10 people go out to eat, what do you do to split the bill?
Me? Look at gratuity. Is it 15% or 18%? If we're deciding to leave roughly 15%, then it works out with my rule well:
1) Add up all the subtotals of your crap. Ex: $10 alcoholic drink, $6 salad, $15 pasta.
2) Take this subtotal and add 25%. This accounts for sales tax and 15% gratuity. For reference, sales tax in the Bay Area ranges from 9.25 - 9.75%. As long as people aren't rounding down, this should cover it for 9.75%.
Typically works pretty well if you go around and do the math for everyone (ex: "What'd you get?" "Pasta A" "Oh that's $12... so $12 + 25% => $15... gimme $15" "Ok here you go"). If you let people figure it out they'll shortchange you in cases like: "$10 pasta => $12.50... oh let's throw in $12. 20% on top of $10 is a lot"
You can make it 28% if needed, or closer to 30% to deal with SF's ridiculous 4% health surcharge in some previous thread yesterday. But I like how this allows everyone to pay their fair share, as it's usually the men who order the steaks and the women who order the soup and salads.
How do you do it?
My own rant:
I hate it when people take the tax and tip of the overall bill and then divide it 10 ways or whatever. Not so much that I don't want to pay more (I usually am the guy who throws out the extra $ or 2 when we're short), but the fact that it just doesn't make sense. Plus, it's not that hard to figure out your fair share.
At least it's better than the people who just go $150 total bill / 10 people. Of course I don't mind this as much at Asian restaurants where you go family style anyway, or in the case last week where all the dishes ranged from $12 - $13.50. Rather than to figure out the $1 difference we just split it evenly.
Me? Look at gratuity. Is it 15% or 18%? If we're deciding to leave roughly 15%, then it works out with my rule well:
1) Add up all the subtotals of your crap. Ex: $10 alcoholic drink, $6 salad, $15 pasta.
2) Take this subtotal and add 25%. This accounts for sales tax and 15% gratuity. For reference, sales tax in the Bay Area ranges from 9.25 - 9.75%. As long as people aren't rounding down, this should cover it for 9.75%.
Typically works pretty well if you go around and do the math for everyone (ex: "What'd you get?" "Pasta A" "Oh that's $12... so $12 + 25% => $15... gimme $15" "Ok here you go"). If you let people figure it out they'll shortchange you in cases like: "$10 pasta => $12.50... oh let's throw in $12. 20% on top of $10 is a lot"
You can make it 28% if needed, or closer to 30% to deal with SF's ridiculous 4% health surcharge in some previous thread yesterday. But I like how this allows everyone to pay their fair share, as it's usually the men who order the steaks and the women who order the soup and salads.
How do you do it?
My own rant:
I hate it when people take the tax and tip of the overall bill and then divide it 10 ways or whatever. Not so much that I don't want to pay more (I usually am the guy who throws out the extra $ or 2 when we're short), but the fact that it just doesn't make sense. Plus, it's not that hard to figure out your fair share.
At least it's better than the people who just go $150 total bill / 10 people. Of course I don't mind this as much at Asian restaurants where you go family style anyway, or in the case last week where all the dishes ranged from $12 - $13.50. Rather than to figure out the $1 difference we just split it evenly.
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