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7/24/2003 7:00PM Okay, so I live in Utah… which seems to be known to have a bunch of crappy tippers when they dine out. I’m actually not sure how they compare to the rest of the nation, but for the sake of this rant, I’ll just go with the stereotype here. Last night, my roommate got home complaining (rightfully so) about how little money she made from waiting tables. She made around 8% in tips on all her sales for the entire night. Yeah, that’s totally ass… she’s a normal human being, she has rent and bills to pay for. She has to buy food like the rest of us. Why is it that people tip so little? You know, the tipping scale goes something like this… great service deserves at least 20%, good service: 15%, mediocre service: 10%. Of course, this scale isn’t set in stone, but it’s good to follow it as a guideline. I can understand hardly tipping anything if you’re in a country like France. The waiters / waitresses there actually earn a living wage, and anything you give them is just something extra for great service. In the US, however, things are a bit different. In Utah, the minimum wage for restaurant workers is less than $3 an hour. Just think about that for a minute. Most of you full-time wage-earners probably make a lot more than that. Imagine how the world would be if you didn’t get paid a living wage, and you depended on the gratuity of others to pay the rest of your income. Imagine working your ass off some nights and barely pulling in anything because people are too cheap to pay for a job well done. If you dine out at a restaurant, expect to be paying at least 15% in tip for a good meal / good service. These people work hard to make sure that you have a good dining experience, and if not, well, they deserve a crappy tip. Next time you decide to spew out the line “well, if 10% is good enough for the Lord, it should be good enough for them.”, think about the waitress struggling with five tables so she can pay for rent. Think about the roommate of theirs who has to shake his head every time he hears about how cheap people are out there. Seriously though, these people work their asses off for you, give them a good tip.
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