Kavorka, a friend of the site and part-time bartender, posed the titular (hehe) rhetorical question, writing the following:
Does your bartender wield this power? Probably not, but you still pay him more
Swallow this…If a bartender, in a perfect world, had constant business of bottled-beer clients for an hour, he or she can expect $180/hour. (Assuming 20 seconds between customers, including opening the bottle, taking payment, etc). Clearly this never happens, but the bottom line is, if you give a bartender $1 for a beer, you are paying a labor rate of $3/minute. Even the most complex drinks (i.e. Long Island Iced Tea @ 40 Seconds) puts you at a $90/hour labor rate (again, assuming $1 tip).
Every time a bartender opens a beer for me, and yields $1 tip from me, I can’t help but think of my barber. Clearly, haircuts (men’s and women’s) drastically range in both price and time of completion, so do your own math. At what rate are you paying your barber/stylist? My haircuts take 25 minutes, have a list price of $20, and I leave a $5 tip (which, due to my nosiness, I know is actually generous). This equates to a labor rate of $12/hour. Is a beer that you’re going to likely finish in 10-15 minutes more important than a haircut that you will live with until your next haircut? Nope. Should you still tip your bartender $1/Drink?
I have my answer and explanation. However, I’d like to hear your opinions first. Clearly…there’s no right answer here. Just something to think about.
The Efficient Drinker’s Response: I think there are a few factors in play.
- Bartenders work shorter shifts and are not paid an hourly salary whereas the barber is probably paid an hourly salary somewhat dependent on the cost of the haircut. So in figuring his hourly wage, some part of the haircut cost can be attributed to him and he works many more hours, so can presumably make a living on salary plus tips. Still, a bartender who works 2 shifts a week at a popular bar can easily out-earn a barber working 40+ hours.
- The rest of the factors are social. In a busy bar, I’m paying for scarcity. I want to get served next time. If I don’t tip or tip $1 for a round of 4 beers, I can count on waiting a long time.
- If I’m in a busy bar, it’s somewhat likely that courting the opposite sex is in play. If not me, my friends are trying to. Looking cheaper than average is bad for business.
- Let’s take the case of a non-busy bar. Patrons there are paying a tip for the bartender to be interactive. Let’s face it: a standoffish unfriendly bartender on a slow night is going to lose whatever customers he or she has. Those patrons are not there for the crowd. It’s cheaper to drink store-bought beer or liquor. That person is paying for companionship in a sense.
With all that said, I think the culture of the United States has evolved to demand this disproportionate tipping as social norm and breaking from it will defeat whatever purpose for having been in the bar. Even the above justification can’t explain how the labor rates swung this far — barbers, on average, require more training than bartenders. I’ve never gotten a haircut in a foreign country (language barrier somewhat withstanding, getting a haircut is way scarier than getting a drink in all but the shadiest places) but can say that tipping bartenders is next to nonexistent in almost all of the 20 some-odd foreign countries I’ve been to. They are paid an hourly and seem to find that commensurate with the job. Maybe, the US is just an odd place.
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I submitted this thought of mine to Efficientdrinker.com from the perspective of a customer, which I most often, and very frequently am, but I also tend bar, so please appreciate my objectiveness when I say that you should absolutely tip (at least) $1 per drink.
“Don’t drink the yellow snow”. “Don’t shit where you eat”. “Don’t trust a person who questions your 9 on a par 4”. “Don’t date a girl who hates girls and is only friends with guys”. All good advice. But, this one will actually save you money: “Don’t piss off your bartender!”
A logical tip for a bartender taking 20 seconds to open an amstel (or clearly any other beer) should be about $0.05. Unfortunately, in the USA, donating to a homeless person is the only acceptable instance to give somebody change. If you give your bartender a tip that ranges from $0.00-$0.99, you won’t be kicked out. However, your bartender will eventually remember you. As a result, your bartender will make your drink weaker(assuming mixed drink), or in a crowded bar, will skip you over all together.
I’ve had customers give me a $2 tip for a $6 mixed drink. The next time that person orders a mixed drink, I make sure to virtually double the alcohol content in the drink. That customer’s cost of goods just reduced 50%. The bottom line is…BARTENDERS CAN BE BOUGHT!!
I tip my barber $5 because I know it’s acceptable, and I know that he relies on my continued patronage. However, bartenders don’t care about you. They only care about your tipping habits. They…I….Have you by the balls. It’s unfair. It makes no sense. But it’s how it works. So… be sure to take care of your bartender.
Oh… I also recommend giving your barber/stylist a nice holiday tip. After all…They’re the only humans on earth (excluding plastic surgeons) who modify your physical appearance.
What’s the protocol for tipping a bartender when you open a tab and are ordering multiple rounds of drinks? Is it ok to tip a percentage like you would a waiter or waitress, or should you be keeping track of the number of drinks and continue the $1 per drink rule?
Jimmy – First of all, great question. Luckily, there’s a clear, simple answer.
FOR THE MOST PART: It’s all the same. I spent much of my post discussing “labor rate” because it was so shocking. However, think of it like this. If you leave $1 tip for a $5 beer, is it out of whack in terms of percentage? (FYI that’s 20% …for anyones who be bad with them fractions). Not at all Jimmy. Not at all. So, if anyone leaves 20% TIP…its typically equal to $1 per drink. That being said, isn’t it funny that anyone buying drinks a la carte paying cash never never ever thinks in terms of “percentage of bill”, but if you hand that person a piece of paper with a number, they automatically start figuring out what 15-20% of “X” equals? Very strange.
I’ll add something about tabs. Some people think that they can skimp on tips when signing a tab, because they’re literally writing down a tip, signing, and running out the door, without consequence. In many cases, you can (but you shouldn’t asshole!). I solved this problem quite easily. I don’t give a customer their plastic back until after they’ve left their tip and signed. Therefore, I can take the bill and stare at their tip. It’s INSANE how much more customers tip when they know that if they leave a poopoo tip, their asses are getting the scarlet letter treatment!
I never really looked at the $1 per drink tip as being equivalent to the 20% tip, that’s a good point. Generally, if I’m ordering a round of 4 beers, I’m leaving $2, since I see that as easy work for the bartender. But at the same time, if I charged those 4 beers, I’ll end up leaving a $4 tip, since it would be embarrassing to write-in only a 10% tip.
In any case, even that 10% tip is a much higher rate than tipping a barber (my rate, too, comes out to $12/hour). But, as noted in the post, the key difference is that bartenders and wait staff rely almost exclusively on tips, while barbers make more of a standard wage. It just kills me, though, when an overpriced $7 beer becomes $8 with tip.
What about beer concession stands? That’s actually an instance where I’ll throw $0.50 in the tip jar (as Steve notes, that should usually only be reserved for the homeless), but I’m generally not tipping in those situations since they are overpriced and the workers are making at least minimum wage.
Dr. MT – There’s pretty substantial evidence that a customer who is ordering multiple drinks at a time will tip more on a credit card than paying cash a-la-carte. After all, I suppose no bartender could be upset with a $2 tip for opening 4 beers. But if it’s all being paid for at the end of the night, they will revert to percentage tipping. (i.e. 15-20% total bill)
To answer you question about if it’s acceptable to leave a concession stand beer guy spare change: I know I said it’s only acceptable to leave homeless people spare change. That being said, I put concession stand employees in the same category as homeless people. They probably sleep in those concession stands.
And in all fairness, if you consider a concession worker a bartender, I assume you also consider that a cat who’s born inside of a garage is a car.
So yeah, i’d say it’s perfectly fine. Also, don’t forget…because a concession stand offers 3 beers, it isn’t a bar. Imagine a concession stand that had 14 beers and 80 varieties of alcohol. Would you still leave spare change?
It’s funny you write this. I had actually thought about writing something similar on my site.
Bartenders are definitely tipped way too much. If I buy a $4 beer and leave a $1 tip, that’s a 25 % tip for someone who opened a beer bottle.
If I go to a nice restuarant where a waiter works his tail off serving me for two hours, I will only give him a 20% tip.
And in this case, unlike with the barber, the waitier is probably in the same situation as the bartender because they probably have a very small salary and are working primarily on tips.
Living with Balls,
Glad I beat you to it!! I must say that I have less sympathy for the waiter than you do. If a waiter really is “working their tail” off, they’re probably getting 20% of a decent sized bill. And, it’s not like they’re the one’s cooking your meals. A waiter’s responsibility is most often limited to taking your order, bringing you your food, and occassionally confirming that everything is “going well” with your table.
Something that I find interesting is ordering a bottle of wine from a waiter. If you choose the least expensive bottle vs the most expensive, there is absolutely no additional work for the waiter to physically open and serve the cheap bottle vs the expensive bottle. However, they will be tipped much more (given a constact top %) on the expensive bottle.
It’s just a screwy, screwy system!
Sure, I agree with the $1 tip. I always start out that way, too. My favorite: I order a shot of good whiskey or a good vodka with “a beer back.”
I give the bartender the money, and the “obligatory” $1 tip, if the beer did not appear, then I say “Beer back?” with an obvious inflection to the words spoken.
If the bartender just brings me the small 6 to 8 oz. beer, and doesn’t say anything, let’s just say everyone is happy.
If I am asked to buy an entire pint, or, even more disappointgly, a bottle, I’ll do it.
Let’s just say that at that point, I’ll start running a tab, and I start looking at measurement lines on glasses. That $1 per drink tip becomes a 10%, rounded up to the next dollar.
Hey, we’ve ALL got rules, regulations and most of all, traditions to uphold.
I know a bunch of people in the hospitality business, including my son and his wife. I tend to overtip knowing that many wait staff are paid only a couple bucks an hour, depending on tips to make a decent living. My minimum tip is $10 on anything above $25 and under $50, depending on service. Over that I go to roughly 20%, depending on service. On a $3 or $4 beer, $2 tip. I have been known to stiff surly servers. Bartenders tend to be different however and better understand the dynamic – more face to face.
Concession beer stands always get a buck, unless I am buying multiples, then percentage.
Im a restroom attendant in baltimore in the ladies room and believe me without me that bathroom would be a disaster. But i keep it very clean and smelling awsome i clean piss,puke,shit ,blood off the toilets and floors give soap paper towels that i pay for and provide out of my own pocket. And as far people looking down at me or not tipping me so what you wanna be unkind to me i will still be kind to you. I can also be a shoulder to cry on Remember people were human too. Us attendants provide a service so be kind and tip is that dollar going to make or break you when you tip me your helping me put my daughter through college and take care of my other 3children as well so don’t jugde a book by it’s cover until you read the contents.