The Perks to Waiting...

So I am a waitress.... this is my income. Why do people come in, spend 99 dollars and walk out the door with only leaving a 100 dollar bill in the book.

I knew it from the moment they walked in and sat in my section. It is a bit sad how jaded and often judgmental I have become, but in the end you can see them coming from a mile away. The 'them' I am referring to is the overly gracious, overly polite, overly happy people that leave you with 100 dollars on a 99 dollar tab. Yes folks, that is right, leaving me with a whopping dollar tip to pay my bills.

Now don't get me wrong, it is not every overly gracious, polite and happy persons that tip badly, that would be generalizing, but they tend to be very obvious to the experienced server.

She called him "papa," they were an extremely young couple, from the looks of it they looked as if they were married just after they graduated high school, I am assuming they have two or three kids at home and were splurging for an anniversary. Whatever it was, they were not splurging in the tipping department.

I have heard several people in my lifetime say that they believe every person should wait tables at some point in their lifetime, it is not an easy job, it is not always fun and in the end every bill you put in that booklet to tip is our soul income. Face it people, minimum wage for a server is less than 4 dollars and 75% of the time our paychecks are void.

So the moral of the story is: Tip your servers 18-20% because it is our income, our money to pay our bills and make it through this challenging, demanding economy.

Thank you.