I once went out to dinner with a friend, and after we left she said to me, “I didn’t tip. Is that bad?” My immediate response was yes, and I asked her why she hadn’t left anything. Our service had been average, not amazing, but pretty much what you expect at the average restaurant, so I knew that wasn’t why she had done it. My friend responded dismissively, “I’m a student, I shouldn’t be expected to tip.” This is an attitude that puzzles me, and I think the counter-argument is so quick and obvious that I wonder how this statement made it past her filter.
From my perspective, if you can afford to go out for dinner and get a few drinks, you can afford to leave a tip. The average dinner bill for one person, including one to two drinks, is around $30—a 15 per cent tip on this, which is all that is expected for average service, is $4.50. If this jump from $30 to $35 seems like too much, just think of this: if a $5 bill fell out of your pocket onto the street, how mad would you be about it? It’s really not that much money, and it hasn’t fallen out onto the street—you’ve given it to someone for the service they have performed for your benefit.
I’ve also heard people complain that it’s too hard to figure out a dollar amount to tip, which is also not a valid excuse. There are several ways you can make this easy—I usually round to the next closest 0 or 5. For example, if my bill comes to $17 and change, I’ll leave a $20 bill. If it doesn’t seem like enough, for whatever reason, I may throw in some extra change. You can also look at your receipt, which has a line item for the 13 per cent sales tax, and that will give you a dollar amount to gauge how much approximately a standard tip on your bill would be.
According to the Globe and Mail, tipping etiquette varies wherever you go. In the United States, many workers in the food industry get paid below minimum wage because employers expect the difference to be made up by tips. In Canada, this is not the case, but our servers are often left sharing their tips at the end of a shift. This ensures that a portion of this extra revenue is shared among the kitchen staff as well as hosts, who may not have as much, if any, face-time with the customer. This is the basis for the argument; that by not leaving a tip, you’re actually taking money out of your server’s pocket.
The whole concept of denying a tip for bad service can also be problematic. If the server was unpleasant or unprofessional, refusing to tip them is only going to contribute to their frustration and potential resentment of patrons, which is unlikely to improve their customer service skills. They may also just consider it a fluke and dismiss it as your problem, not a reflection of anything they did. Either way, the behaviour is unlikely to change and you or other patrons are likely to have the same unpleasant experience.
On the other hand, if you really feel the service was bad enough that it needs to be acknowledged, speak to a manager. This way, there is a potential that actual change will come about. If you don’t feel comfortable speaking to a manager because you don’t feel the service was that bad, then the service wasn’t bad enough to deny a tip.
As for the “I’m a student” excuse, I come back to this: if you can afford to go out, you can afford to tip.
Since The Ontarion undertakes the publishing of student work, the opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of The Ontarion. The Ontarion reserves the right to edit or refuse all material deemed sexist, racist, homophobic, or otherwise unfit for publication as determined by the Editor-in-chief.