The worst moments in my waitressing career always came with the check.

Not to brag, but I was a good waitress, always friendly and helpful, even when I wanted to throw the customer’s meal at them instead of nicely placing it in front of them.

So it always drove me crazy when I got stiffed for a tip. In my opinion, if you can’t afford to tip 15 percent  then you can’t afford to eat out.

 If you get horrible service, that’s a different matter altogether.

But 15 percent has been standard ever since the GST and PST were 7 and 8 percent and if you have a courteous, helpful server then they deserve that tip. It’s the reason servers get paid less than minimum wage. They rely on tips to supplement their meagre income.

In this time of recession, when everyone seems to be making and spending less, waitresses are feeling more and more anxious when it’s check time.

Ashley Forbes-Balaga works at Moose Winooski’s in Brantford, Ontario. She’s been working as a waitress for the past five years and has noticed a decline in the art of tipping since the recession began. “There's definitely been less customers coming out for dinner and I've noticed that people are either cutting back on what they order or they order what they normally would and leave less of a tip.”

Forbes-Balaga said on average she gets tipped 10 percent, but she and her fellow employees at the Moose have seen their tips getting smaller and smaller, with some waitresses being left nothing.

Stevie Asselstine works at the Ram and the Rye a student pub downtown Toronto. She’s waitressed there for two years and said that she normally makes about 10 percent, but lately the tips have been shrinking.

“At one point we wrote on our chalkboard at the bar, “the recession does not affect your meal card" because so many people had been leaving terrible tips,” noted Asselstine.

She’s also noticed that the bar is a lot busier during the afternoon when the Ram has “Rammer Time”. This is the Ram’s happy hour and there’s lots of drink and appetizer specials so it makes sense that it’s busy, but Asselstine said she is always amazed how quickly the bar clears out at night when things return to normal price. 

Asselstine said, “I have heard a lot of complaints lately from my coworkers. Sometimes I think students just use the recession as an excuse and that's not fair because obviously we're all dealing with it. I have actually had people sneak out without paying for their meal, so not only do I get no tip, but I also have to pay for their food.”

Alysa Peters waitresses at a busy pub in downtown Paris, Ontario. She noted that they have still been busy so she’s been making about the same as before, which is 15 percent. 

“I don’t think my tips have been affected by the recession yet, I think and I hope that most people know that when they eat out at a restaurant they have to be able to fork out the extra couple of bucks to tip their server.”

Peters is lucky in that because she works in a small town she knows a lot of her customers, if they tip her badly, chances are she’ll remember it the next time they come in.

Forbes-Balaga and Asselstine both work in bigger cities where they get new customers everyday, customers who maybe don’t feel as bad about leaving a little bit less at the end of a meal.

The recession is affecting everyone, but I agree with Peters. Part of eating out is leaving a tip. Servers rely on the extra income that comes from tips so if you can’t afford to leave a reasonable tip (for reasonable service) then maybe you should hit the drive through.