Wow, so it's possible that one server gets better treatment from the bartender because they tip better than the others? There's so much we don't know about the behind the scenes! I worked in a very busy supermarket in high school and it was like going to battle every day. But I always thought - at least I don't have to bring them food. It really seems like the hardest job to me.

Dohlice, not only the bartender, but also the bus person, food runner and sometimes host/hostess and kitchen staff get a piece of the server's tips. They usually each get 1-3% of the servers sales or 10-15% of their tips (depending on the particular restaurant's rules). And yes, a lot of the time they give preferential treatment to the servers who tip them better.

"In my (WEBSTER'S)dictionary insure means: to make certain" while the Wester's Online Dictionary defines it as, "to make certain especially by taking necessary measures and precautions" (second definition). As tipping is done post-service, it could hardly be classified as a precaution.

$2.00 or $5.00 a day for housekeeping The dollar amt is up to you and your budget. Just remember to tip this often overlooked service and doing it on a daily basis insures that the person who is cleaning on that day gets the benefit. They work hard for a meager amount of money. People remember to tip the person who is hailing a cab (lots of work!) and ignore the person who is cleaning your toilet. Sorry for the soapbox but I have a softspot for them.

"Do the servers share tips with the bartenders?"

Yes they do. In most restaurants a server has to share his/her tips not only with the bartenders but with the busboys and the cooks (called tip out). Some servers choose to tip over the required amount (usually 3 to 6 percent of daily sales). Depending on where you work your daily sales could be $2000. That is potentially $60 of their money going to people whose hourly wages are more than theirs. Remember this when you order TO GO and do not leave a tip, which should be between 5 and 10 percent, as a server has to tip out on that as well. Which means anytime a server takes a to go order and that person doesn’t tip at all money is coming out of that severs pocket.
20 percent is the norm. A good way to figure 20 percent on a check is to move the decimal point of the total over one place to the right and double it.
Serving can be hard (it’s how I put myself through college) and the only reason most people do it is because the hours are flexible and the pay can be good. Thankfully there are people out there who will tip 30 percent or more if they receive excellent service (even in casual dining!). I've had people tip me well over 30 percent (even 100 percent) of the meal cost.
As much as I agree that restaurants should pay their workers a living wage (in my home state minimum wage for a server is $3.15 per hour) it is kind of unrealistic. After all of the overhead costs, restaurants do not bring in much profit. Also there would be a vast shortage of servers. Serving is a physically (and mentally) demanding job. You wouldn’t believe some of the stories one can tell about terrible customers (and managers, and busboys, and cooks, and if you are a female the rampant sexual harassment). If the restaurants I used to work in decided to do away with tips and told servers they would be paid $8 dollars an hour, you can bet every single one of us would have quit. The only reason most people put up with serving is the potential to make a good amount of money. Some nights (if its slow) you might walk out of there with not much more than your $3.15 an hour, some nights you might have made $30 an hour. I would personally never leave a restaurant without having tipped something. You never know when someone is having a bad night. If you can see that it is crazy in a restaurant expect to wait a little longer for your food to arrive.
And remember, as I once said to a customer who left me a dollar after having to wait 10 minutes extra for their food to come out, “Thank you! Another 799 tables like you and I will be able to pay my rent”.

I will be in NYC in a few days and I have (yet) one more doubt about tipping. If I pay with a credit card in a restaurant, how must I tip? With cash? In my country tips are always voluntary and lower, so we always leave cash for the tip, but with a 20% of the bill... well, I am not sure.

Filloa,

99% of the time, there will be a line on the receipt that will allow you to write in the tip and manually add it up. You keep the carbon of the receipt, the restaurant keeps the original. It's up to you to calculate the tip yourself.

One caveat - most restaurants won't automatically add a gratuity if you are dining in a small party. If they do add it in to the total, it should be broken out as a separate line item, along with the percent (usually 15-20%).

Oh, many thanks. I figured out that there had to be a way to pay the tip with credit card, but didn't know how.