kimilseung

No kidding, what with $10.00 for what sounds like 2 minutes work, that is a rate of $300.00 an hour, so he got pissy about being offered a rate of $150.00 an hour for unskilled labour.

I would like to know how much people I tip earn, I do not want to pay them at a rate higher than I earn, for what is usually a job I am capable of doing and in all honesty would be happy to do in most cases, maybe pubs should have drink dispenser things like they have for soda at fast food outlets.

SultanOfSwing

I can see all kinds of chaos ensuing if that ever happened

penguinbar

If the server/bartender is blatantly rude then I would not leave a good tip. I would speak to the manager. If the management is in anyway decent they will try and do something for you.

cosmicjunkie

I know...thinking back now I should have, but I didn't know any better at the time! One of the reasons I started this thread was to get a general idea of who get tips for what and how much is expected. It's just one of those things that I'm not familiar with yet being new here in the States.

kimilseung

On the very very few occasions that I have had even remotely rude service, the last thing I want to do is spend my time and emotional energy in helping the management with their staffing issues.

penguinbar

It's actually illegal for a restaurant to make the server or bartender pay the bill on a walkout although alot of places get away with it because the staff is not aware of this.

Jerseygirl

I suspect that's a state law...not federal.

Bob

And you know you'll get a snot sandwich if food has to be reserved, so what's the point.

They know the service has been shit when they see a penny tip.

penguinbar

Not sure about New Jersey. It is the law in New York

Jerseygirl

I thought so. The employer doesn't have to even pay servers minimum wage in NJ. Like a previous poster said if with tips the server doesn't make min. wage...the employer is supposed to top it up.

penguinbar

In New York there is a the minimum wage is $7.50 an hour . $5.00 an hour for tipped employees and you have to make up the rest in tips or the employer has to pay the difference. My boss was originally paying me $25 a shift which was below minimum . I brought it up to him a few years ago and he went nuts and said it was BS and he was going to call his attorney about this because he wasn't aware of this which is also BS. He had to concede and pay us in the end. I have to admit the majority of restaurant owners are real jerks.
Several famous restaurants have had lawsuits brought against them for taking tips from employees to pay for management or other staff. They had to pay back millions to wait and barstaff.

LizzyUK

I too am in San Diego, been here now for about 4 years, USA, 7 years in total. I am from stockton on tees but live in the lovely Del Mar, I tip when the service is good, not soo much when the service is shite....

Yorkieabroad

Used to drink in a few bars in Tokyo that had largely dispensed with the barstaff - you got your beer from a wall off vending machines..... dangerous...!

kimilseung

interesting. I assume cans rather than draft.

Yorkieabroad

I can remember sitting in a booth in a very quiet Logans Roadhouse on Hwy 6 in West Houston, 10 years ago, a couple of weeks after we'd arrived. It was late, and in the booth behind us, 2 of the waitstaff going off duty and counting and comparing their tips. We calculated that excluding their wages, they'd made a little over $80 an hour. And that was on a very quiet night.

We tip 15-20% in restaurants as standard - sometimes more, rarely less.
$1 a round in bars (if its just the 2 of us), or 15% on a tab
$1 a bag to the airport shuttle driver (which, with the tribe in tow, could almost pay for a Big Mac in Switzerland!).

I also tip at the local coffee shop depending on who pulls the shots. Some of them are good, some of them are crap. Some of them reciprocate by adding the "extra" shot from a 2 spout pull.