Tip amount should be a personal decision

Last week, the North Carolina ABC affiliate reported that a woman was banned from a Japanese restaurant for bad tipping.

Reportedly, the woman—a habitual bad tipper at the restaurant—complained about an 18 percent gratuity that was added to her check. When she returned again to the restaurant, the servers wouldn’t even seat her.

This incident raises the question of whether restaurant patrons should be forced to tip when they pay for their meal or if that payment is to be assumed in the cost of the meal.

People go out to eat because they don’t want to cook. They appreciate the atmosphere and restaurant service, and they enjoy the company of others. All of these factors are taken into consideration as menu prices are created. Included in the meal price is the server’s wage. Perhaps the woman from North Carolina was assuming this as she decided not to tip, as Japanese restaurants can be expensive.

A restaurant’s profit margin depends on food selections and combinations, customer service, pricing and how efficiently the restaurant is managed. For the most part, the average profit margin is 5 percent of each meal that is served, according to www.donrockwell.com. The same site says labor and food costs account for roughly 30 percent of the meal price.

For the most part, the standard suggested tip amount is 15 percent of a pre-tax bill. This expectation is in place because servers are paid notoriously meager wages.

Since 1991, the U.S. Department of Labor has set minimum wage for restaurant workers at $2.13 per hour with the reasoning that tips will bring their pay up to a living wage. Servers are given incentive to provide attentive and quick service because it directly affects how much of a tip they will earn. Considering food service is traditionally a popular industry for college students, many of us are familiar with this situation.

Further complicating a restaurant’s tipping process is last week’s ruling by a federal appeals court in Portland, Ore. If a restaurant pays servers more than minimum wage, the court ruled the restaurant can create a “tip pool” in which servers’ tips are pooled together and split accordingly, not only among servers, but also kitchen staff. The waitress who brought the appeal claimed that the tip pool violated her rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act, but the court disagreed.

As servers feel further slighted and vulnerable to this ruling, it’s probably time to get out of the food service business.

Ultimately, the amount patrons choose to tip their servers should be determined entirely by the patrons, not the restaurant. Recommended gratuity charges are misleading because that amount should be determined by the customers. They shouldn’t feel obligated to tip but should also take into account that good service has value.