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When dining out, be sure to tip your servers
By Audrey Gibert
On March 8, 2012
Whether dining with a friend, for a birthday or with a business partner, tipping is an important part
of eating out. From personal experience, the appreciation of servers through tips seems to be on the
decline and should be addressed.
It has been four years since I began my job at Carrabba's Italian Grill. I have slowly worked my way up
the ranks from dishwasher and busser to host and now serving. I now realize what servers go through on
a nightly basis and have grown to appreciate the work.
As a busser, my only job was to clean tables. I hated servers because I felt they were paid the most for
doing the least. Sometimes, however, they would forget to grab the checkbook. Looking inside, I saw
that they were left almost no money at all.
As a server, it is my job to serve the customer and make sure they're satisfied with their meal. If there
is a problem, it is our job to handle it, and we follow a strict customer-is-always-right policy. Although
Carrabba's is more upscale, tipping well should be done at any restaurant.
Many people don't know exactly what goes into serving.
When a tip is given to a server, it is then split three ways between servers, bussers and hosts at the end
of the night. So if a table gives me a $3 tip, I only see about $1 out of it.
A server's pay is primarily from tips because they are paid less than the minimum wage.
For anybody who doesn't know, the most common rule for tipping (in New York state) is simply to
double the tax. This will leave slightly more than 15 percent of the bill. If the tax on the bill is $2.50, you
should leave at least $5.00 for the server.
If you feel your service was excellent, it is expected that you leave a tip of at least 20 percent. Trust me,
the servers notice, and we appreciate it.
Most smartphones have tip calculator apps that can quickly calculate a tip based on how you felt the
service was. These apps can even split the bill evenly between customers. You brag about how great
your phone is, so why not use it to your advantage in instances like this?
Gift cards and certificates raise another issue. All too often I've seen people skip out on the tip just
because they were paying with a gift card. Even though you are not paying with cash, you are supposed
to tip off the original bill no matter what. If your bill was $30 but comes out to $20 after a discount, you
are still expected to tip on the full $30 bill.
Large groups of people have also been known to negatively affect a server's tips. The best way to avoid
any issues is to split the checks so everybody knows how much they are supposed to pay.
There are, however, restaurants that don't split checks. When this happens, double the tax on the entire
bill and split this number between the customers evenly.
I've heard many excuses from people as to why they don't tip properly. Some customers may simply
not have the right amount of money to tip, not understand how to tip or plain old don't want to. While
some of those reasons are understandable, if you're going to go out to eat you should know how to
leave a tip.
Until they become a server, some people will just never get it. Growing up, I went to Amherst High
School. After most of our dances, a bunch of us would go down the street to Denny's and pretty much
fill up the whole restaurant. Back then, not having a job or much money, we would pay the bill and not
leave a tip. We didn't have an appreciation for servers and what they do.
Years later, I'm in their shoes. Although under-tipping is a problem, there are a lot of people who do tip
and tip well. To those people, I want to say thank you.
While most servers would say if you don't tip, don't go out, I say take a look around next time you go out
to eat. Look around at the amount of work the servers do in order to make sure you enjoy your meal.
Aubrey Gilbert can be reached by email at gilbert.record@live.com.
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