I don't understand tipping culture...

[Zeldias]

If you don't tip in America, you're a fucking scumbag. I can't speak for other countries, but the whole set-up for waitresses/waiters in America completely fucks them over. This isn't about something being a racket or whatever, it's just helping a person out. Likely, the person working that job needs it for sustenance, and not tipping is screwing them far worse than you get screwed by having slightly inattentive service. You didn't get that drink refill in a timely manner, so you're threatening someone's economic circumstances?

The only time I don't tip is if the service-person does/says some racist, shitty stuff. Otherwise, I always leave a tip, and when my service was better, I tip more. Folks working in service shouldn't require tips to make ends meet, and one can make the argument that we're only supporting a shitty system by tipping, but I'm not really willing to try to buck a system at the expense of the folks I'm supposed to be helping out.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Here in Switzerland we've unions that formed special contracts with their specific type of business.
So waiters earn from 3'400 to 4'800 depending on their eudcational level.

Working 42 hours a weak we end up with a 20.- Chf wage or 21.5 USD per hour.

So no tipping

 

[immortalfrieza]

But i said this last time the thread popped up. I have very little sympathy for people in the service industry in america. Sure its a very demanding role i certainly wouldnt be cut out for it but its their own fault they dont get paid well (not that they dont deserve to be paid well) because they are not doing anything to help themselves. Do you not have trade unions in america? Mass strikes need to be organised in the service industry even if only 50% went on strike it would have a huge impact. Wheres the groups lobbying to the goverment why arent people going to their MP (member of parliment) which i think you guys call a "senator" or "governor" or starting e-petitions. If its a large chain restraunt why arent people voicing thier opinion to the CEO or for smaller restraunts going to the manager. This is a very powerful group of people who could get a fair wage for themselves if only they done something about it

Exactly, and that's the reason I don't tip. I'm not going to be guilt tripped into contributing to something stupid and immoral just because "society says so."

 

[Xanadu84]

The reality is that without tips, you are causing some serious problems for the server. They are paid significantly less than minimum wage, because tipping is customary. The reason for this is because that way, servers are in theory motivated to give you exceptional service, in the interest of getting a bigger tip. Price of your meal is MEANT to NOT include a large portion of the cost of the servers labor. As a result, you get better service when you pay 10 dollars for a meal and leave a 2 dollar tip then if you paid 12 dollars for a meal, and weren't obligated to give a tip.

Of course, tipping isn't exactly perfect. Theres a LOT of shortcomings in the system. But until there is some social change, not tipping someone is literally communicating that the effort they put into your serving your meal was worthless, and you may as well be taking change out of a sleeping homeless persons cup.

Dividing tips among the staff always seemed like bullshit to me: I tipped THIS guy because he did a job, the rest of them didn't earn it.

But But...MUH SOCIALISM!

We should everybody should be paid far amounts on, they all put in time at the restaurant and should be paid accordingly not on how well a customer likes them.

Simple. Actual quality of service has very little to do with how much people tip. Things like outside temperature, the color of the room, race, or the persons day have a MUCH bigger influence on tip size then how good a job they did. Hell, if a server has big breasts, the quality of their service is statistically insignificant. Splitting tips makes it less of a craps shoot.

BTW, pretty much this entire thread has been done with scientific rigor by scholars whose job is to study tipping. For anyone interested, here is a overview.

http://www.freakonomics.com/2013/06/03/should-tipping-be-banned-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

All the tipping culture has done is enable companies to pay shit wages and make visitors feel guilty. I dont get tipped for my job, so why should anyone else? An if you think your job is low paid, go work somewhere else. Im not giving money to some one just for doing their job. Only tips i give are to those staff that are friendly and helpful. All a waiter does it get your order and bring your food. I can do that myself and tip and the chef who actually made it.

 

[___________________]

I only do it if the person serving me/us was just amazing or if their boss was shit to them for no good reason. I tipped a waitress once because of her shitty boss and it was way more than 10%. She earned it. Poor woman, having to deal with that wanker all day.

 

[Ticklefist]

Just kidding. Generous but reasonable tipping pays off in the long term.

 

[direkiller]

Waiters pretty much live off those tips so think of it as helping out another human being in rough times. Anyone who has been a waiter will know that it is very helpful to tip good.

Which makes it quite disgusting when you find the manager of a place pocketing a large percentage of tips taken in before dividing among the staff. :I

Dividing tips among the staff always seemed like bullshit to me: I tipped THIS guy because he did a job, the rest of them didn't earn it.

The people who normally get parts of the tips do contribute to that guy doing a good job(Busboy & food runner). You may not see them doing there jobs but you would defiantly be unhappy if they were not doing there jobs right.

but yes, managers pocketing any part of the tip is just a dick move.

 

[DeaDRabbiT]

I know I stopped tipping in bars when the price of a PBR started to equal the price of a craft beer. It really depends on how much I'm paying above standard retail prices for things.

I hate to hammer on bars, but when they decide to quit soaking me on the prices of mid shelf liquor, I'll start giving a little extra to the staff. Until then, I feel when I buy a Sam Adams for 5 dollars, my tip in in there somewhere.

 

[shintakie10]

All the tipping culture has done is enable companies to pay shit wages and make visitors feel guilty. I dont get tipped for my job, so why should anyone else? An if you think your job is low paid, go work somewhere else. Im not giving money to some one just for doing their job. Only tips i give are to those staff that are friendly and helpful. All a waiter does it get your order and bring your food. I can do that myself and tip and the chef who actually made it.

Do you get paid significantly less than minimum wage at your job?

No?

Then why are you bringin up your job in context of waiters/waitresses (in America) that quite literally live off their tips.

On topic!

I tip. Usually 20% and I give it directly to the waiter/waitress because I know if I put it into a gratuity on the check some scumbag manager will take part of it for himself/herself because they're dicks and no ones goin to stop them. If they do a really good job it'll go as high as 30%. I'm not rich by any means, well below the poverty line, but even my shit job pays more than what a waiter or waitress gets without the tips.

Is it a racket? Totally. Should they be paid enough without the tips so that tips can actually be what they're supposed to be, reward for a job well done? Yes. However until that happens I'm not goin to be the asshole who deprives some poor waiter/waitress of a good meal for a day because I have "principles"

 

[Daveman]

Well in the US tipping is basically an excuse to pay staff less than minimum wage, because they say they expect people to make a certain amount from tips. Elsewhere it may be unnecessary.

Waiters, legally, can be paid WELL below minimum wage.

As a result in order for them to make minimum wage they NEED tips.

I fully understand this and this is why i would tip a lot if i went to america

But i said this last time the thread popped up. I have very little sympathy for people in the service industry in america. Sure its a very demanding role i certainly wouldnt be cut out for it but its their own fault they dont get paid well (not that they dont deserve to be paid well) because they are not doing anything to help themselves. Do you not have trade unions in america? Mass strikes need to be organised in the service industry even if only 50% went on strike it would have a huge impact. Wheres the groups lobbying to the goverment why arent people going to their MP (member of parliment) which i think you guys call a "senator" or "governor" or starting e-petitions. If its a large chain restraunt why arent people voicing thier opinion to the CEO or for smaller restraunts going to the manager. This is a very powerful group of people who could get a fair wage for themselves if only they done something about it

Because forming a union is tantamount to communism in America and communism is tantamount to devil worship.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Depends on the culture obviously, in my region waitering is just another pay by hour job just as everything else, and they get payed no less then all other staff (in decent places anyway).
And in that regard it makes no sense for the customer to pay them again because it's all in the prices, but obviously if the service is exceptional you can still do it.

In US from what I understand waitering has practically no standard paycheck so tips are the only solid income, which does make it a really strange system, especially since I hear it gets horribly abused ( owners don't give paychecks, take cuts from tips, or pocket tips listed on the bill and then it's expected you pay again for the actual waiter, waiters pocketing other peoples tips, attractive waiters showing up scantly clad and going home with all the money while others get nothing, ...)
It is just a really really odd way of conducting business.

 

[Shingeki no Gingerbeard]

Your first problem might be being Australian, where the average wage is high enough that people in the service industry can actually get by on just their normal pay.

In the US, people who are in "tipping" jobs can get paid as low as $2.50 an hour, though their employers are supposed to be legally required to ensure they get the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour if their tips don't cover it.

Actually the lowest allowable wage (by U.S. law) for tipped employees is $3.23 an hour, provided they earn at least $30 a month in gratuity; though you're right about the adjustment if their combined hourly wage and tips average to less than $7.25 an hour.

It speaks to the brokenness of our system.

 

[FoolKiller]

Your country sounds cheap and unappreciative.

Ironic that someone who comes from a country that pays it's service staff shit wages would call my country cheap.Actually my country is not cheap at all.We pay our staff a decent wage.The minimum wage for everyone over 18 here is ?8.65 per hour(roughly $11.50)so tips aren't expected because they aren't essential for survival.As for being unappreciative.No we appreciate excellent service and if you do that you'll get tipped.Do the bare minimum however and you can forget it

Of course there's no need to tip if the service is terrible but if you refuse to tip "on principle" you are, undeniably, a total dick.

I refuse to tip if someone does the bare minimum(you know what they actually get paid to do).If that makes me a total dick then so be it

I second this. And the dick move is not paying the server enough to get by on. I don't tip the customary amount because I also don't agree with the way the calculations work. Why is a person who does a great job serving me a $30 steak deserve more of a tip than a person who served me a $10 chicken breast. If I'm tipping for the service then the service is based on the number of times they came to the table and so on, and has nothing to do with how much the food costs.

 

[TwiZtah]

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.

I get why a person would tip if they find the waitress/waiter has been really good, but why would we give a tip for okay/competent service. It just seems like serving staff being uppity and entitled. Why should serving staff expect a tip from every single customer and expect a percentage of the bill, isn't it meant to be a voluntary thing, not some compulsory charge for the consumer.

I would tip a waiter/waitress if they went out of their way to help me when something was wrong and were very friendly, but I wouldn't tip for okay/competent service.

Am I just being stingy or do other people feel this way? Also if you do follow the tipping culture could you explain why you do so?

Because the waiters get shit piss poor pay and subsides on tip. Which is absolutely fucking foreign to me, I live in sweden, I got 14-15$/hour flipping burgers.

 

[Whytewulf]

In speaking for the US, there is a little different view, I won't get into how it started, Google it.

However, for those who say we give them minimum wage, I know many servers who don't want minimum wage, they'd prefer the tips. These are the people that perform a good service at a decent restaurant. You make a minimum of $10 an hour, you get $10 with no to little tipping. But let's say you can manage 5 tables at a middle class restaurant, I am not even talking alcohol, and you can clear 3 tables an hour, with an average of 3 people per table at $10 per person, that's $90 an hour per bill. Average US restaurant tip is around 15%, that's an additional $13.50 to their $2.13 (US min wage for jobs with tips "if they don't make enough employers are required by law to make it up), so that server is now over $15 an hour a 50% improvement. Now again say the service is poor, you have a bad day, it can suck. But I know lots of people and sadly, it works much better for women who tip 20% or more for good service. And take the prices up a bit and as my friend used to say who made over $50 an hour for a 4 hour shift while in school. Then there are the $5 tables, people who order water, it's slow, it's not perfect, but in one sense, it leads to.. in my opinion, usually better service in the US, because they rely on tips. On trips to France, Germany, etc. I found service to be meh, unless it was a nicer restaurant or catered to US tourists. Then we would "tip" and they knew it.

Funny, we talk about only servers, but in the US and other countries other people get tipped, cabbies, masseuse, stylists, etc, for good work. You don't have to, but you know going in it's part of the culture, plan it as part of a bill and it allows me to control a bit of what I pay.

 

[Whytewulf]

Your country sounds cheap and unappreciative.

Ironic that someone who comes from a country that pays it's service staff shit wages would call my country cheap.Actually my country is not cheap at all.We pay our staff a decent wage.The minimum wage for everyone over 18 here is ?8.65 per hour(roughly $11.50)so tips aren't expected because they aren't essential for survival.As for being unappreciative.No we appreciate excellent service and if you do that you'll get tipped.Do the bare minimum however and you can forget it

Of course there's no need to tip if the service is terrible but if you refuse to tip "on principle" you are, undeniably, a total dick.

I refuse to tip if someone does the bare minimum(you know what they actually get paid to do).If that makes me a total dick then so be it

I second this. And the dick move is not paying the server enough to get by on. I don't tip the customary amount because I also don't agree with the way the calculations work. Why is a person who does a great job serving me a $30 steak deserve more of a tip than a person who served me a $10 chicken breast. If I'm tipping for the service then the service is based on the number of times they came to the table and so on, and has nothing to do with how much the food costs.

I to some extent tip like this. If I am the Designated Driver and I get 2 Teas and 5 waters, my bill is $2, but my friend who orders $50 worth of drinks tips on that? In the US, I usually tip $1 per drink, if it's quick and courteous service. Again I just expect to do this when I go out.

 

[PatrickXD]

In the US, people aren't paid minimum wage for waiting tables. They rely on tips to stay alive, hence the tipping culture. I live in the UK, where tips are still fairly common in restaurants - and not unwelcome elsewhere - but certainly are not deemed compulsory, and never as high as 20% unless you had a particularly attractive waiter/waitress.

 

[Varrdy]

In the UK I like to give a tip, despite being skint most of the time. Most places I eat out at are not swanky joints and so I get that the serving staff are not on great money. Unless there is something that happens to piss me off, which is rare, I always bung some shrapnel in the tips pot or add a few quid when handed the chip and pin machine for my card. It makes them feel better and it makes me feel a little bit richer than I actually am! However there is no obligation to tip and not once have I been challenged if I didn't, which I have heard can happen in the USA. It's sad that employers pay their staff so little they rely on tips, let alone the employer pilfering the tips as well! Bang out of order and I would remonstrate with any caught boss doing so! That said, whenever I was in the USA I always found the staff in tipping-jobs to be very polite and welcoming. At first I assumed it was them reading off the script and / or my English accent but now I realise they really want to make a good impression in the hope of eating something other than Ramen for dinner again!

Poor sods!

 

[Action Jack]

Thats another thing i dont get about yankistan (please dont get offended its just an affectionate term i use for america).

...

"You only give 10% if the service was poor" Thats just such a strange concept to me but having read the responses here i probably would still tip in america if my service was terrible although ive had nothing but excellent service every time ive visited your fine country so ive never had a reason not to tip

...

I do have a problem with the way your employees are paid and they fact they rely on tips

Yankistan's a clever term, but if not for your parenthetical statement I would most definitely think you were insulting us. Might want to be careful who you say that to

I agree that on paper, it's a weird idea to tip 10% if you hated your service. But it does make some sense: you did receive some sort of service even if it wasn't very effective, and your server is still entitled to a few dollars. You would only leave nothing if the server did literally nothing. Or, punched you in the face, I guess. Then you'd be excused for not tipping.

As for the fact that the restaurants don't pay the servers enough and expect you to make up the difference, also weird but also strangely sensible. Your server is working to make money, not for the satisfaction of you enjoying your meal. Putting their pay in your hands makes those goals the same thing and gives them an incentive to always give it their all. And since tipping is calculated as a percentage of the final bill, the server gets tipped more the more he/she is able to sell. If servers were paid a flat rate by the management, they would have literally no motivation to want to make more money for the restaurant.