>>>>>I'm pretty much the same way. (Plus, I can't do actual math in my head to save my life, so I'm always liberal...oh my god, did I just admit I'm a liberal???)
>>>
>>>LOL. So pity the foreigner who is not used to math at the end of a nice dinner out.;-)
>>>
>>>FWIW I tend to shift the decimal point for 10% then half it and then halve that, adding to 17.5% and rounding up all the way. I take if from the tax-inclusive price including alcohol, though some older conservative associates insist it's supposed to be 15% on the pre-tax cost of the meal only. From what I'm seeing here maybe I'm a bit cheap.
>>
>>FWIW, my 20% is typically on the pre-tax total.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>I don't know if you realize that if you pay with CC only about 17% of your tip goes to the server(s). They have to pay about 3% to the CC company.

It's actually a bit more complicated than that. One of my clients was a credit card payment processing company. For one thing the rate depends on the type of card. AmEx is very high compared to Visa and MasterCard. (I think of AmEx as the card for people who don't feel comfortable paying less than too much). Bigger customers also negotiate lower rates than the corner nail shop. There are a lot of payment processors. The bigger customers say if you won't pay this rate we'll jump to someone who will. And they do. It's a cutthroat business with a lot of customer turnover.

AFAIK the waiter or waitress gets the full amount of the tip, other than coworkers they have to share it with (busboys and sometimes kitchen staff, maitre D's, hostesses, and so on). The fee paid to the card processing company is just part of the cost of doing business.

Many years ago I worked with a guy in Arthur Andersen's Atlanta office (that's how long ago it was) who had worked as a waiter at a high end restaurant. He said he actually took a cut in pay to join the Androids. Of course a partner track is the big carrot the consulting firms dangle.