Does your tween/teen know how to tip?

kenboy said:
It's not an inflationary thing -- I think the standard has just changed. When I was a kid, 15% really was the standard. Today, I think an awful lot of us have gone to 20%. I think if anything it's due to more people being aware of how crappily servers are compensated and treated -- things like their inability to take sick days, the illegal practices they have to basically live with if they want to stay employed (like: if a customer skips out on a check, the server often gets docked), etc.

Exactly. We are more aware than before how badly they are paid and treated. We should be as generous as possible. A tip big enough to mean a lot to a server is still a small amount for us, so it should be a no brainer for us.

Tom_Reingold said:

kenboy said:
It's not an inflationary thing -- I think the standard has just changed. When I was a kid, 15% really was the standard. Today, I think an awful lot of us have gone to 20%. I think if anything it's due to more people being aware of how crappily servers are compensated and treated -- things like their inability to take sick days, the illegal practices they have to basically live with if they want to stay employed (like: if a customer skips out on a check, the server often gets docked), etc.

Exactly. We are more aware than before how badly they are paid and treated. We should be as generous as possible. A tip big enough to mean a lot to a server is still a small amount for us, so it should be a no brainer for us.

Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I thought the shift towards 20% was due to it being easier to double the 10%, rather than add the 10% to half of itself.

I agree that 20% is more the norm these days (for good service)

but for kids-if they just do the "double the tax and round up" thing I think thats pretty good and an easy way for them to figure it out (yeah, they all have smart phones now anyway)

oots

The teens should also be taught -- if all they order is a soda and are sitting there for an hour, the tip they leave needs to be a lot more than 15-20%! (probably at least as much as the soda cost, if not more!)