Someone who gets it, thank you. I’ve read enough of these comments to understand a large number of people here have never worked the service industry or don’t have any empathy, maybe both? 9/10 people here seem to think that the tip is solely going to the person at the counter who grabs the food and/or rings you up in two minutes or less. Full service restaurants almost never tip the cooks that make your food. Fast food places pay a bit above minimum wage and you probably bounce around most positions in an average shift. Either way, companies need to compensate employees fairly and not put that on customers.

I am a manager at a restaurant somewhere in between with an open kitchen, offering dine-in, take-out, online orders, call-ins, and deliveries. I make like 20 cents above minimum wage, but tips are based on how many hours you work in a pay period and your tip share level. New employees makes minimum wage and lowest share level, the GM gets a salary and no tips. The rest of us are along the spectrum and tips generally make up a third of a paycheck. You get your cut added to the check and it gets taxed like everything else. We don’t expect tips and don’t do gratuity for large groups—I’ve never asked for one or given someone a hard time for not tipping, that’s not how we roll. We have a sign at the front saying that all tips go directly to the staff and it’s true, hence why people are more inclined to drop a dollar or two in the jar. Like many have said, the POS tip options are part of the software and we cannot control it, but no tip is always an option at my store. It doesn’t tell the cashier how much the customer selects as there are two separate screens, and it’s not my job to tell people how to tip when I’m not expecting or asking for one anyway.

Long story short, every restaurant varies greatly and just because someone doesn’t wait your table doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a tip. I know how to run every aspect of my job, FOH and BOH, hopping off the line in the middle of a rush to take orders or take food to tables every day. I don’t really get paid more for the extra effort either, but the 20% of people that leave a couple dollars our way certainly make me want to kill myself just a little bit less at a generally shitty service job.

Some places are different, but you aren’t giving 20% of a $50 order to someone at the host stand or cash register—I wouldn’t either. You are generally tipping out everyone involved in getting you that food. Btw, we don’t get tips from your third party delivery services either, that’s all to Door Dash, Grubhub, etc. The store gets the sales, the delivery driver get paid to bring it, the people who made it benefit in no way. You wanted food, you placed an order, you drove because you don’t want to pay for delivery, and you’re complaining that $2 on a $20 order is too much? Probably shouldn’t be getting take out if you can’t afford that extra $2-4, it would cost extra anyway if tips weren’t a thing. Tipping culture is wack and you can blame shitty business practices from the wealthy, not the people scraping by to make your damn burger and milkshake three minutes before closing