Apparently I'm procrastinating at my place of work again, oops.
I was just thinking again, that I should probably back off on my current standard tipping rate of 20-25%. And I can tell you why:
I worked in a restaurant for 9 years (mostly cooking in the kitchen, 7 years). They had the utmost respect for the customers, their mantra was "the customer is always right", etc. They treated us employees very very well also, and everyone from dishwasher to head cook got a cut of the tips, commensurate with their job and performance. It was all very fair. But the thing that for some reason always stuck out for me: The hostess or server was always expected to tell the kitchen when the table included young children, so that in the kitchen we could purposely speed up their order where possible. Why? Kids generally have less patience, are more noisy, drive their parents and nearby customers crazy, etc., and it's just a win-win for everyone if we get them their food and let them stay or go whenever they're ready, rather than having them wait 30-40 minutes for their food to arrive because they showed up at the busiest time of the night or whatever. Senior citizens were not treated the opposite, but rather everyone else's orders were prepared in the order they were received in most cases unless someone told us they were in a hurry. If several orders popped in at the same time, the orders for tables of 2-4 were put ahead of the tables of 6+, because more people would expect to have to wait longer anyway. Might seem odd to anyone not familiar, but I swear there was a method to the madness, and I wish every place would care as much as this place did/does.
Now having 3 kids of my own, I really have the most respect for places that recognize that maybe we don't necessarily intend to kill 75 minutes at the restaurant; maybe we'd prefer to get our food in ~20 minutes so we can go out and do something else. All too often, your server couldn't care less about their tip or their customer. I shouldn't be tipping those people 20%, but for whatever reason, I do anyway. I really shouldn't. 15% is fine for those who only do an adequate job or even less than adequate.
But for bussing and/or wiping tables? Nah, that's not even worth a dollar IMO, although I do it anyway. I wouldn't tip the janitor at McDonalds, so why should any other place where you order your own stuff and clean up after yourself be any different?