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 just hate the way US restaurant servers are all over you like a rash just for the tip.

I'm intrigued to know where in the Caribbean you have found a tipping culture akin to America @Butterflyfluff? I've spent a lot of time in Barbados, and also visited a number of other islands and never experienced that. I would say the culture in the Caribbean is exactly the same as it is here – you tip in restaurants or bars for good service and that's it. Not for quick drinks or a coffee in a cafe or anything like that.

@Thisbastardcomputer

You should feel free to give them a tip and ask to be left alone.

I am sure they wouldn't mind.

I find it quite oppressive when I go to the states as I never know how much or when I'm supposed to tip. In New York, the restaurants put the % and amount expected on the bill, which I found a great relief!

I’ve looked at booking AI hotels in several Caribbean countries and all the FB groups for these hotels talk about needing to tip every time you get a drink brought to you

Or even tip the person who clears your plate in a buffet restaurant where you have served yourself

Put me off going tbh

Tipping in the US is part of the culture. I'm pretty sure if someone strolled in here and said their Indian holiday was crap because they demanded bacon and eggs every day and didn't get it they would get set upon. I'm not sure that going to another country on holiday and insisting that their culture should be the same as ours is a recipe for holiday success. If you insist on applying UK culture in the US maybe better just to add a flat service charge to the bill and ignore the quality of the service.

If you don't tip you are effectively depriving the server of a significant part of if not all of their wages. So don't be surprised if you get a frosty goodbye when you leave. I certainly wouldn't want to go back to a restaurant in the US after not tipping.

If you have questions about what is appropriate you can always ask the waiter or manager and they will be happy to tell you - much happier than they would be if you didn't leave a tip at all. Alternatively you can always ask the hotel concierge who will also gladly inform you.

My understanding is that 10% of the meal price is considered the minimum (poor service), 15% average and 20% good. You may consider more under special circumstances, for example large parties and special events like your kid deciding to decorate the floor with their pasta.

Some of the waiters in top class restaurants make a lot of money in tips. In the more mediocre restaurants much less so. By depriving these people of tips you are often hitting the poorest in society directly in the pocket, so not something to feel great about.

Do people still tip for hairdressers in UK? I pay £38 for a cut and dry and there 30 mins. I think that's enough as it is.

My understanding is that 10% of the meal price is considered the minimum (poor service)

Why would or should you pay anything for poor service?

Because even poor service takes effort (someones time).

If I give someone 10% I also explain to them why.

Time they are already being paid for

That’s insane! Wow.

I think it's a terrible system for customers and workers, so open to confusion, aggravation and exploitation.

I never carry cash anymore at home. Having to travel around on holiday with a bag of coins and notes everywhere I would find so cumbersome and inconvenient, not to mention the awkwardness and anxiety of not tipping the right people/too much/not enough.

It seems particularly baffling in the case of AI where surely the draw is everything is included and you don't have to worry about carrying a purse or considering whether or not you can justify /afford another drink.

I don't think it's enough to put me off ever visiting the US again and of course I would do my best to pay what was required. I do think it's a bit much to have an unwritten rule about how much needs to be paid and to whom and then to get annoyed that visitors to your country don't know what they need to pay.

I live in a country with no tipping at all now and I love it. The price of anything is clearly stated, I decide whether or not I want to pay that price, and all the staff are fairly paid for a day's work rather than at the mercy of the customer.

No, they aren't. Or at least, not at a level that makes it worthwhile for them.

I don’t mind it at all, and I just factor it in by mentally adding 20-25% to any bill. It’s how things work there 🤷‍♂️

Besides, it’s the utterly shit exchange rate that’s making US trips/holidays punishingly expensive right now (and, conversely, very good value for American visitors to the UK, which is why we’re seeing a lot of US tourists at the moment in London and Edinburgh).

Serving and bartending in the US aren’t considered menial unskilled jobs as they are in the UK, largely because a skilled tender or server can make a really good living out of it

Someone upthread mentioned they can make 40k a year. People spending summer in New York as they can make 2k a week bartending, etc.

So what is it? Are we having to tip because the “poor” servers need it to able to eat or what? Because it doesn’t sound like it to me. When I went to New York I was earning far less than 40k so why I am spending 25% more on a meal so they can? Especially given the crap service I received in most places.

I live in a country with no tipping at all now and I love it. The price of anything is clearly stated, I decide whether or not I want to pay that price, and all the staff are fairly paid for a day's work rather than at the mercy of the customer.*

Japan?

You tip delivery drivers? Like Amazon?

@CasaDelSoot Australia

I can assure you that US servers as a group don’t find tipping humiliating or unnecessary. They make far more in tips - 20% of the bill of six or seven covers an hour - than they ever would from a flat hourly minimum wage.

They may well be happy with it, but the whole concept behind tipping is indeed designed to humiliate and put poorer people in their place. Are they really in a position of power, if they have to challenge or chase people for not paying a large percentage of the expected charge, but which has not actually been charged? How would that stand up in court? If you were billed $100 for a meal and walked out without paying, the restaurant owner could legally sue you for their $100; what would happen to the $20 that was expected by the server, though?

Maybe it's the use of the word 'tipping' that is jarring - especially to some of us Brits - and the unwritten expectation of it. If they just gave out menus with prices on, but which clearly said "the actual price you are required to pay is 20% more than listed below, plus taxes", it would (rightly) seem bizarre, but at least everybody would know where they stand, without any mention of tipping - which is supposedly considered a voluntary addition (and thus by no means guaranteed or to be expected) and not part of the charge itself, and so is not in any way an appropriate term to use for this.

I have traveled a lot in the US. On a $100 check in a nice restaurant i wouldn't have left less than $30. It's how those servers make their living.

How is it even legal to describe a holiday/meal/other service as 'all-inclusive' when it manifestly doesn't include all? When tips are expected on top of that?

Why do so many jobs - presumably also in the USA - give you a price, which is the price you pay to them (maybe not including state taxes) in order to obtain the goods or services with everybody happy with the deal? Would you buy groceries from the local store that are labelled with a certain price on the shelf and then find that the price was artificially understated when you come to pay for it? Not talking about additional state taxes, but the actual amount that the store expect to receive themselves in exchange for the goods?

This. And their taxing authority assumes a base level of tips they pay income tax on whether or not the patrons actually tip them. It's pretty heinous to stiff these people.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

The whole point behind tipping is not to keep people in their place.

It's to reward people based on their quality of service.

I would say it works too, because the quality of customer service you get in general in the US is far higher than in the UK and Europe.

In fact it is well recognised as being one of the barriers to market entry in the US for European and UK companies. If you are going to do business over there you have to understand customer service expectations are a lot higher than they are in the UK.

I wouldn't say that it works fully, but neither would I say the European system is completely functional either, where waiters can treat you like something they scraped off their shoe and still take a flat service charge.

It's a different way of thinking and a different way of doing things. One of the joys of experiencing travel and different cultures.

Oh I wondered how it would work, we are going on holiday soon and didn't know how it would work post covid we plan to pay majority of things by card so thank you .we will take less cash than we were planning. @fallinover

Exactly.

People talk of the "ugly American " travelers but I'd say Americans aren't the only ones.