I brought up the McTip in my post (thanks for the link FP), it’s not allowed.

I personally agree with the “flat rate” for waitresses, but we’re definitely missing something here as evidenced by Sewiv’s comments about the postman. Here, in Canada, all mail carriers are government employees as Canada Post is a crown corporation. You don’t tip government employees b/c (a) you’re already paying them and (b) it’s not really legal, when dealing with government representatives, everything errs on being a bribe.

However waitressing in the US vs. Canada is also a completely different story (again mentioned in the post). In the US, in many states wait staff make half minimum wage (i.e. $2.31 /hour), in Canada, wait staff make minimum wage (i.e. $7-9/hour based on province).

The completely “tips” the scale (:)). I personally feel wait staff should be making about $15/hour for what they do, and honestly feel that cooking staff should be making much more (say $17-20) based on training requirements. So I’m going to tip commensurate with that belief.

Obviously, the huge disparity in base wages means that these percentages will be wildly different between the US & Canada. It’s also worth noting that food costs tend to be significantly higher here in Canada as are taxes (many provinces charge 7 or 8% tax + a federal 6%).

So to put that into perspective for our southern fellows. A $10 plate (average cost of a meat & potatoes dish @ Denny’s, Perkin’s chain-style restaurant), we’re already paying $11.30. Add in a US-style 20% tip and you’re now at $13.30. Take out a family for dinner and your $60 menu orders become a $78 final tab and you’ve just paid your waitress $12 ($9 after tip out) or the equivalent of $18 (assuming a 1 long meal) to take your order, carry your food and refill your drinks!

And that’s just for your table!

Your waitress probably tackled 4-5 tables that hour! Now you see why I don’t mind just leaving them $6, especially if I wasn’t causing any trouble.

Again, these rules are completely different in US, so it’s definitely not worth comparing. Each of your plates probably cost $1 or $2 less b/c they aren’t paying the waitress anywhere near as much.

I never worked counter, so I didn’t get a tip, but unless the policy has changed they won’t accept tips.

I think your story lends credence to my argument that waiters would be better off as well if the tip was included into the food price and they got a better wage. That way the problems you mentioned (except the cleanup) couldn’t happen.

Mike

Not only did this party run the servers ragged, but they made working out the separate checks near impossible (not sitting with who they were sharing a ticket with, moving seats multiple times [you're known by your seat number... we can't memorize what face had what meal], getting up when we were organizing the tickets, etc), and left the biggest mess in the room they had reserved. It took the 2 servers, busser, hostess, and manager an hour just to clean just the tables of that room.

So these servers basically lost money working that party (they had gas & babysitters to pay), not to mention the opportunity cost lost when they weren’t able to have other tables.

So now it’s automatic for a party to get grautity so that when a server (or 2+) only have time for YOUR party, they’re guaranteed a tip, not just the $2.13/hr wage we get in my county. As stated before when it’s one check, that person is sometimes overwhelmed by the full price and hardly leaves anything (even though the party stayed there the full time we were open, got perfect service with servers dedicated just to their party, etc). With seperate checks, they sometimes decide to not look at the bill and assume gratuity’s automatically include, which it wasn’t.

The best part of working private parties is when they pay the gratuity & leave an additional tip. Servers and restaurants make note of that group/company/etc and may next time waive the room deposit, and continue to give you the best service possible. We will bend over backwards for you if we know you’re going to appreciate it.

I just don’t understand why the restaurant doesn’t add 15% to the prices of the menu items.