(03) 9020 2905Who’s my waitress for the evening? Two Broke Girls? If it’s Penny from Big Bang Theory, my tip … will be HUGE!
If it’s Roseanne Barr … loose change. She’s a scary bad waitress.
I flip and flop on this issue. I go through stages where I tip a standard-ish 10 per cent, or round it up to the nearest $10 if the meal was pretty cheap. While at other times, very little.
Tipping is about service. It’s got to be good to justify anything more than just a few bucks a head. Crap service gets doughnuts.
Great service, however, can be unforgettable.
There was one memorably huge and chaotic family meal out. Everyone had moved several times by the time entrees, mains and “fat and crackers” arrived. Our particularly sharp waitress remembered every plate and directed the food runners perfectly. While someone else was shouting and left a good tip, I felt compelled to add extra something myself.
Tips have also got to take into account your finances at the time. That is, don’t tip too much if you can’t afford to. You’re helping create jobs simply by going out.
And wait staff are paid better in Australia than they are in the US – the home of tipping because their minimum wage is so low.
But dining out is intrinsically linked to the health of the economy. When people are feeling financially strapped, restaurant spending goes down, while fast food sales rise.
My guess is most restaurant owners would rather have more customers with smaller tips than fewer customers with bigger tips.
Bruce Brammall is the author of Debt Man Walking (www.debtman.com.au) and principal adviser with Castellan Financial Consulting.