By PILAR CONCI and CHUCK BENNETT, AP
Last updated: 10:17 am
June 30, 2008
Posted: 2:51 am
June 30, 2008
Tipplers are more tight-fisted than ever with their tips, bartenders and waiters say, and the terrible economy is to blame.
"I've noticed people give less tips. They talk about economic problems," said Mauricio Pomme, 46, who has tended bar at the popular Hell's Kitchen eatery Arriba Arriba for the past 21 years.
"New clientele used to tip 20 percent, and now they tip 15 or even 10 percent," he said. "I'm cutting my expenses, and I'm working more. For the past year, I've been working six days a week instead of five."
Indeed, the National Bartenders Association says many of its mixologists are reporting up to a 30 percent drop in income due to stingier tippers.
That's a huge hit for a profession where tips make up 50 percent of take-home pay.
"Now people are leaving you a dollar on $10, rather than two on whatever they gave," said Courtney Fox, 28, a bartender at the Hog Pit in the trendy Meatpacking District.
"It's gone from a 20 percent range to 10 or 15 percent if you're lucky. I definitely can't take cabs as much as I used to. I don't go out to eat."
Another bartender speculated that with less cash in their wallets, regular boozers rely more on plastic to pay their tabs.
"They tip less on the credit card," said Chris McKeon, 27, a bartender at the Copper Door Tavern on Third Avenue in the Gramercy Park area.
Quantifying exactly how much less people are tipping is difficult. The IRS and Census Bureau do not break out tip data.
And while the Bureau of Labor Statistics does factor tips into its overall wage data, it is not broken out separately from salary.
"We don't get paid a wage. It's only tips. People just don't understand that," said Alan Kelly, 33, a bartender at Bull McCabe's Irish Pub on St. Marks Place in the East Village.
