Quote:
Originally Posted by ADL Colin
Tip should change with dollar volume, effort and time.
If I have a $100 bill at a restuarant a $20 tip is fine. If I have breakfast and the bill comes to $7 I'm not going to tip just $1.40. I'd tip $3 on that.
If I buy a rare-vintage $10,000 bottle of wine I am not going to tip $2000 for carrying it to my table. How does the "servers only make $2.13 per hour" argument hold up on a $10,000 bill for 5 minutes of work? So what do you tip someone for bringing you a $10,000 bottle of wine? $2000? $1000? $200? $100?
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15-20% on wine is still considered proper etiquette. Some, considered authorities on such matters, though, might argue that as little as 8-10% is still fine.
It's important to realize that regardless of what you leave, the server/sommelier still will have to declare roughly 10% of the cost of that wine as income, or suffer the real possibility being red-flagged for an audit by the IRS. As the IRS will generally audit an entire restaurant and not an individual server, most restaurants insist, as an unspoken condition of employment, that front-end service staff declare at least that minimum 10% of total sales - food, wine, or whatever.
And then, there's also the likelihood that the server/sommelier will have to tip out 5-8% of the cost of that wine, regardless of what you actually leave, into the labor structure of the restaurant.
Putting someone in a position where they have to pay to work for me is something that I, personally, don't think I'd ever want to do.
One easy answer to the dilemma is to not buy a $10,000 bottle of wine at a restaurant. Buy the $10,000 bottle of wine at a winery, cellar, or whatever... bring it in to a restaurant (always a good idea to call ahead to determine their corkage policy)... pay the $10 - $50 corkage fee, and enjoy.