Figuring out how much to tip service providers can be a tricky endeavor, fraught with a good share of mathematics and emotions.
You might slip the limo driver an extra $20 bill to show appreciation for a ride from the airport, or demonstrate utter distain for bad food and poor service at a restaurant by leaving two single pennies.
And it seems almost any establishment where coffee or pastries are served has a tip jar on the counter. Tips are the only thing that makes it economically worthwhile to deliver pizzas, and budgeting the tip into the cost of a drink when dealing with a bartender can be the best way to get good service in a crowded cafe.
"People tip to reward behavior," said April Masini, an etiquette expert based in Naples, Fla., who writes an advice column called "Ask April." "If you like the way your hairdresser or delivery boy treated you or the way he or she served you, giving a tip shows your gratitude."
Then, there are fear-based tippers, she said. These people tip because "they're afraid [that] if they don't, the waiter will spit in their soup or that their date will think they're cheap or that the impression they're leaving will be less than they want it to be."
Stellar service or not, tips are more or less expected. Many service workers are paid minimum wage — or less in the restaurant industry — and they rely on tips to feed their families and put themselves through college.
Servers at a sit-down restaurant who wait on diners hand and foot expect to receive a tip ranging from 15 percent to 20 percent of the meal's cost. For truly exceptional service, diners are generally expected to tip more. Unless the service is well below standards, some etiquette experts say it is poor taste to go below 15 percent.
"You really have to look at how the people you are tipping are making your life more pleasant and less stressful," said Thomas Farley, a New York-based etiquette expert known as "Mister Manners." "When you examine it that way, it's certainly worth a dollar here or there."
