Do you tip?

[Gandalf]

Reading this article got me thinking about tipping....

Job fears over new tipping laws - Yahoo! News UK

I live in a culture where tipping is not the norm. You don't leave a tip for taxi drivers or in restaurants here. It's just not the done thing. In fact, I'm a little bit worried about my vacation home next year because I plan on doing a fair bit of travelling and I'm really not up on what is normal tipping behaviour anymore. In fact part of me resents the idea of tipping. That waiter should be paid by the boss, and me paying for my food should be more than enough all things considered. But I'm sure everybody is expecting a tip. And taxis in the UK are so expensive. Why on earth are people expected to tip on top of the already ludicrous fare prices? I think I prefer the way things are here in this respect.

What are your views on tipping?

[sonny78]

Yep but only for good service

I fucking hate when service charge in automatically on the bill at a restaurant

I tip at the pub on every round but only expect 20-50p

at least 10% in a restaurant if the service is good

Never in a cab, Never in a hairdressers

[BIG H]

I tip about 10% in a restaurant or Hairdressers (if I am happy with the service) usually give about an extra £1.00 in a taxi

[HattonTheHammer]

only if she swallows

[VictorCharlie]

I've never lived anywhere where I would use a taxi regularly so I can't speak on that and I cut my own hair. I do tip very well for good service at bars and restaurants though. Good service for a waiter will earn a minimum of 15% from me and I usually tip at least a 50 cents to a dollar every time I order a drink maybe more if I am ordering multiple drinks. I know the concept is a bit odd for people in countries that don't do it but it is a very important part of the food and beverage industry here in the U.S. The market is very saturated and a owner/manager has to put a premium on good service. By having servers make more than 90% of their wages from tips it lets the business keep its overhead lower and offer a much more competitive price for their goods. It also rewards hard work and motivates the server to give the best they can. As a former bartender and bar manager I really can't imagine what I would have had to pay to keep my best people not to mention what I would have to charge the customer to offset the increase in overhead. Not sure what its like in other countries but typically bartenders and waitstaff are college and highschool students who can only work a few hours a day and need the compensation to pay bills while they attend school. I look at it as paying the owner for the product and the server for the convenience which in turn provides me with a cheaper product and better service.

[killersheep]

I tip pretty generously as long as common courtesy is shown usually about 30%. It may seem like a high amount but I don't go out into situations where a tip is necessary often.

[OumaFan]

Of course at places to eat. If you get just normal service or better and don't tip at a restaurant here than that's pretty shitty. Waiters don't get paid anything substantial at all hourly really, its just tips. The rare few times I'll take a cab I'll tip, and haircuts. But restaurants are the main thing. In fact I'll call serious bullshit on somebody if they don't tip at a restaurant where the service has been ok, that's crap IMO. Now in other cultures where the waiters are paid regular wages, fine.

[Spicoli]

Try to base on service and personality.Sort of like when you look for a check out line in the store.I dont look at how many are ahead of me or their items...try to size up the cashier.Are they looking at their nails and trying to text with the left hand...having attitude.Or are they fluid,checking the rear of line and you know....actually keeping pace,working.

Cabbies with shite taxis,broken window latches and that "who really gives two shits" conversation I just round up/down to the dollar.....all Waiters and table jockys are tipped.....Pizza delivery is different.The very young people get the least....some 40ish plugger just hanging on and probally going home to entrenched grief I tip pretty well.

"others"...cough.No comment.Had a crazy clash driving home from Katrina evacuation.Hey,just realized I made it so went sort of crazy at the Holiday Inn on the city outskirts prior to driving in.

[amat]

Yeah I'm a waiter so obviously I sympathize and tip appropriately everywhere even for my coffee. That's also because I seem to try to seduce every girl that ever serves me coffee ever and that always starts with the tip. If I'm lucky enough I might get one back. As a waiter if I make 15% then I'm thrilled but usually it's closer to 12% or 13%. I'm not working at a high end institution, it's Applebees so it is a bit ghetto and you get the ghetto crowd who just don't tip no matter what. We have to claim whatever credit card tips we make plus 8% of whatever our cash sales were and that's deducted from the check. So if you pay cash and don't tip at least 8% then I'm actually LOSING money waiting on your table. Kinda shitty.

[Gandalf]

Why don't service industries just charge more for their product and give their workers better wages? I would much rather go to a restaurant like that. What you buy is what you pay for and that's that. The culture of tipping just sounds like an excuse for restaurant owners to pay awful hourly rates and make the diners cough up extra so workers can pay their bills. It just seems a bit screwed up from my perspective. Tipping is actually frowned upon out here and seen as an insult if offered. I quickly adopted that mentality which seems so natural to me now.

It's not that I'm cheap as I would happily pay more for my meal in the knowledge that those workers are getting a minimum standard of living. But the culture of tipping just seems a bit unsual to me and on going home next year I was just wondering how far it all goes.

[Gandalf]

Yeah I'm a waiter so obviously I sympathize and tip appropriately everywhere even for my coffee. That's also because I seem to try to seduce every girl that ever serves me coffee ever and that always starts with the tip. If I'm lucky enough I might get one back. As a waiter if I make 15% then I'm thrilled but usually it's closer to 12% or 13%. I'm not working at a high end institution, it's Applebees so it is a bit ghetto and you get the ghetto crowd who just don't tip no matter what. We have to claim whatever credit card tips we make plus 8% of whatever our cash sales were and that's deducted from the check. So if you pay cash and don't tip at least 8% then I'm actually LOSING money waiting on your table. Kinda shitty.

You see, that really sucks. Why is it on the customer to make sure you are getting enough to live? That should be the companies obligation and they should be making more than enough profits from their regular business anyway. Like I say, I'm out of the loop these days...but just find it very odd the way things are in the west. Well America and the UK actually. I heard in a lot of European countries tipping is not the norm. It certainly isn't in the parts of Asia I have been to.

[Spicoli]

Alot of the higher tier restaurants consider that they are selling you a fine meal as well a environment,atmosphere,presentation I suppose.Fast food has exploded in the last couple of decades,especially in horrid economy people look for cheap quick and easy.Tipping can have some to do with status?

Coffee shops and such I never tip.On a day I can pay 2,3 bucks for a coffee that I really dont need,the last thing I'm tempted to do is hand over another 2 bucks to some 'barista',who probably gets free coffee all day long....fuckers!!!

[Gandalf]

There is definitely no sense of customer service out here which is different to home. Waiters are functional and do their job, no need for fake politeness or bothering you excessively. In taxis too drivers are straightforward and there is no nonsense involved. They drive you there, then you pay and go. No need for the overbearing sense of customer service that I remember in the west. Small talk in taxis is so annoying.

I prefer the bluntness and just get it done attitude people have here. They do their job, I pay the bill and you say goodbye and do it again later. No complaints. It suits me anyway.

[OumaFan]

Now that I think about it I probably tip cabs too much, of course I rarely if ever take them, but dude's just driving ffs and they get paid normal wages I think.

But yeah waiters, its all they make so its just not right to stiff them IMO. I can even put up with some stupid mistakes, people have bad days, just fix it move on. If they're rude, obviously different story.

[armin]

I graduated college recently but am still serving while looking for a career. People that don't tip drive me nuts, esepcially the people that come in and get a kick out of treating you like jack and being inconsiderate and rude and then leaving something like a buck on 50$, makes me wana choke em. Due to some jacked up and outdated laws servers still only make 2.14 an hour, half of what original minimum wage used to be, minimum wage has since gone up to like 7+ and server wage has stayed the same. As long as there is no laws in place restaurants will just continue to pay servers 2.14 an hour and servers will be dependent on tips, which has been really shitty over the last year tip income has gone down considerably due to the economy. In case anyone is wondering 18-20% is a good tip, 15% is ok and anything below that is garabage since most waiters have to tip out about 5% of their tips to bussers, bar, front desk and such. Ok that's my rant sorry to bore. To answer the question I always tip 30% min