up the tip on your credit card slip or something, don't you just feel badly about it afterwards? I've actually gone back to correct a tip, but then again, I've been in their shoes.

But what about service charges automatically included in room service at most hotels? I resent a $20 pot of cold coffee delivered too late much more than I resented a few excellent servers wanting to know if they had done something wrong. It was "I'm sorry, but was there something wrong?" as opposed to "Yo, cheap dude, I demand a better tip and you'd better pay up"

I don't mind tip jars. Some peole think it's easy jobs these people have when it isn't. If I had to deal with some of the things people do or act towards these workers,I would lose my mind.It's a stressful job.

You've never lived on tips, have you?! As I said - I walked out of my waitressing jobs after 9 and 10 hour shifts on my feet with at least three or four times my check in my tips alone. Wait staff do NOT get paid enough to put up with some of the things they put up with. And sometimes it's a matter of 'This is all I can get right now and it's what's the most flexible'. That's why I waited tables. It was all that I could find right then and it was flexible. It wasn't a matter of 'I wanna work for $2.00 an hour!', it was a matter of 'I have to have money, so I'll work for $2.00 an hour plus tips.'.

Basically, what I'm saying is that you should tip. Always. From a former waitress to patrons, here's how we tended to see it:
We'd wait on a table, and we'd always look at our tip. If it was fairly decent for bill amount and for services rendered, we were cool. If it was little to nothing (like $1 for a $30 order) we knew we did poorly.

To summarize: always leave a tip, but vary your amount based on how the service was. Better service = better tip. And I promise, waitresses will remember you and will talk about you and how you tip. If you tip consistently well, you will be remembered and waited on accordingly.

While the person that waited on you shouldn't have assumed they could dump your change in the tip jar, most of those people do not make close to $9.50 an hour. I work at a pizza place. I cook, do dishes, take orders, ect. I never see any tips, and I only make minimum wage. If you think about it, the people making the food put more into it then the waiter or waitress. Plus, the cooks where I work are sometimes treated horribly by the wait staff even though we bust our asses to make their food on time so they will get good tips. Even when I help buss tables they don't tip me. So I have no problem with tip jars, I usually let them have my change, because the people who make the food usually get no credit or recognition.

Wow, I'm sorry that your wait staff treats you like crap. But I disagree that the wait staff should share their tips with the bus boys or cooks, as I've already stated. You're making minimum - the wait staff is not.

Sorry, I had recieved a warning about posting so many replies in a short time. I suppose it is true though that not all baristas take the time to do their job right. Most of the non-grocery owned Starbucks I've seen are pretty good though. I've had some awful ones though and those are the ones that are in Barnes and Noble and Ukrop's and Farm Fresh and those aren't owned by Starbucks and their people are not trained by Starbucks. But I really like my job and I try to make that show when I'm at work. It boggles my mind how rude people are. I suppose you're right in that aspect, if you get below average service then by no means do they deserve a tip.
And I think maybe fast food does deserve tips as well. If not tips than at least above minimum wage.

I know someone (I won't call him a friend) and he works at Starbucks and makes $9.50 an hour so that's how I got that amount.

This post is mainly useless but it's to those who were wondering.

$9.50 an hour and the nerve to assume you will tip them? Stiff'em.

I work as the Head Lifeguard at a pool (where I need to be able to deal with drowning people, improper chemicle balances that are illegal, a slew of children disobeying the diving board rules and pissed parents when said child is given a time out) and I get $8.00. And in my line of work, "tipping" is tandem to "bribing." Seriously, I had to deal with telling an employee to return a twenty to a guest who wanted him to save the "good seats".

My rule is round up to the nearest dollar and add another dollar for tips. But that is only for deliveries and wait staff. My change is presious (as a mid day soda will save me from falling asleep on a slow day) so you must go above and beyond to earn my change (most of the time, it is if I come back with a bum order, Dealing with the public is never fun, and take care of it the first tim.). Stiffing me will get you stiffed. And I applaud you for going to a manager.

hszmv - So if you go to a restaurant, based on your post, and your bill is $29.75, you will leave 1.75 as a tip? That is disgusting.

As far as "No one chose to be in the food service industry" What world are you living in? People need jobs. When you're working for $2 an hour and busting your ass to please customers and they leave you less than 10%, even though you were a great server, just because they think you made a bad decision in picking that job....that is complete garbage. You cannot compare a minimum wage job to making $2 an hour. You couldn't pay me enough to put up with what servers put up with, and people that don't respect that, in my opinion, are the lowest of the low. Honestly, If I met someone and we went out to dinner and they left a bad tip that would have to be the end of that relationship. They serve people, they are not your servants. If you can't afford to leave a tip then you need to stay home and eat.

As someone else said above, in the UK tipping isn't a big deal. It certainly isn't expected, so there's no fuss when it isn't given. Maybe they're paid more in the UK, I don't know.

The chef rushing out in anger in one of the above posts is just ridiculous though, and displays like that are only going to ensure that person doesn't return. I also think people who don't live in the US, and don't know what a good tip is but give one anyway - then the waiter/waitress/etc, shouldn't get cranky when they're given a tip they think is low. I certainly wouldn't know how much to tip in another country. And in asking, you're trusting someone you've never met before to not give a crazy ass sum they wouldn't usually expect.

There's been a few people saying that waiters/etc expect tips, and get cranky when they don't get anything. I think that if a waiter/etc expects a tip - they should also expect the person they're serving to not be able to afford to tip, if they don't. (Assuming they're not wearing clothes that shows they quite plainly earn a lot of money). If I get a coffee in some place where it's expensive, it's because I've treated myself. I couldn't afford to start tipping people who give me a couple minutes service (and without the polite/jolly chatter/smile, as well. Maybe there's a lack of jolly where I am).

It is crappy that wait staff are paid so little, I believe they should make minimum wage. For instance, delivery drivers make at least minimum wage, and they also receive tips and a certain amount for mileage. I'm not saying they should have to share their tips, but it's a nice gesture to "tip out" someone who helps you clear a table, for instance. If a waiter or waitress is really busy, has a dishwasher come and bus some tables, it's a nice gesture to give them a few dollars for helping is what I'm saying.

Y'know, the more I think about it, the weirder it strikes me as a custom. So many elements of what people tend to tip on, especially for servers, are things the server has nothing to do with - overall enjoyment of the meal, speed in getting it out, whether it was hot enough, etc., which has always struck me as odd when I'm out with people who comment on such things and then stiff the server on a good tip.

I looked up some history on it and it appears it's a really really old custom stretching back pretty much forever, so not likely to change, but why not? Why should people who already make very little in service jobs have to rely on the customer feeling nice enough that day to give them enough to live on? I'm not talking about the over-and-above stuff, where there's no tip jar and you have just been served incredibly well and want to say thank you (in those cases I often ask to see the manager and rave to them about their employee - they get enough complaints whether they have merit or not, but I guarantee you a manager will remember a customer going out of their way to say "This person is GREAT!" to them)... Prices would likely be higher if places had to pay their employees more, but wouldn't it more or less average out, and be better for someone who is living on a low wage to know how much they're making?

This is not to say that good performance shouldn't be rewarded - there's some great things businesses can do with profit sharing as performance incentives... Bonuses based on a certain percentage of profits if the business takes in a certain amount over what they did for the same period last year, divided by all employees and their hours worked... small bonuses based on specific upsells for high-profit products... I've worked under such schemes and I busted my ass a lot harder for something that I knew I was gonna get if I tried, rather than something I only might get if I put forth the same amount of effort.

That last statement of yours is what I totally disagree with. You CAN NOT tell ANYONE to stay home and eat if they can't afford to leave a tip. No one is going to a restaurant TO leave a tip. You go to have a nice dinner. You are only obligated to pay for your meal - NOT to leave a tip. If one can only afford to pay for their meal, then that is fine because paying for your meal is what you have to do. Leaving a tip is optional, not mandatory. It is MY choice if I want to leave a tip or not. If I can't afford to leave a tip, then I won't. I'm obligated only to pay for my meal, and nothing else. I will go to any restaurant I choose, whether I choose to leave a tip or not, and whether I can afford to leave a tip or not. I am obligated ONLY to pay for my meal and nothing else. It is not your place to tell people to stay home if they can't afford to tip. People can do as they please whether you like it or not.

We don't have tip jar here, but we do have i think 10% service charge and tax, so if you are already charging me for service please don't expect me to tip your waiter. However most of the places I go to eat don't need you to tip. its called Hawker stall!

note on the cashier, if they take my change and assume I want to give them the money, that behavior alone would have discourage me to tip them. I would immediately ask to see the manager. even if its 1 sens :P

Shaedigga, your statement "Iif you can't afford to leave a tip then you need to stay home and eat" is kind of harsh, what if I save money just for one outing to a nice dinner with my husband and don't have extra for tips? Do you mean poor people can't have fun?

that aside.

This tipping thing reminds me of the reservoir dogs tip dialogue. I really like to know if what they says is true

"Mr Brown: These people are taxed on the tips they make. When you stiff 'em, you cost them money."

"Mr Blonde: Waitressing is the number one occupation for female non-college graduates in this country. It's the one jab basically any woman can get, and make a living on. The reason is because of tips."

off course the movie was in 1992, so might not apply now, but is it true back than?

So basically unless I can allot $5-10 EXTRA to eat out a my local diner, I should stay home? I can't agree with this. I understand waitstaff need to earn a living (my sister used to be a waitress and so was my ex-sister in law), but to say 'if you can't tip, stay home?' is not fair.

Some of us who never see a tip also live on small earnings. If my husband, son, and myself go to the diner/bistro once in awhile that is a big treat for us.

How about the waitress who provides minimal service to OUR table (it's happened more than once) because we are only a party of three ordering simple (all we can afford) meals? Meanwhile she's falling all over the party of 6 'hoping' to get that decent tip?

Because I have family in food service, I understand sometimes things are NOT the waitresses fault. If the kitchen doesn't like you, they will not help you out and mess things up for you.

I'm in sympathy for the waitress but the bottom line is, go to your boss for more money, don't EVER come to me and ask 'why did you tip so badly?' Maybe I don't have the money to give what 'you think you should get.' If anyone EVER asked me that I would never go back to that place and I WOULD report them to the management.

I simply don't get the attitude of 'entitlement' here.

I guess I am annoyed most about 'expecting a certain percentage' as a tip. Otherwise, yes, people should leave 'something.'

Here in Kuwait, were people have gone to every restaurant, cafe or fast-food joint at least once, I can honestly say that I've never seen a tip-jar. The servers can be nice, and make our orders the way we like and not tip. It's there job.

A few days ago my friend and I ate at a restaurant called "Noddle..something" The duck was bad and the noddles as well. But the manger and the server people were kind.

The bill was 9.200 K.D. I paid 10K.D. We waited for the change but it never came. So we just left.

Pure laziness more then anything else.