Tipping the scales

During his two-day trip to Cape Girardeau last week, Larry Ellis saw extremes in the kind of service he received at two local restaurants -- remarkable and dreadful.

And in each case he let the server know exactly how he felt in the only way he knew how.

In his tip.

"Last night we went to a place that was just awful, and I didn't leave a tip," Ellis said Friday morning in between bites of breakfast at Denny's. "They slid my glass to me across the table and I had to go looking for her to get my cup refilled. The service here has been good, so I'll leave a tip."

Ellis, who lives in Tennessee, said he likes to have his coffee cup kept full and food served promptly -- and it shouldn't be a bonus for the server to be personable and courteous.

"They should at least treat me like a person," he said. "I'm the reason they're able to even have a job."

He was so dissatisfied with the service once that he left only a penny next to his plate.

"I didn't want them to think I forgot to leave a tip," he said. "Just that I didn't care for the service. Tips, to me, are not automatic."

No, they're not. But servers at restaurants do rely on the tips they get to supplement the fact they're only paid $2.13 an hour by their employers, which is more than $3 below the federal minimum wage.

The industry standard has become to leave at least 15 percent of the bill for a tip if the service was good. Some say that's too much, some too little. Some care so much about leaving the exact amount that they've taken to consulting "tip calculators."

Still others say they could care less about the so-called standards. They leave what they feel the waiter or waitress earned.

As it has for years, the issue has created an interesting debate.

In between serving French slams and meat lover's skillets, Denny's waitress Corinne White talks as if she both loves and hates the fact that her pay is partially made up of tips.

"We only make $50 or $60 a week from Denny's, so we live off our tips basically," White said. "Some days we don't make enough. But on good days we can make more than $100."

Overall, she said she sees relying on tips as a drawback.

"I don't mind checking on them, making sure they have everything they need," she said. "But I'm looking for a second job because I need more money."

Federal laws allow employees to be paid less than $5.15 an hour if they work at jobs where they receive more than $30 per month in tips.

An employer of a tipped worker is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips equals the minimum wage. If that doesn't happen, then the employer is supposed to make up the difference.

Mary McKay, also a Denny's waitress, thinks the law should be changed to allow servers to get more than $2.13.

"Tips are so unpredictable," said McKay, who has been a waitress for 17 years. "It depends on the weather, people's moods. If somebody's having a bad day, it doesn't matter what you do."

But Denny's manager Tony Salomone said that, in the end, waitresses make far more than minimum wage.

"They make $60 to $80 a shift in tips," he said. "The good ones make more. That's easily $10 an hour. Most of the girls here make somewhere in the $12 to $15 range. It's one of the easiest and best jobs. All you have to do is make sure the customer is happy."

Don't have to be taught

Some customers labor over how much to leave. Other people, like Vincent Parres of Cape Girardeau, think little of it. After finishing his breakfast that cost just over $5, Parres tossed $1 on the table.

"I know some people figure it out to the nitty-gritty," he said. "I don't believe in that. Most of them are pretty good. Even the ones who aren't, I tip. You just hope you don't get them too often."

Servers don't have to be taught what to do to get good tips, according to Mark Dirnberger, who owns Bella Italia in downtown Cape Girardeau and is also former president of the Southeast Missouri Restaurant Association.

"It's really easy," he said. "Take care of the guests. Be polite and friendly and sociable. Take care of them."

Bella Italia regular Doug Baltz agreed, though he said servers always deserve something.

"I've gone as high as 25 percent," Baltz said, while sipping a cappuccino. "These servers are doing more than serving. They're recommending things, they know the menu. You should give them the gratuity for their knowledge, which makes your experience better. They'd have to go a long way before I wouldn't leave them anything."

Other customers say there are some things that servers do that irk them.

Helen Proffer of Jackson, for example, hates when a server asks her if she "needs any change?" when she leaves $20 for a $12 tab.

"I'll say 'Yes, I want my change,'" she said. "If I'm going to leave whatever I have left, I'll tell them."

Proffer said she didn't like it when the standard went to 15 percent.

"I give the Lord 10 percent," she said. "Why do waitresses deserve more?"

Kari Elsik, a bartender at Bella Italia who has been a server for years, thinks people would tip better if they knew servers were only getting $2.13 an hour.

"People don't realize we live on our tips," she said. "It's not our hourly pay. But in the end, percentages don't matter. It's about service. Excellent service should be rewarded. Everyone can agree on that."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137