I was thinking about this the other night because my father-in-law doesn't have any idea how to tip. We were at dinner and he left $8 on a $120 bill (they were taking us out for my daughter's birthday.) He thought it was a good tip for good service. Of course, I added $25 more to it because good service deserves 20% minimum, imo. Servers here make 4.26 per hour. And restaurants do a forced tipshare where they take something like 2-3% of whatever the server sells and distributes it amongst the hostess, bartender, etc. If you don't tip them, they are losing a lot of money. If your bill is $100, and you don't tip, they lose $3 from tipshare plus whatever they could have made from someone else sitting there instead of you. Subtract that from their 4.26 per hour and the server paid to wait on you hand-and-foot. Unless there was a severe problem that was the server's fault (and food that is slow to come out is not the server's fault), there is no excuse for not tipping.

Of course, I must be part Italian or something because I tip everybody. If there's a tip jar at the hot dog cart, I put money in it.


Anyway, to actually answer your questions...

When you go to a restaurant, do typically tip?
See above

Do you tip a set amount or do you vary based on service quality?
I tip 15% for poor-mediocre service and it goes up accordingly.

Why do you tip or choose not to?
See above.

Pizza delivery, tip the driver?
Always

Why or why not?
Because they saved me the trouble of picking it up and they have gas, wear and tear, etc to consider. Plus, they basically work for the tips like servers.

Other ideas in the area?
People who don't tip (here in the US, I mean, where servers are classified as "Tipped Employees" shouldn't go out to eat. It's part of your bill. Plan on it.