How should you tip a waiter?

Should you leave cash on the table? Or add it to the credit card bill? If you're like me, you want to make sure the person who gave you good service gets all of it. Here's some insight into what happens to your gratuity.

Even when you tip well on a credit card, it's difficult to know whether your entire gratuity will end up in your server's bank account. That's mainly because policies can differ among various restaurants, hotels and other establishments where employees earn tip income. Those policies may reduce tip amounts or slow their payout. For example, servers' credit card gratuities may be reduced to offset the cost of interchange fees the restaurant pays to process credit transactions.
Even so, cash gratuities may not mean the server is going home with that money in their wallet. A waiter's tip may be divvied up among other restaurant workers -- such as busboys, food runners and sommeliers -- who make the waiter's job easier. At other establishments, all tips may be pooled for the entire staff before being divided among all the employees.

If the tip is on a credit card, the waiter may have to wait for a manager to pay them before heading home at the end of the night. Don't forget, however, that if you put it on a credit card, you have a record of it for use later, and especially if you made a mistake on the amount.