People are being asked to tip now more than ever.
It seems like nowadays after you buy just about anything, you're asked how much you would like to tip. It’s becoming confusing for the customer to know what’s expected — when it’s appropriate to tip and how much.
"It really can make your night if you're serving. It can get super busy and stressful,” said Katie Hehn, who works at Mio’s Pizza in Anderson.
She said tips are critical for servers like herself, in order to make ends meet.
"It's really important. If you didn't get any, and just had hourly, a lot of people wouldn't be able to work here or pay rent a lot of the time," she said.
John Barker, the president and CEO of the Ohio Restaurant Association, said most people are comfortable tipping when they go to a sit-down restaurant, but there's other situations where it's getting a bit confusing for the customer.
"Maybe you're walking through the airport, and you get a bottle of water. First of all, you pick it out and bring it up to the counter, sometimes you scan it yourself and the person who scans it flips it around for a tip," Barker said.
In those situations, Barker said it is not expected or necessary for you to tip.
"The whole situation is completely different, and we have been on a campaign to talk about this to make sure people know the difference,” he said.
He said the difference is servers are making a "tip wage" — which is $5.25 an hour in Ohio.
For people who are hosts, taking pick-up orders or working the cash register, he said they make more than that.
"So, they're already making that amount of money, so you don't need to tip them,” he said.
Hehn agrees, saying in those situations, it's not expected, but it's always appreciated.
"I don't think people have to tip but it is like 'woah it was nice of you to do that!'” she said.
Barker says it's something the restaurant association is pushing back on.
"We're working and we're going to continue working with the companies that do the point-of-sale equipment and really encourage them to not put that in place for restaurants that don't have that appropriate tip situation."
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