@americans who are young: 20% is the correct amount to tip your server or delivery person
i say this (and repeat it a lot. probably too much. sorry.) because i know a lot of younger people who are just starting to go places on their own do not know how much they should tip, and i know this because i have heard this dilemma come up sometimes w/ tables of teens i’ve waited on, cause they just don’t know.
i’m here 4 u teens of america: it’s 20%, unless ur waiter is an asshole (like not bad day asshole but Premium Asshole Asshole) or creepy, in which case it is 15%, dropping appropriately to 10% as their Assholery or Creepiness climbs.
just multiply what your bill is by two and drop the second digit. for example: i spend 15 bux, 15x2 = 30, drop the second digit and the appropriate 20% tip is 3 bux. or u spent 48 bux, thats like 96, that’s p close to 100 so just tip 10 bux to be Cool.
if you stay at the table for a long time, also compensate accordingly – servers usually have a limited number of tables that they are given responsibility for (so these five or six tables in the corner are my section, anyone who sits there is my table to take care of) and if you camp out for a long time that can cut into yr servers ability to Make doll4rs and/or Leave Work.
if you know that you’re gonna be catching up w/ an old friend for two hours, you can, honestly, just go “hey i’m planning on chatting w/ my friend for a while, but I know we’re taking up this table, and I’m going to tip extra for your time” and that’ll work out for everyone in the long run. people like to know you’re trying to be respectful of their time + effort. everyone is nice, everyone has a nice good time.
okay this is seriously really good info. like i didn’t know about the multiplying by two and dropping the second digit thing and i’m in my late 20′s. it’s going to make tipping a hell of a lot easier!!!
Another easy way to calculate 20% -
Take your total, move the decimal one place to the left, then multiply by two.
So if your total is $36.25, move the decimal to make it 3.625, multiply and you should be tipping $7.25
An even easier way to calculate a tip: $1 per every $5 your bill is…
So if your bill is $5 tip $1 $15 = $3 $25 = $4 $50 = $10
And so on
I legit just use my phone calculator to do it
And if you can afford it- please round up to the next dollar, or leave a 25% tip. You never know how many non-tippers, low-tippers, and outright assholes your server may be dealing with that day.
Also at some nicer places they have buskids who get a percentage of the tip, so if there’s a kid filling your water/coffee or asking you about bread or something like that, they also recieve tips. If you can spare a little extra for them, that would be fantastic
Any non-Americans reading this whose reaction is, ‘What!?’ please know that minimum wage for servers in most of the U.S. is just over $2/hr because they are expected to make up the rest in tips. We know it’s a crappy system, but it’s the one we have for now so please don’t take out your annoyance on the poorly-paid servers at the bottom of the pile by refusing to tip them. When you go out to eat at a sit-down restaurant in the U.S., tipping should be considered just part of the cost. (Fast-food restaurants, where you order the food at the counter, do not require tipping.)
