Austin Mahone, Taylor Swift, and Ed Sheeran dining in at a restaurant in Philadelphia after being nominated for an American Music Award. This photo is from the MTV website.

There are rare times when a server will receive a large and generous tip from a customer. In July of 2013, Taylor Swift left a $500 tip to a restaurant she dined in at in Philadelphia with Ed Sheeran and Austin Mahone. Obviously, Taylor has no strain leaving that amount considering her celebrity status and sheer talent and success. It was the thought that counted. The staff of the restaurant was overjoyed that Taylor, Ed, and Austin visited and posted a photo of the group to the restaurant’s Facebook page.

This is the group photo posted to Ralph’s Italian Restaurant’s Facebook page.

When dining in at a restaurant in the United States, it is not always required to tip, but it is expected. And don’t feel bad if you don’t understand the silent rules of tipping, (I call them silent because it is considered rude if the server asks for a tip or says how much of a tip they deserve) because many people don’t know what is considered the fair tip to give.

The silent rules of tipping always depend on the circumstances. Whether you are at a banquet party, in a fine-dining setting, or ordering take-out, the fair tipping amount can vary.

A banquet party or group with a large amount of people will most likely take the most out of your pocket. Most restaurants will include a gratuity amount on the check because of the large number of people and more work required to serve that amount.

For fine-dining service, the recommended tipping amount is 15% – 20%, give or take depending on how good the service was.

Take-out service will receive the least amount in tips because generally the employees are only helping with taking the order, ringing the customer up, and then bagging the items for them. There isn’t a dining time considered. The suggested tip for take-out is 5% – 10%.

Servers look forward to a busy shift for one reason alone, and that is the tips. A serving shift for one night at the restaurant I work at is four hours. In those four hours, I have left with tips ranging from $15 to $120. You can see how my appreciation of the shift will be affected depending on what amount of tips I made.

Servers understand it is highly unlikely they will ever have an experience where someone leaves them a very generous tip like Taylor did, it’s always nice seeing it’s happening to someone out there.

The customer is always right.