Customer Faux Pas

Today I was hostessing at my place of employment. This means I try to look pretty, stand at the desk facing the door, and greet customers who come in. Then I use my incredible hostess powers to safely and fairly navigate the highly-charged political atmosphere of Choosing a Table for Them so each server on the floor gets equal chances at tips.

This is not usually what I look like hostessing, but Google image search thought it should be.

If things are slow, though, the hostess will also help bus tables (clean them off and get them ready for the next set of customers). At one point during the afternoon a couple at a table near the door finished their meal, stood up, and left, taking some mints and replying without ire to my valediction. I hadn't anything else to do, so I went over to help the server by cleaning up the table. As I was gathering up the couple's leftover dishes and napkins, I suddenly realized they had left a one dollar bill. One, one dollar bill. It took a moment for this to register.
They'd been sitting there, taking up a table, for a good half hour, during which time they had eaten an entire meal that probably cost between $40-75.

Now, if they hadn't left any tip at all, perhaps, if one was feeling particularly gracious, one could assume they're from a country that does not practice tipping, and are unaware that we do. That would be unfortunate, but more understandable.
The fact that they left any tip at all, however, means that they know it is customary to tip.
Due to this there are only two possible ways to understand why you would tip only one dollar, and the only explanation for both is that you are a jerk.

This is true in actuality, even if restaurants only really practice it in the case of customers who enjoy groping the servers.

Basically, either you didn't like the service you got, but didn't have the guts to say so to the manager or your server (this makes you one of those passive-aggressive people and also a coward), or you're a stingy git. 

Dear readers, the hourly wage for your server in Pennsylvania is 2.83. There is a reason for this--it's because in America, your server is expected to make his or her money from tips. The standard percentage to tip is 15% of your check total. Also, did you know that (at least where I now work) the bartenders, bussers, and hostesses only make 5.25 an hour--the rest of their pay is taken from the servers' tips and is a percentage based on the servers' sales on that day. Not a percentage of the amount of tips they received, but a percentage of the amount of their sales. So a percentage of how much money you spent is deducted from the tip you gave your server and is used to help pay all the other people who also served you. 

So please, if your server does his or her job well, encourage them the best way you as a customer can; by tipping them! 

Especially if he has a mustache like this. 

You are under no obligation to tip this server.

Be generous, not penurious!