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You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

Ok, so yeah, the title is borrowed from Peter Griffin on a Family Guy episode, but I felt like it fit for this blog post.  Here’s a very minute topic, but one that I want to call attention to.

When you go to a restaurant, what is the amount that you base your tip off of (whether its 15%, 20% or 25%, etc.)?

You base the tip off of the total price, including sales tax.  

Think about it though.  Why should we have to tip on top of the sales tax?  Isn’t that like double taxation?  How is that fair?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to stick it to the servers across the country.  I was once a server who worked for tips.  But I want to base my tip off of the sub-total, before the tax is calculated.  Is that so wrong?  I think its only fair, don’t you?

If I go to dinner and the sub-total is $50 for food and drinks, and I want to tip 20% for good service, then my tip should be $10.  And, that should be considered a healthy 20% tip. 

However, I don’t think I would get credit for tipping 20% in the above scenario.  The truth of the matter is that the sales tax is added before they bring the final ticket to you, which only serves to pad the server’s tip by roughly 7%.  So, instead of factoring my 20% tip off the $50 sub-total, I feel compelled to factor the tip off of the final price listed on the receipt (which would be $53.50 in the above scenario).  And, 20% of $53.50 is $10.70.  Thus, you see my point.

I think everyone is basically paying a tip on top of the sales tax amount.  Its not a big deal in isolated incidents, but I don’t think its fair.  Over time, this means we’re over-paying roughly 7% on all of our tips whenever we go out to eat.

And, as I’m typing this pointless little blog post, my wife shows me her tip calculator that she downloaded for her iPhone.  Go figure.

 

June 10, 2008 Posted by Charlie Malouf | Food | , , | 2 Comments