Tipping is commonplace in the United States, but not so much in Europe. A recent Freakonomics episode found that service improved when tipping was abolished. A 2012 study found that countries that tipped the most have a perception of increased corruption. I’ve always found certain practices strange.
Is tipping even fair? Slender women earn more tips than fat women. Blondes earn more than brunettes/redheads. I remember that one restaurant owner loved having a busy restaurant, because he made more money, but his poor servers complained about getting worse tips because they had too many tables to serve.
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Do you tip fast food restaurants? Do you tip before you receive your service? Do you tip hairdressers, flight attendants? I went to pick up pizza for a New Years Party this weekend. I was supposed to get the pizza at 550 pm. I came late (650) and it still wasn’t done, and I didn’t get it for another 20 minutes. I wasn’t about to tip for service that bad.
Tell us your tipping stories.
Wheat & Tares 
My experience as a non-American will likely be significantly different to those used to this practice.
Having travelled several times to the USA, I have my fair share of experiences. Negative – My wife and I were at a hotel in NYC and a gentleman (presumably from the hotel) offered to put our bags into the waiting Airport transfer vehicle. I said “No – we are OK”. As I was taking my bag to the car he grabbed my wife’s bag and put it in. He then held his hand out for a tip. I refused, as I asked him not to assist, however he made a big scene and mumbled something about foreigners…!! Positive – we were shopping at a Jeans outlet store and were buying about 15 pairs of jeans (big family!!). My wife received some really good service from one of the female employees. At the end of the transaction my wife slipped her a $20 bill and said that she really appreciated her help. The girl ran away crying and only came back minutes later when she composed herself. She indicated that she was really struggling that week with feeding her family and that the $20 make such a difference.
More recently some work colleagues and I were in LA. One of them had an APP that calculated the bill, tax and tip and then split it up!!! Calculating bills where tip is required is a real pain. People didn’t always agree on the tip etc.
Why do bar tenders and waiters get a tip and a McDonalds employee does not?? Also, if it is argued that tips are commensurate with service, what if the end service is out of the direct control of the person that you would tip (ie there is the cooks hair in the food or the cook burnt the first steak and another had to be prepared). Why punish the waiter or waitress??
End feeling..in a practical sense I just felt that they should just advertise the price of the meal and the restaurant can pay their employee whatever they want – as per the vote!! At least you know what you are up for…
The evidence on the negative impact of tipping is mounting. Basically, the most stable effect of tipping is enabling people’s taste for discrimination. Emprically that is pretty true. Tipping is a way for us to play out our conscious and subconscious biases and does very little if anything to increase the quality of service. Tipping has also been more and more systematically used to steal wages and tips from low wage service workers in the US. Its a serious and widespread problem.
There is a local restaurant here in Scottsdale that was featured in Kitchen Nightmares that points out one problem with tipping: that restaurant owners can intercept and take money from their staff for the house, and you never know it, but they are getting a tax advantage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uPOGxUtZvk
Anyway, when I lived in Singapore, it was a hard habit to break, tipping, and I have always been a 20% tipper in restaurants. But the prices there are higher, and tipping is definitely not the norm. I generally feel that the more personal the service (e.g. hairdresser, masseuse), the more likely I will tip. For a more impersonal service like shuttle driving or even a chauffeur, I think their salary should cover the service. It’s hard to differentiate service in those cases. The other thing I dislike about tipping is that it requires carrying cash, something I try to avoid whenever possible. You can buy from vending machines with credit cards, so why even bother with cash?
Tipping is nothing more than an excuse for owners to increase profit by making their service appear cheaper than it is. Why is it acceptable for an employee to make profit for the owner and NOT be paid by the owner, but rather the client?
I’ve always considered tipping at buffets strange. My wife works for the airlines and they have been trained that they should always tip shuttle van drivers–she is a much better tipper than me.
But cruise ship tipping is the worst. They make an announcement at the end of the cruise that you should tip your room steward, waiter, asst waiter, etc, and it turns out to be like $100-250. It’s especially startling if you’ve never cruised before. Why don’t they just pay their workers?
I saw a program about cruise ships once and it was rather startling about the non-technical crew. I didn’t research any of this out to verify it but they said that the crew were largely third world people hoping to be able to support their families but they made so little that they became indentured servants.
Furthermore, they said that they live in extremely dense quarters where common diseases were common place and more serious diseases quickly got out of control.
It scared the absolute socks off me about cruising and I doubt I could ever do it.
They didn’t say anything about tipping but if a number of passengers were leaving 3-figure tips it wouldn’t seem like they couldn’t save enough to leave the cruise lines. So hard to know what to believe.
I was talking about the total bill. It seems like it is generally $3-5/day per person, which isn’t much. It seems like I heard that crew members get free room and board, but not wages, so they really depend on the tips.
I learned to tip at restaurants in a business context (when it wasn’t on my dime), so I began tipping 20% and I have done that personally as well for my whole adult life.
I tip my hair stylist very well, and I tip shuttle drivers. Where I fall down is tipping hotel room cleaning staff; I confess that I often don’t think of it, because I don’t actually see them. When I stay at the Nauvoo Family Inn and Suites they actually have an envelope with the person’s name on it and I appreciate that reminder.
I always carry my own bags. If someone calls me a cab, I’ll tip a dollar or two.
I don’t tip at fast food restaurants, even if there is a tip jar. I don’t often eat at buffets, but when I do I usually leave some sort of lessened tip (I don’t know, 10% maybe?).
I still don’t get why fast food places have a tip option BEFORE they do a thing. Your food could be terrible and you could have terrible service and you are holding you are expecting a little extra?
I am guessing is because some customers obviously pay. Why else?
I don’t mind tipping at sit down restaurants where service can change the experience.
Personally, I think a tip jar encourages the employees at fast food places to give out free stuff (more of whatever is being served) at the owner’s expense just to get a couple bucks in their tip jar.
I don’t disagree with these arguments against tipping. But since I live in the US, I won’t stop tipping service workers until they are paid an actual living wage by their employers. If I knew they were being paid well, I would be happy to pay a higher price for a meal or a hotel room in lieu of tipping.
Having worked at a restaurant that was a buffet for certain times of day/meals I just want to point out that the servers still only get paid the super low minimum wage of less than $3/hour in most states/cities in the US. So while you may feel that they are doing less (they still have to take drink orders, clear plates constantly, etc…) they are relying on tips to survive. Please tip your servers! Restaurants can only afford to charge $10-15 a plate for buffets because they don’t pay their servers a living wage.
We pay $1 per person at buffet style places for that very reason, which actually comes in around 15%.
I find the whole tipping thing really confusing. In most circumstances I have no idea whether or not I am expected to tip, and if I am, not a clue how much any tip might be expected to be. There always seems to be the danger of offending someone by trying to tip them. It sometimes reaches the point that the anxiety over tipping means I’d just rather not bother with the activity at all. Here in Britain it seems to be very much a muddle, or perhaps I just don’t move in circles where tipping is the norm.
I really hate the way it puts the service receiver in a position of power.
There’s no tipping in Japan.
Just pay people a proper wage, and be done with it.
Anarene Holt Yim says it very well. I agree that is the reality, and we have to deal with it.
I try to tip particularly well when I am eating out alone due to business or personal travel. Because the bill for one is going to be lower, but the work not that much less. They might have had a party of four at that booth. So at least 20% if I am alone and they deliver excellent service.
Here’s what bugs me about tipping. The server brings me a plate with a burger and fries on it that costs $10. The server brings another table another plate with a ribeye steak on it that costs $60. The tip on one plate is supposed to be 6 times bigger than the tip on the other plate. Does the steak plate weigh 6 times as much? Did the server work 6 times as hard bringing the steak plate to the table? Can you tell I’m an engineer?
I tip more at buffets. They may not bring you the food, but they have to do a TON more work with bussing and cleaning, not to mention they still have to bring the food and dishes to the buffet.
How come NO ONE mentioned the Pizza Guy? I used to schelp pizza on the side to make ends meet. When I was first going through a messy divorce 20 years ago, my rather paltry wages plus tips for part time work more than made up for child and spousal support payments. When my then ex’s attorney requested an increase, the judge shot her down on the basis that whatever I did in my time, beyond my ‘normal’ employment, I could keep for myself, as I wasn’t expected to work day and night. Too bad the same principle didn’t apply to my Reserve duty!
I have no issue with tipping, either receiving or paying, as long as it’s remembered that it’s a GRATUITY. Nothing rankles me more than lazy waitstaff with an entitlement mentality. So the restaurant owners pay ‘slave’ wages. Work elsewhere if it’s that bad! And Hawk, you are dead to rights about the “house” intercepting tips, not only for reporting purposes (which THEY get into Dutch with the IRS if they underreport) but also in many major metro areas it’s a common practice for the house to pocket a third of the tips (and not report it).
Quentin Tarantiono rendered a far better commentary on tipping in “Resevior Dogs”. Ante up, you cheap ‘buggers’….