Tipping Culture

[kawaiiamethist]

Do you do it? What are your views on the issue?

In Australia it isn't standard practice, and very rarely expected when you have services rendered. The only time my friends and I have done it are at restaurants where our waiter has been especially attentative, but even then I find myself objecting to the practice.

My negative view on tipping is simple: you pay for a service, which is supplied by a person who is employed to conduct that service. They are there because they are getting paid, so why must the customer add to their pay cheque?

It's my understanding that tipping is a big deal in the US, so I'm hoping some Americans can enlighten me on the tipping culture. Television and cinema has led me to believe that it's socially unacceptable not to tip, so I am also wondering what the consequences are for people who choose not to.

Perhaps I'm a cold person, but the argument 'people in the services industry are underpaid' doesn't hold well with me. That's a matter between employee and employer (and government), it shouldn't be in the hands of the customer to suppliment a lousy employment agreement as if they were a charity case.

 

[SovietSecrets]

I always tip even if its bad or good service, though I give more for good. I tip because I would like to come back the place where I ate and not have my food spit in or something.

 

[Deleted]

I tip if I need to improve my chances of getting with the girl. Or if they were particularly nice to me.

 

[hittite]

Yeah, it's generally considered impolite not to tip. There aren't really any immediate consequences to not tipping, since you're gone by the time they get it. The problem comes when you go back and the waiter remembers you. They can get pretty vindictive.

In some places the tip is included in the bill. Any extra tips are for exceptional service.

 

[MellowFellow]

I think its sort of expected here in America to at least give a small tip unless you felt the service was poor. My parents basically have told my brother and I that its the polite thing to do. I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

[rainman2203]

In some states a waiter/waitress's tips are accounted for within wage, and so are low enough to break even. I have friends who would make $2.50 an hour (when about 8 bucks was minimum wage), so if people didn't tip well you ended up being WELL below a minimum wage, let alone a living wage.
Then again, some people will clean up and make hundreds a night- its sort of a double edged sword.

I'd love if we didn't have to tip, but since I don't travel much I don't feel like having someone spit in my food because I didn't tip.

 

[DanDeFool]

In some states a waiter/waitress's tips are accounted for within wage, and so are low enough to break even. I have friends who would make $2.50 an hour (when about 8 bucks was minimum wage), so if people didn't tip well you ended up being WELL below a minimum wage, let alone a living wage.
Then again, some people will clean up and make hundreds a night- its sort of a double edged sword.

This.

Unless the service is exceptionally bad, I always leave at least a 10%-15% tip. Generally less if I'm eating alone and haven't been going through a lot of drink refills (hey, sometimes a man gets thirsty!). If I'm with friends, we usually do about 15%-20%.

 

[Master Kuja]

Unless the tip is included in the bill, I usually tip 15% if it's reasonable service, 20%+ if they're especially attentive, but if they're snotty and arrogant, they get sweet FA and I don't go back there.

I've never quite understood the culture of tipping myself, but I do it anyway, well, providing I have the money to do it, if I can't afford it then I'll simply complement the staff on their service and apologise for being unable to provide them with a tip, in which case I'll usually tip 20% by default, 25% for attentive service.

I'm inclined to agree with you on the argument of people in the service industry being underpaid, I don't see why I should have to sub out for their wages, and yet I do it anyway...Huh.

 

[nekoali]

In some countries it is not customary to tip, and servers are paid a reasonable wage. However, in most of the USA, the tip is expected for people in food service. And so it's expected that employers don't have to pay their wait staff a reasonable wage. It's not uncommon for a waiter or waitress to actually earn less than minimum wage and make up the money in tips. In theory, the nicer they are to their customers the more they make. And most employers are 'flexible' in how much tip wages are reported. So the paycheck more or less covers taxes and the waitstaff lives off tips. Which depending on the restaurant can be several hundred dollars a shift. But if they don't get the tips, they don't get paid, basically.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Here is why you should tip:

Most laborers are protected by a minimum wage. Waiters and other such service-based laborers are not. They make less than minimum wage usually, because tipping is the expectation.

That's how it works here in the states anyway.

 

[KdS_22]

I give a small tip whenever the service is "meh" and a substantial tip if the waiter/waitress is attentive and friendly to me. Bonus points if they're funny, I love servers with a sense of humor

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

The thing about tipping in the United States is that servers would not make enough money to live off of without it. Servers in our restaurant industry don't make enough hourly-wages(they don't even get paid the minimum from their employers) to live on, so tips make up the bulk of their pay. If you don't tip them, it's as if you're not appreciative for them helping you and putting up with your nonsense orders. People have no idea how difficult it is for wait-staff. I'm a dishwasher in a nice restaurant, and waiters and waitresses are under a lot of pressure when it is busy. They're under pressure from the kitchen-staff, the managers, and the customers. Not to mention they have to make sure each customer at each table is taken care of.

That's the thing... While you're at the restaurant, they take care of you. I don't know how it is outside of the US, but here it means something.

Think of it this way. They put up with your bullshit for about an hour or more, and catered to your over-entitled whims. The least you could do to show your appreciation is give a little back to them(15% of your bill is customary, 18% for parties of 6-or-more).

 

[Jamienra]

Spoiler: Mr.Pink from Reservoir Dogs

Nice Guy Eddie: C'mon, throw in a buck!
Mr. Pink: Uh-uh, I don't tip.
Nice Guy Eddie: You don't tip?
Mr. Pink: Nah, I don't believe in it.
Nice Guy Eddie: You don't believe in tipping?
Mr. Blue: You know what these chicks make? They make shit.
Mr. Pink: Don't give me that. She don't make enough money that she can quit.
Nice Guy Eddie: I don't even know a fucking Jew who'd have the balls to say that. Let me get this straight: you don't ever tip?
Mr. Pink: I don't tip because society says I have to. All right, if someone deserves a tip, if they really put forth an effort, I'll give them something a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, it's for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're just doing their job.
Mr. Blue: Hey, our girl was nice.
Mr. Pink: She was okay. She wasn't anything special.
Mr. Blue: What's special? Take you in the back and suck your dick?
Nice Guy Eddie: I'd go over twelve percent for that.

Somebody needed to add it

 

[GreyWolf257]

Waiters get payed well below minimum wage, so they make most of their money off of tips. Most restaurants that you would usually tip at have lower prices for foods, while ones that you don't tip at have higher prices. I can only guess that waiters are payed more in Australia in order to compensate for tip money, so the average food price would be higher as a result in most restaurants.

 

[Worgen]

somehow restraunts managed to get a major pass when we were doing minimum wage regulations and in some restraunts if you dont get tips they will actualy take money from the wait staff to cover cost but yeah wage is stupid low as has been mentioned.

 

[thiosk]

Waitress is one of the most common jobs for a single mother without a formal education.

Why?

Because you only have to pay them $2.50 per hour.

Tip in america, or you are a dick, depriving someone's kid of nourishment. If other countries don't have a tip culture, great.

 

[Omikron009]

I don't usually find myself in positions where I have to tip somebody, but when I go to a restaurant with my friends I probably wouldn't if it weren't for the debit machine making you give at least a 15% tip.

 

[Souplex]

It is my sacred duty as a citizen of Freedomland to tip.

 

[HT_Black]

Hang on, let me get on my cynicism goggles...Ah, there we go.

Because American culture is materialistic to a nearly unlawful degree, it is considered a status symbol if you have money to flaut about. In a practical sense, tipping the waiter/waitress is simply a more subtle way of saying, on no uncertain terms:

Mine is bigger than yours, you poor sap.