USA tipping allowance anyone?

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Does Anyone have any idea how much to budget for a couple of weeks travelling round in the US? Mix of staying in national parks and LA, mid range hotels will be eating and drinking at mid range bars, cafes and restaurants. Is 20% the norm? Don’t want to stiff people and equally don’t want to pay over the top unnecessarily. TIA.

But you aren’t paying less if you don’t offer a tip? You are paying the price,as advertised and then some tax on top. Why can’t you decline to tip your server if they haven’t provided particularly good service?? It should be - and is everywhere else - an expression of appreciation for someone having done a good job - not for having just done the basic job for which they are employed.

have an issue with your shitty US employment laws, not the tourists who come and spend money in your country,

It’s not the customer stiffing the server - it’s his or her employer!

Not agreeing with the culture of a particular country, and showing that you disagree with it by deliberately underpaying one of the lowest people in that company’s hierarchy, is not cool. The CEO won’t be underpaid by you underpaying a waitress for her work.

To answer my question @YankTank what do you don’t you haven’t had good service?

That’s not the culture. Service is not included in the price. Some companies do include it in the price—for example, McDonalds. Eat there if you don’t want to follow the cultural etiquette when having a meal where someone serves you.

Leave 15% for bad service.

And if someone serves you poorly - what do you do? Just tip them anyway?

more fool you.

Yes. 15% for bad service. I still get paid at my job on the days when I’m not giving 100%.

By your employer presumably?

It’s all here https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tippe

in PA where I worked 100 years ago, it’s now 2.63/hour. Think it was a bit less when I was there. Federal minimum is 2.13.

This is why wait staff don’t want to serve Brits.

This is why wait staff don’t want to serve Brits.

Whevs - direct your anger towards those who don’t give a monkeys. Saves you the effort of directing it towards your awful employment laws and workers rights.

At the end of the day your servers are still being exploited by their bosses.

I worked in maybe 15 places a long time ago and the answer is sometimes. Sometimes it was a rota, sometimes it depended on how busy you were. But every person who worked at a restaurant knew to develop a relationship with the host so you’d have some control over who was sat in your section if you had a section. And those were the places that had some sort of tradition about how to sit Europeans - this was 25 years ago as well so people knew even less than they do now. The tips from non Americans were almost inevitably dire.

Agree.

Plus leave $10/day for the hotel room cleaner.

And being exploited by you, by the sound of it. Congratulations. 👍

I live in the US and 20% is the norm - 15% is low-balling and I'd only use if something is subpar.

For coffees/take out etc no need to leave a tip even if asked. Though I often leave a flat $1 or something like this

for me it’s just not possible to punish the poorest people for the structure they’ve found themselves working in. Just like I tipped everyone in India. It’s part of the culture, they’re relying on the money for groceries and daycare and rent, and quite honestly if I’m in the privileged position to be able to travel overseas there’s no reason to be cheap once I’m there.

I would say it’s super unlikely that any employee relying on tips in any country is worried about tip culture in other countries and they’ve almost certainly never had the opportunity. So I remember how lucky I am, err on the side of being generous and accept that maybe I’ve spent a tiny bit more than I could have. Worst case scenario I’ve just improved someone’s day and I can’t get upset about that.

We've just got back from the States and the tipping culture was insane and irritating. As other posters have said, just charge me what I owe!

It's clearly a loaded topic. To avoid any upset, we've decided for our next US holiday to hire a big RV via Cruise America, stock up at Walmart, and cook for ourselves.

Then we don't have to worry about offending anyone with "stingy" tips.

Nope - I order food, I pay for food. If I get good service I tip, if I don’t I don’t.

Also - as an employer - I pay my staff a decent wage.

This is insightful, thank you. Is there anything else helpful to know?
is the $10 mentioned for housekeeping the norm? Just left out? Or with a note?

In California, servers receive the standard minimum wage that everyone gets. 15% tip is the bare minimum. There is no need to tip in fast food, coffee, bakeries, etc even if they ask for it. I'd only tip is they offered outstanding service/or you have an extremely large or complicated order.

Other states have different rules, and there are still plenty of states that have those reduced server minimum wage amounts. In those states not tipping is quite the statement.

I leave up to five dollars (but I tend to stay in cheaper chains and leave rooms really clean). Just write thanks on the notepaper and put the cash under the note.

This is a pretty good guide www.realsimple.com/work-life/money/money-etiquette/tipping-etiquette-guide

@MindlessDaydream california def seems to be more humane then!

if the “cultural” expectation is that in other states “servers have to work hard for their money” - common sense would tell you they are working on behalf on an employer, no? Employed for the purpose of helping that employer make a profit by fulfilling a role in their business. It’s a shabby culture that doesn’t feel that employer shouldn’t fairly recompense that individual imo.