Exact 10% tip

[piginboots]

Dp and I went out for dinner this evening. Food and service both good, nothing outstanding but no complaints either. Meal came to £33.20 and we agreed that I'd pay (by card), he would tip (in cash). He tipped £3.32 exactly. Imo this is rude and he should have rounded up. He (obviously) disagrees. Who is being unreasonable?

This is not really relevant to the OP but is an opportunity for me to say something that has bugged me for years.

In a book it described the man who would take out his calculator to work out exactly 10% for the tip. I think we were supposed to think how precise the man was, I just thought how bad at Maths he was if he couldn't divide by 10.

I still don't get tipping in the UK, the US sure they get paid a pittance, but U.K. They get at least NMW, and my friends earn at least £30 extra in tips A day but can be a lot more which if they work say 250 days a year is £7500 at least a year extra and I'd wager most isn't declared to be taxed literally to do their job, whilst the chefs who are rushed off their feet and making the meal generally get nothing.

I also think to judge on % Is stupid, the waiters at more expensive restaurants will get paid more and the food costs more so get a lot more £ for the same or less work generally. Or you have two tables :

Table 1:
Person A: chicken Caesar salad, water £8
Person B: rare burge r, beer: £16
Meal cost: 24
Tip 15% = £3.60
Total:

Table 2:
Person C:
Person D:

Table 1:
Person A: chicken Caesar salad, water £8
Person B: rare burge r, beer: £16
Meal cost: 24
Tip 15% : £3.60

Table 2:
Person C: truffle risotto : £35
Person D: bee Wellington: £30
Bottle of wine £80
Meal:£145
Tip 15%: £21.75

Essentially the same work for the wait staff, only the chefs have to work harder but because you've spent more you should pay 6-7 times more than the table next to you. It's a flawed system

Weird, because it's only on MN that I come across people who don't tip.

Sounds tight to me. I wouldn't have been impressed.

I doubt the waiting staff knew or cared whether it was 10% exactly or not.

Fwiw I only tip in 'cheaper' establishments such as pubs. I don't like tipping, the price charged should cover the wages etc. I don't tip in the supermarket or to the bus driver, so why in a restaurant? Historically waiting staff were paid lower wages and worked for tips, no longer the case with NMW.

I don't eat out much though.

There is no need to tip in this county. They get NMW which has just risen AGAIN (unlike the 6 year pay freeze my profession has been subject to) it's their job, you don't tip when someone is quick on the check out or helps you choose a dress in a clothes shop. It's an Americanism stemming from waiting staff being very poorly paid ($2.00 Ph in most places) and topping up their wages to a livable standard.

I tip for good table service but have no hesitation in not tipping if it has just been adequate. Do you tip in coffee houses and cafes? I think it's odd to queue up for a coffee to take away in a paper cup and be expected to drop a coin in the mug on the counter

To all the people who think he was 'odd' for paying the 10% exactly, and that he should have rounded up, do you take the same attitude when paying VAT?

It pleased him to be precise, and the waiter would have been pleased too. That seems like a successful transaction.

I don't know anyone in real life who doesn't tip. I'd say it was the social norm.

Agree, I wouldn't be eating out with people who do not tip. If a restaurant adds an automatic service charge then you pay it or don't eat there. If I have bad service I complain to the manager and the service charge is usually removed.

I don't see anything wrong with it. I always tip around 10%. I think that complaining about free money is crazy, and was grateful for any tips when I worked in the service industry.

I don't tip.

I don't understand why people think it's absolutely necessary to tip, or rude if you don't.

Nobody tips the doctors and nurses who save lives. Nobody tips the firefighters who put their lives a risk. Nor the police who try to keep people safe.
Shop workers, cabin crew, receptionists... the list of people who work to serve people in some way is endless, yet they don't get tipped. Even though some are on equally low wages.

Who decided waiting staff should be tipped.

It really baffles me.

But having said that, tipping with copper chucked in is bizarre just put whole pounds if you are going to do it

As others have said I have never met a non tipper in real life. It would be socially unacceptable to not tip ime.

"I've got some change I'll leave it" - fine to leave coppers, they add up.

"Social convention decrees I owe you £3.32 therefore you shall not have £3.35" - bit tight.

Tipping culture is mad (I like Louiseville's maths) but it's still the convention.

Freakonomics did a nice piece on a restaurant in New York that deiced to ban tipping and just charge higher prices - of course it's a much bigger deal in the US where there's a different minimum wage for people in jobs where tips are expected.

It was me who said upthread that it was only on MN that I have found tipping to be expected.

I worded the post badly, and I did try to clarify in my next one.

I didn't mean that no one I knows tips, most people I know do tip, including me. What I actually meant to say (but didn't) was that it is only on MN that I have found that there is some sort of minimum amount expected, or that only tipping 10% is seen has tight. The norm in my experience is to round up the bill, or everyone throw in an extra couple of pound coins etc. I have never witnessed the huge tips that seem to be the norm on mumsnet. (Nor have I ever heard of anyone tipping a delivery driver or a taxi driver, which is a whole other discussion. ) We are not all nasty mean tightwads, it just isn't the norm in my experience and people tend to do what other people around them do. I know I do.

As for my friends who were waitresses refusing to tip, that is fairly simple. Between them they had worked in about a dozen different restaurants and hotels over the years and none of them allowed the staff to keep their tips, so they say why bother? You're not rewarding the staff for good service because they don't get to keep it.

I very rarely tip if it's my choice.
Pay people a decent wage, I don't want to support people not being paid a proper wage.
If someone has been stand out good, going an extra mile I'll tip - my child once knocked a drink everywhere, bigger clean up than normal, I tipped.

I also tip when I'm in a group and not tipping would mean the others tipping more.

And I'm the one who says "why are we tipping when 3 of us got the wrong meal and 2 said their meal was cold and everyone agreed the waiter was impossible to get hold of for extra drinks?"

I hate automatic tipping!
And in all other things, I'm known amongst friends as a generous person.

I rarely tip. However I normally eat out with DH and he does, so my curmudgeonly behaviour doesn't get noticed much.

It's an Americanism stemming from waiting staff being very poorly paid ($2.00 Ph in most places) and topping up their wages to a livable standard.

No it's not an Americanism. People have always tipped in restaurants in the UK. The difference is that nowadays staff salaries are higher because of NMW.

I think that tipping serves a purpose in that waiting staff generally provide a better service because of it. I never tip if I have been dissatisfied with anything but if I'm happy I will always tip 10%. Tipping 15% (as some people on this thread have said they do), seems OTT considering the staff are already paid NMW and it's not a particularly hard and certainly not a skilled job.

When I was a waitress I'd probably think he had the change in his pocket so wouldn't think it was super weird.
Where I worked the tips were pooled and divided between all the hourly rate staff,runners pot wash etc on a tiered level so the more responsibly or the longer youd been there the larger share you got.

I always tip and find it odd not to unless the service is poor. I used to find Americans with a bill of £100 leaving 7penxe really odd as when I've been in the states we've been told gratuity is not included (even though we'd tipped a different member of staff!).

I used to find Americans with a bill of £100 leaving 7penxe really odd as when I've been in the states we've been told gratuity is not included (even though we'd tipped a different member of staff!).

They probably read in a book or on the internet that is what we do in the Europe. It's always hard to know what to do in other countries.

Calculating to the nearest penny is a bit petty.

I'm a lp so only tip around 10%, I don't go silly over nearest penny though.

I'm a waitress and grateful for anything (as most people don't tip at all) except the snotty people who make a big performance of putting a twenty pence piece down before leaving so your husband was NU imo