20% is easy to figure in my head so I imagine I will stick with that.

Thanks to overtippers and people who tip on things they really don't need to tip on at all, I now get "looks" from cashiers at take-out.
Here's a tip to the customers:

The cashier isn't bringing you a menu.
She's not bringing you water.
She's not asking what you want to order.
She's not setting your plate.
She's not letting you sit.
She's not bringing you your meal to your table.
She's not asking if you're enjoying your meal.
She's not refilling the water glass that she never gave you in the first place.

What she is doing:
Waiting for YOU to come up to HER and tell her what you want.
Taking your money.
Ignoring you until your food is ready.
Handing you the bag.
Thanking you for visiting and inviting you to come again (maybe - some of them don't even do that).

You don't owe a tip for that. You really should avoid tipping for that. These are not considered "tipped employees" and they all make a *minimum* of the state minimum wage, many get more than that.

These are not people who are working here full time with medical benefits expecting to be able to live off what they earn here. Most of them are part time, get no benefits at all except maybe a discount on the food they buy during their shift.

The more tips they get, the more tips they expect, until they get to a point where they expect one, and get upset when they don't get one. Don't tip the chick at the Burger King counter. Seriously - just don't do that. You make it more expensive for everyone else to get the MINIMUM quality customer service that they're getting paid to give us all.

You must be a math whiz.
10% is much easier to calculate.
If the bill is $17.35, just move the decimal point over. If you double that, it makes it much more difficult.

So if there were a law passed that all waiters and waitresses received minimum wage, would you still tip?

How about if they were required to get double the minimum wage?

If that is for a meal and not just pouring beers then $34.70 -> $3.50 -> $3.65 -> either $4.65 or 5.65.

Believe it helps with mental acuity in my old age.

I would probably leave the change: $17.35 -> $18

Like at the grocery store. Round up to the next dollar and the change goes to charity. Although, many may argue that "tips" are charity.

No income tax on tips (and no income tax on overtime) is unfair to both regular hourly and salary workers. Why should servers bring home income money that is tax free?

Skip

I think the theory is that the servers are underpaid (although I have always heard that many servers do not report cash tips anyway).

And while some are underpaid, many are not. A friend of mine owns a nice restaurant and she said that some of her servers make a lot of money with tips.

As for overtime, many government workers and construction workers are well paid before overtime. However, I think that has income limits on it.

I don’t understand why most European countries can afford to pay their servers a decent wage so that tipping is not expected while Americans cannot do it. Restaurant prices in Europe don’t seem to that much higher than in America especially when the tip and sales tax is included in the price listed on the menu.

Interesting. My go to behavior is I start with 15%. Good service, I add, bad service, I subtract. I do not tip for take out, at a coffee establishment or anywhere else where the service staff does not do personal service. I think all people deserve proper wages but it should be given by their employer who can reflect this in their prices.

So if you're a Consultant and charge a client, $100/hour ...

After Federal Taxes, you have about $75 left.

After you pay both sides of FICA, you $60 left.

Let's assume your "overhead" (office, equipment, phone, Insurance, etc.) is $10/hour

You now have $50 left.

If you take yourself to dinner & it cost you $40 + 25% Tip, you have ZERO left.

If your waitress is handling 5 tables, 10 people ... she just made $100/hour and gets to keep it all.

Better to quit the Consulting business and be a server.

There’s an expectation for doing your job, then there’s the extra effort put forth. I don’t mind paying for the extra effort, but to do the basic minimum, you shouldn’t expect more from me.

Furthermore, just like when I donate to charity, I like to know exactly where the money goes. What % actually benefits those in need vs the administrators? Same with those buttons on the credit card machine, if I select 15%, who exactly gets that tip?

I absolutely do not do all this "round up for charity" nonsense. I take my hard earned money and donate to the charity of my choice . I do not give this money to Publix so that they can give to a charity and claim my donation on their taxes.

Good service? When you are a waiter/waitress everything I have experienced in most restaurants is what I would expect as basic job requirements. It's not like they give you a back rub, shine your shoes or spoon feed you.

One could argue that the tip is a gift of appreciation and therefore, not income. (I assume at some point, someone has...and lost)