Do you tip a hooker?

You're right on about tipping. I spent my honeymoon in New Zealand, where food and beverage is slightly higher than you'd expect, but there is no tipping. It was fantastic! We always knew ahead of time exactly what everything cost.

It's a good idea and I hope that more services follow suit.

Restaurant's use tipping as a way to underpay their help. Most waiters make 90% of their pay from tips. Don't blame the little guy.

Cut out tipping and the waitstaff will consist entirely of illegal immigrants who wont be able to speak enough english to tell you what the soup of the day is.

Good point... however, you could also say that it would be filled with ignorant young white males working an easy living while they sell their screenplay or get their band started.

It's never quite made sense to me that a bartender will often get 20%-25% for opening a bottle of beer while a waiter might work his/her ass off to make 15%-20%.

If a restaurant will nearly guarantee fantastic service and a great eating environment, I like the 20% service charge idea. And if I didn't... I can always go elsewhere.

It would be brilliant to take the guess work and strange theatrics out of the tipping game.

To Gary,

I don't blame the wait staff or anyone else. That's the way the system is set up - logically it seems crazy that our country even has different wage laws for restaurant workers that make them dependent on tips.

I don't believe people will stop working at restaurants if tips were done away with, because of course their wages would have to go up to make up for the tips. The restaurant would basically end up charging customers the same amount, it would just be a set amount versus whatever tip a patron leaves.

It might be good for the wait staff in some ways, too. They might have a little easier time figuring out how much they would make each week, both because of the higher minimum wage they would be guaranteed to receive and because they would never get stiffed on tips.

Hummmmm. TIP=To insure prompt service. Which, as a whole, no one does well all the time.

Most kitchen staff make much higher wages, while servers and bussers are paid a tipping wage set by our good ol USA.

I say, eliminate the "tipping wage" and level the playing field. I have no problem in paying for GREAT service. I do not tip for average or below average service.

Service sucks, in general, in most industries, and people STILL have their hands out. Well, it is time for consumers to put THEIR hands out and say NO! Unless you provide me wow, legendary, extra mile service, you earn what you are paid. Period.

Thanks,
Royal

I think the concept of tipping makes you uncomfortable because it forces you to be generous or miserly out-in-the-open when we live in a country that is so focused on self-interest. And trust me - no one in the service industry is going to be offended by a large tip unless you stick it in their pants.

Here's a tip... if you are sick of tipping maybe you should just stay home and make your own drinks.

If you want a Mai Tai, that will require you to buy a light rum, dark rum, creme de almond, pineapple juice, orange juice, and grenadine. You might also want to buy jiggers, so you can put the right amount of each ingredient in the drink. Do you even know what a jigger is?

Do you know how much goes in the drink? My bet is no. You could look it up online, but I garuntee you that you will spend more money trying to make your own drinks than you would going to a bar and paying the bartender to do it. You're not tipping me because you HAVE to. You're tipping me because I memorized all the recipes, and I go online to find new ones so that when you're stingyass comes in I can make you what you want. I practice my free pour so I pour exactly 1/2 oz, 1 oz, or 1 1/2 oz with out having to measure it every time. And I do it with a smile on my face even though I know you are incapable of puting yourself in my shoes. If you can afford an eight dollar drink...you can afford to tip the bartender at least a dollar.

Furthermore the comment about bartenders making more than waitresses... I've been both. Bartenders deserve more than waitresses. Have you ever been in a bar that's been three or four rows deep of people trying to order from one bartender. Their drinks get made (Or their beers get opened) by the bartender. The money transaction is done by the bartender. The clean-up when you spill you beer all over the bar is done by the bartender. Only through experience and persistance can you handle twenty five intoxicated people shouting drink orders at you.

Waitresses go to a table take the order and hand it to the cook. If something goes wrong they blame it on the cook. They don't have to stand by the table and listen to your lonely stories. The bartender is stuck behind the bar listening to every idiot who thinks his seventh or eighth drink turned him into einstein.

If you don't tip you're a stingy bastard and the bartender will ignore you. Why should I rush to get you a beer when you're just paying for the beer and I don't get a penny of that? I have other customers that will tip me. This guy that's going to give me a dollar will get his beer with a smile. You can wait until I'm tired of ignoring you.

It's really not that difficult to tip. As a bartender I depend on it as my income. My rent, my medical bills, my education comes from tips. This is how I LIVE and it's not easy. If you can throw money at a homeless bum on the street that does nothing, then you can tip a bartender that is working her ass off so you penny pinching drunken fools can have a good time. I know if I am faster, more accurate, and more friendly I will get better tips. If you are sick of tipping, maybe you should just stay home and not take cabs, or go to restauraunts, or go to bars. Go to a grocery store and buy your own stuff, make your own stuff, and serve your own stuff.

BY THE WAY - The going rate is easy to remember. 20% means the service was good. 15% means the service was acceptable. If you tip less than 15, something must have gone wrong. If you tip more than 20% you must have really appreciated something about your server.

I think tacking on a 20% service fee is a dumb idea because the service industry rest on the motivation that working for your tips provides. Why would the waitress try harder to please you if she knows half of her tips are going to the cook and it doesn't matter because it's the same ammount anyway. All you're going to have is more upselling and less sincerity.

I think everyone should spend a week working in the service industry. It would be a good lesson on how obnoxious pretentious customers who think they're so smart they write and article whining about how "it's too hard wah wah wah" to figure out how to tip. Come on. Is this the dumbing down of America or what?