this is a great article, ms mires!

Great column.

I think we do need to pay teachers more money. I also do not remotely have any sympathy for teachers who complain about trying to get by on what they make now which Ms. Mires so nicely shows.

They can and are two separate issues when dealing with teachers not working in the inner cities and way out there rural communities.

Wow - very nice article! I hope that bitter caller reads it.

This is a very good article. While I wholeheartedly believe that our educators should be paid better (49,600 is an extravagant salary for a teacher and one that isn't attainable at all in some districts, even with multiple degrees. Many teachers do not make $30,000; I don't.) this is more an issue of being considerate than teacher pay.

I agree that the comment make on It's Your Call that sparked this was, well, as ridiculous as most of the comments on It's Your Call are.

As this article points out, tipping is not only courteous, it is needed for some people, especially food service workers, to make ends meet. Stiffing people because you feel like you've been stiffed is simply not the right thing to do. If someone really can't afford to go to a restaurant where tipping is expected, they should grab a fast food meal or eat at home.

Tipping is a ridiculous tradition which has seemed to attach itself to restaurants. You don't tip the guy because he replaced your $2000.00 transmission and your car runs well. You don't tip the staff at Heartland because your surgery went well. It should be a choice if you are feeling generous and can afford it.

Goobentrot - thanks, for providing us with a great example of back water St. Joseph. It may be a ridiculous tradition, but tips shouldn't just be handed out if you are feeling generous. You are paying for the service that someone is providing to you. Mechanincs and doctors earn their money a different way so that comparison makes no sense whatsoever. If people don't want to tip, then they should go eat in self serve places so no one has to wait on them. If you can't afford it there are more than enough low cost places in this town to eat at.

Whether or not wait staff are tipped or not the end result would be the same. If bars and restaurants banned tips and paid the wait staff wages they would then have to pay all that would mean that instead of some of the customers money going for tips it would just be going for the higher price of the bill.

People who do not tip or tip well below average should be grateful for the current system, it saves them money.

I usually tip them a dollar or two but I don't know if you're supposed to.

Now that I think about it, the debit card printout always has a place to write in a tip too.

I've worked for a small base salary and tips. Most restaurant servers here make below minimum wage $2.25/hour plus tips.

The half minimum wage came in during George H.W. Bush's administration (Bush I). So the restaurant that charges me $7.95-$24.00 for a meal and may make huge profits (some do) does not have to extend their prosperity to their servers. The customer is supposed to pick up 10-20% or $1.50-$5.00.

At some restaurants groups automatically pay 15%. This fee prevents stiffing--asking for a lot of service and paying nothing extra for it. Frankly, the best tips I received were from people who had worked for tips or moderate income hard working people. I have been stiffed by people who could afford to be generous.

people rule, my husband often accuses me of over-tipping or being too lenient. i believe that my five years of waitress-ing in college made me a bit more sensitized, also. as a diner, i also try to look at things involved with serving which are beyond the server's control. an overcooked order, even a cold order can be the fault of the kitchen staff. a personable but not in my space server who is available but not hovering is always going to get a 20% tip from me.

otoh, if i am particularly displeased with a server, i have been known to tell that person why they are getting their low tip, largely to help them not to continue to make the same errors and get low tips.

it takes a particular mix of skills to be successful at serving. i remember it as being hard, but satisfying work if it were at a restaurant which could back my skills up with good food, a pleasant atmosphere, and reasonable rates. it is a great proving ground for life, a way to learn to gauge people, and to be sociable. you have to learn organization, and how to prioritize.

i hope that anyone who doesn't think that tips are warranted would re-examine their reasoning.

According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, tipped employees are individuals engaged in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. The employer may consider tips as part of wages, but the employer must pay at least $2.13 an hour in direct wages.

If you can't affort to tip when you receive proper service, don't eat out!

Great column!!!

I agree this is a Great Column. as for not understanding how telling the teacher not to eat out will help the waitress,its pretty simple. that table is freed up for customers who do tip for good service.its not like they expect you to leave all your money,you know a little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing.

I'm fed up with whiny teachers who excrete vanilla and think its all about them. My wife, who has managed retail businesses for just as long, would love to be making that kind of money. Oh...did I mention she has to show results? I'm a state employee and my pay may get frozen, too. Whoop-de-freakin'-do.

I will take the money saved from another harebrained "for the chillll-dren" shakedown and spend it getting my hair cut and my guts fed, taking care to generously tip the waitress and the gal who cuts my hair. They're not in a socialist national union and I've never heard woe-is-me whining from any of them.

Apple,

I think you make some very good points but I think you will find the mirage of teacher pay compared to the average pay and benefits in the area to still hold up that teachers get paid above average but just not as alarming as within this community. Our whole society has a hypocritical bent of pay teachers, police and firefighters more, get more people in prison and keep them longer but refuse to want to pay for it to happen.

Professions are just not paid based on how we feel about what they do. Being a teacher means for most teachers who choose to get a masters degree and work in non urban or out there rural areas means to get paid above average wages and benefits for the average pay in a community but not as much as a person with a masters degree in business. What unfortunately has gone on in the last couple of decades are a few teachers, like there will be in any profession, take the politically correct out cry of pay teachers more and then assume they are an exception to the rule and paid poorly.

For example, so the caller that started this off compared their wages to a college graduate working in computer software in a major city. Well they are paid more then most people in a big city that will pay higher wages! The simple fact is pretty much everyone in this world thinks they are underpaid and can point to another person, group or profession that gets paid more and be comforted by this belief.

By not tipping a server, you are costing them money. The IRS will tax them on (at least) 8% of their sales, regardless if you tip or not. This tax is on top of the income tax on their wages.

Full service restaurants (on average) net 5%-7% of their total sales. The ratio of employees to customers in a full service establishment is very high. A restaurant that serves 700 customers a day might use as many as 70-75 employees serve them (fast food places can serve the same number of guests with far less than half that number). If you are one of those people that clamor for restaurants to pay "a fair wage", then you need to be prepared for some serious sticker shock when it comes to menu prices. How about a $14 hamburger? A $30 steak? A $4 Coke?

Tipping or not tipping is certainly a choice. However, if you feel that tipping is not warranted, dine in those establishments that are self serve (i.e. fast food). You as the customer has a choice of where to eat. The server/bartender does not have that same choice. They must serve you. Don't try and save yourself some money at the expense of someone else.

I think it's rude to tip the waitstaff or hair stylists. If you must proceed with this type of behavior, just find a field with sleeping cows and tip them but please don't tip the waitstaff or stylists. They could be injured and then who would serve you or style your hair.

Wait, is this what this article is about??

There has always been a segment of the population that doesn't tip, regardless if the service is good or bad. My estimation is that the size of this particular group has increased exponentially in the last several months.

Great column indeed! Susan Mires in 2012!