Chinese Softshell Turtles & Pre-calculated Tips

Do you normally assume that restaurants get the math right and you simply put down the pre-calculated-for-you, whatever-tip-percentage-amount-is as your tip in the receipt?

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

What a Chinese softshell turtle.

photo by Wingham Wildlife Park

                                   

You are a Chinese softshell turtle because that is what Hong Kongers call gullible folks. And you most certainly are a Chinese softshell turtle if you trust restaurants to do math for you! You think they have your best interest at heart? Please. What a naivete. They are in it for the business, aka money, at the end of the day!

Listen my dear readers:

you have got to do the math for yourself because you probably paid more than you intended, for many, many restaurants. Not all of them but a good number of them. I have and I am a bloody, supposedly savvy New Yorker! Why?

Because these despicable restaurants calculate their suggested tips' amounts based on the AFTER-TAX total, not the BEFORE-TAX total! 

yes, maybe they didn't know better but maybe they did! See, naivete.

You should ONLY tip on the amount of foods and drinks you have consumed/ordered, PERIOD. Not on the amount of taxes New York City and New York State (and the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District) charge you to eat at a restaurant. You have to paid a total of 8.875% sales tax, an amount also pre-calculated for your convenience and stated on the receipt, and you would have done your part in regards to taxes by paying that already.

If you calculate your tip amount based on the AFTER-TAX total, you would be paying a tip on this tax too, not just on your foods and drinks. Why should you pay EXTRA money on this tax as part of your tip too?! Because you don't have to and you shouldn't.

This is an up-to-no-good receipt:

And this is a normal-as-it-should-be receipt:

Next time you get a receipt from a restaurant, click the calculator app on your phone and check the math by multiplying the PRE-TAX TOTAL with whatever % of tips you would like to leave. This resulting number (x) would be the tip amount you are tipping the restaurant, so to get the ultimate final total you are paying the restaurant before you leave, you add (x) and the AFTER-TAX total together. That's it, easy.

E.g.


Now, do you feel, even if just a little, that I am being cheap for caring this much about this tipping difference? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not being cheap. I am just being a smart consumer, not a Chinese softshell turtle. Do you like paying more than you need, should or even want? If you are so keen on tipping your servers more, perhaps you can make a donation to my blog? I work hard to deliver this post to you! :p Otherwise, you are welcome as my tip (pun intended) just saved you money!

Good luck Tzeing (silent T, pronounced like seeing) New York!