Tipping for take out

[Long Run]

Do you tip when you order take out from a regular restaurant? Some places make it easy and have a jar or something to put money in. But what if the place doesn't have a tip jar. I've given about 10% or less and said to add it to the tip pool, but have no idea if that happens. There is not much service on a take out, but someone has to get it together and put the food in traveling containers so I am happy to compensate for that. Of course, you don't know if they've done a good job until you are home.

[Gob]

Not normally, unless they do something extra which warrants it. I'll sometimes drop the shrapnel (coin change) into a tips jar just so as to not have to bother pocketing it.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Don't think I ever tipped for takeout food I picked up. I do tip for delivery.

[dgs49]

A "Tip Jar" is a vile, evil thing.

Tipping is (unfortunately) a necessary component of our culture, by which certain kinds of service persons are informally compensated in a way that, in theory at least, provides a quantitative incentive for high-quality service.

People who serve food in restaurants are the most prominent recipient of tips, but cab drivers, pizza deliverymen, and others also are regular recipients.

On the FLIP SIDE of the coin, these peoples' compensation from their employers is less than it would otherwise be, and in the case of restaurant workers, this disparity - fair or not - is baked into the Minimum Wage Laws. Waitresses, pizza delivery guys, etc., get paid a pittance. (contrast western Europe, where a waiter is paid as a "professinal," there is very little tipping, and there are no waitresses)

But in the case of the "tip jar," in most cases, the person looking hungrily at you on the other side of the tip jar is being paid a full (if meager) wage, and is providing you no more service than the minimum.

Not to be unkind, but fuck 'em. I never put anything into a "tip jar."

Not sure how bartenders and barmaids are paid. On the rare occasions when I drink at a bar I leave a tip.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Not sure how bartenders and barmaids are paid. On the rare occasions when I drink at a bar I leave a tip.

Back in my drinking days (not so long ago) I knew of more than a few barmaids who made only what they got in tips.

[dgs49]

I thought they had to pay them something. Isn't there a lower MW for such workers? How else do you keep track of who works there, for Workers' Comp and SS/Medicare purposes, if nothing else?

If they were ONLY getting tip money, the employer was skirting the law.

[@meric@nwom@n]

Not sure how bartenders and barmaids are paid. On the rare occasions when I drink at a bar I leave a tip.

Back in my drinking days (not so long ago) I knew of more than a few barmaids who made only what they got in tips.

That's probably not even legal. Back in the college days I waited tables in a bar. I got the regular minimum wage plus tips. Got the minimum wage because once in a while I had to go back and fry a burger for someone. I made some serious good money off those drunk asses.

[rubato]

If I can afford to go out I can afford to tip. Counter service is a little more slippery but at Togos I tip a buck for the person who makes the sandwich.

I have to thank all the cheap bastards because they are the ones who ensure that I get great service, every time.

yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

I believe minimum wage for waiters/bartenders is less than the "regular" minimum wage. As far as the barmaids, I believe the way it was "got around" was they were "private contractors" who tended bar for the house. AKA a flat fee was paid to the agency no matter how many hours they worked.

[kristina]

Eons ago I worked as a waitress at a summer hotel on the coast of Maine. Minimum wage at the time was $1.80; I was paid $.90, as in Maine tipped employees could legally be paid half of minimum wage. Three meals a day (meals were included in the room charge). Once couple stayed a month, and tipped me $60 at the end. A dollar a day, per person. Cheap bastards! (All the help lived in a drom on the property, and we had to pay room and board out of all the money we made...!)

A couple of years later, in Connecticut, again waiting tables. Connecticut law at the time allowed for minimum wage less sixty cents.

Just checked the US Dept of Labor website;

Basic Combined Cash & Tip Minimum Wage Rate: $7.25
Maximum Tip Credit Against Minimum Wage: $5.12
Minimum Cash Wage: $2.13
Definition of Tipped Employee by Minimum Tips received (monthly unless otherwise specified): More than $30
http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/tipped.htm

So federal law says it's OK to pay someone $2.13 per hour if they are likely to make at least $5.12 per hour in tips.