Tipping

[klork]

Ahhhhr.  De food service.

Well, I can tell you a couple of things on the tipping, it's not just a country-wide standard in the US, it's actually variable from state to state.

You cannot be paid *under* minimum wage in WA, unless you're doing it illegally.  Having worked in the food service I can vouch for that.  Tips are nice, but the fact is that when you get them, you have to record them, and while they don't take what you get out of your pay check, they automatically become taxable and padded into the wages you earn overall.  I know several people who lied about the amounts of tips they got just so they could slide a little on taxes.

Courtesty standards state 15% tip, but that's a *courtesy*, if you get a lousy waitress then there is *nothing* stating that you have to tip.  Tipping is voluntary and I honestly believe tipping has to be earned.  Most places in WA that I've seen that tack on a tip or write a nice spot on the reciept for a tip you can usually opt to put 0$ on it.  There are some restaurants that if you've got more than a certain amount of people in your party then they automatically tack on a 15% + tip due to all the extra work the waiter/waitress has to do.

What blows me is all the places that supposed 'common courtesy' suggests you tip: airport staff, hotel cleaning staff, bell boys, people who bring the food to your room, Heck, my husband picks up recycling and *he* even gets tips! (most of the time it's soda, some sort of treat or a gift card to something like Subway or Baskin Robins).  Though..holiday time, he usually gets a lot of beer.  Apparently people tend to think that recycling drivers and garbagemen drink a lot o_O (we had....over 40 bottles of beer given to us last christmas, and we *still* are trying to get rid of it, we don't drink here sans for *rare rare* occasions).

Crazy thing is that I lead a bunch of girls out at a girl scout day camp, where we're all *volunteers* (which is funny for my girls in particular, they're teenagers, given responsibilities of adults, yet they have to pay to come to camp like the girls...go figure ;P ).  I've had several times where parents tried to tip the PAs...and the leaders for 'taking care of their kids for the day'....um...yeah, we've actually had to put a clause in our day camp manual that says we don't take gratuities.  Mainly because it could cause a slight rift--oh, so and so gave me a tip so I'll give their daughter extra SPECIAL treatment.  Sounds campy, but it *does* happen, so we don't take gratuities for that reason.

But, to summarize, it really does vary from state to state, just like the minimum wage does (it's something like ...8$ an hour here now, in WA?  And apparently we've got one of the highest min wages in the nation)