If you're only tipping 15%, you're cheap. 20% is the standard and it's basically a non-explicit fee for service. You can legally leave without tipping, of course, because it's theoretically optional. But restaurants do not pay their employees even minimum wage. The restaurant pays about a third of the employees' salaries and the rest comes from tips. The tips are their main source of income. So of course they're going to suggest things, encourage the more expensive options, come around to tables who have ordered the tiny alcoholic drinks because they're going to want another round.
Menus also typically do not list prices for beverages. So if you enter a restaurant, order the $8 sandwich of the day and a lemonade, by the time you leave, you can easily spend $16. Fresh lemonade is often $4, and you're going to pay about 30% of your total in tax and tip.
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Date: 2011-02-14 05:21 pm (UTC)Menus also typically do not list prices for beverages. So if you enter a restaurant, order the $8 sandwich of the day and a lemonade, by the time you leave, you can easily spend $16. Fresh lemonade is often $4, and you're going to pay about 30% of your total in tax and tip.