[quote name='ZombieToast']I honestly have no idea if they split or not, but that's the amount she usually goes home with.
All they do is carry a tray to my table and sometimes bring me water. The bagboy at the grocery store does more work for me and I'm not even allowed to tip him. I don't care if it somehow makes me a dick when someone decides to work at a crappy job. Besides, in California, tips do not count towards the minimum wage requirement of an employee's paycheck. So, they can get tipped $5000 in a night or absolutely nothing; they're still bringing home at least minimum wage ($8/hr). Tips are pure profit...so I'm not really going to feel bad for not giving someone money just because they're nice and tell me how cute my kid is. People sure as hell don't do the same for me when I go out.
Also, the notion of tipping a percentage of the bill is just silly. Whether you order a $25 steak or a $3 bowl of soup, the server does the same amount of work. I don't see why they should be rewarded extra when I feel like treating myself. If anyone deserves a tip, it's the guy cooking my food. Of course, nobody ever calls me a dick for not tipping him. Hell, most moderate-scale places don't even give you a way of doing so.
You should receive a satisfactory level of service no matter where you go, regardless of tips.[/QUOTE]
You just failed your own logic. Why should the bag boy or the cook deserve a tip more than your server? They're getting paid minimum wage or higher for doing their jobs. Under your logic, they deserve nothing. Or if you want to extend your faulty logic, you should tip your brain surgeon because that's way more complicated than taking an order, refilling your drinks, cooking your food, or bagging your groceries.
If you don't understand how tipping works and how much to tip, good luck navigating many areas of business in a world. For instance, if you go to a crowded bar and don't tip the bartender when you get your drinks, good luck getting any service the rest of the night. You may not agree with that, but that's how the world works. You probably think its absurd that you should tip someone to pour an ounce of whiskey into a glass of coke, pay $8 for it, then have to tip too. Now I'm sure you'll say you don't go to bars, or that if that happened to you you'd just go to a different bar and you'd receive perfect service on a crowded night without tipping. So let me cut you off before you even go with either of those arguments. #1 Its just an example, other service industries work the same way and #2 Same shit will happen to you at a different bar.