To stop tipping?

[DimpleHands]

Just that really.

It's always so awkward and feels so patronizing. And now that the minimum wage is going up significantly surely employers should be paying their staff sufficiently?

Up until now I have always tipped - £10 to my hairdresser each month, 10% to taxi drivers, waiters, etc. but actually everything's so expensive anyway (£169 at the hairdressers this morning! ) that I kind of feel like I am paying enough already!

Is this really mean of me?! Do you all tip?

WMittens - arent all employees doing what they are being told to do by their employer? A waitress is told to take an order and put the food on the table, a hairdresser is told to cut a customers hair. I dont see the difference.

WMittens - arent all employees doing what they are being told to do by their employer? A waitress is told to take an order and put the food on the table, a hairdresser is told to cut a customers hair. I dont see the difference.

Exactly this.

I will always tip. Being a waitress is extremely physically and mentally demanding and often those in hospitality work long hours that many would balk at! Customers who have not worked in hospitality really have no idea what hard work goes into making a service go well.
Unfortunately what happens with included service charge is not always clear. I've worked in places where this does not go to the staff at all, and yet the pressure to not show the company in a bad light means not disclosing this to the customer... after all it will probably just make them feel pity and ruin their night a bit! So I'd recommend asking them to remove the included charge from the bill and paying cash instead.
I do disagree with tipping as a concept I suppose but not because those providing a service do not deserve it. I disagree with it because it's about time these people got paid enough to make a decent living so that they don't have to rely on tips! These businesses need to treat their staff properly. It's no wonder many feel waiting staff don't deserve tips - the talented and hardworking staff often move onto better prospects and the constant wave of new, inexperienced staff flood in.

NB OP - Minimum wage is not a living wage by any means.

I will always tip. Being a waitress is extremely physically and mentally demanding and often those in hospitality work long hours that many would balk at!

Being a nurse is also extremely physically and mentally demanding. Why do people not tip them? Why are some jobs thought of as "oh, we must tip them if they do well" but not others?
Are they less worthy?

Nurses earn more as it is and have more career prospects. They also have workplace pension (now compulsory of course but not common at all in hospitality in my experience).
I never said waiting staff were more worthy. I feel there is a lot wrong with the way staff are treated in hospitality and tips are one of the few perks they get.

I don't tip - don't see the point.

I do tip, but I don't like doing so. I wish employers would just pay a living wage.

My problem is, where do you draw the line?

Why tip in Pizza Express, but not McDonalds?

Jesus, 169 quid for a hair cut!

Bloody hell.

Should've gone into hairdressing.

I'm getting sick of tipping people that earn more than me. I've taken it right back and hardly tip at all now.
I take the lady that does my hair a caramel latte though.
My beautician has a thing for a particular pudding, so I sometimes take her some.
I no longer tip taxi drivers at all. The only place I now tip cash is restaurants. If the service is bad I won't tip at all.
It has to be amazing service for me to give more than 10%
I recently had an outstanding waitress, she got the service charge for a large party (probably about £60) plus £20 cash.
Scowling waitresses that are not attentive get nothing.

Are waitresses, hairdressers etc not also completing tasks for the ultimate benefit of their employer?

I don't really get the difference outlined. Yes, one jobs involves interacting on an individual basis with customers and another doesn't. But you don't, for instance, tip the assistant in a shoe shop who brings you out shoes to try on, or the guy in the phone shop who sorts you out with a new phone.

I do tip waitresses, hairdressers and taxi drivers but can understand why people object to this practice. Employers should pay their staff a living wage.

I seriously doubt black cab drivers earn £70k a year OP.

I never have and never will tip. Why should my hard earned cash go to somebody else to top up their wages?

I agree that tipping for the sake of tipping is unnecessary. I never tip hairdressers/ taxis etc. I didn't know that was customary and in my experience both tend to be over-priced even without tipping. I tip after a meal at independent restaurants if I get notably good food and service.

I don't tend to tip at chains. I have friends who are minimum-wage kitchen staff at well known chain restaurants, they are paid the same amount as waiting staff them but their take-home pay is so much less due to not receiving tips. I know some restaurants share tips amongst all staff but many don't and most people tip based on the whole experience (food and service) so why only subsidise the waiting staff's wages? I understand there are countries where waiting staff are very underpaid and their main income is from tips but that is not the case in the UK where we have a minimum wage (although I do agree our minimum wage is not a living wage for many people).

I would like to see tipping done away with altogether. It doesn't make sense that we tip staff being paid minimum wage for some services and not for others. Why don't we tip kitchen staff? The helpful shelf-stacker in Tesco who showed you where to find the ice cream cones? The nursery worker who gently cleaned up and soothed your daughter when she developed the symptoms of a stomach bug? The cashier who told you these biscuits are buy one get one free today and patiently waited whilst you went to get another pack?

I NEVER tip

OP don't tip if you don't want to , Many people don't

I've never met a waitress who gets a performance review to negotiate a payrise
I have always negotiated pay rates before accepting a role. I have also negotiated pay rises during my employment. Not all waiters are on min wage you know, in fact, most arent.

CatManMilk Knows how to tip even if there is no cash involved a nice handshake as youre leaving is always a lovely way to say thanks/goodbye which is appreciated by the staff.

I can see both sides of the argument TBH.

I have worked in restaurants where I got paid minimum wage per hour but kept my own tips. It was an expensive restaurant so if all my tables paid 10% I'd make approx 150 per night tips. On my best day I made 750. The service in this restaurant was always fantastic. Staff really going out of their way and above and beyond for the guests. The guests were usually very well off so its not as if they were struggling to pay a tip.

I have also worked for companies where 'the service is included' the service is categorically worse because, what's the point? If you give bad service or good service you go home with the same, usually quite poor, wage. I love my job so I always put my all in as I want my guests to have a fantastic time, but not everyone cares that much.

I quit working Michelin after I got sick of working 9am-12/1am 5 to 6 days a week for a 24k salary. As 'the service was included' I never saw any tips. Service had to be excellent at all times though of course.

I have only worked in one restaurant in where the service was included where the staff actually got the full amount. It averaged around 14 p/h or approx 33k. Service was terrible and everyone did the bare minimum as they'd already earnt their tips they had no reason to work any harder.

I think shortly service will be included everywhere. The staff will get paid shitty money and never see any of the service charge so give crappy minimum wage service. There will be a real lack of professional/career waiters as it won't be worth doing anymore. The whole industry will be populated by people putting theirseleves through college/uni, doing night work etc. and service will be shite.

I find it strange that so many people on here dont tip. I cant remember the last time I had a guest not pay the service/not tip. Even in my current place of employement where there is a service charge I regularly get tipped on top. Either Im the worlds best waiter or the people who claim they never tip are frequenting restaurants without any discernible level of service. I assume the latter.

I think if you would accept a tip then you should leave a tip. Simple as that.
BIL and his wife don't tip. Ever. Both greedily happily accept tips when at work.

I hate the "tipping" culture, and will only do it if restaurant staff have gone over and above with the children or whatever.

We're not in the Victorian times any more. Poor people go out to eat to, and I genuinely don't see why someone should expect extra cash from a customer on the same income as themselves just for not fucking up their job.

YANBU. Logically, I can't justify tipping. So I don't.

I hate the tipping culture, too, but it exists, and so in the present circs if you don't tip then wait staff are going home with less money than they should.

Is it logical? No. But it's reality. If you don't tip in a tipping culture (and nobody can make you tip, it's true) then you are not paying your full whack.

What do mean, the money they should go home with?

If there is a tipping culture, the expectation is that unless they are a truly shitty server (in which case they should not be working as wait staff at all), then they will go home with their official pay packet, topped up with tips. Whether you like the system or not is irrelevant, that's what the current system is. I never go into a cafe if I can't afford to also tip, as the tipping culture means that this is an expected and planned-for part of the transaction.

Nobody can make you tip if you don't want to, but in a tipping culture you are doing the wait staff out of part of their take-home pay if you don't.

If you go to pub chains or pizza chains where the service is indifferent, why are you expected to tip? If all they do is appear and take your order and then someone else plonks your drink down and then someone else comes up and says 'Everything ok with your meals' in a way that suggests that the only answer is 'yes, thanks' who would you tip, and what for?

ArcheryAnnie no, you're not going to make me feel guilty about not giving an optional tip. And it is optional. I waitressed for three years and budgeted on my wage. As far as I know, all of us did. There was certainly no feeling that tipping was expected.

Tipping was by no means universal back then (around 7 years ago), and my feeling is attitudes are changing more towardsnot tipping now. Wait staff really are fools if they're taking a job that doesn't cover their outgoings and expecting to make it up with tips. Even then many of the percentage who did tip would only round up to nearest pound, and that doesn't add up to much even at the end of a day.

You (everybody) are not responsible for supplementing somebody's income.

Something I found really interesting lately: at a group meal with work, tipping came up. The three people round the table who had previously been waitresses were the ones who said it isn't mandatory and that in general, they don't do it.