Friends didn't "tip"....bit tight?

[tvsavec]

Me and three friends went to a little family run Greek restaurant.
The bill came to around £80 for four of us.
At the end of the meal
Friend 1 put £2 on the table and I also put £2
Friend 3 said "is that for a tip"
We said yeah.....she shouts for the waiter and hands him the £4 and says thanks
They didn't bother to put a couple of pound in each

Aibu to think it's a bit tight?

This

It really annoys me when people judge those who choose not to tip. It's a personal choice and I would only leave a tip if I was absolutely blown away by the food and service and the servers had gone above and beyond (but even then you can't be sure your waitor will get the full tip as many places, including a pub I worked in, just share the tips equally between all staff, even managers).

Anything less than amazingly outstanding, mind blowingly good food and service is paid for by your bill (without adding a service charge!)

The origin of tipping was to support workers who were employed on below minimum wage. That's illegal in this country now so there is no longer a need to do this.

Why do waitors and waitresses deserve a tip more than a supermarket cashier, a cleaner or a litter picker?

The whole thing makes no sense. Definitely not right to judge others from opting out of the practice.

Why?
Do you also think cashiers, supermarket workers, carers (who do far more demanding and person work) should also be tipped?

What other products do you buy which has both a listed price and an indeterminate extra on top?

Former server/BOH staff. Never expected tips. Nice to get it , but was just doing my job!

That’s nonsense in the uk. Tips don’t form part of wages, and people have to be paid the appropriate minimum wage.

And those essential workers don’t get tipped!
see why it’s ridiculous to expect a tip?

It's 10% of the meal cost per person, a perfectly reasonable amount to tip.
I'm sure the server was better pleased with the £4 they got, than nothing.

What if you've only got a ten or twenty pound note? No way would I leave a £20 tip just from me!

If you wish to know tipping stats you can Google. You gov does surveys. It is approx 5 percent of the British population who never tip.

and yes, once again, it is customary, it is not outdated and it is not mandatory.

Partly because of what other have said, I.e. that’s it’s part of the culture. Partly because you are (especially if it’s a small, family run restaurant as in OP’s case) being hosted, and, to me, a tip is acknowledgement of that.

To be fair, I wouldn’t tip at McDonald’s or somewhere where I was ordering or serving myself, but to me it’s just really classless and tight not to tip at a restaurant.

I have waited tables (and, weirdly enough, been a cashier and a carer, among other things) and I feel like tipping at a restaurant is and should be the norm. As I said, I wouldn’t tip if the service was bad, but I expect to tip and budget accordingly.

Exactly. A lot of people going round and round about being tight, deposing but cannot give a logical reason why.

Tipping is tight in the U.S because the server otherwise gets paid below minimum wage.
Also If you look up the history of tipping In the U.S it was anything but benevolent:
www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/18/i-dare-you-to-read-this-and-still-feel-ok-about-tipping-in-the-united-states/

How can people normalise a practice that instead of paying everyone a fair wage ‘determines’ how much someone gets based on the generosity of customers?

Indeed! Stupid is as stupid does.

All those who can't/won't tip must stop eating out. It will help loads. I will smile to myself at the shrapnel flinging 'lady bountifuls' out there, oh so graciously rounding up and chucking down a few more coins as more and more restaurants go out of business.

I tip for excellent service, not mediocre. We shouldn't be rewarding mediocre service anywhere.

I despise those that do. You’re complicit in the staff being paid rock bottom wages, because the restaurant owners know it will be bumped up by customers tips.

Pay everyone a decent wage, charge whatever price is necessary to achieve that, and end this tipping nonsense.

I hate going to the USA, where everyone seems to expect a tip if they so much as smile at you.

Yes I think it's tight. Better to tip in cash as then the waiting staff are likely to get it.

It's weird that the friend handed the tip over as if they'd contributed. It's also demeaning to the wait staff to make a song and dance about giving them £4!!
Tips are usually left discreetly on the table for the wait staff to collect after you have left

Yes the friend was extremely cheeky handing the tip over when they contributed nothing!

Cheeky fucker in the fact that she handed the waiter the tip but didn't contribute to it.

Well I guess you think I’m stupid, and I think you’re tight. Agree to disagree I suppose.

Yeah she's tight AND a total cheeky fucker too!! Taking credit for your tips!

you’re so poetic 😍
Also we ARE in a cost of living crisis, people can barely afford the menu prices let alone an unwritten amount on top.
Bit bizarre banging on about tips

Are you in the US? Because in the UK ff an employee receives tips at work, they cannot legally be counted towards their National Living Wage or National Minimum Wage entitlement, they must be paid on top. checkyourpay.campaign.gov.uk/#:~:text=If%20an%20employee%20receives%20tips,must%20be%20paid%20on%20top.

I've always asked for any service charge to be removed, then asked staff if they keep all their tips. If they say yes I leave a cash tip IF I have the cash spare. If I budget for a meal and it's tight that month I may not tip. But if I can I always do.

Most of my tips go on cab drivers and I often tip them a pound because I want to support local workers and therefore our local economy.

If they say they don't get to keep all their tips I don't leave one, or I've told them to bung the cash in their apron there and then for them and them alone.

I tried to do this once in the US but the lady got extremely angry and banged on the table until I paid the built- in tip. I was basically mugged.

They might not have had cash or thought your and your friend had put in for the table. It’s not that unusual in my circle.

Also watching restaurants go under, while refusing to pay a tip, because the minimum wage earning waiter isn’t “going above and beyond”… make it make sense

I waitressed for a while a few years ago - I was actually quite surprised by how few people tipped, it was less than half. I think a lot of people tip when out with friends out of embarrassment not to but don't when out as a couple. It didn't bother me as a waitress, most of my money was always going to come from my wage.

If you wish to know tipping stats you can Google. You gov does surveys. It is approx 5 percent of the British population who never tip. and yes, once again, it is customary, it is not outdated and it is not mandatory

If you wish to quote stats it's really helpful if you avoid cherry-picking and provide the full reference. The full results of that Yougov survey found:

Of the types of places we asked about, Brits are most likely to tip when dining out in restaurants. A third (35%) say they always leave a tip, and another 28% often do. Only 5% of Brits say they never leave a tip for waiters or waitresses.

Older Brits are the most likely to leave something for their server, with 41% of Brits over the age of 55 always leaving a tip, compared to just 19% of 18- to 24-year-olds.

yougov.co.uk/topics/economy/articles-reports/2020/06/30/who-and-how-much-should-you-tip-UK

If a foreign traveller were to type into Google:

"do I need to tip in the UK"

The answers overwhelmingly say it is not customary.

See, anyone can have any opinion of anybody else. Fair enough.
But nobody has actually justified why they think it’s ‘tight’. Servers work hard (so do loads of other jobs). People can afford it as a ‘luxury’ (er so people on min wage don’t eat out?). It’s a feeling. It doesn’t have much impact beyond the server not getting extra money from the tipping people.

However there are very real negative consequences of tipping culture. Which is staff wages being downgraded. And as PP said ‘stay home of your can’t afford to tip’ - so they’d rather the restaurant get no business at all?