What's the usual tip to give at restaurants in the US?

[Stanley Rockafella]

Sheesh, I don't even remember what inspired me to start this thread.

[Melon]

Background: I waited tables and worked as a bartender at Bennigan's for about 3 years, so I'm always sympathetic to the servers.

Usually:
15% to 20%

I'll tip 15% if it's a quick lunch and the server didn't do a whole lot.

If the server is busy, but hustling, I still give them a good tip, if they suck, I'll lower it to 10% or even 5%.

[MR E30 325is]

I am only a fan of tipping at sit-down restaurants. I can't handle tipping anyone else (i.e. workers who make at least minimum wage per hour, normally) like hotel maids, massage therapists, etc.

Minimum tip is 20% or thereabouts, but I have tipped up to 100% before for fantastic service.

Left a 500 dollar tip once, though the dinner did cost 2,000 dollars.

[myinfernalbmw]

Yeah, no. Shitty service, shitty tip. I don't care why someone can't do their job, I'm not a charity. And if they put down food and never come back, I'm not leaving a damn thing.

I agree with this sentiment for the most part. While it's happened less times than I can count on one hand, I don't lose any sleep for not leaving a tip when a server is absolute horseshit. If you're a little frazzled and screw up my drink order, that won't stop me from tipping you, but if you screw up my order then give me attitude, the tip (or lack thereof) that you get is on you. If a restaurant is obviously understaffed, I'm not going to take it out on the server because the manager doesn't know how to schedule staff properly. I'll forgive a mistake or things out of your control, but you are very much mistaken if you think I'm going to reward you for being an asshole to me when I'm paying for a service.

Tips are a reward. If you want to argue why as a society we've accepted paying a person less than minimum wage + tips as a social norm, that is fine. But to pretend that tips are actually mandatory and that you're the asshole for not automatically tipping 20%, isn't an opinion held by most patrons.

Edit: Maybe I'm wrong. I don't remember being taught this in school, but I guess I'm at the old end of the millennial spectrum. “I'm so upset because we have a nation of kids that are expecting to get paid and live their life just for showing up and it's not real." https://www.upworthy.com/florida-tea...PHLEtt0TcbW4UU