Are you legally obliged to tip a Restaurant Worker in America?

[ManyFantasiGuy]

[Anonymous]

I think 15% is fine for ordinary service. If your lunch is $60 then $9 for taking your order and bringing your plate over is plenty, times however many other tables she has going. She's supposed to make good money for her total effort on her shift, not get rich on each individual table.

People think because prices are higher then the tip percentage should be higher, but that's the whole reason it's a percentage.

Back in the olden days when lunch would cost $2.40 then 15% would be 36¢ and they were thrilled to have it (and really it was only 10% back then). There's no reason the percentage has to go up just because the prices went up.

I do not like mandatory tips anywhere. I think it's at the Fairmont where I saw on the menu, "we are pleased to add a 32% gratuity to your check." Are you? Are you pleased to add a 32% gratuity to my check? Then I'm pleased to eat somewhere else. I don't mind that lunch there costs $200, but i will not be told up front what I am forced to tip.

Having said all that, if the service is unbelievable, like you can tell the waitress really cares about your comfort and enjoyment and goes out of her way to make things very nice, I don't mind leaving 20% or 25% or more, or just putting $100 down if i feel like it or if I can sense the waitress could use a little extra money right now.

[jennifer_bloom]

I live in Canada and I would say you are socially expected to tip, in the same way you are expected to take off your baseball cap when you walk into a church. You won't get arrested for not tipping but it's rude not to tip somebody, just like it's rude to ask a woman if she is pregnant when she gains weight. You don't have to tip but not tipping is considered very very rude.

[ManyFantasiGuy]

Okay, but in your given examples. I would beg to differ.
Taking off caps and asking random questions is different thing. But tips include money. Money that you earned. So I don't think just because of societal norms or because someone will get upset, I will spend my money unnecessarily...
I don't understand the part where it becomes "rude". They do their work and I respect them. But again just because someone thinks that it is rude that someone isn't giving them extra money. I think I don't care then.

[WindAtMyBack]

No. The restaurant is legally required to pay them minimum wage though. They must pay half of minimum wage, and the server is expected to make the rest on tips. If the tips don't bring them up to minimum wage, then the restaurant has to pay it.

In reality, servers make pretty good money on tips. That's especially true if they work at a busy restaurant or an expensive restaurant. The servers make way more than the workers back in the kitchen. At many (most?) restaurants, servers are suppose to give a portion of their tips to the kitchen staff, but I think they rarely do.

[AviatorTom]

No, there is no legal requirement to tip a server. However, knowing that most servers don't even make minimum wage, tipping is usually a good idea.

[normalice]

No but the restaurant can also legally exclude you if it becomes known you don't tip.

[exitseven]

No, I have purposely left no tip if I get really bad service. It has maybe only happened once or twice. I usually leave 20%

[DryGermanGuy]

If you don’t tip at all, you might not want to go back to that particular restaurant (!)…

[handsomelad70]

No, but only a pr*ck doesn't.(Looking at YOU, Scottie "No Tippin' " Pippen!!!)

[Twalli]

Not legally obligated to, but because they work for tips, they're paid less than minimum wage.

[HouseMoat]

No, tipping is not a requirement, however, if you don't, you might get told off

[gorydetails]

No. Morally, yes.

[noohair]

No you are not.

[Pterodon]

Nope