To not tip when eating out?

[JemimaPuddleDucksPuddle]

Saw a thread on another board that mentioned tipping when eating out and whether or not you should. The majority of posters seemed to think of a person as being tight fisted or ungenerous if they don't tip. I disagree and don't tip as a matter of routine, only if the service is exceptional. AIBU?

most hospitality workers get paid according to age so £6/7ph not £8.21 for students/under 25.

But isn’t that true of retail staff, carers too for example?

If questioned why I'm not tipping by the staff I always say the service was good, I simply don't want to tip (politely of course)

When younger I worked in hospitality for a number of years and never felt entitled to a tip. I also spent years working in a major supermarket in the clothing section, picking clothes up off the floor for hours on end. Looking back I would've preferred the tips working at the supermarket!

How many of you non tippers are going to be back on here complaining in a few years that your dc's aren't given a tip?

Why would I do that? Plenty of teenagers and students work in shops and don't receive tips!

I certainly wouldn't come and complain about it

most hospitality workers get paid according to age so £6/7ph not £8.21 for students/under 25.

That's not remotely unique to hospitality though - it's the same in retail, caring work, working in a cinema or bowling alley, or in any other NMW hourly paid role.

Lots of those jobs also require antisocial hours, shift work, and working weekends and bank holidays. None of this is unique to hospitality and yet it's only hospitality workers who expect to be tipped for it.

@Breathlessness no I don't and I don't see why I should. Tipping, and donations, are optional. As in, some people decide that's where they want to put their money and others don't. And I'm not going to say I'm cheap because I don't participate in a practice you choose to

Bookworm4 ha, I've worked in hospitality for ten years. My team go out drinking 2-3 times a week. We finish shifts at 1am and they stay out until 5am then come straight back in quite often. That's hospitality life. It's hugely well documented. You think chefs and managers can work 60-70 hours a week and be absent from every family occasion without self medicating? I think you're the ignorant one www.alcohol.org/professions/hospitality/

In the UK I'll tip if I think someone has gone above and beyond. Otherwise I don't bother.

Elsewhere will be different depending on local customs. Tipping etiquette is complex and it varies massively depending on where you are in the world.

I wonder if these lnon tippers " are also the people who eat in restaurants and order jug after jug of tap water with ice and lemon, and then every person in the group insists on paying by card.

Or if anyone puts in cash and a bit extra to cover a tip, uses the amount of the tip to reduce their spend. Miserable lot.

this is so weird - I thought it was absolutely the "done thing" to tip taxi drivers! I'd feel really awkward not doing so and always round up to the nearest bank note IYSWIM - the once or twice I've not had extra change (e.g. if the fare comes to bang on 20 quid and that's all I have), I swear the drivers have been arsey/given dirty looks. Does no one else get that?!

Hell yeah. I’ve never heard of not tipping cabs. Certainly London taxi drivers expect it (and French and Italian too).

I think waitresses are paid a perfectly fair wage for what they do. It's unskilled labour and requires no prior qualifications

You pay peanuts, you get monkeys. On the continent being a waiter in a high end restaurant is still often viewed as a respectable job and many waiting staff are very skilled and can enhance a dining experience greatly. Where people here just assume they’re crap and treat them like shit then you’re hardly like to attract high calibre applicants.

Haven't rtft so I'm sure it's been mentioned already but worth remembering that service charge goes to the restaurant, not the staff necessarily. Tip would normally go to staff though might go to common pot to be divided.

Some pretty nasty PP on here, most hospitality workers get paid according to age so £6/7ph not £8.21 for students/under 25. One of my DD is a student and her tips cover her taxi home due to the unsociable hours. I’m disgusted at the people who take pride in not tipping, I guarantee if the roles were reversed you’d appreciate a tip.

One of my kids, aged 17 and at college, worked in McDonalds $5.10 ph. No tips so guess what? She paid for a taxi out of her WAGES or walked home.

Can anyone explain how the waiters being taxed in expectation of tips works? I'm not disputing this happens, just trying to work out.

I assume they will be on PAYE so if tips are pooled and added to payroll wages, that will work itself out.

For non-pooled cash tips, are you saying that a notional (e.g.) 10% is added to the wage that appears on their wage slips for tax purposes?

I usually round to the nearest round figure. E.g, if a bill was £18.50 I'd leave £20, unless the service was really crap. Due to minimum wage laws now most staff earn a reasonable enough wage without me feeling the need to leave a 10-15% tip.

Gratuity charges piss me off though, because they know most people (myself included) aren't brave enough to ask them to take the gratuity off. And the service in these places usually isn't that great either.

Must say if I was with a non tipper I would go off them abit. Not convinced by any of the arguments put forward by non tippers. Seems mean and petty not to tip after a meal out. I wouldn’t want to be that person myself.

Not being funny here but the difference between people who would be mortified at the thought of not leaving a tip and who figure if they can’t afford the tip then they can’t afford the service, and the people who take pride in not tipping tends to be along class/north v south lines. Purely ime of course

ScreamingValenta as far as I'm aware it happens in the US, not in the UK. In my workplace it used to happen when servers worked on commission but that stopped a long time ago!

Which is north and which is south?

Thanks Unihorn - yes, that sounds more reasonable given the universality of tipping in the USA.

I'm probably going to get slated for saying this but I think tippers are being pretty discriminatory. If it's the argument that waiters/waitresses are not paid enough despite receiving the NMW, you should be tipping everyone receiving that wage, no matter what job they're doing. I think people only tip because it's social convention to and if it was social convention to tip all cleaners, for example, you'd be doing that too.

As for refusing to be friends with/eat out with a non tipper, it could be argued that non tippers wouldn't be friends with/eat out with someone who follows an unfair social convention so blindly. Personally I don't think it's that deep but it works both ways.

Absolutely riles me though when a tip is included in the bill automatically and you can’t remove it.

Of course you have it removed, we were once given a bill with an automatic 10% added and they offered to remove it when we queried it. We told them we'd let it stand, it was less than the fiver we had ready.
Even if I want to tip I never add it to a card payment, I always give it in cash.

I always tip in a restaurant, unless the service has been bad.

I do it because I always feel so "weird" being waited on and feel like I want to thank them personally. Like "have a coffee on me" type of thing.

Same as when people buy their kids teachers gifts for xmas/end of year. I do that too because I am so extremely greatful and want to show it.

I know in so many cases, serving staff and teachers are so embarrassed by it though. I would be too!

peoplespoet
But the difference with gifts for teachers / carers / childminders / gardeners / nurse / midwife whoever else we may choose to give a token gift to and tipping is that nobody in their right mind would say you were tight or miserable for not doing it.

What this thread is showing is that some people have taken what should be an act of generosity at the discretion of the customer and turned it into a basic expectation where failing to do so shows they are rude, miserable, entitled, etc.

I do my job well because it's my job (just like anyone else). If someone gets me a thank you card or present at the end of the year then it's a lovely touch, but I don't get to May and grumble to myself about how I taught 32 GCSE students this year and only 15 of them got me a card so the rest of them are entitled and rude brats who probably treat everyone in life with contempt.