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Tipping - U.S. style

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Plakian started this discussion 15 years 11 months ago

"Paying something extra to the person who has provided you with a service is common in the US, but working out who gets a tip and how much can be confusing, as Kevin Connolly reveals.
And it is widely recognised that most people working in the service industries in America are underpaid by their employer on the assumption that you will be taking up the slack when it comes to tip time.
Whenever I object that this system means that almost every transaction you undertake in America is booby-trapped with social awkwardness, I am shouted down.
Everyone knows, I am assured, the scale of charges.
A dollar for a doorman, $2 (£1.40) for a shoe-shine or a taxi-driver, double the sales tax for a server in a cafe, $1 for a drink in a bar, 20% in a full-service restaurant and so on.
But there is of course very little logic to the whole business of who we tip and who we do not.
Obviously, no-one slips their heart surgeon or airline pilot something a little extra at the end of an operation or a flight, because they earn too much for that to make sense. But why tip a waiter and not a shop assistant?
Or the driver of a taxi, but not the driver of a bus?"

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7927983.stm

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Scotch Argus

15 years

Interestingly enough it seems in the UK restaurants used to be able to pay less than the minimum wage and top it up with tips. According to this article anyway:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7535797.stm
Interesting to read a some of the comments at the bottom - I'd never realised that some places pooled the tips and gave them to the management staff for instance. I'd imagine that the whole process has become more complicated now that the majority of tips would be made electronically - I guess there'd have to be some system of pooling - and the IRS would know of all payments.

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Josh Hostels

15 years

But the thing is that whenever you object to this custom you are shouted down by people (usually North Americans) who think this practice is the most natural thing in the world.

Tell an American that you think tipping is an awful custom and you will be called a cheap bastard and then lectured on what low wages the staff get.

I think it might be easy to have misunderstandings about tips. Any American who has had to live off of tips is sensitive to the subject of people who don't leave tips. Not leaving a 15% tip on a restaurant meal here is literally not paying. If they misinterpret that you're saying you go to restaurants and don't leave tips they might start shouting about being "cheap" :)
If you explain that you hate the tipping system, but aren't attacking their ability to make income I don't think they'll get angry.

It's not a good system, but that's just how restaurants here work. I don't even think of a restaurant tip as service related -- it's just another 15% restaurant tax. Service here in the US is usually pretty bad but I give them their tip anyway :)

Basic tipping guideline: There isn't a range to worry about. You're always safe leaving 15% at a restaurant. Anything much less than 15% and it's a literal insult to the employees, so only do it if you mean it and are never going back to the restaurant :)
20% if you like the service and/or want to be nice.

If there isn't table service, but just a tip jar on the counter like at a cafe or take-away place, there's no obligation to tip because they're making regular wages.

The one thing that always suprised me was when you'd find people who were not even employees - eg at a bus station carrying bags and expecting a tip - even though you had no desire for them to grab your bag in the first place

Was that in the US? If they don't have a uniform on and don't work for the bus station keep them away from your bags :D
(Bus stations are usually shady.)

why in america is minimum wage not the legal minimum wage, like it is here. you can go to jail here for underpaying staff. and why dont people fight the fact that they are getting such poor wages, instead of just copping it? surely there is a way to reform their laws? what exactly does the local govornment do for the people they serve?

For laws to change, a large group of people would have to be motivated to do something. Waitstaff don't care because they're making enough money under the tipping system. Most of the public sees it as just the way it is. The restaurant industry would fight any attempt to change it. I don't think it will change...

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