| By :
Gregory Garner
It is sometimes difficult to know how much a restaurant or server expects you to tip them. Without a clearly posted sign people can easily under-tip or not tip at all. For restaurant owners and managers, dealing with unhappy or disappointed serving staff can be a stressful and frustrating thing, especially when the waiters gave exceptional service. Here are some basic principles about tipping in common restaurant scenarios in the United States. The average tip is anywhere from ten to twenty percent depending on whom you ask. Many people are still debating whether to tip at all. Most however recognize that waiters are usually paid a very meager wage and depend on tips to make up the balance of their paycheck. Generally a fifteen percent tip is considered sufficient with twenty percent left for exceptional service and ten percent for poor service. Although most financial experts recommend leaving a tip of some sort, some are adamantly opposed to the whole idea of tipping, claiming it is "forcing people to depend on the kindness of strangers" and to "depend on tips seem to me to encourage servility and an almost feudal sensibility." If people have a bad experience at a restaurant, many will not leave a tip at all. This is understandable, but it is important to remember that the server is not always at fault. Kitchen delays, understaffing, or even just miscommunication can all cause a customer to have a negative meal even if the waiter gave superb service. One expert suggests talking to the manager if you are dissatisfied rather than not leaving a tip. Another view is to leave a very small tip. However the server will almost certainly be wondering what they did wrong to deserve such a tip. One waitress expressed her frustration on a forum by saying, "some people genuinely believe that 10% is an appropriate tip. I work in fine dining and some people fail to realize the fact that we aren't just paying our own bills, we have to tip out at least 5 people on any given night...Anyway, as a server, I feel that I should express to people that 10% is not enough of a tip." Minimum wage laws do not apply to people who make more than thirty dollars in tips a month, so wait staff are often paid much less; somewhere in the two to three dollars an hour range. "If you don't have enough money to give to your server you probably shouldn't be eating out anyways, because if that's the case then we might as well have paid for your meal."
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