SURVEY TIPS WAITRESSES ON WHO TIPS THE MOST

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb.  21 -- A student research project
has confirmed what waitresses have long believed:  men are better
tippers than women. 
	But here's another tip for waitresses:  older men who drink
alcoholic beverages, but who do not smoke, and use credit cards to
pay for their dinners are the best tippers overall.
	That's what University of Virginia undergraduate Rebekah
Marie Bill found after completing a statistical analysis of how
people tip as part of a research project in an econometrics course
last semester.  
	In Bill's project three college-age women kept records of
their tips over a two-month period, noting such characteristics of
their patrons as gender, approximate ages, drinking patterns,
smoking behaviors, number at table and method of payment.  Tips were
recorded for about 300 dinners served at three local establishments:
an upscale seafood restaurant, a medium-priced steakhouse chain and
a low-priced Mexican restaurant-and-bar near the University.
	How customers paid for their meals was the most significant
factor in determining how much tip was left, the analysis showed.
"Cash customers left tips that were 3 percent lower than those who
used checks or credit cards.  Tips left by credit card users were
about 1 percent higher than those paying by check," said Bill, an
economics major.
	Tips left by men were 2.5 percent higher on average than
women's tips.
 	Alcohol played a significant factor in tipping decisions.
"Tips increased by about 1.5 percent if customers had been
drinking," said Bill, who noted that she could find no other study
on tipping when she researched her project.  
	Smokers were not so generous.  "Holding all other factors
constant, smoking negatively affected tips by roughly 1 percent.
There was no difference between male and female smokers, " Bill
said. 
	The size of the dinner party played a role in determining
tips, the analysis showed.  "As the size of the group increased, the
tip decreased by approximately 1 percent," said Bill, who hopes to
find a job in dispute analysis after she graduates in May.
	A waitress for four years, Bill had expected several factors
to be significant that weren't.  One surprise was quality of
service.  "How long customers waited or how much they enjoyed the
food did not appear to be a statistically significant determinant of
tips," she said.
	Although there was a general trend that tips were higher
with older customers, age was also not statistically significant.
	When other students in her class elected to examine such
things as interest rates for their projects, Bill was not deterred
in her choice.  "I wanted to choose something I knew about.  As a
waitress, I can usually guess who is going to tip well.  I wanted to
see if statistics could help waitresses pick tables offering the
highest tip potential."
	Speaking as an economist, Bill noted, "From the analysis I
was able to describe 30 percent of a person's tip.  That's
impressive because the data does not allow for customer's income,
feelings or experiences."
	Because Bill assigned numbers to each variable and analyzed
the factors influencing tipping practices, she believes the results
would hold true for diners at similar types of restaurants
nationwide. "Most of my chosen variables are universal," she noted.
###
February 20, 1996
	REPORTERS:  To reach Rebekah Bill, contact Ida Lee Wootten
at U.Va. News Services,  (804) 924-6857.