Tipping in North America

[chopc]

I don't understand tipping in North America- apparently it's the biggest source of income for waiters/ tour guides etc. However all these people are employed. Isn't it up to the employer to pay them an adequate wage then the tip would be just that - an additional amount given if the customer thinks they received exceptional service. If it's a compulsory payment it's not a tip 🤔. Does anyone know the logic behind the N American way of thinking?

It doesn’t bother me. And I live in a state where the tipped wage had been abolished. We still tip. I always find the argument “it’s not my job to pay the wages, the manager/owner should pay a better wage” to be ridiculous. Where do the wages come from? The customers pay them one way or another. So, you either pay a higher price for the menu items and abolish tipping or you keep the current prices and tip. What’s the difference? It’s no different from sellers who work on commission.

This varies from state to state in the US but often there isn't a wage level set that you could live on so it is assumed you will tip 20%. In that same way that taxes are added after you have bought something and not before.
Don't stress about about it, think of it as an extra tax that needs adding. It is merely another way on ensuring the server gets their wage.

No it is not up to the owner to pay an appropriate wage in most states. In many, if not most, states the server is expected to make up their wages in tips. For example it is perfectly acceptable for a restaurant to offer 2-3 dollars an hour with the assumption a server will contribute 6- 7 dollars an hour via tips to make it up to a ‘living wage’.
This is why the general assumption in the US is to tip 15 to 20% of the bill unless you are very unhappy with the service. You need to bear in mind that food over here in restaurants is significantly cheaper than in the UK because of this.
Obviously the system is very flawed as during quiet periods it is deemed acceptable to pay servers almost nothing.

The logic? It serves the financial interests of the business owners.

So each state has different rules. Do the restaurants have a sign telling you how much to pay or is it added onto the bill automatically?

The PP raised a good point, the poor staff who have an empty restaurant! No wage that day.

In states with a minimum wage, the wage for servers is set at a lower level, and the difference is presumed to be made up from tips. Servers are also expected to ‘tip out’, ie a proportion of the tip will to other staff such as the busser, host etc - people who work in the restaurant but who won’t receive money directly from customers. They are also taxed on their tips, usually a fixed amount, so they will have to pay tax on non-existent tips if they have a quiet shift.

It's a different country with different cultural expectations. Tipping is not compulsory but it is expected if the service is acceptable.

Where we are (now) in the states restaurant bills have suggested amounts of 15/18/20% service and they tell you what those amounts of your bill would be.
But for tours that must be different - we have done trips which are say $100 each and there's 12 people on the trip and 3 tour people - surely they get paid a reasonable amount from our $100? We have tipped but not loads..

Exactly @bestbefore . In addition I didn't actually find the food in US to be cheap at all. Maybe it seemed like it a few years ago when the pound was strong.

The service in some of the restaurants was shite and I would have chosen not to leave a tip if it wasn't compulsory

Ok now I understand the supplement why is this not added to the price in the first place? Why is it a "tip"?. So you mentally need to add 15-20% when looking at a menu

A tip is not a tip if it's compulsory in most parts of the world

It’s not ‘compulsory’ but the waiters/servers heavily rely on those tips for their income, so if you refuse to tip you aren’t sticking it to that business in protest, only making a server’s job harder.
I recommend googling and reading up as that will help with background too.

It makes no sense to me either. I understand how they system works so that people can (hopefully) earn enough to live on, but the system is crazy. It doesn't benefit the customers and it certainly doesn't benefit the workers. I wonder who else is left.... The fact that, in the US, workers in service industries are actually taxed on expected tips, whether they earn them or not, just makes even more of a mockery of it.

I hate the whole concept of tipping. I'm not saying it should be illegal at all, as sometimes people really do go hugely above and beyond, but why should it be expected in any industry? Why should it be seen as a snub if you don't pay more than the agreed price - any more than a waitress could be seen to be snubbing you by not bringing you an extra bottle of wine or pudding that you didn't order?

I'm not a cruise kind of person - either wanting to go or ever having the money for one - but I understand that cruise companies will 'helpfully' deal with your tips for you - adding a significant extra total to your bill and distributing it to all of the staff. I don't know if it's strictly mandatory, but I believe it's considered extremely unacceptable not to do so. Therefore, you pay an extra charge and they give their staff more money - why ever wouldn't they just quote you a higher all-in price and increase their staff's wages accordingly? Absolute madness.

I find it sneaky and underhand enough in the UK when shops and websites (aimed squarely at individuals rather than companies who could claim it back) quote prices excluding VAT and then add it on at the end. It even annoys me when online delivery costs aren't clearly stated until right at the end of the transaction.

Tipping comes from slavery and it’s abolition. This article from Time magazine last October explains it.

It’s not ‘compulsory’ but the waiters/servers heavily rely on those tips for their income, so if you refuse to tip you aren’t sticking it to that business in protest, only making a server’s job harder.

I don't think the OP (or anybody) is advocating not tipping under the current system - just querying why that system should be in place at all. People aren't expecting to pay less overall in restaurants, but just to have a clearer system whereby your food costs more, but that replaces the tip as the higher cost of the food enables serving staff to be properly paid via their actual wages.

*its autocorrect strikes again

Incidentally, talking of 'restaurants' , is tipping also a thing in McDonalds, Burger King, KFC etc in the US?

Just wondering as nobody would ever dream of tipping in fast food places in the UK.

It’s wrong in my view. Chespskate employers. There are countries where you do not tip such as Japan.

I was on a flight last week but didn’t tip the pilot because it was a bumpy landing! .

The tipping culture in America is vulgar.

As many things in the States, it only "makes sense" if you have been born and bred there and culturally normalised the absurdity of it.

No, tipping like in the States DOES NOT make sense, as it allows business to pay less tax and offer less protection to the employees, allows for less-than-living wage salaries to flourish, forces the employees to rely on customers' charity, encourages customers to be arrogant and abusive to staff "as they're paying their wages", encourages tax-free money which does not contribute to the common wellbeing of society and makes employees poorer, as they do not have higher salaries to show if they need to ask for a mortgage or a loan. It basically perpetuates social inequalities.

But hey, in the "land of the Free, home of the brave", pledging to the flag, having to mention God in every sentence, having no universal healthcare, defending the right to bear arms, ban abortion... all these things appear to make sense if you were born there. Oh, and they voted Trump as president and will likely vote him again. And they truly, deeply believe they ar the greatest country in the World, and always a bit better than anyone else. I stopped taking the USA seriously a long time ago.

We always tip 20% for sit down meals, nothing for fast food like macdonalds, and at least $5 for take aways. I have waitress friends who only earn $3 an hour, and less for the first 3 months probation period. If they work a slow shift or have to share tips with bar staff and kitchen staff every tip counts.

The only time I didn't tip was when service was deliberately apalling from a male waiter in a thai restaurant, who waited an hour to come serve us because we were two young mums with toddlers and their were business men coming in for lunch. He just acted so disgusted to have to serve us, and everything was done with such bad grace that I wrote why no tip on the receipt.

Read the article in Time I posted above - tipping was used by businesses that didn’t want to have to pay their ex-slaves after the civil war. Tipping is wrong.

Plenty of US states have a minimum wage that applies to restaurant staff the same as all other workers. Eg in California the minimum wage is around $15 an hour for everyone, including restaurant staff. But people still tip 20%. Truly bizarre.

When we went, back in the 90's, everything was so much cheaper than back home. It felt odd at first, but you soon get the hang of it.

I tip at home, after a good meal (though I wouldn't tip at 5 Guys, for example). I tip hairdressers and taxis but my old dad would tip anyone who did a job for him, he'd "give them a drink", I find that really awkward - except for at Christmas.

Food definitely isn't cheaper there, the tips we had to pay seemed astronomical at times compared to what we had and I really begrudged a hefty tip for pouring an already expensive gin and tonic, 1 minute of someone's time and 20%!

No tipping at fast food joints....