When it comes to dining out, I am a good tipper. My standard tip is 20% rounded up, and if I am especially pleased with the service, I’ll add a dollar or two.
I don’t have a problem with tipping for service at a restaurant.
I also tip on the total bill, including tax, because I’m not an insane person.
On Saturday night, however, Elysha and I went to dinner with friends, and at the bottom of the bill were some tipping suggestions. I hate the mere existence of these suggestions, since calculating 15 or 20 percent of any total should not be difficult for any grown-ass human being.
Even if calculating 20 percent is challenging for you, we can all calculate 10 percent of a number, so at worst you can just add half of that amount for 15 percent or double it for 20 percent.
I find these tipping suggestions slightly insulting both especially unsettling. I worry that people actually need them.
But the suggestions offered on Saturday night were insulting for a whole new reason.
30 percent? This restaurant has added 30 percent as an option to the suggested tips?
Frankly, I think 25 percent is a little presumptuous, but 30 percent?
I often suggest that folks purchase my books by the dozen, but I’m not serious. I’m making a joke. I don’t ever expect anyone to do it, but these suggestions are not meant to be funny.
Someone somewhere thinks that a 30 percent tip should not only an option, but it’s an option so common and obvious that it’s worthy of suggestion.
It’s not.
For the record, I tipped $12 that night, making my tip a little more than 21 percent of the bill. A tip like this would normally make me feel good about my tip. Generous, even.
But not when the stupid restaurant presents 30 percent an option.
