I don't understand tipping culture...

[Xdeser2]

As I understand the US tipping culture is an elaborate ruse by restaurants to make customers pay their staff's wages for them

Pretty much. Its just employers exploiting a common courtesy so they have an excuse not to pay servers even Federally mandated minimum wage.

Personally, I tip. Its just courteous, and I don't want to be a dick, besides, alot of these people dont even get paid in anything more than tips. However, I do see the irony of wanting to help people while enabling their employer to straight up say "Hey look, he/she gets a tip, they don't need our pay!"

 

[Rylingo]

The fact that there is a standard expected tip tells me all I need to know about how broken the tipping system is. I'm glad I don't have to abide by it in the UK/Ireland where they pay the staff more than buttons. I'll still tip if the service is outstanding. You get a quid if it's acceptable and I'll complain if you are bad at your job.

The real trouble for me was trying to understand how much to tip in which countries. I was in Norway recently. I have no idea how much I am expected to tip and whether the staff are well paid. Granted the only time I noticed any problems was when I didn't tip at a TGI Fridays. The delivery of my drinks was very slow (they actively seemed to be avoiding me) until I paid tips. It seemed ridiculous since popping the cap of a bottle and walking it over to me should not require a tip of any shop.

 

[shootthebandit]

Think of eating out like fixing your car. You get charged parts and labour. The food is the equivelant of the parts and the waiting is the labour (its a loose analogy but stick with it)

You can go to a garage and just get the parts and fix it yourself ( a buffet where you help yourself) or you can pay parts and labour (waited restraunt). You dont get a bill for the parts and then decide if you want to pay the mechanic or not....so why treat waiters the same?

 

[AnarchistFish]

(3) "They agree to work for those wages, it's not my responsibility to pay their salary." We agree to work for those wages BECAUSE TIPS ARE EXPECTED. Businesses are only allowed to pay that low BECAUSE TIPS ARE EXPECTED.

So?

(4) "I don't tip/don't believe in it." Congratulations, you're a jerk. Don't ever order from my restaurant. Or anyone else's. And don't pass your idiotic idea on to others, either.

Such arrogance.

Don't get why so many people are quick to label people who don't agree with the tipping system as jerks, especially when there are such strong arguments against it.

Because the arguments against it aren't very good or they're at least misguided. Jobs that typically receive tips are considered easy from an outside perspective. How hard can it be to carry plates? How hard can it be to drive a car? People enter those jobs for the perceived simplicity and good pay then find out that neither of those things are true. The job is hard and you aren't paid very well.

This is especially true for delivery drivers who drive their own car. We put a lot of money into our job. And we don't even expect to make as much as 15% of the check. $2 is considered a bare minimum tip and no one will get mad at it. Give the driver a whopping five dollars, even on a $50 order, and his face will light up. We don't ask for much and it doesn't feel like much to you (and I can speak from experience since I both receive tips and also tip well on everything). Servers, I can't speak for, but a driver needs tips or else he's destroying his only means of transportation for nothing.

Why don't drivers just refuse to work for that wage? Because as I've already said, the job seems like easy money and there are ALWAYS drivers lining up. I'm doing it because I need the high-risk-high-reward style job to pay for school so that one day I can get an adult job.

I don't understand. How are they wrong or misguided?

I think you're arguing about people tipping within the system, but this is about the system as a whole. And it's been shown to be discriminatory (in that tips are given disproportionately based on factors outside the control of the employee) and exploitative (by the employers). It's problems could be solved by giving decent wages but people seem to be ignoring that as a possibility, and just labelling people who want to fight the tipping culture as jerks and idiots.

 

[madwarper]

Think of eating out like fixing your car. You get charged parts and labour. The food is the equivelant of the parts and the waiting is the labour (its a loose analogy but stick with it)

You can go to a garage and just get the parts and fix it yourself ( a buffet where you help yourself) or you can pay parts and labour (waited restraunt). You dont get a bill for the parts and then decide if you want to pay the mechanic or not....so why treat waiters the same?

Analogy fail.

Buying the parts and fixing it yourself is more like preparing your own dinner.
Paying a mechanic to fix it for you is more like getting take out.

Neither is like going to a sit down restaurant, where you're being served, because the mechanic is not continuously checking up on you, making sure the repair is to your satisfaction and immediately acting rectify the situation if it's not.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Who the hell tips because it is socially acceptable? I tip because I know that those servers depend on those tips to survive. Hell would have to be frozen over and pigs flying around for Texas to turn Union, so I know there is no chance in hell for the servers here to change anything. There are plenty of unions, just not any with muscle here. There ARE unions, but this is a right to work state. All you do by not tipping and blaming servers is ensure they become homeless and starve. Most servers are in school or in between jobs. With the immigration Texas has, those jobs will be filled before the next shift.
Texas has stayed this way because the employers will just hire immigrants if the citizens refuse to accept their terms, not because people haven't tried. I contact my representative, it isn't like they care because I didn't vote for him. Here, those that wish to change these things are simply outnumbered. I would think Texas would be one of the last states to go union, if at all.

"Who the hell tips because it is socially acceptable?"
Uh... EVERYBODY? In this country you're considered a prick if you don't tip, so most people do. Either that, or like you they tip because they want to help out their servers, not realizing that they're doing the exact opposite of helping by doing this.

All I'm getting from you is that you don't think it's possible for these people to get better wages, despite the fact that it's been shown countless times in the past that that's not true, so you don't even want to try.

I suppose slaves shouldn't have even bothered to try to escape, workers throughout history should have just shut up and lived with working their asses off for next to nothing, the colonies should have just shut up and lived with taxes from Britain, and countless other oppressed people should have just sat back and done nothing, because why bother?[/sarcasm]
If nobody are even willing to try to change things, then they never change. I have no doubt that before Unions were formed and people started having the balls to demand higher wages from their employers they thought it was just as impossible as you do.

You are just making excuses so the status quo can stay the same, nothing more, and not even halfway good excuses at that.

I will only tip my servers who DESERVE those tips, because I despise our tipping culture and refuse to contribute to it.

 

[Fearzone]

You need to go visit Taipei in Taiwan, China. Probably anywhere in China is similar but I was in Taipei and I can speak directly to that. Me and my friends had a lot of fun there, and Taiwan produces a lot of the hardware involved in gaming. It is a neat interesting culture.

Anyway, if there is say, a $3 food item on a restaurant menu (or convert it to Taiwan dollars as you will), then after eating if you hand your server $3, you are square with that restaurant. If you hand the server $5, and he or she brings back $2 in change, and you leave $1 on the table as you leave, the server will chase you out the door to give you your dollar back because obviously you forgot it by mistake. And $3 wasn't an uncommon amount we spent for a pretty decent meal. If you hand your cab driver exact change at the end of a ride, he will smile and thank you in his best English which is usually non-existent. Or he will give you exact change with no anticipation you would give him anything back. There is never any expectation of tipping there.

I probably don't need to tell you that, on the whole, service was much better in Taipei than what one can expect in America.

In fact not long after I ran into some Asian American Studies cashier at Ranch 99 who was giving me a bit of unfriendliness and attitude, and the irony that crossed my mind was--if she were working at a store in China, she'd get fired.

Anyway, check out Taipei some time. It was a much more enjoyable city than I was expecting.

 

[Ieyke]

You're looking at it backwards. Unfortunately, waiters and such are paid less than minimum wage on the assumption that they are paid in tips.
Essentially, you're an asshole if you don't tip because you should simply assume the tip to be part of the price of the meal.

I think it's a stupid system, don't get me wrong, but that's how it is.

Oi, you too. I just posted this right before you posted, but I'm replying to say it again because apparently this really is something a lot of people don't know.

Even if a waiter or waitress makes nothing in tips, as long as they worked they are required to be paid minimum wage. Waiters and waitresses document their tips, and if they don't make at least minimum wage the restaurant is required by law to pay them the difference. It is illegal to allow them to make less than the federal minimum wage for their time. The only people who are allowed to be paid less than minimum wage are the disabled, but that's another problem altogether. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GznAli633yA]

In other words, restaurants aren't unfamiliar with the idea of paying their staff. We've just got a lovely tipping culture that allows restaurants to offset their staff wages with what amounts to donations from the general public, rather than every other type of monetary exchange in which the product's price is based on everything required to make and serve it, including staff wages.

LOL
You think that the laws work as intended.

Protip: Texas (and not just Texas) is sooooo full of illegal Mexicans who will work for peanuts that no one else has the option of saying they need to be paid more to make up the difference.
If you need to be paid more you can be replaced by an immigrant that will never complain because they're not supposed to be here in the first place and don't want to attract attention from the government.

That's why immigration is such an insanely complex problem. this country would fall right the fuck apart without those guys who are willing to work for stupid cheap, but they also undercut the workforce of legal citizens.

Stupid systems.

But yea, you're an asshole if you don't tip.

EDIT: HA! Someone is getting to a similar point ahead of me. Well done.

 

[RaNDM G]

Does anyone else find this tipping culture strange and weird, why do we have to give a tip 5-10% of our restaurant bill every time we have a meal even if the service is okay/competent.

Only 5-10%? There's hard workers earning less than minimum wage that live on those tips.

 

[Paradoxrifts]

When in Rome tip what the Romans tip, then call Caesar a fucking bastard for making people live off the generosity of others.

 

[thebakedpotato]

I know in Texas at least, if you are expected to make tips, the actual establishment that you work for can pay you as low as 1.60 an hour. Which they usually end up spending towards a "employee meal" each shift, insurance, or some other kind of bullshit scam.

I tip 20%, cash where able. So that they don't get fucked over by the taxman too.
Even if the service is shitty, I can't bring myself to not tip. (I end up tipping 5-10% instead of my usual 20) Because I can't bring myself to leave them hanging.

 

[oliver.begg]

so the conclusion i make is this,

in the US the wait staff are actually contractors to the client, not employees of the restaurant, and therefore, i should be able to make my order at the kitchen instead, to avoid the need for the service. If i can't, they are employees, and therefore already paid.

considering some of the shit service i have received before, i feel that i should take the attitude i take with contractors, that if you make a fucking mess of the job, no money for you and i seek damages. then agian i'm a DIY guy, and would just order at the kitchen if i could, after reading the menu of course

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Who the hell tips because it is socially acceptable? I tip because I know that those servers depend on those tips to survive. Hell would have to be frozen over and pigs flying around for Texas to turn Union, so I know there is no chance in hell for the servers here to change anything. There are plenty of unions, just not any with muscle here. There ARE unions, but this is a right to work state. All you do by not tipping and blaming servers is ensure they become homeless and starve. Most servers are in school or in between jobs. With the immigration Texas has, those jobs will be filled before the next shift.
Texas has stayed this way because the employers will just hire immigrants if the citizens refuse to accept their terms, not because people haven't tried. I contact my representative, it isn't like they care because I didn't vote for him. Here, those that wish to change these things are simply outnumbered. I would think Texas would be one of the last states to go union, if at all.

"Who the hell tips because it is socially acceptable?"
Uh... EVERYBODY? In this country you're considered a prick if you don't tip, so most people do. Either that, or like you they tip because they want to help out their servers, not realizing that they're doing the exact opposite of helping by doing this.

All I'm getting from you is that you don't think it's possible for these people to get better wages, despite the fact that it's been shown countless times in the past that that's not true, so you don't even want to try.

I suppose slaves shouldn't have even bothered to try to escape, workers throughout history should have just shut up and lived with working their asses off for next to nothing, the colonies should have just shut up and lived with taxes from Britain, and countless other oppressed people should have just sat back and done nothing, because why bother?[/sarcasm]
If nobody are even willing to try to change things, then they never change. I have no doubt that before Unions were formed and people started having the balls to demand higher wages from their employers they thought it was just as impossible as you do.

You are just making excuses so the status quo can stay the same, nothing more, and not even halfway good excuses at that.

I will only tip my servers who DESERVE those tips, because I despise our tipping culture and refuse to contribute to it.

No, not everybody tips because it is socially acceptable. People tip because they have compassion for other human beings. There is a difference. All I'm getting from you is that you think them starving today and becoming homeless today is needed and acceptable for long term goals, and I strongly disagree with that. We should tip so they can have a roof over their heads tonight, while at the same time trying to change these things for the better legally. Not just expect them to suffer in the meantime until it gets fixed. You are just making excuses so you can somehow twist it in your own mind to find some justification for ignoring these peoples immediate needs to make yourself feel better about your own actions rather than accept that what you are actually doing by refusing to tip is forcing these people to suffer more than they already are. It does not matter if they can get better wages 20 years from now if they do not have food today, because they would not even survive to make it until then.

Go see how far your "balls" get you. I challenge you to give up everything you have and go live off a servers pay for a few months and get back with me on how far your "standing up" to the man got you. Maybe if you walked the walk rather than just " talked the talk" you would understand how important immediate needs really are.

 

[dave1004]

Maybe it's because I'm in Canada, but I've never tipped, never seen anyone tip, and never been asked to tip. I live in Saskatchewan, so things may be a bit different around here, but I like it. I rarely eat out as it is, preferring home-cooked meals, but when I do I pay for my food, eat it, thank the servant guy who brought me the food, an leave. That's just how I do things; - Money is tight, times are difficult, and eating out at a nice restaurant is a rare treat, something that I do not wish to delay by giving away my money to someone who walked to my table with some food.

Just my two cents, I guess.

 

[IndomitableSam]

Maybe it's because I'm in Canada, but I've never tipped, never seen anyone tip, and never been asked to tip. I live in Saskatchewan, so things may be a bit different around here, but I like it. I rarely eat out as it is, preferring home-cooked meals, but when I do I pay for my food, eat it, thank the servant guy who brought me the food, an leave. That's just how I do things; - Money is tight, times are difficult, and eating out at a nice restaurant is a rare treat, something that I do not wish to delay by giving away my money to someone who walked to my table with some food.

Just my two cents, I guess.

Er... it's not Canada. We tip. And we tip 15-20% on most services. If you don't, you're kind of rude. Our servers get minimum wage (usually), but they often don't get lunch or dinner breaks and have to work 10-12 hour shifts. The legislation is weird, and servers are usually young and too afraid to fight for their proper rights.

Tip. If you can't afford the tip, don't eat out. Don't go to the spa, don't get a haircut, just don't. Save up and go less often.

Tip your delivery drivers - they get minimum wage, but the cars are their own and they have to pay for all the maintenance from all that driving around. Minimum wage is crap when you're working in one location - it's utter shit when you're driving around all day paying for your own gas and maintenance.

Tip the people at the hair salon, nail salon, spa, etc. They make minimum wage too and have to buy all their own tools or sometimes even rent the chairs at the locations they work and don't even make minimum wage as they're not technically employed there.

If people were paid living wages I'd say don't tip... but most of the time in North America, people are not paid enough to live on... so tip when you can.

 

[Soundwave]

There were only two times I haven't tipped, and both of those times the server heckled me.

Otherwise I range from 20-25% depending on service and how close it is to the bills in my wallet (i.e., if the tab is 39.50, and I've got two twenties and a ten, I'd give them all 50 and be on my way).

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

There were only two times I haven't tipped, and both of those times the server heckled me.

Otherwise I range from 20-25% depending on service

the server heckled you? LOL What was this Dick's last resort? They get paid to yell at people though. LOL

 

[Soundwave]

There were only two times I haven't tipped, and both of those times the server heckled me.

Otherwise I range from 20-25% depending on service

the server heckled you? LOL What was this Dick's last resort? They get paid to yell at people though. LOL

The Double T Diner, I bought a breakfast with sausage, saw they had natural casings, and didn't want to eat it. The other time was at Applebees and the guy brought a sub-hardees quality hamburger and gave me a hard time for drinking a diet coke. Because apparently that's "just as bad as regular soda".

 

[Carrots_macduff]

it really grinds my gears when you order a pizza online and before you checkout they have the audacity to tell you that delivery cost doesnt include a tip for the driver.

basically theyre saying "look, we dont want to pay our drivers a decent wage, so if you dont cough up a couple extra bucks for our pizza mule, he just might starve"

tips should be reserved for exceptional service

 

[Woodsey]

If you're an American, servers don't get paid properly because the restaurant/whatever expects you to foot that particular bill as well.

If not, just tip if the service is especially good.