Tipping 20 Percent In Oklahoma Is Now Considered Being Cheap

Since the 1950s, the standard tip towards a meal was generally in the fifteen percent area. Twenty percent if the meal service was good, but overall, it's been unchanged for decades.

Skip to the now and some people are boisterously proclaiming that a standard 20% tip is the offering of a cheap individual.

How have we gotten to this point?

Let me just say before we hop into the politics of restaurateurs... If a server offers truly excellent service, a person's tip should reflect that.

All the same, if the service is bad, the tips should reflect that too.

I honestly think we can all agree on that, right?

I'm a twenty-percenter out of the convenience of it. Take the tax, multiply by two, round up to the nearest whole dollar, and you're right in the 20% ballpark.

All the same, there is an odd phenomenon that I see pretty regularly around Oklahoma. It doesn't seem to matter where I eat, how fancy the menu is, or how pricey the food is, there's always that person at the table who tips a flat $5 no matter where we are.

While it's easy enough to make a commonplace everyday habit, while that might work out great in the eyes of the barista, it's less-than-stellar for the server at the steakhouse.

Here's why standard tipping doesn't work.

I assume that you already know that most restaurant serving jobs aren't paid the minimum wage. Because these workers make tips, the restaurant gets to skimp on their standard base pay because "it all evens out in the end."

It may seem sad, but, to the victor go the spoils.

The better a server is, generally the more tips they will receive... or at least, that's how the system is supposed to work.

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How do you feel about tipping? Is 20% too cheap for Oklahoma? Or is that still an acceptable standard amount for acceptably good service?

Nothing says you can't offer more on those rare occasions a server goes above and beyond, but where do we draw the line on what is "cheap" in Oklahoma?