Crunching the numbers

I've had some interesting jobs in my day. I'm only a-twenty-somethin, but I done seen the world.
False.

But I did work at a golf country club without ever setting foot on the course.
I worked at a brewery without ever drinking beer.
I worked at the YMCA in the inner city... without having kids? Less significant. I'll stop.
I worked at a beauty salon.
I worked at a house-keeper in a major hotel.
I taught statistics.
I worked in another restaurant.
And I worked in a flower shop. Okay fine, I didn't. But I wish I did!

Anywho, I've spent a few minutes as a server. And mi madre y mi hermana (my computer really wanted me to type "Herman" there) have spent more than a few minutes servin y'all over the years. And ya know what I've found after being around the industry? People are confused about this whole tip thing. Allow me to give you some pointers:

• Tips are servers' wages. They don't get a paycheck. And they likely have to split their earnings with lots of people through the restaurant, so don't assume they "make bank" on the $10 per table that they earn.
• Tips should be percent based, not fixed value. You people that tip $3 every time no matter how big the bill... no one likes you.
• Tips should be based on performance. The industry standard is about 18 percentages here in uh-mare-ee-ca, so you can go up or down from there. Go less than 15% and you're telling your server they messed up. Keep that in mind.
• Tip on the after tax value. (This is the topic that spurred today's post so I had to bury this tip in the middle, lest I get fired up.)
• Tip on the pre-discounted value. For example, if you had a coupon for a free entree or your server bought your dessert for your birthday, add the cost of that back in then calc your tip.
• If you sit for a long time and don't order much, add extra to your tip for opportunity cost. We won't define that phrase today, so just trust me.

What is the easiest way to get to 18%? Aim for 20% Pardon the condescension here, but do you know how to crunch the numbers to get to 20% of your ticket? Just move the decimal and multiply by 2.
If your meal was 30, it is 3x2 or $6.
If your meal was 150, your tip should be closer to 15x2 or $30. You might think that is a lot, but at restaurants with higher prices each server takes care of fewer customers. That means they spend more time on you and don't have as many tables. So they aren't necessarily making that much more.

Glad we could have this conversation :-)