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I'm generally for tipping workers who earn under minimum wage or barely minimum wage what is customary. However sometimes I wonder if the service being provided is really worth 15-20% of the total cost.
Let's say you are at an expensive restaurant and for two people the cost will be $100. The whole experience lasted 45 minutes. The waiter came to the table let's say 4 times, each on average for two minutes. Is that eight minutes of time (let's double it to account for unseen time involved in getting the order right) really worth 20% of the cost of the food or $20?
Of course make it a $30 meal and the $6 tip becomes much more reasonable for that 8-16 minutes. So maybe there is an argument for tipping not based on the percentage of the total cost but based on the time, costs, and actual labor involved (and it makes for some questions with Real estate agents as well) . Of course the common pay structure and the IRS messes this up since I believe the IRS assumes a certain amount of tips based on a percentage from a tipped employee.
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