Post by avocadojoe on Sept 8, 2020 21:14:03 GMT
A price is a price and that is all the cafe/diner/restaurant and staff is entitled too. Any tipping need be left up to the customer'(s)/diner'(s) and NO negative stigma should be EVER be projected onto a customer who pays their bill as quoted from prices listed + any tax. The rest is a conceited expectation. Change the pricing, so staff can earn better wages if its a problem.
The main thing is (and you've already stated it) is that restaurants pay their servers a wage that is obscenely low. When I worked in a restaurant (late 80s/early 90s - as a busboy), the waiters were paid two dollars an hour. And they work their butts off. This is way lower than minimum wage. I know it all varies from country to country. And I guess it's just a built in understanding where I live that the customers are going to tip around 15%. Sonetimes more, sometimes less- it would be a factor of the server's competence + the customer's generosity. I've never questioned it. Except when I went to Amsterdam and my friend (who lived there) said you weren't really supposed to tip.
But it is kind of an expectation here. I can't explain it any better than this. All I can say is when in Rome...