Tipping with a Gift Card
I know tipping is a touchy subject. So try to avoid having an enormous debate on the general ethics of it if you can. I have a scenario for you.
Let's say you're at a (fancier) restaurant with a friend and you ordered an appetizer, 2 drinks, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts... and the bill totaled to about $80. But you have a $50 gift card. You hand the waiter your $50 gift card along with your debit/credit card to pay for the rest of the bill. The waiter returns with a receipt for you to sign and add tip. But this bill says $30. Let's say that the waiter had good service and you're willing to give a 20% tip.
Given that tips are generally based on percent of bill... do you tip the waiter 20% of $30 (which would be $6) or 20% of $80 (which would be $16)? And why?
8 Comments • Newest first
The full bill, out of $80 because waiters don't get paid enough, honestly. Especially if their service was good. Plus it would have technically tipped $16 before without the gift card anyways
How is this even a question. You tip depending on the bill not how you pay it. If you paid the full $80 on a gift card would you give the waiter a $0 tip?
Tip on the bill on the amount paid in both ways...
At the restaurant where I work, the amount of tips we share is based on the amount of sales we have, not the amount of tips we get, so a bigger bill with a % tip on the smaller part means a much smaller cut for the server.
16$ mostly because most waiters/waitresses only get paid in tips, like their hourly wage is like 1-3 dollars.
You should be tipping the entire amount and not only the amount you paid after gift card.
of the entire bill.
You tip them the full amount. Because they still severed you the food you payed for with the giftcard.
Hm, that's a tough one. I could see the logic behind both. On one hand you technically only paid for $30, since the other $50 was a "gift." So by that logic, you should just tip based on the amount you paid. But at the same time, without the gift card, you would have paid $80 so you should just tip based on the full bill. It really depends on how you want to spin it I suppose. If you wanted to be nice, then tipping $16 would be the way to go since that would mean you only spent $46 as opposed to $96.