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!

I think of it as a cultural difference, to an American not tipping a decent amount is like us not saying thank you. They think it’s rude not to tip.
It’s no different than for example dressing modestly in some countries.

Some misconceptions here.

First of all, not every state has a tipped wage below federal minimum wage. It’s becoming less and less prevalent. Even if the tipped wage is below federal minimum, the employer is required to top it up to at least minimum wage if the employee doesn’t make enough tips to take them to minimum wage.

Secondjy, the old “people should be paid properly” argument. Seriously….They are! The customer pays the wages either by increased prices so that the employees are paid the minimum wage (which is as much as $20 an hour in California for food service workers, for example) or the customers leave tips. It’s the same money. It’s just two different ways of collecting it. I really don’t get why it causes so much angst and confusion.

Thirdly, we do have a minimum wage here. In several states it’s higher than the UK minimum wage. No one is forced to work as a server. You’ll find that many of them like their jobs and making tips. Working evenings and weekends suits students, for example, and they make more with their tips than retail workers or entry-level office workers.

No one should feel they have to leave a tip. It’s customary but we are used to tourists here who don’t understand it. That’s ok. There’s things we don’t understand about other countries so it’s all good. The terminal will give you the option to customize your tip. I regularly select “custom amount” if paying by card and then leave a cash tip instead. In short, I see tips as delivery fees. The menu price is the price of the dish. The tip is my payment for having it brought to me and the dirty dishes cleared away afterwards.

Yes except there are a number of exceptions and servers in NY will not get those amounts, for example.

You might "not believe it" doesn't change the facts

Not just rude, but heartless, and a sign of forgetting where you came from..

Many Americans will have slung hash while in university or as part of a series of side jobs in their youth, and would not dream of leaving a server short.

Three of my DCs worked in bars or restaurants or cafes as students, as servers, hostesses, and one as a weekend manager. One went to a university that offered bartending and catering/ serving classes to incoming freshmen and the chance to sign up for evening/ weekend work.

Yes to all of that.

I'm in the US.

Part of the problem is americans tend to break down costs into cost/tax/tip/whatever and don't present one final price (I kind of like it because you see what the tax is).

So you buy a blouse in a state with sales tax and you find you are paying more than the ticket price when you get to the till - because tax is added on.

Basically if you look at a menu in the US, add on 20% for the tip - that is what the cost is. If you can't afford it, eat somewhere else. I've taught this to my children and they all get it. I don't understand why visitors to the US can't get this too.

Wait staff are taxed on their tips - and taxed on what their tips should be. So if you don't leave a tip in the US you are doubly shafting your waiter - they may get taxed on money you didn't give them.

The tip thing at coffee shops/delis etc - we all just ignore them - drop a dollar in the tip jar if you want.

Quite surprised at the US poster who is still giving 15% at restaurants. Don't know anyone who is doing that.

Just as you can't insist in paying the UK.price for a loaf of bread in an American supermarket, you can't insist on following non-US tipping customs in American restaurants.

It has nothing to do with the quality of service. It is the cost of eating out when you're in the US.

I notice people are not clamouring to pay British prices for petrol in the US. It's the same petrol.

Not just rude, but heartless, and a sign of forgetting where you came from.

Yes this is how my American friend explained it to me. I stayed with her last year and asked her to give me an idiots guide to tipping, it was really helpful. I explained here in the UK 10% is normal and for example my hairdresser is really happy with the £5 I give her plus many people I know never, ever tip.
It was really helpful to get an insight into the culture.
We recently travelled together in Europe and I was ‘in charge’ of the tips and she learned what is more common closer to home.

There's a lot more nuance to it than you seem to understand.

I spend a fair amount of time in the US. The tipping thing has spiralled out of control imo. Last week the lowest tip % offered in one restaurant was 25% with the other options being 35% and 50%. Absurd. I did custom amount instead.

In many major tourist destinations the minimum cash wage (the amount the employer pays as wages before any tips are added) is far more than equivalent wages in the UK. In California, for example, workers get $16-20 per hour wage, plus their tips. So the "poor workers" argument no longer holds weight in those locations (in other parts yes, they are earning $2.13 wage plus tips - it's not a one size fits all).

What really irks me though is the increasingly ubiquitous 'service charge' of anything up to 20% especially in tourist centric cities. They have the gall to tell you that's not the same as a tip. I disagree. If you add a service charge there's no additional tip. My American colleagues agree on that too. I find places frequently add a service charge on hearing an English accent (if my American colleagues pick up the tab there's no service charge pre added). If they do that they often screw themselves out of a better tip (I tend towards 18% so by adding a 10-15% service charge because they think I'm going to stiff them they get less money). I also find a higher than plausible mis charging of items - I assume because they think a tourist won't check / call it out. I had one item on my bill last week charged at $21 when the menu price was $9. Damn right I made them correct it but I suspect many don't.

I don't tip for fast food / coffee, or picking up my own take out. I do tip in airline lounge bars, hotel maids and porters.

I am entirely happy to follow whatever expectations there are around tipping. It just seems complicated for employees in that you cannot predict your income and a hassle in a society moving away from cash. It also makes it hard to budget- you don’t really know how much things cost. This is probably a very British view of me but it seems like unnecessarily difficult. It’s also not really “tips” is it if the expectation is that it is given rather than a reward for good service.

@mathanxiety like what? I'm American, I've worked under that system as have many many friends and family members. What am I not understanding?

Not taken cash in 15 years. Add everything to card payments and carry your own bags!

And check the minimum wage in the municipality, if in a major city they may have a substantial minimum for restaurant workers, in which case bills will be higher and I tip less!

I was shocked last year in the US to find that shops routinely asked for tips, food shops, a clothes shop and even a book shop all had tips listed on the iPad. I paid up because I was shocked and also you hear so many stories about people being intimidated if they don’t tip. I don’t remember it being like this pre Covid , also the service charges pre tips , do you calculate the % on the bill including the service charge or excluding and by the time you’ve taken the listed price, added the service charge, tax and tip the price is double what you thought it was . I get it’s cultural but it’s a constant source of anxiety when visiting

Agree with the others here, though wanted to note that bag help isn't really a thing anymore. Most hotels have little trolleys that you use yourself to take bags upstairs. I usually find that easier as I tend not to have cash on me anyway.

I get all the comments - but why are they not moving towards introducing a legal minimum wage in the US? Surely it would be a huge vote winner? Where are the restaurant profits going then? I can only imagine if EU/UK businesses didn't have staff to pay just how much they would save!?
It just seems crazy to me the root cause of this has never been fixed?

I think they should just label it it for what it is, a service charge. A tip implies it is discretionary according to how well/badly the establishment has treated you etc. where a service charge should be advertised up front, and if you feel the service has been particularly good you can add a tip, not be berated by management for not leaving a good enough tip for shoddy service.

Yet, still some staff really do get paid very little per hour.

Dd worked in the us last summer. She had a non tipped restaurant role and was paid $15 per hour.
She has friends working tipped roles who were paid less than $5 per hour in other eateries. Many could make a lot extra in tips. In higher end restaurants they could make an awful lot, less so in the cheaper food places.

When DD's friends visited us here they found the lack of tipping for everything, and so relatively little when people do tip, really odd.

DD's uk friends found it funny when the Americans were trying to tip at the bar in Wetherspoons :)

The food isn't especially good either. Mainly fast food

Plenty in alternatives to fast food if you look for them.
Even at big resorts like Disney you don't have to just eat fast food options.

Our American friends tip according to quality of service. So on that basis the tip varies. That’s what makes it difficult @FloridaBrit . It’s a variable sum and it’s confusing when restaurants here tend to be 12% for service. There’s a massive difference between here and USA and tipping on top of a bill which includes a hefty service charge is very dubious practice.

I don’t actually see any additional charge is reasonable in a sit down restaurant. Serving the food and welcoming diners is part of the whole experience. It’s not separate. When I pay my hairdresser, there’s no separate bill for taking my coat and popping a gown on me. Restaurants split food and drink away from service and it’s hugely annoying not to have a clear indication of the final charge. It’s so much easier to be straightforward with customers.

@StripedPiggy

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…
Absolutely. I can't believe the smug ignorance of people saying they don't tip because they don't agree with tipping.

Then don't fecking go to the US. You would expect people to come to your country and arbitrarily decide to refuse to pay for things because the format of payment is something that isn't done at home.

It's rude, it cheats the very people who need the money under the guise of acting superior and saying the restaurants should pay better with no understanding that THIS IS THE SYSTEM there.

If you can't afford it or don't like it, don't go

It's like refusing to cover your head in some churches or refusing to stand in a queue in the UK just because you don't agree with the practice and it's not done 'at home'.

The ignorance and lack of cultural awareness is astounding

I’ve been to NYC for work a few times and like many other people on here find the tipping culture a constant source of stress.

I sometimes think about doing a family holiday to the US but the thought of constantly having to deal with tipping really puts me off.

The whole thing seems so disingenuous, if there is an expectation that it must be paid (or that a certain percentage is a bare minimum) then show that amount up front in the price you are charging the customer. That leaves people the option of leaving a smaller but genuinely discretionary tip as a reward for particularly good service that goes above and beyond the expected minimum.