To think the US tipping culture is completely alien to British people

[Butterflyfluff]

Inspired by a thread about spending money in NYC but it’s what puts me off going to US or Caribbean again.

It seems everything has to be tipped

• All food servers
• Toilet attendants
• Room cleaning each day
• Every drink service, even in an all inclusive hotel
• Meal, even in a buffet where you serve yourself
• Basically anything where someone else is doing something for you

Why is this so ‘expected’?

I hate it too and it's not just low wage serves expecting tips. It's everyone. Shuttle drivers, baggage handlers, hair dresser.
I've been cursed at for not having small notes to tip. I'd just got off an international flight so obviously not going to have a pocketful of dollar bills.

Tipping someone for some menial task is alien to me. I'll do it myself.

I suppose it's a form of job creation and it's the "trickle down" of wealth this Gov here is trying to do
Except it's from everyone, not wealthy people.

Strangest one to me was going to a fairly nice (but not upmarket) restaurant in Florida. Drove into their car park and was directed to attendant to a slot by the door. When we got out he took our keys and "parked " our rental car in another slot about 20 metres away!
When we came out he drove our car the 20 metres to the door for us and we tipped him as obviously realised this was what was expected! We wound have been perfectly happy to park our own car though and keeper $10 but that wasn't an option.

Only other place I've had this was Gleneagles hotel and this place was definitely not in the same league!

Yes, resort fees seem to have become pervasive in NYC too. I hate this also. Staying in hotels is becoming like Ryanair with all the extra add-ons, except with Ryanair at least you get the choice of choosing the add-on. (In no way am I saying I like Ryanair's model)

@Peachesandcream15

Did your American companions leave a tip at the nail salon?

I suspect they were being nice to you to smooth over your mortification. Perhaps they didn't remind you to leave a tip because they thought it would embarrass you if you hadn't brought enough cash.

To those baffled and vexed by the expectation that you should tip your hairdresser or manicurist - very often, a hair stylist or nail tech or massage therapist rents her chair in a salon (unless the nail salon is run by Koreans or Vietnamese) and has high overheads which include the rent, her own equipment like a dryer, combs, scissors. A tip is vital to make a living.

Holy cow - that’s a new fresh hell I hadn’t heard of! Resort fees!

They didn’t have those last time I went to Las Vegas!

Had those in Florida too

Things like paying for an umbrella on a private beach owned by the hotel and really expensive charge

has high overheads which include the rent, her own equipment like a dryer, combs, scissors. A tip is vital to make a living

Are the hairdressers trying to look less expensive than they actually are? Why don't they just put their prices up? That's what's happened in UK.

In cities hairdressers have become very expensive as they have to cover expensive overheads.

coincidentally, I just watched this https://m.youtube.com/shorts/rEQhA-JJlH0

So are many prices in the US cheaper than the UK?

Would a £10 meal be advertised as a £6 meal over there? Then tax and tips would take it up to £10?

I don't know if they're cheaper at moment as haven't been for 4 years but it is true that the price you see is not the price you pay.
So if you go into a clothes shop and pick up 3 items at $30 each it will not be $90 at the checkout as tax is then added (it's not like uk where price we see already includes VAT)

Also it seems by what PP has said the hairdressers expect a decent tip to help pay for their overheads where as in uk they have put their prices up a lot recently.

I guess it all evens out in the end but I think in uk we are used to more transparent pricing

I travel to the states a lot with work and I do find it irritating.
On holiday with my family I once refused to tip at all.
It was an abysmal service.
Wrong items.
Waitress stood chatting to her friends who were customers at the bar.
Rolled her eyes when I went and asked for some more drinks at the bar as she hadn't been over.
Frozen chicken etc
Asked to speak to the manager who wasn't in.

So no, I didn't put in a tip despite the receipt suggesting 22% which would have been $45

She chased us to the taxi and asked what my problem was and that we had to tip and that 22% was for poor service. Haha.

I have always tipped everywhere else.

And as long as people go along with the blackmailing system of almost compulsory tipping in the US then they will continue to be poorly paid. In some newspaper a couple of years ago an American man said if service was poor, he only tipped 10%!

Surely it’s up to the American people whether they want to change how their systems work. Not some British tourists just refusing to go along with it.

Otherwise you are having low-income service people subsidize your holiday.

What rubbish! Tipping subsidises the employers who are able to pay poor wages because the customers will make up the difference. Let them pay a decent wage, price accordingly and then leave the customer to tip for service above and beyond.

Obviously it's up to the Americans how they underpay their staff but that doesn't mean that everyone else should go along with it. I've been in many countries with local customs I don't follow.

It definitely doesn't make sense when my DD (17) is being paid $13/hr in her first restaurant job (and first job ever). That's the way it should be, a reasonable wage based on the job and experience

No, it's not rubbish.

Stiffing innocent workers who have no sway over the systemic changes you are talking about is rubbish. (And that is putting it politely.)

It's one thing to have an opinion about how things "should" operate and quite another to take out your umbrage on the least powerful persons in the equation.

If you can't afford to tip, or refuse to, then don't patronize places where the workers depend on their tips for their livelihood, and are taxed on them whether they receive them, or not.

I agree with @KosherDill.

Not paying tips is just penalizing the wrong people.

Being tight doesn't actually help low paid workers.

Tipping subsidises the employers...

Champagne socialism at its finest.

$13 an hour isn’t a reasonable wage really though, is it? For a teenager or college student doing it part time for spending money, maybe. How many grown adults with rent to make, utilities, healthcare co pays, car payment, groceries etc can really afford to live on $13 an hour? And yes, many low paid workers not in tipping industries have to try their best, but it shouldn’t be a race to the bottom.

If you don't plan on tipping waiters and waitresses in non-fast-food restaurants in the US, please don't go to them. You're just being ugly. Have a picnic, go to McDonalds, or stay home. Voting with your feet is an excellent way to protest against America's terrible tipping customs. Knowing that waiters rely on tips in the US, and then allowing yourself to be served by waiters and then not tipping them there--what kind of person would do that??

Exactly. In addition, the notion of "subsidizing employers" ignores the fact that it is part of a different pricing structure in the US. As an American who lives in a popular tourist area, I would prefer a different type of pricing structure, but visitors from other countries who want to make some sort of political point by not tipping are penalizing the least powerful in society. If you are okay with that, then perhaps you should vacation somewhere else.

Also, a bit beside the point, but someone upthread referenced a private beach in Florida. The constitution of the State of Florida provides that beaches are public.

@ComtesseDeSpair
My post was really in response to posters saying they knew people earning less than $3/hr. I don’t think that’s typically nowadays. DD and her friends are paid $13-15/hr, plus tips, which is considerably above minimum wage, Under-18’s are typically paid less, aren’t they?

I agree that many food servers would struggle to live on their wages, it’s not a great career if you have to run a household. Restaurants typically run on slim margins and I’m not sure how many could afford to pay $25/hr, for example. Some v. successful ones might, but not smaller places.

I don’t really know what the answer is.

If you don't tip, the employer still gets paid. You paid for your meal. Only the server loses. Your protest accomplishes nothing.

It's really best to think of tips as a service charge, because that's what it is. You can regard it as a local custom that you're not obliged by, and maybe you feel okay with that. But don't pretend you've done anything but stiff someone and get labour for free, and just because no one's forcing you to tip doesn't make you stingy (and in my opinion, much harsher words than that) for doing it. You get to feel smug about Americans, and the server goes home unpaid.

I do still know people who receive the $2.13 minimum. That's the federal floor. Some states have no tipped wage and others do distinguish between tipped and not, but with higher wages; e.g. New York has an $8.80 minimum for tipped but $13.20 for the general minimum.

Also US minimum wage doesn't have a lower rate for young people, though typically under-18s will get less as they can work fewer hours and can't do certain jobs involving alcohol or hazardous equipment.