Tipping the carhop?

I have often wondered if carhops get at least minimum wage. Or do they make the sub-minimum that tipped employees make (like $2/hr.)? Does anyone know? What I do know is that when on a shop, the reimbursement and instructions say nothing at all about tipping and, if you do tip, there goes half (or more!) of the standard shop pay! It seems that the company who employs carhops discourages people from tipping them by not allowing a reimbursement or stating what should be done in the instructions. To me, it says that they don't give a care about their workers making a decent income. This has bothered me for some time, but maybe they already make a good hourly wage (I doubt it)? What do you guys think?

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Most companies don't care about their employees making a decent income!

Not this again

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

LOL! I ALWAYS tip the carhops! I do 4-8 of these a month...but I don't do them without bonuses.

The carhops are waiters/waitresses. I tip $1. Yes, it's out of my own pocket.

@bgriffin wrote:

Not this again

Sorry, I did a search for the topic and found nothing.

That wasn't directed at you specifically. This topic comes up a couple of times a year and ends up getting testy on both sides.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Not these shops in particular, but if the standard is a tip, I tip whether it is included in the reimbursement or not. Most often is the car wash. Yes, it comes out of my pay, but not tipping would come out of their pay.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

I've never done a carhop shop, but I would be sure to give a tip. With the car valet shops, a $2 tip reimbursement is provided as part of the shop, but 2-3 valets handle the car. I give everyone a tip--at least $2 or $3 each.

With food shops, my rule of thumb is "if the person could not do anything less and still fill my order, they don't get a tip." If someone is going to put on a pair of roller skates, and deliver my burger, that's tip worthy. Even if they just walk across the parking lot and deliver, I'd tip.

Leave them a dollar, it won't kill you.

I don't tip carhops for several reasons.

Unlike wait staff, which they are not, they are actually paid to bring me my food.

I do not tip for fast food.

I do not use or carry cash in most cases. I use their app or my debit card. They make no allowances for tip using those payment methods.

Because they do not give a way to tip using the app or credit card I assume that they do not expect their employees to be tipped.

Likewise I do not tip in many other places where tip jars have sprung up, such as Starbucks and restaurants with counter service. I tip 20% minimum in places where tips are expected.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I always pay with cc and it never allows me to tip. If I have cash, I will. But if not, they need to add a tip line so people can tip.

Doing what I can to enhance the life of my family! I LOVE what I do

Oh, those tip jars. Hate them. If I order a coffee, they hand me an empty cup. For that they expect a tip?

I don't know but I assume car hops at sonic are paid regular minimum wage not server minimum wage. I therefore would treat them like any fast food restaurant or even fast casual aka chipotle or blaze pizza. Do you tip at Burger King or Mc Donalds? If you do then tip at Sonic if you don't then don't tip at sonic. I just wish that we could go to the European style of tipping for extraordinary service only and pay our waiters/waitresses a fair wage. Just my 2 cents and no that's not a tip

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

Last century when I was a car hop I got the same minimum wage other restaurant workers got in the state I worked in. Some states have a separate min wage for tipped workers, others do not and at the time car hops were considered tip-able employees and my wages were a pittance. Unfortunately I did not get many tips in that job and it was really hard/cold/hot and sticky work. In those days car hops delivered food on a tray the same way they would do it inside. Customers ate in their car and the car hop was an actual server but just outside. We had to bring refills and salt and pepper and pick up afterwards etc.
In Calif and the other half of the states tipped workers of all kinds have the same minimum wage as any other worker.
For those who are concerned you can check with your state to see how car hops are treated wage wise and make your decision from there. If the car hops of today are only carrying out a closed bag of food for you to take home it is different than the car hop in my day. Since we don't have many car hop situations here in the big city I don't even know if that type of car hop service still exists anywhere. Our real estate is probably too expensive to have a parking lot full of diners in cars.

I believe they charge for refills. They charge for water after all. And they love to pack on the ice, so after about three sips, my cup is empty. But I would agree that they deliver the food to you and sometimes even check back. That's where the service ends.

Doing what I can to enhance the life of my family! I LOVE what I do

If the coin change due me is more than $.50, I give the carhop the coin change. If the coin change due me is less than $.50, I give $1.00. A couple of times, when I didn't have any extra money, and I gave only the less than $.50 change, I apologized to the carhop and she thanked me politely and said, "Oh, don't worry! Every little bit helps! It adds up!"

Delivering the food to you and even checking back seems more than a tipless counter service entails. I personally have a different tip percent I use for indoor salad bars where the service seems to be about what these car hops do. Although at a salad bar they do not bring the food to you. As for drinks, the indoor service drinks are full of ice too!
A minimum wage of a little over $2 an hour which is what it is in some states makes a big difference in take home pay over the minimum wage enforced for all in some states. In my state all food workers earn at least $10.50 an hour going up to $15 one of these years. Where my daughter lives she earned $2.16 and hour. As hard as it is to live on $10.50 an hour it is impossible to make it on $2.16 an hour. Most people have no idea of these differences. If they did perhaps the idea of having a fixed percentage tip in mind no matter what state you eat in would be changed in people's minds.

Going to SB (not a shop), xmas I tip 5$...never every morning. Service not really provided, no tip, I work for my money, so should you....Great service in a restaurant I always tip 18 /20%,, weather working or not, they work hard....

Live consciously....

While I am not a bog fan of the excessive tipping society the US has become, it does exist and I'm because of that I'm not keen on the attitude that you don't tip the car hop because they get paid to bring food.
In essence, that's exactly what the pizza delivery guy does too and yet a tip is expected (despite the fact that the pizza place also charges a delivery fee). The cab driver is paid to drive you to your destination, the hair dresser paid to do your hair, etc....but we tip.
Heck gamblers even deal poker dealers after a winning hand...but their job is to deal cards. And that's all they freakin did.
I do not tip those places that add tip jars. For the most part I tend to avoid them. There is one exception and that's a local BBQ joint that a husband and wife team run and are the only employees. I like them, and like local businesses so I tip.
As for carhops, I too tip when I have cash to do so (and the hop isn't in a big hurry to hand me my meal and leave).
Yes the minimum wage for waitstaff and service industry employees can be below the normal minimum wage, but many states require that employers still ensure that those employees still earn minimum wage once their tips are counted.

I tip 100% of the time to the car hops. It is "the cost of doing business" in my opinion.

I'm wondering about tipping for carry-outs. Pizza, bww etc? I haven't been because it 'eats' my fee.

Good question! For me it depends. I always tip less for carry out. If it's a person that normally gets tipped I tip 10%. For instance at Red Lobster the bartender handles carry outs. If they have a dedicated carry out person like BWW then I only tip for great service.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

My shop for takeout says to give them a dollar. I never used to tip at take out, but nowadays, they expect it.
just a dollar or two is enough, but many times i don't tip at all for drive thru's or takeout.

Live consciously....

I don't know about other states and areas, but the one nearby my town (about thirty minutes) pays the minimum wage and they get reviewed for a raise every six months. The raise might be $0.05 an hour or $0.25 an hour etc. We usually give our carhop $2-$4 though, anyway. We try to give 20% tip if we're out eating on our own dime and then I follow the shop directions for tipping on shops. If something was outstanding, I leave a cash tip besides what goes on my card so the waitress has cash to stick in their pocket then and there. Some places record card tips and payout at the end of week, and such.

I have a friend who buys up a bunch of scratch lotto tickets and leaves them with her tips. She says she never knows if anyone wins, but she likes to think someone may get an extra $5-$250 every now and again.

If I'm doing a shop that lets me spend up to X and tip whatever I like, I usually tip the extra the shop will reimburse. There are two shops that I do that pay me $25 for food+tip with no stipulation on tip amounts and I usually only cost about $8-$12 to eat out. I tip the rest of the to waitstaff. Not all shop companies let you do this though. I have one waitress that I love to get and I'm sure she loves to see me because I'm a "big tipper"

MegglesKat

They don't have Sonic where I live, so I've never shopped Sonic. I have been to Sonic exactly once in my life and I believe I did tip the carhop. Like bGriffin, I normally will not tip for counter service. I did do one shop that had counter service and when I submitted the report, I saw they would reimburse a tip, so the next time, I tipped a buck or so to bring it to the maximum reimbursement.

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