I’m saying the delivery driver gets almost nothing from whatever the service charge may be in any given case.
I was referring to food delivery specifically. Since here in the US we are expected to tip a restaurant server 15-20%, it seems odd to me that some people don’t consider the same when tipping for food delivery. Some places do have delivery charges, but it’s not always clear who gets that $$. And often, drivers who deliver for smaller restaurants use their own car and pay for their own gas.
It’s not customary to regularly tip UPS/Mail/Amazon drivers, but during the holidays I do give our regular mailman and UPS driver a gift card to Dunkin/Starbucks as a thank you. And some people leave bottled water or snacks for the drivers if they get a lot of packages. (I live in an apartment building and we do this in the summer months).
For an appliance or furniture delivery, I don’t know what the “standard” is, but I tip if delivered into my apartment and if any assembly or removal of old appliance is needed. Usually enough to buy lunch for themselves and it’s appreciated but not necessarily expected.
1 Like
I would like some advice on tipping for “SHIPT” (grocery delivery). At this point, my elderly mother can still drive, but I do know she will need grocery delivery (down the road). I can easily order her groceries on “SHIPT”; I’m just wondering how the tipping works and how much (if at all) one should tip?? Does anyone have any experience with “SHIPT”??
Unfortunately, I live 2300 miles away from my mother and can’t (personally) do that shopping for her.
Along those lines… About 15 years ago, I worked for a very small company and we had to move the office.
The owner had to be out of town and I was put in charge of the move. I hired a moving company that included 3 guys. The move took about 6 hours and everything went great.
The owner had told me to get some cash out of the bank and properly tip the moving men. He told me to NOT be my cheap accountant self and give each guy $50.
At the end of the day, I did as I was told and dispersed the money. One guy commented that the tip was more than his take home pay for the day.
In retrospect, I’m guessing that was too much.
2 Likes
Wow. I don’t think the issue here was with your tip but with how much they were getting paid by their company. Even 15 years ago, less than $50 (take home pay) for a full day of moving is a pittance.
6 Likes
That is my biggest issue with our tipping system (everyone relax I tip I just hate the system).
How much an employee makes is not the responsibility of the customer. It is between the employee and the employer.
I didn’t hire you, I can’t fire you, I don’t set the “minimum” job performance expectations.
Yes people should make a fair wage and a livable wage. Yes we would all like to make more. That isn’t on the customers shoulders. IMHO it isn’t fair to the customer and it isn’t fair to the worker.
4 Likes
Although in the case of the States, government intervenes setting very different minimum wage arrangements for servers than it does for workers in the wider economy. To my mind, it is a social/cultural intervention, not an economic or fiscal one.
If society wanted to deal with that, then lobby government to change the law so that servers are subject to the same minimum wage arrangements as everyone else (and, of course, earn their tips on top of that).
FWIW, my local dining pub (part of a smallish national chain) operates two systems for distribution of tips to staff. It does not operate a service charge system, so there is no fixed/advisory rate for a tip (which in any event is always discretionary). Firstly, tips paid by card are distributed through a Revenue approved “tronc” scheme to all staff, not just front of house. Tronc scheme are run by someone other than the employer - usually a contacted company specialising in this work and usually referred to as “troncmaster”.
Cash tips are pooled and distributed to front of house only. Seems to work - they never seem to have a recruitment and retention problem.
I think the moving guys were paid hourly based on the time they were on the clock. I don’t think they received a “full 8 hour” check for the move, as it only took about 6 hours. I’m not sure if they get paid for time to and from the job.
I do know all three went home happy – that day!!
totally absolutely wrong.
Me too, but like you dislike the system. I think the bigger problem is that individual customer cannot see the big picture. A employer hiring you know how much he is paying you per month and per year and can adjust this wage/salary. A customer paying tip does not know the waiter or waitress total income and can only affect less than 0.1% of the total tip (assuming 260 work day and more than 10 customers per day…>2500 meals served)
1 Like
The funny thing is that most waiters and waitresses hate this. I believe some restaurants started to guarantee fix income for wait staffs and remove the tipping option from the customers… then wait staffs started to leave these restaurants because they were making more money with tips.
1 Like
Wait. What is wrong? Isn’t true that tipped workers have a different minimum wage than non-tip workers?
1 Like
And that minimum wage is set at the state, not the federal, level?
Right. I think the federal is the baseline, but each state can set a bit higher than that (but not lower than federal)
Tips | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)
1 Like
What’s wrong? Please explain where I’m wrong
My understanding is that some level of American government sets minimum wage. It’s not a voluntary arrangement but legal regulation, just as it should be to my mind. And it sets different regulations for “tipped workers” and others.
Or is that not the case?
Thanks.
(EDIT: Chem’s extract confirms that my understanding is not incorrect)
3 Likes
By the by, does anyone know a website where I might learn the reasoning behind the differential regulated levels of minimum wage? I’m interested in seeing if my assumption that this is a cultural/social government intervention, as opposed to an economic/fiscal one. Not interested in debate about the rights and wrongs - just the official motivation behind it.
TIA
OK… I have another story about tipping. It was a really long time ago. I was in between jobs and having some problems making “ends meet”, so I took a part time weekend job at Dropzone packing parachutes for a Skydiving School. I was paid per pack job, not an hourly wage. I came up with the idea of putting a tip jar by my packing area hoping to garner a couple extra bucks for gas, etc. After two weeks… no tips. I came up with the idea to put a little of my own money in the jar – seed money. I put (6) $1 bills in the large glass jar, hoping people would see it and throw a buck or two in the jar as they saw me working and packing.
At some point, I went to the bathroom – when I came back someone had stolen my $6 out of the large glass jar.
5 Likes
happyonion is saying it’s wrong b/c the net take home pay must be at least the minimum wage. that’s the point being missed.
“An employer may pay a tipped employee not less than $2.13 an hour in direct wages if that amount plus the tips received equal at least the federal minimum wage, the employee retains all tips and the employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips. If an employee’s tips combined with the employer’s direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference.”
2 Likes
At least 10% of the groceries total.
Thanks… Yes, my mother would want me to “tip” the normal amount – when she gets to that stage of her life.
She really wants to stay in her home as long as possible.
1 Like
