Wiseguy's a good tipper, and if the waitress is a little slow, a little slap on the ass usually does the trick.

Most waiters and waitresses get a pretty small hourly wage and rely on tips to make a check, so of course a tip that is appropriate for the service and the number of people in the party should be given. Obviously the worse the service is the less the tip should be. If the service is so bad they don't deserve a tip then they probably won't be in that line of work for long anyway.

definitely tip, but not as much if the service was poor and there was no excuse for it.  If the food wasn't good don't take it out on the waiter.  These people work hard and deserve a tip.  It's hard work carrying trays, smiling when your feet ache from being on them for 6 hrs, dealing with difficult/obnoxious people and getting home at 1 am after cleaning up only to make $50 in tips for that night and you are supporting 2 kids.

If that server treats you like sewer garbage, you should leave a 5 cent tip and never eat at that restraunt again.

Why tip? It's their "Job", a job they choose, they applied for, and they accepted their hourly wages. I they must do the best job they can possibly do. When I tip I believe you should definitely tip, based on the service and and also if you were served with a smile.

I know that a server/waitress/waiter is paid a pittance. It is up to them to earn their wage by good service. (The employer is the main winner here) I do believe that they need to work for their tip, but we also need to be polite to them and not rude, nasty, impatient. Sometimes it is not their fault - it can be/often is, the kitchens fault as well. I always leave a tip, but leave even more depending on the service.

You should definitely tip, especially based on the service.

At least 20% is in order for a tip. If you have the fortitude, and service was bad, then give a small tip but tell the server why it is so small.

The reason why food is so cheap in American restaurants is the fact that you are expected to tip. If service was added to the cost of the food, we would be paying at least 25% more.

It is a crappy system, but has its defenders, I know.

Invariably. Even if the service was atrocious, in which case I insult tip.

Some of you are just full of it! In America Servers deserve a tip, we are not in Japan who has a backwards way of thinking of things and we sure as heck are not in Germany! Servers get paid dirt cheap wages and in essence they are self employed. The server does a lot more than just take your food to your table! First of all they take special care of you because you are their employer, while the company they are working for is paying them in peanuts no matter how good of a job they do, the customers are paying you in gold! I sure don't know where IrishTurtle gets that servers, working on their own wages, live in brand new houses, driving brand new cars, that is just whacked buddy! Those of you who say you don't believe in tipping are just cheap and ignorant people and I hope someday you have to take care of yourself as a server with the wages of a server and no one to help you, then and only then will you understand the true stress, oh ya, and the whole grocery store cashiers who are making at least minimum wage! are not running around like a chicken with their heads cut off dealing with 9 tables all at once and remembering every single need of 36 differnt folx from those 9 different tables! Servers also get abused by the ungrateful customers, the hostesses, bartendars (who think their crap don't stink), managers, dishwashers, and the cooks above all are meaner than dirt if you ask them to fix the way they made your customers plate.

Absolutely tip. It's part of the cost of the meal. Staff are compensated meagerly by the establishment based on the expectation that they are getting tips. I don't however buy that there should be a fixed percentage. A prompt attentive waiter/waitress who knows the menu and can make qualified recommendations deserves in excess of the standard 15%. Someone who is snotty and schlepps out the food deserves considerably less. Personally I don't like the trend toward overly familiar serving staff, be pleasant but don't pretend that we are making a life bond. Also be thoughtful of their working conditions. If its crazy busy and they are covering too many tables, don't blame them for management being too cheap to have enough staff.

I'm an American and I don't believe in tipping. In Japan it's considered rude to tip. If you leave a tip in Japan, you are saying to the waiter/waitress that the food wasn't good or wasn't enough and here's some extra money anyway for your troubles.
In Germany, you only leave like your pocket change, like 50 Euro kleingeld (which is about 40-45 cents).

I've worked at restaurants and know that the majority of waitresses/waiters don't give a damn about you. They come out and smile and kiss your ass because they want your money. And I don't like the idea of having to pay MORE for what I expect my money should get me in the first place. If the steak costs $10.00, then I only want to pay what the steak costs, you shouldn't have to pay extra for a restaurant to bring it out to you and put it on your table. That's their job in the first place.

THe problem though, is the way we run things in America. Most restaurants do not pay waitresses/waiters enough money to live off of, they expect them to get all their money off tips. Thus tipping, A.K.A. "Gratuity", which is suppose to be discretionary, is not really discretionary at all when you know the woman/man serving you only makes $2.40 an hour. It makes people feel like they MUST leave a tip. Not only that but some restaurants include the gratuity in the bill, making it completly not up to your discretion of how much you wanted to leave or whether you wanted to leave a tip or not.
It also has a side affect of causing people to be unsincere. Hardly any waitress or waiter comes and serves you and honestly loves to do it from the bottom of their heart, they just want your money; they NEED your money. That always irks people when they are aware that the person smiling at them and acting like they genuinly care, is only pretending.

15% is a huge joke! Depending on the restaurant, a waiter/waitress can make more than a $50,000 a year and for what? To deliver some food? I used to work in an upscale restaurant and knew waiters who had huge homes and new cars. Waiters/waitresses are the most ungrateful people ever (in general)---they are nice to your face and then as soon as they see your not ordering enough they go into the back to argue for someone to take over the table. So basically all they care about is a tip, not whether you are happy with your food. Trust me, I know!
As for a position which deserves a tip but never gets one---a grocery store cashier! These people take abuse from everyone and for employees faults in the store. Price change errors, lack of employees, bad products, rude employees, impatience--all rides on the cashier! Meanwhile, the poor cashier has to be "smiling and happy," look up and make eye contact, quickly bag 100s of items correctly, get sore feet from standing in the same spot 8 hours, multi-task, and verbally abused by managers and customers.

Im with frogio on this one. Its not the waitress thats faulty, its the people who prepare the food. If i was a waitress, i would be yelling out the phrase "Get it right ass#ole!"

I tip based upon service and not food quality. So many people dupe the waiter/waitress because "their steak wasn't cooked right" and that's just plain wrong.

Ten bucks a smile is my theory. Don't black cloud my table and expect me to make your day, and I promise I won't hold the cold soup against you, but don't get me wrong...I'm not paying for the soup, but, if done right, I'll pay you for your time.

These people get a little over $2.00 an hour so unless they are really bad...tip. I generally tip around 15%, if they do really well, I bump it to about 20%. Places I eat often and have become a regular, I tip my regular servers about 25%. They know where I want to sit, what Im going to drink and often, what I want to eat.

Of course, of course, of course, you should!

But let's talk about the scale.

Before I waitressed, I didn't realize that 20% was basically the standard for decent service, or just service where you didn't mess up too badly. I was happy, of course, to find this out. With everyone tipping 20% for OK service and greater than 20% for great service, those people that tipped 10-15% tended to come across as classless, cheap, or lacking in experience.

I didn't work at an extremely nice place and don't think my skills were particularly outstanding. It wasn't in an extremely metro area with a high SES. It was just your average restaraunt in an average place with the average tip exceeding my previously held notion of the 'standard.'

Here is how I see this one when some one waits on me there are getting a tip and its their's to loose. If they go above and beyond what I expected the tip will go up but if I have to wait for ever or they never come by to check on us the tip starts to go down. If by the end of the meal I am totally pissed of then no tip.

You best tip them! If I get good service I tip extra and you really gotta suck for me to go below 15%.

If the service is good, the waiter/waitress should be tipped. Sometimes it is well to take into consideration that they are extremely busy. A tip should not be based on how the food tastes, as the waiter/waitress has nothing to do with this.

My rule is 20% if the service is good - and I'm fairly liberal with that definition. By that I mean someone would have to be blatantly rude or obnoxious to blow their tip. And though rare with me, some have managed to do just that.

I for the most part always tip well, about 20 percent. But on a recent trip to Outback, after a lengthy argument with my girlfriend I did not. Question for waiters on here? We were seated and given menus by the hostess, the waiter came and took our order, Drinks were brought by the bartender staff, the kitchen staff brought our food and refreshed the drinks, then we did not see anyone until we had finished our meal and the original waiter brought our ticket. I am not going to tip someone I saw twice. My girlfriend says they all split the tips and we should have tipped.

I almost always give a tip to the waiter or waitress. I know they count on that money and for the most part they are pretty good at their job. only time a no would be if they were very nasty and took their mood out on us. that is rare. always try and give at least 15 percent and a bit more if really good.

No question about this one. Always tip the waiter and waitreses.

In most states,waiters and waitresses are paid BELOW minimum wage,since it is customary to tip them.So if they do their job at all,give them something.If they're actually GOOD,tip them well.The only ones to stiff are the nasty ones.

Only once in my life did I ever stiff a waitress and that was for extremely rude service. . .99.9% of the time this is a tipping situation. . .

Considering that they make most of their living off of the tips that the customers leave, I'd hope they'd be pleasant enough to earn the extra money I'd be willing to shell out. I'll always leave a tip, but the more pleasant the service, the more money you'll be getting.

You'll have to be a real jerk for me not to leave a tip (and that's only ever happened once).

Their pay relies on having a tip. And wait staff put up with a lot of undue crap from overly obnoxious and demanding people. I like hanging out with my husband's older work friends and all, but if the waitress doesn't come as soon as they arrive, they are embarrasingly loud and obnoxious about it. I shouldn't have to tell anyone, much less anyone older than me, how to behave in a restaurant. Just because you are in the position to tip someone doesn't make you "better" than that person.

They're usually a bunch of kids trying to get through college. Give them a break.

I work part time as a waiter, and I get paid $3.08 an hour. Tips are necessary for a waiter to make a decent wage, and they should definitely be included with every meal at a sit down restaurant. Waiters work hard and put up with a lot of crap from some people, so tipping well is a must. If you don't tip well, just remember that the waiter is the one responsible for making sure your food gets to you in good shape and on time.