Tipping in USA

[hopeishere]

I hate tipping it makes me feel awkward and I think you should just pay people properly but I get it's the norm in America.

Few questions:
Taxis - if you pay by card can you add a tip?
Bars do you need cash? I read it's $1 a drink?
Tour guides - how much should we tip them?
Porter $2 per bag?

Thanks!

@hopeishere I agree with you, We just have to accept it’s a different culture though. We always take cash for tips. Lots of low denomination notes. Take our own bags to the room. We get our own Ubers. You can minimise tipping but restaurants now expect 20% tip. So on top of the tax it’s a big extra.

Was over in the US in April. All the bars we were in, you had to eat in order to get drinks.

Paying by card, they came back with a receipt you signed and you specified the percentage tip from set options or you chose on the machine. You couldn't proceed until you specified the tip.

If I paid in cash, they kept the change, job done.

Felt a piss take, but it's the way it is.

Post-Covid they tend to give you an iPad for tipping rather than cash which has made it worse. From memory it suggested 18%, 20% and 22% as the options! This applied no matter how little 'service' you received. Think the equivalent of tipping a Pret server 20% for handing over a cappuccino for you to take away.

We didn't need cash anywhere

From memory it suggested 18%, 20% and 22% as the options!

That's it, those are the percentages I had to choose from.

one of our children has worked in USA and been tens of times we have also been many times - they expect 20% at least but its a no thank you form us - at best we pay 10% and even paid zero, they mutter stuff in their mouths - best not to go back to the place

my of or kids usually take control of the payments, we don't do bars but family friends places but more often than not have the eving meal at home - some of the places from memory put a service charge on the bill - its happened every since we first went to the USA in 1999

IMO, they should pay the staff proper wages rather than expect or just take 20-25% or about

I've been with family to NY once, most of the other times Florida, a few times LA and twice to Las Vegas

when we go to places we have not been to, even in the UK, I read up the approvate reviews and good info, first hand experience of those that have been there and at times reps on a travel site - not sure if I can name it here

It's 20 or 25% for tips minimum expected.

I paid a restaurant bill for $140 and the tip really stuck in my throat!

Apparently staff there rely on tips as there is no minimum wage.

Another annoying thing is all prices in shops don't include tax. So when you think you're spending a reasonable amount, by the time you go to the till and they add tax it's sometimes too dear but by then it's too late ....😱

We spend a lot of time in the US because of DH family. Tipping is insane and you will be asked to tip everywhere you go but that became a thing during covid when everyone switched to paying using the iPad. Essentially, in a sit down restaurant you will tip 20%. You will be able to get drinks without food and if you have table service, also tip 20%. If you are just picking drinks up from a bar then $1 per drink is fine. For coffee, I don't tip unless we are sitting in with our children (and thats only because they might get muffin crumbs on the floor). For taxis, you can tip a few dollars if you want. I don't think I tip on Uber, unless its automatically taking it out and I haven't noticed.

You will be asked to tip but you don't have to UNLESS you are in a sit down restaurant and then you need to tip.

Oh a tour guide, if you did a free walking tour I would tip $20. If you paid for a tour I would probably tip a few dollars per person in your family on the tour.

Servers are allowed to be paid significantly under minimum wage so tipping is not a loss take. If counter service you don’t need to tip, but taxis, waiter staff, porters etc really depend on tips. I get that it is annoying, but it really just is.

Uber gives you an option to tip after the ride. They present several choices of percentage, or you can add a custom amount.

This.

The basic wage for waiting & hospitality workers in the US is very low, on the expectation that it will be topped up with tips. The tips are taxed.

However infuriating the ridiculous American tipping culture may be, it really is expected and visitors to the country should comply and do as the locals do. When in Rome…

When I worked there years ago, yes you were paid a different minimum wage (not none but considerably lower), BUT your employer - this may have been State mandated as laws do vary - had to make sure that your wage + tips at least equalled the regular minimum wage, so if it was a very, very slow day then you wouldn't be out of pocket compared to a standard shop worker.

It also worked as a nice tax dodge - you had to declare your tips for tax purposes, and also to ensure you were getting at least minimum wage. Of course, everyone only declared the bare minimum so everything else was tax free.

I was raking in a fortune as it was a tourist area with an incredibly high footfall. You'd also jostle for the best shifts/best section for tables as tips were a percentage of your checks, so a dinner service for 6 drinking wine was much more lucrative than if you were doing lunchtime and most of your tables were on the rainy terrace.

I worked all summer, partied hard, travelled the East Coast from top to bottom, and came home with a nice sum for the next University year. Happy days!

But yes, basically mandatory - our employer was known for chasing people down the street if they "stiffed" us but it was very rare behaviour. Our rule of thumb back then was "double the tax" for a tip, but I don't know if that still works out now that percentages seem to have increased.

Thanks. That was what I thought it would be.

I'm going to spend a few days in san francisco and I have just discovered that ON TOP of the sales tax and the minimum expected 20% tip there is a city wide "health mandate" of 4-6% (depending on restaurant) to pay for health benefits for staff! 😦It'll be like paying for an extra person in total!!

Pretty much everywhere you can add a tip to the credit card. Most places prefer you pay by card these days. Some have a sign on the door stating that preference. Some only have one register that takes cash.

a few big venues like amusement parks and baseball stadiums no longer accept cash at all. Those will have the option of getting a venue specific gift card at customer service in exchange for cash.

tipping is part of salary for wait staff and bartenders. Most places it is on an iPad now and you just click the % you want. you don’t have to tip for counter service even if they ask for one, but if it is a takeaway order at a place that mostly does sit down meals, tips are expected because staff are paid as wait staff not counter service employees. If you don’t want to tip, you should stick to counter service restaurants because you are denying someone a basic wage if you don’t participate in the system. It’s a ridiculous system, but it is what it is.

the only person you really need cash for is a porter or for leaving a tip for the maid in your hotel room.

Keep in mind that most service jobs in the US do not pay a minimum wage. So your tip will be the only remuneration wait staff get. Wait staff are often essentially independent contractors and required to pay a percentage of their overall tips to kitchen staff, security etc.

So, if you can’t afford at least a 20% tip on service and 1$ a drink go to an EU country.

@Ponderingwindow Most places prefer you pay by card these days.

Yes, but there's a new wheeze of charging an additional 4% or so for paying by card. It's common in restaurants now, and someone just told me that their dry cleaner in New York did it.

I haven’t encountered thatin my part of the U.S. Just the opposite, stores saying it is too expensive to keep cash drawers.

Most restaurants give you a choice of 3 tip figures on the bill - 18, 20, or 22% and you can just add this to the total to pay by card.

I’d take cash (5 and 10s) too for other tips.

I do 20% on restaurant meals, one dollar for a coffee (cash).
Hotel breakfast a left $10 on the table and was treated like a VIP the next day.
We went on a boat trip and I tipped the staff $20.
I found Florida worse for tips than New York and LA in the middle.

they expect 20% at least but its a no thank you form us - at best we pay 10% and even paid zero, they mutter stuff in their mouths - best not to go back to the place

I don't understand this attitude. You know ahead of time that this is the custom and tipping for good service is expected, yet you proudly shaft the wait staff because you don't agree?

If you don't want to tip then take your meals in self-serve or counter service establishments and avoid full service sit-down restaurants. Faux indignation over tipping culture is a poor excuse for being a cheapskate.

Same as other PPs. Coffee shops - they also show the tip option when you pay by card but I often declined it and put some notes into a jar if I took my coffee as a take away.

If you accept how it is then it doesn't hurt so much. The same with the sales tax, I just mentally add 20% and see if it works for me.

DH is in the states a lot and he found that he doesn't need that much cash for tips anymore. The main cash tip he does is the hotel "maid" service, he normally leaves $20/$30 but left more when one lady was over the top helpful with some issues (and the hotel reception was useless).

When we first visited NY, 25 years ago, the norm for tipping was double the tax. So tax at 7% round up the tip to 15% for example. Our American friends advised this and we lived with it. Seemed sensible. It’s got out of control now and I’d much rather restaurant owners paid staff well enough for the level of the work they do. I’m not sure I’m the cheapskate, I think it’s the owners who don’t pay reasonable wages!

I wrote a Reddit post about this a few years ago. Everyone is right re restaurants and it soon adds up.

We went to the Time Out Market in Boston and i walked up to the till to choose our food and pay, the food arrived and they swung an iPad around with the % options to tip.

I couldn't quite believe it.

Another example was when I went to kill time before the airport by getting my nails and pedi done after a work trip ended. I paid and then tipped $8 and I was confronted by the receptionist asking what was wrong with my service. I explained nothing and she asked why I only gave $8 when two women had worked on my nails and would effectively get $4 each. I was flabbergasted!!!