Is tipping at a resteraunt basically compulsory in America?
Dear John, If you don’t already know this trivia, TIPS means “to insure proper service”. Yes, you are expected to tip waiters in the states or it will be considered that you “stiffed” the waiter. Actually a 15-20% tip is customary for a full service restaurant, 10% is a very low tip (you do not have to tip on the sales tax). Waiters in the USA are paid less than minimum wage (something just over $2.00/Hr) so they cannot be expected to live on their salary alone, and depend on their tips to pay their bills. Also, an important fact is that most restaurants charge the waiter +/- 3% of the total dollar amount of food the waiter served – this money is divided between the bus boys, hostesses, bartenders, kitchen workers, etc. If you do not tip, the server has to pay the 3% on your bill anyway….. AND, the government assumes that the server earned at least +/- 8% of the total dollar amount of food they served and the waiter will be taxed on the 8% tip the government assumes you tipped the wa
