My Views on Tipping.. and how you are not going to like it..

To tip or not to tip.. that is never the question.. the question always seem to be how much to tip and why the hell didn't your cheap ass tip.. 

I have had arrangement's over and over again with wait staff and ex wait staff as to why tipping should always be done.. The main argument these people have is "don't you know how much a waitstaff person makes (or doesn't make)  well, of course I do.. AND my response to this.. NOT MY FAULT THEY TOOK A JOB THAT PAID CRAP..

Now, don't get me wrong.. I am as sensitive as the next person. For me to say that it is not my fault does NOT mean that I do not care.. I am saying that I shouldn't have to take the blame (by HAVING to ) making me tip.. This is what it feels like.. I am being made to tip..I am told "if you can't/won't tip, don't come back, or go to fast food".

Again. don't get me wrong.. I have tipped and I tip well. BUT I tip because I want to NOT because I feel I have to.. I have tipped the fast food lady or the lady at the toll booth.  

I have looked into the "we have to pay taxes on this or that.." AND I say  "so do I, I don't ask for tips".  The common error that a lot of wait staffers are making is that they are misleading others into think they are getting taxes on money they are not making  "I get tipped on what the restaurant made that night, they figure out what I should have gotten in tips and that is what I get taxes on".. that is a flat out lie and if that happened someone is lying to you.. and you need to go to a different tax person.   when people make cash as they do in tips, they have to report what they made in cash.. (if of course it was over a certain amount for that year, you don't have to claim the $50 you got from bob for helping him move his car).. 

For the IRS to tax wait staff on what their restaurant made on the nights they worked would take forever and would be too time consuming and does not happen. 

BUT setting aside all the tax issues, again I say,, NOT MY FAULT.. I do NOT think that customers should be punished because their server only makes 2.50 or less an hour. I have bills to pay and things to pay for and make what I make and I have to myself all by myself paying for it and can only blame myself (and my boss) for making what I make.. I can NOT demand a tip from people that walk into my job..  

AND do NOT say that servers do not demand a tip.. "if you can't tip don't come back. If you can't tip, go to fast food". that IS demanding.. 

A recent discussion with a wait person said that I shouldn't tip someone that does not have to claim their tips.. I am not sure exactly why this person didn't like that I tipped the fast food lady or the toll both lady but their main argument was that they got above average wages so they weren't or shouldn't be tipped.. I asked them should we now ask our server what they made an hour  "yes, I would like smoking and how much do you make an hour so I know how to tip you or if I should at all"?

Do I think its nice to tip waitstaff, of course, .Do I think they should be making more an hour, HELL YES.. $2.50 an hour?  someone should be ashamed of themselves for paying someone that. 

We have increasingly moved into a world of demanding and entitlement.. "You should do this for me no matter what" is what I am hearing more and more..