To those who live in or who have visited the United States.
Growing up in the 90’s, the “minimum acceptable” tip was 10%, average was 15%, and a good tip was 20%. These days, I just round to the nearest dollar and tip 20%, but I’ve heard these days it’s not unusual to tip up to 40%!
What do you usually do?
I always tip 20%, more for exceptional service. I’ve worked as a cook for about 15 years, at various places from dive bars to fine dining. At some places the servers and bartenders make insane money, often more than the chef who is usually on salary and not eligible for tips. But at a lot of places, the servers barely make ends meet and live not only check to check, but hand to mouth, week to week depending on the business. I never assume anyone is making bank so I tip well as a professional courtesy and to make up for people who don’t tip.
Increasingly these days, I’ve heard about and worked at places where the tips are split with the back of house crew, up to 40%. That ends up meaning that nearly 50% of our monthly pay is in tips, and that’s a blessing and a curse. Having PTO is basically worthless because missing out on the tips hurts so much.
Here in Seattle, they just raised the minimum wage to just over $20 an hour, and tips and benefits can’t be counted towards that. It’s a step in the right direction, but because capitalism is going to capitalism, it means that’s barely enough to live in the city with a single income source. So I still tip well regardless.
Most places in the country are not that fortunate, so I encourage everyone to tip their servers. If you think you’re going to force owners to pay people more by not tipping, you’re not only wrong, you’re actively making life harder for people who will likely never make as much as you if you work any sort of office job.
The system sucks, and needs to change. Some people can’t afford to tip generously, and that’s fine. But if you don’t tip out of principle, you’re just an asshole.
20% for excellent service.
It goes down from there. Yes zero tip is acceptable if the service sucked. If I ordered medium rare steak and I get well done steak. I normally won’t deduct that from the tip since that is a hard one for the server to see. But if it’s something they could have seen and didn’t fix, yeah I’m probably reducing the tip.
The tip is for service above and beyond, not a required part of the bill.
If my food sucks and the service was good, I tip them specifically in cash and tell them not to mention it, so it looks like I didn’t tip to the restaurant but it doesn’t screw the wait staff. It also makes the restaurant pay just a tiny bit more in payroll.
Pretty much what I also do
As a transplant I refuse the whole US tipping system and stick to the way of “rounding it up”. It often ends up around 10% of the bill but % tipping seems absolutely stupid as you are being punished for buying more. A few rare times I actually tipped 20% because the service was very good. Nobody tips me on my job and on average I make less than these people so I don’t see the logical connection of this whole stupid tipping culture
You make less than $2.13 an hour, the federal minimum tipped wage?
20%—I feel for tip-based workers, but I’m also not running charity nor am I in a financial place in life to be tipping much higher than that.
If 20% is not in the list I will enter 20%.
Americans: “I don’t care how bad the service is, you HAVE to tip a minimum amount.”
Also Americans: “My experience at the DMV was bad. Fire all government employees!”
20% minimum even if service sucked since it’s virtually always systemic reasons why the service sucked
I do the same as you with a few exceptions:
Laugh at my old man’s jokes about the weather when we go out for our weekly breakfast? You get an extra buck or two
If I order water, an extra buck or so. It takes the same energy as bringing me a beer. Especially at night clubs.
Bring me back my change but didn’t break up that fiver? I’ll tip you exactly 18% and make you bring me back five singles
The bars empty, you’re not making squat in tips and you hang out and chat with me. Could be an extra five bucks or so
Give me a free beer? I’ll tip an extra five bucks
i live in vietnam. it’s a poor country. but restaurant workers here get paid in money, so they don’t need to work for gratuity. it would be strange or insulting if you tried to give extra money to the staff.
Seems like bs 🤔
which part
tipping being insulting. Sure, it depends on the amount, but I don’t believe tipping could be seen as something bad, especially if you’re a tourist
might be wrong though
the first time I experienced this was in japan. try it and find out I guess
0, after reading the comments I realised you do not want my answer, since I live in the EU
Appologies. My presumption was civilized places don’t have such barbaric practices
😘
Followup question, how much do y’all tip your landlords /s
20 standard
15 should be standard. Menu prices are raising, why should tip raise roo?
20’s been standard for me for like 20 years
Because all their living expenses also increased
…yes. do you miss the fact that menu prices going up means the tip is going up even at the same percentage?
I typically calculate a 20% tip and then round up. For demographic purposes, I’m a millennial in the US.
Nothing, I live in a country where it’s the employer’s responsibility to pay their staff a livable wage.
In us states with no tipped minimum wage (such as Oregon), we still tip 20%
Nothing I live in Australia
They’re trying to make it a thing here. I refuse to participate.
I’m paying for a menu that has your decent wage built in already, I’m not gifting free money on top for just… doing your job?
Also wtf servers in places that do tip… you turn my words in to an entry in a tablet (or perhaps a piece of paper), then carry the food that other people created / prepared / transported / cooked all of 30 steps from the kitchen to my table and expect 20% of the bill? Insanity.
always 15% regardless of service. best or worst, i don’t care. im not going to judge anyone. i just want a meal and consider the 15% to be a convoluted tax for meals here in the US.
