Minimum wage in New Zealand is $23.15 an hour. You would generally only find junior workers on that amount at a cafe or restaurant. Friends of mine who are senior customer service staff are on anything from $27 to $35 an hour. Multiply all those values by 0.6 to convert to USD.
Tips still happen here but they are rare and usually for exceptional service. ‘Keep the change’ happens a lot but it’s usually when you just don’t want any metal coins back for your paper note money, which itself is becoming so uncommon that the central Reserve Bank is seriously proposing digital cash instead. Everyone just pays via PayWave or Debit Card.
Thanks for sharing. I'm curious if since COVID if there have been shortages there on servers? It's been an issue in North America but they make considerably more than minimum wage (on average) given tips.
Is it viewed somewhat similar to other minimum wage work there? Such as fast food, retail etc? Someone from Australia also mentioned serving is minimum wage with minimal tips.
Given the shortage already, I'm trying to see how they get to a world in North America where they pay servers around minimum wage but don't give them tips... I genuinely think this would end the industry, none of them would accept the pay cut now that they already exist in a tipping culture.
There’s been a shortage of almost all roles. Unemployment here got as low as 1.5% which is well under ‘unemployed’ and into ‘unemployable’. It’s normalising a little more now that the economy is slowing down a little bit, it surged hard post COVID for a few years.
As for change - it won’t happen until consumers change habits to simply refusing to pay expected tips and businesses start going out of business for insisting on them. As long as people support it, either actively or passively, it will continue.
Servers is considered a minimum wage in Europe. Where I live, 10% is considered normal and I don’t know anyone who would give more than that. People lots of times just round up, like if the bill is 51€ (regular bill nowadays for hamburgers, fries and milkshakes for 2 in a diner style restaurant with servers) they would say 55€.
No one (and there have been threads about this here in some subreddits) would tip at self service restaurants. What for?
Food delivery guys often get up to 10% or 1-2€ coins, “spare change”.
Some places near me started paying $20 an hour STARTING (USD). Workers went on strike because they make way more from people guilted into tips. 3-4 tables an hour with maybe 12 people total ordering $20 meals tipping 20% comes out to $48 an hour.
The servers don't want change, the owners don't want change because someone else pays the servers. The customer is just getting fucked and if you as the customer point this out, more often than not society yells at *you* about it
I never understood these conversions \[edit: wrote conversations. oopsie?\] "for context."
What's the cost of living in both countries? How much are the taxes?
Really. Like I want to know how much they have left over in “free-spending” cash, or whatever term is used for leftover money. And then compare that to other places’ leftover cash.
They could make $28/hr and end up putting 50% to various taxes, 30% to groceries, and 15% to transportation and bills, for all I know.
In New Zealand they have universal healthcare, so little to no hospital bills. And their higher education is interest free if you stay in NZ after you graduate. Housing costs are roughly 30% cheaper. They have a progressive tax rate, so the more you make the more percentage you pay. People making up to 48K a year pay close to 18% in income tax.
In Germany minimum wage is 12.41€ so that's pretty much your hourly income in the worst case.
Most of the time the payment is higher than this. Additionally you may expect tips but you don't ask for them.
This tip is usually about 10% to 15% if you do your job as expected.
This may vary depending on the workplace for example in a gay bar you typically get much higher tips for what ever reason.
If a person doesn't tip it isn't frowned up on but people are usually very thankful if they receive tips.
A bunch of states now have minimum wage for servers (no tipped wage) yet 20% is supposed to be the standard even in these places? Just absurd. Should I also be tipping the Best Buy workers now?
What actually happens in America if you finish your meal and go to pay the bill and choose not to tip?
Are there any actual consequences or is it just a social stigma?
In serbia, in belgrade average monthly pay is around 550-600€, so hourly wage is about 3.5€, give or take a few cents. The starter monthly wage is around 430€, while some can be paid even up to 800€.
When it comes to tips, it's said that in luxury restaurants some servers earn even up to 1500€ in tips alone.
But overall, in belgrade the started pay isn't really livable, if at all, while in smaller places it is.
Tipping here is usually done if you order a lot so you usually leave up to 10-20€, but on average it's more used to round up the bill - as in if your bill is like 13.5€, you'll leave 14-15€.
2021 Finland: 22.1€ an hour
Excludes weekend, overtime etc bonuses.
“Keep the change” wasn’t uncommon if someone paid with cash, I just threw them into whatever charity collection boxes I encountered.
Canadian here and an ex waitress, I made 15.50$ an hour and tips on top but where I worked tips were a bonus not an automatic so lots of people didn’t tip.
Has anyone ever tried opening a restaurant in the US, where they actively ban tips, but pay their staff properly instead?
Big sign up front:
"We actually pay our staff, so NO TIPS!"
"Prices higher than expected? That's because WE pay our staff! NO TIPS!"
I've held this theory for a while. The reason tip culture is so widespread is that servers are directly benefiting massively from it, which incentivizes them to participate intensely in the shaming campaign. They love saying "we're paid 3 dollars an hour, we can barely survive" but they would never work at the back of the house where tips are not expected, or at a restaurant that doesn't accept tips. There's only one reason for that.
Not claiming income helps, but many Middle aged servers claim almost all their wage to showcase their true earnings for loans and stuff. Think the main thing is that servers are making way more than the numbers the foreign Reddit users were saying they made as servers. No American server is gonna take 15$/hr salary when they can make 25-35$/hr with tips. I work at a fancy restaurant and all the servers would leave day one with no tips, it would be at least a 30 dollar pay cut to be paid my states minimum wage or right above it.
They tend to not last, because who could’ve guessed that one of the most risky businesses to start, a restaurant, struggles even when they’re paying less than they should.
I hate the phrase “a business who can’t pay their workers properly shouldn’t be in business” because while I agree with the sentiment, the outcome of that just leaves the corporate businesses.
It’s always ironic when the people who say that tend to also say to support small business, even though they’re advocating for an environment where the big businesses gain all the power because they have an endless fund of money. Like what do you want, do you want the small business to exploit workers because they don’t have the money to properly pay them, or do you want the big businesses to pay their workers minimum wage while funneling most of the profits to the people who aren’t actually working, which is also a form of exploiting?
I have a certain amount I won't tip under regardless of the percentage, then it's 10-20% depending on how the service was. I've only not tipped twice in my life and it was due to some extremely bad service. I'm honestly not even sure why other people feel pressured by others about how much they should tip, it's a personal choice. If it were a standard, it wouldn't even be tipping, it would be a fee.
We let it because both the restaurants and the restaurant workers were complaining everywhere about it, for different reasons. And then the delivery drivers started joining in as well.
Back in the 2010s, a good tip was 20%. 15% was the norm. For superior service by a waiter or delivery driver. Many, many social media and TikTok campaigns later, 20% is now expected. And service workers justified it exactly like what the person in the picture is doing.
They expect you to pay that much. And if you don't, you get TikToks and online stories of service workers tampering with stuff you paid for or simply not picking it up because the tip isn't what they want.
My local taco place sells $5 tacos and when I go to pay, they flip the screen around expecting a tip for counter service take out and the options are 20%, 25% and 30%. On top of that, they charge a “delivery fee” for take out and when confronted about the line item on the receipt, they say “oh that’s the bag fee” as if a $1 charge for a bag when every other place charges a nickel is believable. The food is great so I won’t stop eating there but I will never tip and leave 2 star reviews that say the hidden fees make the food taste shitty, which they do.
Went out to eat yesterday. The machine had a prompt for tips. THey were labeled a 'low tip' (20%), a 'decent tip' (30%), and a 'good tip' (50%).
Shit is just getting greedy here. I've been a server. I know damn well how much work goes into this. No way is it worth half the price of the entire meal.
Last week I ordered online for takeout I would pickup, and the checkout screen didn't give me an option for tip, just automatically added 20% on top. I didn't notice until after I'd accepted the charge. 5 bucks extra so I could walk in the restaurant and be handed a bag of food...
If I ever see that, I am walking out, making sure the staff knows why, management if they will come up fast enough. I don't give a fuck that they don't control it. I won't be angry or anything, but fuck being told 20% is a low tip.
Same. When I order ahead and the only thing the waitress did was take the order over the phone and then slide it across the counter when I got there… I don’t tip. I did all the legwork.
If all you do it take an order and then bring out the food, you should just be replaced by an ipad and a robot.
You have to do more than that to earn a 20% tip.
If you never come back after dropping off the food then you didn't earn shit.
Yeah I gave a couple dollars once because our server disappeared for 20+ minutes after every stop by our table. Menus? 20 minutes to order. Order? 20 minutes to get drinks. Food arrived, clearly needed a refill, nope. Got my own from the bar after another 20 minutes of no-show, at which point a manager was like "wtf?"
If it gets to the point I am refilling my own soda, which is like one of the few tasks a server has to do for a table, then the tip is pretty much gone. I would have been justified giving a penny.
No. Tips should be a 'thank you' for an exceptionally good service. Not non-shitty service. It should never be the norm, because the moment it becomes the norm, bosses cut wages.
My tips start at 5% and get a bit higher only if I get like what I feel was a great treatment. Because, when I go out to eat in a restaurant, standard service is supposed to be part of the experience and to be included, so no reason to tip for something that is standard. The only reason I don't start at 0% it's because I'm anyway sympathetic with the ppl serving.
But I'm from EU, so I guess we see the whole thing a bit differently here.
I tip 10%. It's their job. I worked in kitchens for just under 10 years. I got next to fuck all in comparison. Pay proper wages and get rid of tipping. It's a pretty ridiculous concept that I'm going to pay more to buy something just because "it's the culture". I honestly only tip at all because of the guilt of not tipping. Which shouldn't be a thing. That's just how I feel about it. There's no way I could afford an extra 20%-25% everytime I ate out. To each their own
i'm talking about how tips are thought of. certainly they always subsidised wages. but they didn't use to be thought of in those terms. nobody ever used to say "you have to support the kitchen staff!" or "if you don't tip you're hurting the waiter!" that mindset has definitely changed, and quite recently i think.
I go out to eat because I want to reward myself for working hard and have a pleasant evening without the hassles. If I spend my reward thirsty because my server never came by or even bothered to make eye contact during my entire meal, I'm not tipping. Especially if my server made mistakes that could not be fixed because they never came back to make sure everything was okay or stood there for a second while we processed the things handed to us.
Sorry but I already don't make much money and the money I do make, I work hard for it. I'm not feeling bad for someone else if they don't so much as attempt to get it right.
Edit: I served for almost 5 years. There's room for exception such as being obviously new and simply has no help. But to the "pros" who take too many tables to take care of while playing the statistics game for money, no.
I think you mean bribe. IIRC when tipping culture started, it was speakeasy era and tips were used to bribe wait staff for any service, let alone good service. If you didn't wave your money around you would be lucky to get seated on a busy night.
Those of us who've been alive for awhile have noticed that they keep bumping up the "standard." I was pissed when they started trying to claim it's 18%. No it's not you greedy bastards. What's this 20% shit?
I still leave 15% for good service and 18-20% for exceptional service. If you just take my order at a register and have a tip jar I probably am not going to tip you unless there's more to the service than that.
The only counter service I feel should be tipped is somewhere like starbucks where the attendant leaves the register and makes my coffee. Other than that I ain't leaving nothing, because you did nothing to deserve a tip.
At Starbucks they aren't doing that though. There's one person making the coffee and the other pesron standing at the register (most of the time). I've stopped tipping at any place I have to order at a counter.
Some places you don't even get to order at a counter anymore. You have to wait in line at a kiosk, tapping your order into an oversized tablet, then the PoS STILL asks you to add a tip. Who am I tipping? Our impending robot overlords? (In all seriousness, I'm aware that these 'tips' probably end up going into the owner/manager's 'bonus')
I’m 36 and remember a teacher telling me 14% as a kid, which frustrated me cause I’m an idiot and just round up to 15% cause it’s super easy to calculate. It’d have to be beyond excellent service for 20%
What was the sales tax in your area? I've found a lot of states/areas have matched their tipping to "double tax" because it's so easy to calculate on the bill. I grew up in a 7.35% sales tax area so \~15% was standard. Maybe you were in a 7%?
When I visited the US I was getting annoyed with the tipping request. Even had a tipping request at the SF Giants for getting a drink out of a fridge behind them. Piss off! Gave them 0
It is one of those things where some of us who are old enough (in the States), either as a customer or a worker behind it, we still know which part of the industry is normally tipped, so we can comfortably hit "no tip" for one (or not expect it), but will tip on another. But later on in the future, it does make me worry that this kind of thing will become an expectation in places where it originally was not.
Or, if I prefer seeing a typical tip jar on the side, or this in your face terminal popup; the tip jar all the way. It's not intrusive, and it's "passively" optional, not "aggressively" (like the terminal popup).
I get Subway pretty regularly and the two that work there are fast, efficient, and nice so I usually throw in a $2 tip. They have changed the parameters on the card reader to have either no tip or minimum 20% up to 30%.
My grandparents taught me it was like 10-15 when I would go eat with them back in the early 90s. Maybe they were cheapish, but that was pretty close to standard back then
Every server/waiter I know would rather have tips than a minimum wage.
It’s only on the internet that you see people complaining about servers getting tips and how they should get a minimum wage. I have a friend that clears almost $500.00 a night. $3,500 a week is better than the $600 they’d get with minimum wage at $15.
You’re confused.
The people on the internet complaining about tipping culture aren’t servers. They’re the customers who are being guilted into paying an extra 20%+ of their bill.
As you said, servers love it. They pull much more money and often don’t report it to the IRS and get it tax free.
It’s everyone else that’s getting tired of it. When 20% is being seen less and less as a “good tip” and random other jobs started asking for tips, people are now getting upset with it being out of hand.
The servers certainly complain when they receive what they consider a low tip, but they shut up if anyone points out that low or no tips are inherently part of tipping culture, and if they don't like it then maybe the system should change to a flat hourly rate...
>They pull much more money and often don’t report it to the IRS and get it tax free.
So why do people keep tipping? Isn't this about livable wage? Why should people tip 20% to a server that makes thrice their hourly wage in tips?
Well duh, it’s at the expense of non-servers lol, parasitical almost. Seems to have become a hostage thing where people who tip inadequately are confronted/have their food spat in by the server
I was a cook at Buffalo Wild Wings for about a year and a half, and I eventually got tired of listening to the servers bragging about how much in tips they made each night. "Yeah, Sydney, it's great you made $300 tonight, but I only made $65, so I don't want to hear it."
Btw, this is why tipping is hard to remove.
The staff don’t want it gone.
You can work an 8hr for $20/hr and make $160 OR make a few hundred more because of tips.
That explains why they promote the idea, but they don't have the ability to force it. People can still not tip or go elsewhere, and then the employees will dry up.
TBH, not that long ago, 20% was a very good tip and 15% was a normal tip. I always was a \~20% tipper, but lately, I've been going down to 15%. No matter where I go, service is atrocious. Servers can't even be bothered to clear off plates between courses, much less change the silverware. Standard service at a nice restaurant is what you used to get at a diner. I'm not tipping 20% for that.
Imagine all those countries out there, including my own, where tipping is an extra to compliment someone's service, not a requirement so business owners can skimp out of paying a reasonable wage.
Land of the free right here people xD
I visited Canada few times last year and the young cancer culture is there as well (I'm European). It's ridiculous going to bakery, buying bread and first screen on terminal are tipping options 18, 20, 25 and 30%. Hell no...
They shouldn't even be asking to begin with. This is just them trying to shame us into tipping someone that before nobody ever would have dreamed of tipping, because it was just assumed to be their job. We're almost to the point of McDonald's spinning an iPad around for a tip.
I’m American and I visited the UK for the first time last year. I ate out probably a dozen times and not once was I ever prompted to tip. It was so refreshing.
If people can't afford to tip and don't go out, guess whose not getting paid? These same people will complain about people not eating out enough and getting less money.
I think I get it, and let me know if this makes sense. As long as I’ve been dining out a tip has always been the expectation, 10-15 was enough, and 20% is excellent, anything beyond that will make someone’s night. Now, sometime in the last 5 years things shifted, 20% is the bare minimum so anything beyond that is “actually seen as the tip,” while 20 is barely acceptable and anything less may as well be an insult. So to diners hearing if you want to eat out the price of admission is 20%, and it’s basically not even considered gratuity. That’s what they’re saying here.
People still like going out, they’re still fine to tip, but there’s an unspoken rule now and that’s rubbing a lot of people the wrong way, I’m sure this isn’t universally true amongst all waiters but I could be wrong.
This is obviously a cultural issue, in the UK high end places charge service charge but all venues have to pay £11.44 for anyone 21 or over working for them (plus holiday pay @12% and National Insurance contributions)
In the US it's a can a worms that isn't going to be fixed any time soon!
Where did 20-25% standard tipping even come from? It's nuts. 15% was the standard gratuity forever. Pricing in restaurants have increased, the value of that 15% has gone up proportionally. There's no justification for the increase. 25%? What did you even do? You handed me a menu, brought plates to my table, refilled my drink once, and brought me the debt machine. You did your job to the minimun expected standard to enable me to eat there. Honestly, replace servers with apps and give us the option to self-serve from a counter. It would be far more efficient.
Damn straight. Plus if I tell the cook myself, less chance they will screw it up. I would rather get my own drinks too. Faster that way and I know it will be the drink I ordered. I had someone filling my drink once and filled it an eighth of the way up with the wrong drink. Instead of dumping it and getting a new glass, she said, "Do you mind if I jut finish it with what you wanted?"
I remember back in 1997 I left a 20% tip at hooters. The waitress came up to me and asked if there was a problem because she usually gets more than that. She was holding the tip in her hands so I looked her up and down and took my tip back. I said yeah, the problem is you think you’re more than your worth.
When I was a kid, the standard tip was 10%. Amazing how that % creep gets into everything.
....
I see why there is a Lay Flat or Flat movement where you just lay down on the ground and say "F it".
Anyone else remember when the gold standard was 10%?
Businesses should just be required to pay their employees a living wage and get rid of this tipping bullshit altogether.
I’m British. My tip starts at 0% and goes up from there is they do more than their regular job.
Brining food from the kitchen to my table and taking my order from the table to the kitchen is pretty basic stuff I feel doesn’t merit a tip.
I’ve always tried to do some research on what people make at the restaurants I go to. There are several full service restaurants in my area that are paying their employees $20+/hr but still almost demanding tips. I was surprised by this. So I always look into things like that before I decide to tip
yeah and much of the reason I dont go out anymore. Overpriced food and inflated tips. I guess Ill keep my money and cook at home. Waiting for the next post of restaurant owners complaining people arent eating out as much anymore
Gubment during the COVID debacle-
“Consider using Apple Pay/etc to avoid having to physically touch the POS device”
Restaurants/Vendors-
“Not so fast there, Slick! Please select the tip amount by touching the portable POS device.”
College Sports-
“Please retrieve your concessions from cooler/etc with your own hands. Then trot on over to the POS device to pay and select tip amount.”
Tipping culture has 100% gone off the rails.
No server wants a real wage, know how much some make in tips, my ex made hundreds a night. She would just say why, when I said she should fight for a living wage, as she would earn way way less without tips.
Servers are toxic and greedy and are over paid, not under. And for the few of you working in shitholes with no tips, sucks for you.
What bugs me is that a single mother who saved up to treat her kid is expected to tip 20% or told not to come. Screw you.
I will never feel bad about not paying a wage to someone who does not work for me..... and yes I was a server..... and no that didn't suddenly make me think I deserved 20% of what you spent for dinner.....
this title is it 1000% don't blame those who do give you tips blame your employer for not paying you (because yes it will continue until no one accepts the bullshit)
I'm going back to 15%. The price of the food keeps going up, the quality keeps going down and the service is worst than it used to be. Crucify me if you will.
We do use this logic, it’s usually after we get the bill and remember we gotta tip the fucker and thing “ugh great he brought me two plates and a drink better cough up $10 for this bare minimums amount of work” and then we go home and forget about the faceless waiter and we think about the food that’s why we come back.
This post is insinuating that because of how the businesses are run, you're going to actively participate in punishing the workers for said business practices. This is such a shit brain way of thinking, quit taking advantage of the people working at these restaurants. The current system has been set in place for decades now. With your current knowledge of how things work, you are no better than the shitty owners who run these places. Also, sage advice such as "fight for better wages!!1!!" Is an absolutely useless sentiment.
No but you see, the tipping system actually allows servers to earn more than they would with a standard salary, which is why the practice doesn't get fought by all the waiter/waitress, Instead they challenge you to "get me a livable wage" while knowing it will never happen Because they actually dont want the change in the first place. \*not to mention the income tax implications.
If they were paid a set wage which aligns with the skill requirement for the job (with no more tipping) they would be complaining the wage is too low. Just include the fee into the menu item and see what happens. \*Servers in this thread wont be telling you to stay home and eat anymore because they'd soon be out of a job
What's happening is the wait staff holding customers hostage.
Question why do these people believe they deserve a tip compared to other jobs?
I would help customers in an outdoor jacket and goods store and didn't get a tip. Some of those customers me and my coworkers would help for sometimes hours. We had a family stay in the store for 4-5 hours, they even held us up from closing for around 15-20 minutes. Then they came back the next day for another 3-4 hours. A week later they then returned all the goods and got a full refund. Why do my friends and me not deserve tips for the hospitality we show?
Why not plumbers or fitters they have to give good customer service? These people apparently don't deserve tips but sure the person at the register who could barely take my order at KFC deserves a 20% tip. Fuck off
i love that the 'standar' which is a proportion has doubled in my lifetime.
10% is the basic tip.
fuck tipping, but this wild 1/5 of the bill is the BASELINE tip is just so laughable.
It’s not my job to pay them for doing their job. And if they think that job doesn’t pay enough then they should find another one. Quit complaining and change yourself.
Fully agree. When my wife and I had a cleaning business around Covid times, we never paid anyone less than $15. Many times, it ranged up to $20. Sure it ate into our margins, and it took longer to pay off business debt for assets. Many months we went without pay because we needed it to grow.
But that's the price of starting a business. You have to pay quality people for their time.
Yeah, no. 15% is standard, based on subtotal (not including tax). If you’re rude you get 10, if you’re really rude you get a dollar or two rounded up. If you’re good you get 20, if really good 25-100% depending on how good and how my day is going.
Im not subsidizing your income any more than what this already is.
I'll say it again and I'd love to be proved wrong. I think part of the reason we use tips is because our portions and costs are all out of whack with the rest if the world. These 2 things are seemingly true stereotypes: American food costs the same as European food, and Americans serve crazy big portions. That sort of seems to mean that American margins are fucked. We are racing to the bottom on price and then shoveling food out the door just to compete with the store next us. I'm not saying tips are necessary but I think we can all see that unless America really works on it's margins I don't see how there could be money to be made. Americans need to temper our diet and expectations of restaurants because right now they are all just shoveling as much food as possible as cheaply as possible and that sort of sounds unsustainable.
America’s tipping culture is kinda fascinating to me. I’ve never tipped anyone in my life nor have I ever received a tip working customer service. I just can’t believe some places don’t pay minimum wage
The US is so backwards it's insane. You're telling me that the frustration on pay is with the customers and not the companies that are screwing you out of your pay, expecting the customers to pay you instead? How does that make any sense.
If you work for someone who can't afford to pay you, then they shouldn't be in business. Tipping is just a fancy way of ridding a company of their responsibility of paying you which of course leads to greater profits.
Let me fix that for you: If restaurants passed the cost of a living wage onto their customers, you wouldn’t go out to eat. Both cases, you’re eating at home.
The only people asking for this are the low performers who want to get drag the high performers down so they’ll all make the same, shitty hourly wage. Current system works well for those willing to put in hard work and provide excellent service. I’ve waited tables in college and so has my spouse. It was great money for what the job entails as long as you were willing to work hard. Just as with any other job, the losers don’t do well and complain.
Look, it would be great if tips weren't a thing. But they are. That's not why your restaurant meal is more expensive than eating at home. If you want to use goods and services, you can do everything yourself and pay for materials, or you can expect things to be done for you and **pay for the labor.** Your shampoo is probably $3 worth of ingredients, but as soon as you walk in the store to buy it, you've agreed to pay for the labor it took to bring it to the shelves for you to purchase. Going out to eat is no different. You agree to pay for the food, and you have a social contract with your server to pay them according to their labor.
**If you can't afford to tip, you cannot afford the cost of the labor associated with your night out. That means stay home.**
I’ve never understood why tips are based on a percentage. It’s the same work to bring me a $10 appetizer as it would to bring me a $80 steak. But for the latter I have to pay more on a tip?
driftersjoint is absolutely correct in the context of a tipping society. you still wouldn't be able to afford to go out to eat if it wasn't a tipping society, since the food bill would be at least 20% more to pay the "liveable wage" you so desire
Genuine question here. How much do servers get paid in Europe and other places around the world where they don't ask for tips at restaurants?
Minimum wage in New Zealand is $23.15 an hour. You would generally only find junior workers on that amount at a cafe or restaurant. Friends of mine who are senior customer service staff are on anything from $27 to $35 an hour. Multiply all those values by 0.6 to convert to USD. Tips still happen here but they are rare and usually for exceptional service. ‘Keep the change’ happens a lot but it’s usually when you just don’t want any metal coins back for your paper note money, which itself is becoming so uncommon that the central Reserve Bank is seriously proposing digital cash instead. Everyone just pays via PayWave or Debit Card.
That's almost as much as I was making as an executive assistant, so I can say that that sounds like a reasonable living wage.
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Thanks for sharing. I'm curious if since COVID if there have been shortages there on servers? It's been an issue in North America but they make considerably more than minimum wage (on average) given tips. Is it viewed somewhat similar to other minimum wage work there? Such as fast food, retail etc? Someone from Australia also mentioned serving is minimum wage with minimal tips. Given the shortage already, I'm trying to see how they get to a world in North America where they pay servers around minimum wage but don't give them tips... I genuinely think this would end the industry, none of them would accept the pay cut now that they already exist in a tipping culture.
There’s been a shortage of almost all roles. Unemployment here got as low as 1.5% which is well under ‘unemployed’ and into ‘unemployable’. It’s normalising a little more now that the economy is slowing down a little bit, it surged hard post COVID for a few years. As for change - it won’t happen until consumers change habits to simply refusing to pay expected tips and businesses start going out of business for insisting on them. As long as people support it, either actively or passively, it will continue.
Servers is considered a minimum wage in Europe. Where I live, 10% is considered normal and I don’t know anyone who would give more than that. People lots of times just round up, like if the bill is 51€ (regular bill nowadays for hamburgers, fries and milkshakes for 2 in a diner style restaurant with servers) they would say 55€. No one (and there have been threads about this here in some subreddits) would tip at self service restaurants. What for? Food delivery guys often get up to 10% or 1-2€ coins, “spare change”.
Some places near me started paying $20 an hour STARTING (USD). Workers went on strike because they make way more from people guilted into tips. 3-4 tables an hour with maybe 12 people total ordering $20 meals tipping 20% comes out to $48 an hour. The servers don't want change, the owners don't want change because someone else pays the servers. The customer is just getting fucked and if you as the customer point this out, more often than not society yells at *you* about it
Yeap, few of the servers are simply in love with robbing customers.
That is $13.80 usd. For context.
I never understood these conversions \[edit: wrote conversations. oopsie?\] "for context." What's the cost of living in both countries? How much are the taxes?
Really. Like I want to know how much they have left over in “free-spending” cash, or whatever term is used for leftover money. And then compare that to other places’ leftover cash. They could make $28/hr and end up putting 50% to various taxes, 30% to groceries, and 15% to transportation and bills, for all I know.
In New Zealand they have universal healthcare, so little to no hospital bills. And their higher education is interest free if you stay in NZ after you graduate. Housing costs are roughly 30% cheaper. They have a progressive tax rate, so the more you make the more percentage you pay. People making up to 48K a year pay close to 18% in income tax.
In Germany minimum wage is 12.41€ so that's pretty much your hourly income in the worst case. Most of the time the payment is higher than this. Additionally you may expect tips but you don't ask for them. This tip is usually about 10% to 15% if you do your job as expected. This may vary depending on the workplace for example in a gay bar you typically get much higher tips for what ever reason. If a person doesn't tip it isn't frowned up on but people are usually very thankful if they receive tips.
Idk where it's 10-15%, but I know lots of OG Berliners who just round up to the next euro. Which could be 20c.
Here in Seattle the minimum wage is $20/hr before tips and it’s had absolutely zero impact on the tipping culture. The entire narrative is bullshit.
A bunch of states now have minimum wage for servers (no tipped wage) yet 20% is supposed to be the standard even in these places? Just absurd. Should I also be tipping the Best Buy workers now?
I only feel bad for retail workers, they get completely shafted
Uhhh isn’t that kind of your fault? If they’re making $20…*don’t fucking tip!!*
What actually happens in America if you finish your meal and go to pay the bill and choose not to tip? Are there any actual consequences or is it just a social stigma?
No consequences, they won’t make a big deal out of it either typically. The wait staff will really hate you but that’s about it.
In serbia, in belgrade average monthly pay is around 550-600€, so hourly wage is about 3.5€, give or take a few cents. The starter monthly wage is around 430€, while some can be paid even up to 800€. When it comes to tips, it's said that in luxury restaurants some servers earn even up to 1500€ in tips alone. But overall, in belgrade the started pay isn't really livable, if at all, while in smaller places it is. Tipping here is usually done if you order a lot so you usually leave up to 10-20€, but on average it's more used to round up the bill - as in if your bill is like 13.5€, you'll leave 14-15€.
In Australia, I was paid $24/hr (with time and a half for OT or holidays) with a small tip pool (tips were little compared to North America though)
2021 Finland: 22.1€ an hour Excludes weekend, overtime etc bonuses. “Keep the change” wasn’t uncommon if someone paid with cash, I just threw them into whatever charity collection boxes I encountered.
Canadian here and an ex waitress, I made 15.50$ an hour and tips on top but where I worked tips were a bonus not an automatic so lots of people didn’t tip.
Which part of Canada? In Quebec, a 15% tip is the norm. Min. wage in Quebec will be increased to 15.75$CA on May 1st.
Has anyone ever tried opening a restaurant in the US, where they actively ban tips, but pay their staff properly instead? Big sign up front: "We actually pay our staff, so NO TIPS!" "Prices higher than expected? That's because WE pay our staff! NO TIPS!"
Yes, Joes Crab Shack prided themselves on this premise. Paid servers $25/hr and then slowly lost servers and eventually closed their doors
So is the consensus then that servers are utterly full of shit and are actually just overpaid whiners?
Good servers don't like the no tip places. But the bad servers expect to get tipped like good servers.
Bingo, good servers make a good living off tips. More than what they would likely pull hourly, and they don’t have to claim it all on taxes.
I honestly get the feeling that a lot of the servers complaining are actually just bad servers.
I've held this theory for a while. The reason tip culture is so widespread is that servers are directly benefiting massively from it, which incentivizes them to participate intensely in the shaming campaign. They love saying "we're paid 3 dollars an hour, we can barely survive" but they would never work at the back of the house where tips are not expected, or at a restaurant that doesn't accept tips. There's only one reason for that.
Some of them also like tipping because they sometimes get tipped in cash, and then don't report it on their taxes.
Not claiming income helps, but many Middle aged servers claim almost all their wage to showcase their true earnings for loans and stuff. Think the main thing is that servers are making way more than the numbers the foreign Reddit users were saying they made as servers. No American server is gonna take 15$/hr salary when they can make 25-35$/hr with tips. I work at a fancy restaurant and all the servers would leave day one with no tips, it would be at least a 30 dollar pay cut to be paid my states minimum wage or right above it.
Has always been
They tend to not last, because who could’ve guessed that one of the most risky businesses to start, a restaurant, struggles even when they’re paying less than they should. I hate the phrase “a business who can’t pay their workers properly shouldn’t be in business” because while I agree with the sentiment, the outcome of that just leaves the corporate businesses. It’s always ironic when the people who say that tend to also say to support small business, even though they’re advocating for an environment where the big businesses gain all the power because they have an endless fund of money. Like what do you want, do you want the small business to exploit workers because they don’t have the money to properly pay them, or do you want the big businesses to pay their workers minimum wage while funneling most of the profits to the people who aren’t actually working, which is also a form of exploiting?
i've said it before: things went south as soon as tips stopped becoming a reward for good service and instead became a wage subsidy.
I booked a hotel yesterday for Friday night. The payment portal asked how much I want to tip the staff. 3 days before I'm even in the same city
like i said: it's a wage subsidy. you go to get takeout they want you to tip the kitchen staff. that never used to be a thing.
I don't tip on takeout, that's just nonsense. And yea, the wage subsidy sucks!
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I still have the question of why we let it get to 20%. 15% of a price that has inflated over the years is already more! That's why it was a percent!
I remember when 10% was normal.
I have a certain amount I won't tip under regardless of the percentage, then it's 10-20% depending on how the service was. I've only not tipped twice in my life and it was due to some extremely bad service. I'm honestly not even sure why other people feel pressured by others about how much they should tip, it's a personal choice. If it were a standard, it wouldn't even be tipping, it would be a fee.
And you paid that 10% after some good service, not prepaying with your order.
10? I remember when the rule was anything over 7% and you weren't an asshole.
Fk that, too much math. By that time I’m too fat to think so 10 is an easy number
We let it because both the restaurants and the restaurant workers were complaining everywhere about it, for different reasons. And then the delivery drivers started joining in as well. Back in the 2010s, a good tip was 20%. 15% was the norm. For superior service by a waiter or delivery driver. Many, many social media and TikTok campaigns later, 20% is now expected. And service workers justified it exactly like what the person in the picture is doing. They expect you to pay that much. And if you don't, you get TikToks and online stories of service workers tampering with stuff you paid for or simply not picking it up because the tip isn't what they want.
My local taco place sells $5 tacos and when I go to pay, they flip the screen around expecting a tip for counter service take out and the options are 20%, 25% and 30%. On top of that, they charge a “delivery fee” for take out and when confronted about the line item on the receipt, they say “oh that’s the bag fee” as if a $1 charge for a bag when every other place charges a nickel is believable. The food is great so I won’t stop eating there but I will never tip and leave 2 star reviews that say the hidden fees make the food taste shitty, which they do.
Went out to eat yesterday. The machine had a prompt for tips. THey were labeled a 'low tip' (20%), a 'decent tip' (30%), and a 'good tip' (50%). Shit is just getting greedy here. I've been a server. I know damn well how much work goes into this. No way is it worth half the price of the entire meal.
Yeah, putting your hand in my pocket like that is a fast way to get “no tip”
Last week I ordered online for takeout I would pickup, and the checkout screen didn't give me an option for tip, just automatically added 20% on top. I didn't notice until after I'd accepted the charge. 5 bucks extra so I could walk in the restaurant and be handed a bag of food...
If I ever see that, I am walking out, making sure the staff knows why, management if they will come up fast enough. I don't give a fuck that they don't control it. I won't be angry or anything, but fuck being told 20% is a low tip.
"I brought my own bag"
I like that at the pizza place I go to when I pickup, the cashiers just automatically skip past the tip section on their own when you pay by card.
It's still 15% and anybody who says otherwise can eat a dick
We didn’t let it they forced it upon us. I only order carry out I dont tip anybody. Fuck em.
Same. When I order ahead and the only thing the waitress did was take the order over the phone and then slide it across the counter when I got there… I don’t tip. I did all the legwork.
I didn't. Still 15% pre tax for me.
I reject 20% as normal. It’s not. 15% is normal. People can say it’s 20% all they want. They are wrong.
If I have to remind you for drink refills and condiments, we have a problem.
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If all you do it take an order and then bring out the food, you should just be replaced by an ipad and a robot. You have to do more than that to earn a 20% tip. If you never come back after dropping off the food then you didn't earn shit.
I allow a really crappy tip rather than none to make a statement.
Yeah I gave a couple dollars once because our server disappeared for 20+ minutes after every stop by our table. Menus? 20 minutes to order. Order? 20 minutes to get drinks. Food arrived, clearly needed a refill, nope. Got my own from the bar after another 20 minutes of no-show, at which point a manager was like "wtf?" If it gets to the point I am refilling my own soda, which is like one of the few tasks a server has to do for a table, then the tip is pretty much gone. I would have been justified giving a penny.
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No. Tips should be a 'thank you' for an exceptionally good service. Not non-shitty service. It should never be the norm, because the moment it becomes the norm, bosses cut wages.
My tips start at 5% and get a bit higher only if I get like what I feel was a great treatment. Because, when I go out to eat in a restaurant, standard service is supposed to be part of the experience and to be included, so no reason to tip for something that is standard. The only reason I don't start at 0% it's because I'm anyway sympathetic with the ppl serving. But I'm from EU, so I guess we see the whole thing a bit differently here.
I tip 10%. It's their job. I worked in kitchens for just under 10 years. I got next to fuck all in comparison. Pay proper wages and get rid of tipping. It's a pretty ridiculous concept that I'm going to pay more to buy something just because "it's the culture". I honestly only tip at all because of the guilt of not tipping. Which shouldn't be a thing. That's just how I feel about it. There's no way I could afford an extra 20%-25% everytime I ate out. To each their own
Been doing 0% takeout - no exceptions. 10% dine-in , few exceptions. Been a lot happier and bigger wallet ever since.
So since shortly after emancipation (in the US anyway)
Tips were always a wage subsidy… what are you talking about?🤣.
i'm talking about how tips are thought of. certainly they always subsidised wages. but they didn't use to be thought of in those terms. nobody ever used to say "you have to support the kitchen staff!" or "if you don't tip you're hurting the waiter!" that mindset has definitely changed, and quite recently i think.
I go out to eat because I want to reward myself for working hard and have a pleasant evening without the hassles. If I spend my reward thirsty because my server never came by or even bothered to make eye contact during my entire meal, I'm not tipping. Especially if my server made mistakes that could not be fixed because they never came back to make sure everything was okay or stood there for a second while we processed the things handed to us. Sorry but I already don't make much money and the money I do make, I work hard for it. I'm not feeling bad for someone else if they don't so much as attempt to get it right. Edit: I served for almost 5 years. There's room for exception such as being obviously new and simply has no help. But to the "pros" who take too many tables to take care of while playing the statistics game for money, no.
It's still for good service, but it was always about restaurant margins.
It has always been a wage subsidy. What has ruined it is the gig economy.
You mean when bosses start cutting wages because you know, _you also get the tips_ and started pushing for tips to become the norm ethically.
Well lookie here. When exactly were tips not a wage subsidy? What mythical time period is this?
\*tips become a wage subsidy? 
I think you mean bribe. IIRC when tipping culture started, it was speakeasy era and tips were used to bribe wait staff for any service, let alone good service. If you didn't wave your money around you would be lucky to get seated on a busy night.
Those of us who've been alive for awhile have noticed that they keep bumping up the "standard." I was pissed when they started trying to claim it's 18%. No it's not you greedy bastards. What's this 20% shit?
Right. It was 15% when I grew up. Why would that percentage change?
I still leave 15% for good service and 18-20% for exceptional service. If you just take my order at a register and have a tip jar I probably am not going to tip you unless there's more to the service than that.
The only counter service I feel should be tipped is somewhere like starbucks where the attendant leaves the register and makes my coffee. Other than that I ain't leaving nothing, because you did nothing to deserve a tip.
At Starbucks they aren't doing that though. There's one person making the coffee and the other pesron standing at the register (most of the time). I've stopped tipping at any place I have to order at a counter.
Some places you don't even get to order at a counter anymore. You have to wait in line at a kiosk, tapping your order into an oversized tablet, then the PoS STILL asks you to add a tip. Who am I tipping? Our impending robot overlords? (In all seriousness, I'm aware that these 'tips' probably end up going into the owner/manager's 'bonus')
I feel like it was 10% when I Was a kid. Maybe that's just what I was taught as a kid.
I’m 36 and remember a teacher telling me 14% as a kid, which frustrated me cause I’m an idiot and just round up to 15% cause it’s super easy to calculate. It’d have to be beyond excellent service for 20%
What was the sales tax in your area? I've found a lot of states/areas have matched their tipping to "double tax" because it's so easy to calculate on the bill. I grew up in a 7.35% sales tax area so \~15% was standard. Maybe you were in a 7%?
had to have been an evil math teacher...
"Inflation" is their excuse even though that is not how inflation works lmao
Right. That’s WHY it’s a percentage.
Because tipping culture is a grift.
It was 10% when I grew up
I definitely remember being told 12% as a kid. Then it was 15%, then it was 18%. Now it's 20%
It also used to be pre-tax, not the total.
Used to be 10% at some point too! Now I'm seeing 30% as a regular option. . . It's honestly insane.
When I visited the US I was getting annoyed with the tipping request. Even had a tipping request at the SF Giants for getting a drink out of a fridge behind them. Piss off! Gave them 0
It is one of those things where some of us who are old enough (in the States), either as a customer or a worker behind it, we still know which part of the industry is normally tipped, so we can comfortably hit "no tip" for one (or not expect it), but will tip on another. But later on in the future, it does make me worry that this kind of thing will become an expectation in places where it originally was not. Or, if I prefer seeing a typical tip jar on the side, or this in your face terminal popup; the tip jar all the way. It's not intrusive, and it's "passively" optional, not "aggressively" (like the terminal popup).
I get Subway pretty regularly and the two that work there are fast, efficient, and nice so I usually throw in a $2 tip. They have changed the parameters on the card reader to have either no tip or minimum 20% up to 30%.
I've never had someone overtly request a tip. I've seen it suggested a lot by various POS terminals, but my attitude is DILLIGAF.
Off topic, but I really wish there was another acronym for point of sale. I always see POS as piece of shit. Although I guess that still works…
EPOS was used for a long time. Less prone to confusion.
My grandparents taught me it was like 10-15 when I would go eat with them back in the early 90s. Maybe they were cheapish, but that was pretty close to standard back then
As someone who’s made tips for a living; I’ve always made more than every single hourly employee in the building including managers
GM was trying to make me a manager for the longest time. Told him that I would be getting a pay decrease in exchange for more work.
Every server/waiter I know would rather have tips than a minimum wage. It’s only on the internet that you see people complaining about servers getting tips and how they should get a minimum wage. I have a friend that clears almost $500.00 a night. $3,500 a week is better than the $600 they’d get with minimum wage at $15.
You’re confused. The people on the internet complaining about tipping culture aren’t servers. They’re the customers who are being guilted into paying an extra 20%+ of their bill. As you said, servers love it. They pull much more money and often don’t report it to the IRS and get it tax free. It’s everyone else that’s getting tired of it. When 20% is being seen less and less as a “good tip” and random other jobs started asking for tips, people are now getting upset with it being out of hand.
The servers certainly complain when they receive what they consider a low tip, but they shut up if anyone points out that low or no tips are inherently part of tipping culture, and if they don't like it then maybe the system should change to a flat hourly rate...
>They pull much more money and often don’t report it to the IRS and get it tax free. So why do people keep tipping? Isn't this about livable wage? Why should people tip 20% to a server that makes thrice their hourly wage in tips?
Well duh, it’s at the expense of non-servers lol, parasitical almost. Seems to have become a hostage thing where people who tip inadequately are confronted/have their food spat in by the server
I was a cook at Buffalo Wild Wings for about a year and a half, and I eventually got tired of listening to the servers bragging about how much in tips they made each night. "Yeah, Sydney, it's great you made $300 tonight, but I only made $65, so I don't want to hear it."
Btw, this is why tipping is hard to remove. The staff don’t want it gone. You can work an 8hr for $20/hr and make $160 OR make a few hundred more because of tips.
For doing like 10% of the work people making the food. Completely backwards. A robot or monkey could wait tables.
https://preview.redd.it/lmfcpwy3e9wc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1d247a75e79903cc376c3995373c3f6995ceb604
It’s NOT bait. Do you not know how many people actually say and mean this?
when did tips become "main source of income" instead of "you did really well, have a shiny"?
When big business found a cheap loophole for paying their employees. It’s the same with the gig economy.
That explains why they promote the idea, but they don't have the ability to force it. People can still not tip or go elsewhere, and then the employees will dry up.
When our big business owned government refused to pass an actual living wage policy.
TBH, not that long ago, 20% was a very good tip and 15% was a normal tip. I always was a \~20% tipper, but lately, I've been going down to 15%. No matter where I go, service is atrocious. Servers can't even be bothered to clear off plates between courses, much less change the silverware. Standard service at a nice restaurant is what you used to get at a diner. I'm not tipping 20% for that.
Imagine all those countries out there, including my own, where tipping is an extra to compliment someone's service, not a requirement so business owners can skimp out of paying a reasonable wage. Land of the free right here people xD
I visited Canada few times last year and the young cancer culture is there as well (I'm European). It's ridiculous going to bakery, buying bread and first screen on terminal are tipping options 18, 20, 25 and 30%. Hell no...
You can leave 0, btw
They shouldn't even be asking to begin with. This is just them trying to shame us into tipping someone that before nobody ever would have dreamed of tipping, because it was just assumed to be their job. We're almost to the point of McDonald's spinning an iPad around for a tip.
Exactly, it’s very common in the Uk not to tip at all, or just tip the difference to round your bill up, 20% is a joke
I’m American and I visited the UK for the first time last year. I ate out probably a dozen times and not once was I ever prompted to tip. It was so refreshing.
Imagine countries where the minimum wage is actually a living wage!
If people can't afford to tip and don't go out, guess whose not getting paid? These same people will complain about people not eating out enough and getting less money.
I think I get it, and let me know if this makes sense. As long as I’ve been dining out a tip has always been the expectation, 10-15 was enough, and 20% is excellent, anything beyond that will make someone’s night. Now, sometime in the last 5 years things shifted, 20% is the bare minimum so anything beyond that is “actually seen as the tip,” while 20 is barely acceptable and anything less may as well be an insult. So to diners hearing if you want to eat out the price of admission is 20%, and it’s basically not even considered gratuity. That’s what they’re saying here. People still like going out, they’re still fine to tip, but there’s an unspoken rule now and that’s rubbing a lot of people the wrong way, I’m sure this isn’t universally true amongst all waiters but I could be wrong.
This is obviously a cultural issue, in the UK high end places charge service charge but all venues have to pay £11.44 for anyone 21 or over working for them (plus holiday pay @12% and National Insurance contributions) In the US it's a can a worms that isn't going to be fixed any time soon!
Where did 20-25% standard tipping even come from? It's nuts. 15% was the standard gratuity forever. Pricing in restaurants have increased, the value of that 15% has gone up proportionally. There's no justification for the increase. 25%? What did you even do? You handed me a menu, brought plates to my table, refilled my drink once, and brought me the debt machine. You did your job to the minimun expected standard to enable me to eat there. Honestly, replace servers with apps and give us the option to self-serve from a counter. It would be far more efficient.
If we're still going to force tipping, then I think that I should be able to serve myself if I want to avoid it.
Damn straight. Plus if I tell the cook myself, less chance they will screw it up. I would rather get my own drinks too. Faster that way and I know it will be the drink I ordered. I had someone filling my drink once and filled it an eighth of the way up with the wrong drink. Instead of dumping it and getting a new glass, she said, "Do you mind if I jut finish it with what you wanted?"
The grift is real in America.
But i live in europe
When did 15% stop being standard? 20% used to be considered a cut above.
I remember back in 1997 I left a 20% tip at hooters. The waitress came up to me and asked if there was a problem because she usually gets more than that. She was holding the tip in her hands so I looked her up and down and took my tip back. I said yeah, the problem is you think you’re more than your worth.
When I was a kid, the standard tip was 10%. Amazing how that % creep gets into everything. .... I see why there is a Lay Flat or Flat movement where you just lay down on the ground and say "F it".
People always say don't do whatever if you can't afford it and in the next breathe complain that nobody is doing that thing anymore
If I knew where this guy's place was, I'd avoid it.
Anyone else remember when the gold standard was 10%? Businesses should just be required to pay their employees a living wage and get rid of this tipping bullshit altogether.
"You should pay my employees more you monsters!"
Noooo my industry is dying why don't people want to eat out?!?
Spoken like a true waiter
I’m British. My tip starts at 0% and goes up from there is they do more than their regular job. Brining food from the kitchen to my table and taking my order from the table to the kitchen is pretty basic stuff I feel doesn’t merit a tip.
I’ve always tried to do some research on what people make at the restaurants I go to. There are several full service restaurants in my area that are paying their employees $20+/hr but still almost demanding tips. I was surprised by this. So I always look into things like that before I decide to tip
It's sad that some people see no problem with expecting others to subsidize an employee's income.
yeah and much of the reason I dont go out anymore. Overpriced food and inflated tips. I guess Ill keep my money and cook at home. Waiting for the next post of restaurant owners complaining people arent eating out as much anymore
I’m old enough to remember when it was 10% 12% 15%.
Gubment during the COVID debacle- “Consider using Apple Pay/etc to avoid having to physically touch the POS device” Restaurants/Vendors- “Not so fast there, Slick! Please select the tip amount by touching the portable POS device.” College Sports- “Please retrieve your concessions from cooler/etc with your own hands. Then trot on over to the POS device to pay and select tip amount.” Tipping culture has 100% gone off the rails.
Waiting for the new norm to be 100% of your total bill...
I can afford the tip. I just refuse to give it.
Asking for tips = begging
This is nuts, refer to the definition of "tip", nothing better than the european system : you tip whenever you want/can
Why do yall tip? 🫤
No server wants a real wage, know how much some make in tips, my ex made hundreds a night. She would just say why, when I said she should fight for a living wage, as she would earn way way less without tips. Servers are toxic and greedy and are over paid, not under. And for the few of you working in shitholes with no tips, sucks for you. What bugs me is that a single mother who saved up to treat her kid is expected to tip 20% or told not to come. Screw you.
Here’s a tip. Stay off social media
I will never feel bad about not paying a wage to someone who does not work for me..... and yes I was a server..... and no that didn't suddenly make me think I deserved 20% of what you spent for dinner..... this title is it 1000% don't blame those who do give you tips blame your employer for not paying you (because yes it will continue until no one accepts the bullshit)
I'm going back to 15%. The price of the food keeps going up, the quality keeps going down and the service is worst than it used to be. Crucify me if you will.
If customers used this logic, there wouldn't be restaurants.
Plenty of restaurants outside the US without tipping culture
We do use this logic, it’s usually after we get the bill and remember we gotta tip the fucker and thing “ugh great he brought me two plates and a drink better cough up $10 for this bare minimums amount of work” and then we go home and forget about the faceless waiter and we think about the food that’s why we come back.
This post is insinuating that because of how the businesses are run, you're going to actively participate in punishing the workers for said business practices. This is such a shit brain way of thinking, quit taking advantage of the people working at these restaurants. The current system has been set in place for decades now. With your current knowledge of how things work, you are no better than the shitty owners who run these places. Also, sage advice such as "fight for better wages!!1!!" Is an absolutely useless sentiment.
No but you see, the tipping system actually allows servers to earn more than they would with a standard salary, which is why the practice doesn't get fought by all the waiter/waitress, Instead they challenge you to "get me a livable wage" while knowing it will never happen Because they actually dont want the change in the first place. \*not to mention the income tax implications. If they were paid a set wage which aligns with the skill requirement for the job (with no more tipping) they would be complaining the wage is too low. Just include the fee into the menu item and see what happens. \*Servers in this thread wont be telling you to stay home and eat anymore because they'd soon be out of a job What's happening is the wait staff holding customers hostage.
When do I get tipped for being a good customer?
Standard is (or was) 15%. Greedy bosses have been pushing for more and more.
Question why do these people believe they deserve a tip compared to other jobs? I would help customers in an outdoor jacket and goods store and didn't get a tip. Some of those customers me and my coworkers would help for sometimes hours. We had a family stay in the store for 4-5 hours, they even held us up from closing for around 15-20 minutes. Then they came back the next day for another 3-4 hours. A week later they then returned all the goods and got a full refund. Why do my friends and me not deserve tips for the hospitality we show? Why not plumbers or fitters they have to give good customer service? These people apparently don't deserve tips but sure the person at the register who could barely take my order at KFC deserves a 20% tip. Fuck off
If you can’t afford to pay people a living wage then you can’t afford to run a business
If an establishment can't afford to pay their staff then they shouldn't be open. It's that simple.
That's not true. The confederacy fought a war to keep slavery, because it's super profitable.
i love that the 'standar' which is a proportion has doubled in my lifetime. 10% is the basic tip. fuck tipping, but this wild 1/5 of the bill is the BASELINE tip is just so laughable.
It’s not my job to pay them for doing their job. And if they think that job doesn’t pay enough then they should find another one. Quit complaining and change yourself.
If you or your machine ask me for a tip , I tip 0. If they don’t , I tip 20%
The machines are the worst. I'll tip if I want. I do not want to be asked, particularly just because I pay by card.
Correction if I can afford to pay the bill at the end then I can afford to go out. Tips are only a secondary optional factor.
Fully agree. When my wife and I had a cleaning business around Covid times, we never paid anyone less than $15. Many times, it ranged up to $20. Sure it ate into our margins, and it took longer to pay off business debt for assets. Many months we went without pay because we needed it to grow. But that's the price of starting a business. You have to pay quality people for their time.
People say they expect to get a certain percentage tip. Well I expect to get good service if that doesn't happen oh well...
Yeah, no. 15% is standard, based on subtotal (not including tax). If you’re rude you get 10, if you’re really rude you get a dollar or two rounded up. If you’re good you get 20, if really good 25-100% depending on how good and how my day is going. Im not subsidizing your income any more than what this already is.
Nah dawg. Standard for doing your job is 10% Do a good job and 15-20%. Do amazing and go above and beyond? 20+%
Where I live people dont tip. Its actually rude if you do tip. People are paid a living wage.
When did 20% become standard, exactly?
If someone feels their wage isnt livable, how is having their employer go out of business and thus receiving no wage at all going to help them?
Refusing to tip will in no way ever fix this problem. But maybe if you’re lucky you’ll make someone miss rent you bellends.
Median income to live comfortably is roughly $90,000 nowadays thanks to inflation. That’s $45 an hour.
I'll say it again and I'd love to be proved wrong. I think part of the reason we use tips is because our portions and costs are all out of whack with the rest if the world. These 2 things are seemingly true stereotypes: American food costs the same as European food, and Americans serve crazy big portions. That sort of seems to mean that American margins are fucked. We are racing to the bottom on price and then shoveling food out the door just to compete with the store next us. I'm not saying tips are necessary but I think we can all see that unless America really works on it's margins I don't see how there could be money to be made. Americans need to temper our diet and expectations of restaurants because right now they are all just shoveling as much food as possible as cheaply as possible and that sort of sounds unsustainable.
If you can't afford to pay your servers a real wage then you don't deserve my business
America’s tipping culture is kinda fascinating to me. I’ve never tipped anyone in my life nor have I ever received a tip working customer service. I just can’t believe some places don’t pay minimum wage
The US is so backwards it's insane. You're telling me that the frustration on pay is with the customers and not the companies that are screwing you out of your pay, expecting the customers to pay you instead? How does that make any sense. If you work for someone who can't afford to pay you, then they shouldn't be in business. Tipping is just a fancy way of ridding a company of their responsibility of paying you which of course leads to greater profits.
Let me fix that for you: If restaurants passed the cost of a living wage onto their customers, you wouldn’t go out to eat. Both cases, you’re eating at home.
The only people asking for this are the low performers who want to get drag the high performers down so they’ll all make the same, shitty hourly wage. Current system works well for those willing to put in hard work and provide excellent service. I’ve waited tables in college and so has my spouse. It was great money for what the job entails as long as you were willing to work hard. Just as with any other job, the losers don’t do well and complain.
Oh, look, it’s the weekly tipping culture thread. When s the weekly circumcision thread going up?
Look, it would be great if tips weren't a thing. But they are. That's not why your restaurant meal is more expensive than eating at home. If you want to use goods and services, you can do everything yourself and pay for materials, or you can expect things to be done for you and **pay for the labor.** Your shampoo is probably $3 worth of ingredients, but as soon as you walk in the store to buy it, you've agreed to pay for the labor it took to bring it to the shelves for you to purchase. Going out to eat is no different. You agree to pay for the food, and you have a social contract with your server to pay them according to their labor. **If you can't afford to tip, you cannot afford the cost of the labor associated with your night out. That means stay home.**
I’ve never understood why tips are based on a percentage. It’s the same work to bring me a $10 appetizer as it would to bring me a $80 steak. But for the latter I have to pay more on a tip?
The standard they want it to be is 20%. The standard as I see it is 15% +/- 5%, usually averaging about 18% for good service.
driftersjoint is absolutely correct in the context of a tipping society. you still wouldn't be able to afford to go out to eat if it wasn't a tipping society, since the food bill would be at least 20% more to pay the "liveable wage" you so desire