To not want to leave a tip ?

[cookieswirls]

Went for a meal tonight nothing fancy just pizza and my friend seemed mortified that I didn't leave a tip. I was paying for our meal and I generally don't leave tips. Ive never left a tip for anyone actually not taxi drivers, hairdressers, waiters is that mean of me ?

YANBU

I think tippers have a superiority complex. Doling out money to those minimum wagers they deem worthy.

They can never explain why some are more worthy than others.

I worked today and nobody tipped me

Not a waitress though

Wait....you treated your friend to a meal and she was horrified you didn't leave a tip?! Why didn't she leave the tip?

YANBU

If you regularly visit the same restaurants, I suspect you've imbibed a lot of saliva and worse.

YANBU. Load of outdated bollocks. I'm in the UK, and don't tip. Never seen any reduction in service because I don't, as it's just not expected or the norm here. Unlike London who cheekily add it to the end of every bill as a so called service charge and expect you not to notice.
I think it's outrageous that companies can get away with paying their employees shit wages and expect the public to pick up the shortfall as they can't be arsed/ want to save money.
I'm presuming that's what tipping is for, yes? To make up a shortfall in wages? If not, then what the hell is it for?!
A job well done? Because if you think about it if that's the case, that's kind of patronising. Have an extra fiver because you've been such a good girl/boy and done a nice job and you're in a lowly paid profession so I'll pay you extra for waiting on me.
How come some services are expecting tips but some aren't though? Why is it "expected" to tip money to waiters but not bus drivers? Or lollipop men/women? They both serve the public.
Why are some seen as worthy as giving money to but not others?
Totally ridiculous to me.
Why do some professions expect it?

Well, they could be paid a living wage, but they aren't, so while we're waiting for the revolution to start then (to me) tipping is part of what I expect to pay unless someone provides really shite service.

People working in service jobs are patronised all the time w words & attitudes. I'm sure they'd rather be patronized with money.

Yes, YABU. Why would you not tip someone who receives barely minimum wage for providing you with good service? I'd be mortified if I was with you too.
How is that the customer's fault that the employer isn't paying enough though? The reason they don't pay anywhere enough wage wise is becuase they're expecting the public to pay the wages for them, then going by that logic.
They're doing a job. Like thousands of others do in other professions. Also lowly paid. Why do some get tipped but not others? It makes no sense when you stop and think about it.
Plus in the UK it's totally irrelevant as we have a legal minimum national wage here of approx £7 an hour (not sure exact figure without googling.) So what's with all the tipping to make up shortfalls is .... in the US where they don't pay their workers, fair enough. Not good that they feel they can pay peanuts as others will pay for them, but more understandable than here.
UK there's just no reason to.

YANBU at all.
People get paid to do their jobs.
It is wrong that a few selected roles seem to automatically get tips from some people, and yet there are so many other jobs where staff are on either NMW or NLW, who never get tips.

However, this question comes up on MN every few months, and you'll always get a divide, with some people even feigning surprise / shock that others don't tip.

when I was earning pittance as a waitress at a popular american itallian resturant, my tips were a god send!

One night the management made me cry and I got tipped about £100 in the one shift, certainly cheered me up :)

We usually make it up to whatever notes we have, but occasionally we won't leave a tip if we've got the exact money or need change to pay parking or whatever. The service needs to be really exceptional, or say a situation like someone mentioned above with students/apprentices or whatever. They're usually very keen and on a pittance, not even NMW.

Like others have said there's a case for it in America but not so much here. There are plenty of people on NMW working their backsides off, but because they're not ferrying people on nights out, cutting hair or serving people food or drink they're somehow not deemed to be worthy of tips. What about all the retail workers who are going to be working their balls off over the next four to six weeks? Where can I tip them? They're working shitty shifts and on their feet all night, same as care workers and cleaners and the person doing the graveyard shift down the twenty four hour garage. I'm not going to get on like Lady bloody Bountiful when my hairdresser is likely earning more than I am.

And as for saying that if you can't afford to tip you can't afford to eat out....so if you can't afford an extra five quid, you shouldn't go out? You should deprive that entire business of whatever profit they have worked into their prices which include staffing costs, and just not go? That makes zero sense, which is precisely how much in tips many chefs and kitchen staff see at the end of the night.

The problem I have with tipping is that excuses employers from paying a fair wage.

Tipping is endemic in the US because there is a cultural acceptance that franchising your labour for tips is ok.

The rationale is that people get rewarded for good service.

They may well do by their customers but the lack of employment rights and fundamental financial impacts such as pension contributions don't make up for this.

Tipping does not ultimately pay for the workers. It's a social construct we are being sucked into.

I worked in a bar / restaurant in the States many moons ago. I wasn't paid a basic wage at all, and relied solely on my tips. On top of that, the bar owner made us pay the bar staff, the bar back (the person who changed kegs etc), and the kitchen staff a percentage of our bar takings, so we were effectively paying a minimum of another 3 people from the tips we made, which was my only source of income. By the time I would pay for a taxi home at the end of the night (too late for public transport), and expected to tip the driver, I was out of pocket for working a busy 8 hour shift in a bar.

Thank goodness it's not like that here in UK, but yes, I would always tip in a restaurant at about 10% unless the service was truly awful.

We don't tip in Australia, and I would've assumed it was the same in the UK... so no, YANBU.

I only tip if the service was exceptional. It's very rare.

Also having waitressed when I was younger, I could count on one hand the amount of times I was tipped. So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that tips are rarely done here, and I'm not just being a tight ass.

Not in the UK. We never tip here.

Yes we do! Not as much as the US, but at least 10% in restaurants, table service cafes and taxis. Not to mention hairdressers (except the salon owner) and beauticians.

some people even feigning surprise / shock that others don't tip

Well I thought I felt surprised, because although I've heard of mean tippers, I've never heard of non-tippers before, perhaps owing to being new to Mumsnet.

But obviously I must be feigning that surprise on some subconscious level, since you can read my mind.

I love the fact the non-tippers dress it up as some kind of social justice act, and a positive statement that employers should pay a living wage and by their affirmative action of sticking it to the man and not tipping, employers will have a Damascian conversion and start chucking cash at their staff.

Tight twats.

*I love the fact the non-tippers dress it up as some kind of social justice act, and a positive statement that employers should pay a living wage and by their affirmative action of sticking it to the man and not tipping, employers will have a Damascian conversion and start chucking cash at their staff.

Tight twats.*

Nope. I've just worked enough shitty minimum wage jobs (including waitressing) to believe that rewarding one set of people is wrong.

And as I suspected not a single person has answered my earlier question of why we,as a society, deem some worthy of tipping and not others.

YANBU. It didn't used to be customary to tip in this country. It's yet another bit of American culture seeping in. Like others have already said, I don't view it as a positive thing for those working in the service industry because it ultimately suppresses basic pay.

Since when has it not been customary to tip in the U.K.? I really thought that at least 10% was the norm, or available change etc. Especially if you're in a big group. I tip something like a £1 or 2 to the Saturday girl who washes my hair at the hairdressers etc.
It's only if the service is added at the end 12.5% that I don't tip extra. My understanding is that this is a cultural norm. Weird

Waiting staff earn minimum wage, which is impossible to live off. They need and deserve their tips. If you really can't afford an extra pound or two then maybe you should rethink your spending.

Why should the diner, who is potentially on min wage themselves for all anyone knows, have to tip another min wage worker?

It's not as if people go around tipping all min wage workers. So what makes one type of min wage earner worth a tip more than any other?

Yabu.

I hate going out with my friend who refuses to tip. So tight. I resent her for making me tip for her. Our meeting up has become less and less.....

You are very very unreasonable.

I only tip in a restaurant if it was a large party. Otherwise no.

I never tip taxi drivers. I tip my hairdresser because she comes to my home and it's really cheap for a good cut. I didn't tip when I was paying extortionate prices in a salon.

It isn't 'seeping in' to tip - I'm in my forties and remember my mum and gran always tipping their hairdressers and when we ate out we always tipped. My dad worked in the catering industry too and he told me that 50 years ago one place he worked pooled the tips and split them between the staff based on a points system.

Anyone go to Cote restaurants? Unless they've had a policy change in the last year, the management takes all the tips even if you tip cash. No idea what the wages are like there, but it's the only restaurant where we don't tip because of that policy.

I hate going out with my friend who refuses to tip. So tight. I resent her for making me tip for her. Our meeting up has become less and less.....

She's not making you do anything.