15% is still standard. Because it's a percentage, inflation doesn't really apply. Not for things like this.

Yes that's right...If the prices of restaurant food have gone up (which they have), thus 15% is more than it usually would be. For me, I don't eat out all the time b/c it's a treat and a luxury on top of my grocery bill.

#62 has obviously never been a waiter. Before you get so judgmental, you should step into someone else's shoes.

How am I being judgmental? I think waiters need to be more realistic. Yes it sucks, because you work a crappy job that anyone can do, so you don't make much money and have poor benefits. Don't like it? Find something better to do with your life.

A job anyone can do? Tell that to the 20 something waiters that have been fired in the 10 months I've been working. Not everyone tips based on service, you can be the best or the worst and still get that $1 for a $15 check and 45minutes of your time. Have you ever spent a day being ordered around, treated like you're retarded, and still had to smile and say have a nice day? Then there's the $2.28/hr wage which means you need tips to pay rent and groceries and hopefully still keep gas in your car. Oh and by the way I'm pretty overqualified for this position, but its all I could get right now. If you ever stop in keep that in mind because I'm one a few who won't spit under your steak.

The 20 something people got fired because they chose not to do the job well, not because they can't. I do firmly believe that anyone (healthy) of working age in the US can be a waiter or waitress, and if someone doesn't succeed at it, they are simply choosing not to. I realize that not everyone tips based on service, but that's part of choosing to accept a gratuity-based job, in my opinion. I'm guessing that not only was he stinky but he probably didn't provide great service either, as it was his first customers. If they didn't realize he was new, they could have been upset about the service, as well as having a stinky waiter. Have I ever spent a day being ordered around, treated like you're retarded, and still had to smile and have a nice day? Of course I have. I've worked fast food, I've worked retail, and now I work a professional office job. And I have had to do that for all of them. In fact, I'm pretty sure every job is like that every now and then. And if you only make $2.28/hr and need tips for gas, rent, and groceries, that should be a hell of an incentive to be one kick-ass waiter. Obviously it's not a guaranteed thing, but don't try to suggest that you will earn more tips being a bad waiter than a good one. If you work very hard at it, you'll earn more tips. Similarly, if you smell better it's reasonable to expect more tips. This seems like a good lesson for the OP to learn, not an FML. If you posted an FML about how you are overqualified for your waiter job and FYL, I wouldn't YDI it. Because you don't. But showing up for work stinky and being pissed because people don't TIP you? Life lesson, OP. Life lesson.

roobear, you make some good points. Tips are a payment for service, and reflect the job performed. It doesn't make sense to tip high out of pity (although a server will not complain about someone's generosity). Tipping well for good service is what makes sense. I agree with you on your opinion of people who think they are entitled to things. It is not only annoying to have a server with a sense of entitlement, but it is extremely frustrating to work alongside one as well (constant complaints). In my experience, genuine smiles, hard work, and efficiency are the best ways to make good tips. However, not all servers have the job because they are unqualified for anything else. Most of the staff I work with have chosen to serve while in school. We go to class in the morning, work in the afternoons and evenings, and study at night. One man started serving in addition to his day job to help pay for his wedding and honeymoon. A single mother picked up the job on top of her day job to send her sons to college. Serving isn't necessarily a job for the people who can't find anything better. At our restaurant, it's for the people who are really willing to work hard for what they want.

One night I went out to eat at a restaurant my friend worked at. This is what I saw. A group of 20 or so people, coming in, some alone, some in pairs, some in trios. They insisted on being seated together. They said "No we are not in the same party" because if you're in a party of 12+ they automatically add the tip onto the bill. Then, when their food came out at different times (even though it has been ordered at different times) they started shouting about poor service because "We're in the same party as them how come they got their food five minutes ago and ours hasn't come out yet?" My friend spent the night running around his section trying to handle this group who were in the same party when it was convenient, and not in the same party when it wasn't. They insulted him for not being 'on top of things' and getting the food out to them fast enough. They complained that something wasn't cooked right, and blamed it on him, and didn't stop to think that he wasn't the one cooking it. They asked for bunches of refills and when the bill came insisted that refills should have been free. They shouted at him some more when he explained that only water was free, not wine or soda, or beer, or anything else. At the end of it, they left him a tip less than a dollar, total between the tables. Two of them had notes to the manager on the back of the receipts about his 'poor service.' I was also seated in his section. His service was anything but poor. As frustrating as that must have been he smiled, he catered to their every whim. He was as polite as he could be in explaining that the food wasn't ready yet, that the kitchens needed more time to cook it. He was quick to get their drinks, and got the food to them as fast as possible. He apologized over and over for the person whose steak wasn't done right, and apologized more when it wasn't fixed instantly. I was the only other table he had that night. Thankfully his boss also happened to be watching that party of 20 or parties of 3, and knew that he had not given poor service, and so he didn't get told off because of the notes. But he also didn't get paid anything that night except what I left him. Tips ought to be required because if they are not too many people will, and do, abuse the system, and too many waiters get stuck earning $20 for a full nights worth or work.

then there will be less waiters, which will get the restaurants in problems, which in turn will raise the wage of waiters. problem solved. It's the same everywhere else in the capitalistic system - supply and demand yadda yadda yadda.

Even if he's sweating because he was nervous, he should have been wearing deodorant. If the OP had showered that day and was wearing deodorant, then I withdraw my YDI because he has an odor problem, okay fine an FML. But if he had an odor problem, I'm sure it would have been in the FML:"I have an odor problem, I was clean, wearing deodorant, and body spray, but I got no tip anyway and they told me I stink. FML." Ergo, since that was not written, I must assume he was abnormally stinky and not just nervously sweating. Also - if it's his FIRST customers that wrote that, he must have been more than just nervously sweating. Most people don't have the cahoneys to write something like that; the odds of that happening without him being profusely odorous are astronomically small. That's why I assume he really just stunk, and needs to go take a shower and wear deodorant. Plus, if it gets the guy to start coming to work cleaner, isn't that a win for everyone? Isn't it better for him he found out now, as opposed to getting bad tips for 2 weeks and upsetting all the customers? Sheesh. He's pretty lucky. I guess I'm just passionate about this because I hate the feeling of entitlement that people have in the US. Everyone thinks they deserve things for free, and they're mad if they don't get it.

However, I will give you that they could have been nicer (especially because I assume they would know they have a new waiter). "Not to be rude, but you need to shower" would have been much better than "ever heard of deodorant?"

the minimum wage for waiters and waitresses is a lot less than $7.25... in fact, I believe it's something under $3 per hour. However, I don't feel required to tip if the service is poor. I don't reward people for sucking at their jobs. And I generally tip 15% for fair service, up to 20% if it's exceptionally awesome.