>>>>>>>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.
>
>My nephew worked for several years as a waiter in a fairly big restaurant (in Boston area) and he told me about the fact that the tips are subject to CC fees and they (waiters) actually get tip minus the CC fees the restaurant pays. So it is a "cost of doing business" but not for the restaurant owner but for the waiter.

That is a distinction between "service charges" and tips in the traditional sense. Some restaurants do it one way and some do it the other.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323893004579055224175110910

I could be wrong but think most smaller (non-chain) restaurants do it the old fashioned way where tips are not reported as income and are between the server and the government. Being a bit of a socialist myself, I hope they get away with under-reporting ;-)