• Is 25% the new standard for tipping? Depends where you eat

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    The New York Post reports that some waiters expect a standard tip of 25 percent. What do you think?

    By Lizzie Stark, TODAY contributor

    It’s a question we all face – what’s a reasonable tip for your waiter? After all, the last thing you want is to get on the bad side of the person who handles your food.

    According to the New York Post, tips may be adding a bigger chunk to your bill.  Waiters in Manhattan now want a 25 percent tip, and some New York City restaurants that print “suggested gratuities” even present 30 percent as an option, the paper reports.

    It’s not just wishful thinking – waiters are starting to get it. A study by Cornell University consumer behavior professor Michael Lynn, who examined 9,000 credit card receipts from a Poughkeepsie, N.Y. restaurant, found that more than a third of diners left tips greater than 20 percent.

    The latest rise in percentage, a phenomenon that author Steve Dublanica dubbed “tip creep,” may only be limited to New York, however. A thread on Chowhound.com suggests that 20 percent is standard, although some gourmands are willing to pay 25 percent or even more for exceptional service, and knock gratuity down to 15 percent for sub-par attendance.

    The 20 percent standard seems to apply to most places in the U.S., if the tipping threads on restaurant review site Yelp are representative. In threads from the Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and D.C. Yelp. communities, most people said they tipped 15-20 percent, with a few people noting that they occasionally liked to tip more, at local places and places with cheaper food, if service was awesome, or because their own experiences waiting table helped them relate to their server.

    Wait staff rely on tips, since tipped employees may be paid less, as low as $2.15 per hour according to federal law, although state law sometimes sets these minimum wages higher.

    The phenomenon of tip creep has plagued restaurant-goers for generations. Over the last 94 years, the acceptable tip rate increased from 10 percent of the bill to 20 percent. In the late 1890s, the growing practice of restaurant tipping was a hot topic, with many customers strenuously objecting. Case in point, the reader who, in a November 1899 letter to the New York Times editor, dubbed the practice, “a species of blackmail.”

    By 1918, tipping wasn’t blackmail, it was a standard 10 percent, according to a Sept. 1, 1918 article in the New York Times. Almost fifty years later, in 1965, another Times writer proclaimed, “most Americans are accustomed to tipping on the basis of 10 to 20 percent, with 15 percent being the most generally used figure.”

    Nowadays, 15 percent isn’t an average tip – it’s a way of registering displeasure with the service.

    And if the New York Post is right, the rate is flying higher than the current 20 percent. What do you usually tip for a meal? Would you go as high as 30 percent for great service?

    Lizzie Stark lives in New Jersey and is the author of "Leaving Mundania."  Though she's never waited tables herself, many of her friends have, so she never tips less than 18 percent.

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  • Tipping in tough times: Here's what you need to know

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    According to a survey, 39 percent of childcare providers and 47 percent of housekeepers do not expect cash or a gift this year.

    By Eve Tahmincioglu

    When my father died nearly a decade ago, one of the sanitation workers who served our Queens, N.Y., neighborhood cried when he heard about his death. 

    For years, my dad had been a generous tipper around the holidays, especially when it came to the trash guys, spreading the joy with crisp $50 bills and bottles of Johnnie Walker Red Label. 

    Showing appreciation for hard work is the reason many of us give when it comes to holiday gratuities for service that rarely gets a thank you any other time of year. But during tough economic times, the practice has come under increasing scrutiny. 

    We all understand that certain employees need tips to survive financially, including waiters and waitresses who get paid less with the idea gratuities will more than make up the difference. But with so many people struggling to make ends meet given years of stagnant wage growth – if they have a job at all – the mentality has become, “hey, they’ve got a job, why do they need a holiday handout?” 

    “You can tip yourself into the poor house,” said Carole Townsend, author of “Southern Fried White Trash,” who has noticed more and more people bypassing tips this holiday season because of budget constraints and wondering why cash tips are even necessary. 

    “I’m hearing that people are going out of their way to make things, like a tin of cookies for the nail lady, or a box of fudge for the mailman,” she explained. “They can’t afford it. Everyone is holding everything so close now money wise, even people you’d think really don’t need to.” 

    Indeed, even many of the typical tip beneficiaries, including everyone from baby sitters to maids, don’t expect that much holiday cheer this season. According to a survey by SitterCity 39 percent of childcare providers and 47 percent of housekeepers do not expect cash or a gift this year. 

    But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t appreciate some cash. Among childcare providers polled 34 percent would like cash, if they get a gift at all, while only 4 percent would like a handmade gift. And 28 percent of housekeepers wouldn’t mind some dough, compared to 3 percent who want their bosses’ creations. 

    Everyone realizes times are tough, but bypassing tips for those you really depend on throughout the year may not be a great idea. 

    Even though Townsend doesn’t tip garbage collectors or postal workers that serve her area, there’s one person she suggested people never forget. “If you have a good hairdresser you have to do what ever you can to make them happy,” stressed Townsend. “Mine is a miracle worker.” 

    Clearly, no one wants a bad haircut, but can holiday tips really guarantee good service in the future? 

    Etiquette expert Mary Mitchell thinks so.

    “Tip really means to ensure prompt payment,” said Mitchell, author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Etiquette.” “A tip is something that we do to both acknowledge we appreciate good service and to assure that it will continue.” 

    That said, she’s not an advocate of holiday tipping everyone in sight. If you have a service done regularly, such as having your nails done or your shoes shined, and you typically tip after every visit, there’s no need to tip yet again at the end of the year, she advised.

    Her general tipping guidance includes:

    • Not tipping the mailman or woman, or teachers, because in most cases they’re not supposed to take cash gifts
    • $20 for the trash collector
    • A week’s pay equivalent for people who do regular work for you such as your personal trainer, or a cleaning lady or gentleman

    If you’ve always doled out the big bucks during the holiday and are embarrassed that you can’t be as generous this year, Mitchell recommends the honest approach. “Most of us can afford to take a few minutes and write a handwritten note,” she noted. She suggested something like this: “I hope you know how much all your good services have meant to me throughout the year. Just as soon as I get another job I will celebrate my prosperity with you.” 

    Such genuine communications, she maintained, will go a long way in developing those strong relationships with the people that make our lives better every day. 

    Growing up, I always thought it was strange that our trashcan was the only one on our block that the sanitation crew moved from off the curb to the side of our house, even during snowstorms. As it turns out, a little generosity, and some Scotch, does go a long way. 

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