A local restaurant is run by a chef and a waiter. The chef is an employee and the waiter is the owner. I feel funny giving the owner an additional 20% to 25% as a tip. Where as this would be a normal event if the waiter wasn't the owner. I also think that when you go to the barber shop and the owner cuts your hair isn't your patronage enough or should he also get a tip.

Tip the waiter.Anyone is capable of lousy table service.Remember the Chef's birthday and at Christmas (wine or champagne or Harry and david gift).The manager of the salon cuts my hair.She gets the same tip I woould give to someone else.Hope this helps.

hmm, interesting, I would still tip because after all he isn't just a silent owner but an actual working owner. I guess I think that just because they own a business doesn't necessarily mean they make buckets of money, perhaps they make enough to pay the bills and that is why they are also working (save costs on hiring other employees as well). My dad used to get his haircut from the owner of the barber shop, he always tipped.
Yeah, I would still tip.

The haircut is $8.00. He cuts it the way I like it, so I tip him $2.00. I'm happy and he's happy. He had to close his shop because of a rent increase, and now cuts part time in his home.

Darn I hate these tip threads. I tip an owner the same as I'd tip anyone else. If s/he doens't want the tip then it can be given to charity or shared by other workers. The restaurant business is a rough one to be in, so I doubt the owner is exactly "rolling in the dough", and may well need tips more than an employee who does not have the overhead of a business hanging over his head.

Frankly, the fact that someone is also an owner is irrelevant to me. I tip the person who cuts my hair/serves my food. If they have another role as owner, that has nothing to do with their role as my barber or waiter, to me. The tip is for WHAT they DID, not WHO they ARE. IMHO.

Yes, I tip too based on the service. Percentages are up to the individual.

Then should you tip the plumber , electrician , auto mechanic or anyone else who provides a service ?

I'd still tip the owner/waiter. You don't know where his income comes from - he may forego a salary from the restaurant and roll any net income/profit back into the business, so this waiter job may actually help him pay his other bills. That's probably especially true if it's a new restaurant (anything in the first few years can be pretty touch and go financially speaking).

I can tell you that if you stiff the waiter on a tip you won't be a very well-liked customer. If the service is good, tip him like you would any server. Nitpicking about it is kind of cheap in my opinion, we're not talking about a lot of money here.

LOL Bobrad. Plumbers and Electrician's don't usually get minimum wage.

I believe that if someone is providing you a service IN A SERVICE INDUSTRY they should receive a tip equal to the service they provided. It should not matter if they are the owner, or the 19 yr old waiter/waitress. Why should the position within the company be relevant? If he/she is serving you, he/she should be recognized monetarily.

Since we have gone from a farming economy to an industrial nation to a service country then everyone should be tipped.

From another side...

I own a B&B. I do most of the work, but I have part time housekeepers.

Any tips left are divided between the housekeepers. I have always believed the owner should not be tipped so I do not take a share (even though my housekeepers are paid well well above minimum wage and I earn less than $3 an hour... not even counting the hours I work during the off season!)

If a guest leaves a gift for me, I do keep that (I have found it is hard to divide a potted plant evenly . But never money. Even if it is in an envelope addressed to me.

You know what? If it bothers you so much then don't go. Find another restaurant where the servers aren't owners so you can be assured they're not making a dime more than what is necessary.

Stay cool my fellow travelers. At one time a tip was a way of thanking the server for good , extra or exceptional service. In this modern society a tip has become something that is expected regardless of the quality of the service. A business owner gave a lagniappe to show appreciation for your patronage. Now you hear young people say, "It's a good place to work the tips are great."And they are totally lacking in the niceties of table service. The day is coming when there will only be buffets or high end restaurants but that is only my humble opinion.

Agree that you tip the server for the service - not for their position in the establishment. I tip my hairdresser even though he is a partner in the shop (they're all partners in the shop). But why should he get less because of that than someone who works for him.

As for plumbers, electricians etc - they are not tipped because they are not "servers" providing a personal service - they are for lack of a better word craftspeople - with incomes often greater than the people who hire them.

Hi bobrad, decades ago it was not considered polite to tip the owner of a restaurant, beauty salon etc. But that rule changed quite awhile ago. Now owners are also tipped. Best regards.

This is an unusual situation that I've never encountered, so I don't know what I'd do -- an owner who is working as a waiter. However, I would never tip 20-25 pct in a restaurant anyway. The point of not tipping owners is because they OWN the place and are setting the fees and taking the revenue. The reason that "rule" exists is because in many places (restaurants, hair salons, etc.), the person working on you doesn't get anything near what you are paying for the service, the owner takes most of it. It isn't because of patronage, just economics.

Given current standards, I would think that any waiter or waitress, irrespective of other roles they may hold within the establishment, should be tipped based on the service they provide.

That said, wouldn't it be nice if some restaurant raised their prices 15 or 20%, and then did not accept tips? Expected tipping has always seemed an odd custom to me for a couple reasons.

First, it is essentially like charging generous people more than other people. That certainly doesn't seem fair.

Second, it is so arbitrary. Others have asked what about plumbers and electricians. Even if you draw some type of income distinction, I'm expected to tip the people who clean up my hotel room, but not the ones who clean up my office. Who got to decide what services were tippable?

Finally and most importantly, the customer is being asked to do the job that should be done by management. Service should be good because management demands it, and appropriately compensates employees who provide it. Instead, customers weed out bad servers with smaller tips. The problem with that is that I've already gotten the bad service. Sure, my smaller tip might encourage the server to improve or leave, so that the next person gets better service, but that doesn't do me any good.

I'm just curious as to how others would feel about a different service model. Assuming that your total bill worked out the same, and the average server's pay worked out the same, would you still prefer to tip?