While I wait for Whomageddon to finish airing so I can download, here's a poll!

[gogmagog]

[Poll #1218262]

I'm just curious about the art of tipping; I'm well-versed in the art of restaurant tipping (having grown up with "home cooking" being various Kansas City restaurants), but I'm always unsure when it comes to those other kinds of tips how much I should give. (I usually end up going for the high side of what I think is acceptable, because I'd rather err on the generous side, but then I wonder whether I'm tipping TOO highly.)

Note that I ask for "on average"; what I mean by that is, how much would you tip for acceptable to good service in this area? Also, if any of these results don't apply, or you have other thoughts about tipping and such, post them in the comments!

Comments

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

See, I'm not normally particularly cheap, but with restaurants I'm ESPECIALLY not cheap because I worked as a waiter for a couple of months in England and realized just how hard of a job it is to do well (for the record, I did NOT do it very well, since I have very little confidence when dealing with strange people; I got busted from waiter down to part-time waiter/part-time busboy because I sucked so badly at it), and so I appreciate the skill involved and how important tips are, having cursed customers of my own who didn't tip.

(And actually, tips are more important here in the US than they ever were in England; there we were required by law to be paid minimum wage, and got tips on top of that, whereas here waitstaff can be paid much less than minimum wage with the expectation that they'll make it up in tips. I think minimum wage in the US for waitstaff, last I heard, was less than $3/hr.)