Being ‘tight’ with money - how tight are you with yours?

Takmon

debtfreeforlife wrote: »

I would for two reasons - firstly in a number of countries and particularly the US, waiters rely on tips to bring their salary to something resembling minimum wage. Waiters in the UK are often paid minimum wage which is not enough to live on. Also, I've waitressed previously. Since then I have had a number of jobs, all of which are high pressure and stressful. That waitressing job was still one of the hardest, due to customers who would shout (and swear at me when drunk) for not serving them faster when I was looking after 20 tables, or the food not being good (I had nothing to do with that) or because they'd sat at the table for another half hour after finishing coffees when I had people queueing for tables. If I can't afford a 10% tip then I can't afford to go out, in my opinion.

I think minimum wage is usually enough to live on if your working full time and especially if your in a couple and you both work. But customers shouldn't be expected to give tips to make up the staffs wages.
Being a waiter/waitress is a low skill job that almost anyone can do with little training so that's why it's a low wage job. Plus their employer should be encouraging their staff to do a good job and rewarding them when they do. The whole idea of staff only doing a good job because they expect a tip from the customer is a pretty poor practice that needs to stop.

mgdavid

debtfreeforlife wrote: »

....... customers who would shout (and swear at me when drunk) for not serving them faster when I was looking after 20 tables, or the food not being good (I had nothing to do with that) or because they'd sat at the table for another half hour after finishing coffees when I had people queueing for tables. .......

The fact that a waiter may suffer any or all of the above is irrelevant to my decision to tip - the tip is given for above average service, not out of sympathy.

michaels

debtfreeforlife wrote: »

I would for two reasons - firstly in a number of countries and particularly the US, waiters rely on tips to bring their salary to something resembling minimum wage. Waiters in the UK are often paid minimum wage which is not enough to live on. Also, I've waitressed previously. Since then I have had a number of jobs, all of which are high pressure and stressful. That waitressing job was still one of the hardest, due to customers who would shout (and swear at me when drunk) for not serving them faster when I was looking after 20 tables, or the food not being good (I had nothing to do with that) or because they'd sat at the table for another half hour after finishing coffees when I had people queueing for tables. If I can't afford a 10% tip then I can't afford to go out, in my opinion.

Do you know how patronising this is to those of us who do live on minimum wage?