People typically base their tip on the quality of their service. Poor service = bad tip. Good service = good tip.

Since when is a 20% tip expected regardless of the service received?

  At least 15% is expected!!!!  If the server has done a good job.....then you decide if they worked for a 20 or 25% tip.  You have obviously never worked in a restaurant and have no idea what we go through!!!!!  Oprah, you need to correct this.  I already get stiffed enough!

At least 15% should be expected! If you had great service, tip more but 15% should be the minimum. It's 2009 people, how long has 15% been the standard?......1960. My paycheck each week says $0.00, I rely on tips and tips alone. Thanks Oprah, I'll get stiffed ever more now!!!!!
P.S. If you can't afford to tip......DON'T GO OUT TO EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You shouldn't make assumptions. So, it is your belief that a 15% tip is REQUIRED even if you get lousy service? That's simply ridiculous. If a server can't provide decent service, then they in no way should expect a 15% tip. If you do your job poorly, then you shouldn't expect much.

I suppose the question is how bad does the service have to be? Do you give allowances for a server being busy? Do you try to be polite to your server as well? Being a server for 10 years, I've found that people have pre-determined how much they're going to give me before they ever meet me. People have different tipping philosophies and I'm going to get tipped what I get tipped. I give good service, always have - I'm friendly and prompt and attentive. The reward varies entirely from table to table but I have to keep going at each table as though they're going to tip me adequately. If I'm doing well for the year, I make $25K-30K tops and have to try to afford school, rent, and my life on that. Don't forget that we have to tip out our support staff (normally 3-4% of our sales, making your 15% tip a 11-12% tip) and most people pay with credit cards, so we usually end up claiming more money than we make because we can't deduct from our salaries what we tip out to support staff.

So, yes, I believe 15% is for getting the job done. The service would have to be unforgiveable and neglectful to receive a 10% tip - but if we apologize for a misstep, forgive us. Anything more than 15% is because we catered to everything you needed, because we made 15 trips to the table for various things that had to be attended to, because we checked on you properly to make sure things were okay, because we refilled your soda for free 5 times, because we remembered each of the 6 modifications you made to the meal. Tipping me less than 15% puts me close to poverty level, and I work at a mid-range place.... so thank you for that advice.

Once again, it is not the consumer's responsibility to understand the employment practices of the restaurant they are patronizing. I have been a waitress and always say that everyone should have to be a server at least once in thier life - it's hard work if done properly. I do not believe anyone, even tipped employees, should be paid less than the federal minimum wage. Period. It's the industry that needs revamping, not the customers.

Although when I waitressed, it was a part-time job, there were nights when I walked out with $150 in tips for a four-hour shift. I didn't know anyone who made those kinds of wages at the time.

I'm always polite to the server, regardless of how polite or attentive he/she is to me. In the end though, I base my tip on the quality of service I received. I typically tip 20% for good service... sometimes less if the server did nothing but take my order and give me a check. Not every server is attentive, sometimes you are lucky just to get your meal and a check.

You can easily tell when a server is busy, or a server is just being lazy or doesn't give a hoot. There is a big difference. I don't feel a lazy inattentive server deserves a tip, but I typically tip them at least 10% even though they basically did nothing. I don't know many jobs where you would get paid to do nothing.

I work in a high end restaurant in a major US city. Our restaurant requires so much support staff that 10% of my total sales goes away to other staff members (busboys, food runners, bartenders, etc.) If everyone tips 20% in a night, I walk away with half of my tips. If everyone tipped 10%, I would make nothing. This is evedient in a lot of higher end restaurants. SOmething to consider when tipping ten percent.

10% is average for tipping, some people never tip at all. My guess is because they don't know that waitresses make well below the minimum wage although I do not know how restaurants can get away with breaking the law like that on a daily basis. We don't eat out much at all but when we do, we always tip the waiter/waitress.

As I just got through saying, how can restaurants get away with this practice of not paying minimum wage to waiters/waitresses?

Oprah, how about doing a show on this?

I worked in food service briefly - tips were pooled then divided between the number of hours each employee worked (in other words, employees who didn't work a certain day would still get a share of tips. Talk about a backwards practice.) Talk about an unfair practice. I think the tip system should be done away with, and restaurants and other service places mandated by law to pay decent living wages.

Unbelievable.

AJ, I have never heard of giving 10% of your sales to a tip pool. It's typically based on a small percentage of your TIPS, not the total cost of the check. I'm not sure how any restaurant can operate in that manner.

When the servers are standing around and just chatting away and I am trying to catch their attention for more coffee, or water, or my steak was cooked wrong, or my eggs were over easy and not over medium and still you are trying to catch the servers attention and when you finally do get their attention their attitude stinks.

I know the server did not cook my meals, but they still are required to serve me and my family or guests.

Even it the server is busy with other customers I still deserve good quality service. There is no excuse, that is the server's job. If you are too busy to give proper service to the customers I will not give 15% tips. You will be lucky if you get 10% tip, you would be lucky if you get to keep your job after I leave not only without tipping, but complain to the manager.

If you servers want to be paid better then at a regular restaurant, then go work at McDonalds, or Subway, or etc.

You may think paying servers a regular salary, opposed to 2.13 an hour may sound reasonable, but think about the big picture. The labor cost would more than quadruple. That labor cost would be taken out on THE CONSUMER!!! Not only that, but do you really want to be waited on by someone who doesnt give a crap about the service they give you because they are going to make their measly $8 an hour no matter how bad their service is?

I have been the food and beverage industry for over 20 years. Just like everyone else on this message board has said, my paychecks from waiting table is $0.00 and at the end of the year, I still owe thousands to Uncle Sam. I depend completely on my tips. That is how I FEED MY FAMILY!!!!!

How would you feel if Oprah blasted on TV that your salary should be cut by 33%?

Servers know that they are getting tips now, but I assure you that doesn't guarantee that the consumer will get good service. Perhaps the employer should step up and take charge of this issue. Fire the incompetent servers and increase the pay of the servers that do a good job. Raising the prices on the menu is a simple thing to do. I'm not sure how raising the prices on the menu and eliminating tipping is a bad thing. One way or the other we the consumer are paying regardless.