[logfromblammo]

You understand that in order for it to be a gratuity, it has to be voluntary, right? I have tipped 15% for median-quality restaurant table service my entire life, and will continue to do so at that rate as long as tipping still exists. It has scaled up with the menu prices, because it is a percentage.

If "the tip rate is going up", that is entirely a problem of your own making. You chose to tip more. You can also choose to tip less, or not at all (by going to restaurants with counter service).

If you as a worker wish to represent 20% of the cost of my meal off the top, in addition to whatever portion you also may get from the menu list price, you are a growing cost, one that invites cutting. There are vending machines that make entire fresh, oven-baked pizzas now. The robot does not get a tip. The service worker just cleans the thing according to a schedule, and refills the ingredient hoppers. Even McDonald's is installing robotic cashiers.

It's easy to find tipping guides written by current or former service workers that self-servingly inflate percentages over the historic tipping rates. But those writing such guides are basically advertising that they are becoming less productive workers. That seems like a dangerous thing to do in a world of cutthroat cost-cutters.

[nikofeyn]

why are you tipping 15% for mediocre service? that just ups expectations and sets the bar low for quality service. of course tipping is a choice but there are social pressures. i prefer to hover around 10% for normal service but you can be made to feel like an asshole around people who default to 15-25% for even poor service, even though i am consistent and will often increase the tip greatly based upon great service. it isn't just an individual decision.

[logfromblammo]

That's the minimum I can tip without the spouse trying to sneak more money onto the table when I'm not looking. I'd rather pay 15% up front than 25% through the back door, out of the family's petty cash reserve.

Poor service earns 10%, but only if I intend to ever return to that restaurant. The worst tip I ever left was $0.02, and that number was chosen to distinguish it from someone who just doesn't tip.

I have never even seen service good enough to merit 25%.

I think it's perfectly fine to tip 10% for median service, so long as you tip more for good service and less for bad. Giving "everything is awesome" tips to everyone, all the time, is the tipping equivalent of "everyone gets a trophy" competitive sports. You're not really helping the people you're giving them to, because you're eliminating critical feedback signals.

[nikofeyn]

> Giving "everything is awesome" tips to everyone, all the time, is the tipping equivalent of "everyone gets a trophy" competitive sports. You're not really helping the people you're giving them to, because you're eliminating critical feedback signals.

that was my point.

[zaccus]

I always tip 20% for anything better than terrible service. Because I won't be arsed with evaluating whether my server was "good" or "great" or "truly outstanding" or whatever. It's table service. I shouldn't have to think about it at all.

I would rather tip 20% than use mental bandwidth for that nonsense.

[logfromblammo]

I tip 15% 2/3 of the time, 10% for the worst 1/6, and 20% for the best 1/6.

If you don't change what you tip in response to perceived service quality, there is less incentive to make an effort to provide good service. You're engaging in renegade behavior, just like anti-vaxxers relying on the herd immunity to protect themselves from their own decisions. As long as anybody has to play this stupid tipping game, everybody has to play it.

If you really don't want to worry about it, why don't you just refrain from tipping altogether? It's table service. The restaurant should be the one enforcing its quality standards, and not the customers, right?

[zaccus]

Meh, I'll tip 20% if I want. I don't care what it incentivizes, at all. Thanks for the concern.