You Should Tip

[omega 616]

(And the UK, I think) we tip people

Not true, there is the odd occasion where some say "keep the change" but it's not in our culture.

In the UK min wage is about £6.08 an hour, which is $9.77 ... I assume that is more than your min wage, so it doesn't have to be "topped up".

I always thought it was strange that American business owners expect there employees to be payed by the customers directly. We should pay the establishment, then they pay the staff.

Then again I think America sound like the weirdest place when it comes to cash, you're charged for medical stuff, you have to work out VAT yourself, tip people ... how do you afford to buy food!?

In the uk, I can go into a shop, pick up something for 99P and pay 99P. If my meal costs £20, then I pay £20 and leave From what I have heard you pick up something for $1 and pay $1.20 or something. You to a restaurant and your meal is $20, you pay $24 for it then tip the person serving you an extra $4 or something.

I might be wrong about the VAT though.

now this might sound stupid, but what the hell is the "VAT"?

I could know what it is and not know the acronym, but i have never heard of that before.

but when i'm feeling cheap but still want food, most places I like have take out/curb side, so you just order then go there in about 15 minutes and they'll have it ready for you, and they don't expect tip, so i tend to only pay 10-15 bucks instead of 20-25

just small things here and there...

or we could be non lazy bastards and just cook our own food..but that would require not being lazy, and americans don't do that.

Stands for Value Added Tax, pretty much what it says on the tin. A percentage of the value of the product is taxed but it always included in the price ... so you pay VAT on 99% of things without knowing it.

The only products exempt from VAT are food, excluding confectionery ... so meat is VAT free but candy isn't, that's what I've heard anyway.

Sorry, just realized you have been told like 3 times now ...

 

[almostgold]

Ya a lot of the time here in the US waiters are actually paid below min wage because tips are factored into their pay. So even if you work in the fanciest place ever, if you don't get tipped, you are making less than someone working at McDonalds.

Management is supposed to make up for that, however. The problem is that many waiters don't ask management for the extra cash because (illegal as it may be) they get fired for doing so.

Disclaimer: I live in Aus, so this is based on anecdotal evidence from friends in the US.

I work as a server in a restaurant (in Kentucky). I get paid $2.13 an hour, which is all taken out by taxes. So, unless I work a few hourly shifts in there, my paycheck every two weeks will be for $0. The only money we see is what we make on tips. Technically, we are supposed to make enough that we are making higher than minimum wage. On average, we all do, by a lot. (I do pretty good for a college student). But this doesn't stand true for every shift. If its a slow weekday night and I have a shitty section and I only get say, 3 tables, I might walk out with $20 for a 4 hour shift, and then I'm supposed to declare making those tips so they can be taxed as well.

 

[cikame]

I work harder than waiters/resses so i don't tip because i don't get tips.

 

[therandombear]

Tip is only given if the person serving me did a excellent job and great customer service, this is for all places here, there is no mandatory tip or normal too tip, cause minimum wages are high.

I do believe the average wage here, Norway, is around 20 dollars per hour.

 

[Charli]

Some of us are making just as if not less than you are even without tips so therefore cannot afford to, please accept that this might be the case also and don't get on a high horse.

Usually I try to avoid eating at a fast food chain, Chinese food is my only weakness and I get it rarely, otherwise it's home prepared or fast cold supermarket food for me 'sir'.

On the occasion that a friend drags me out to a chain I usually order very minimal and am a pretty easy person to deal with. Like I NEVER complain, I even had to drag an indignant friend of mine out of a place when she saw my drink order was wrong, I stuffed my napkin in her face and told her to just leave it, the drink was fine, not what I ordered, but I could drink it and the place was SWAMPED. Uncomfortably so. I saw this and did not make a fuss for what looked like a very horrible evening for the staff.

So please, for every horrible case you get, realize there are customers who empathize, even if you don't notice us over the obnoxious entitled gaudy loudmouthers.


Captcha: Goody Two shoes

I'm not, really, there are other aspects of my life/day where I will blow my lid, but food is just not one I care to get angry over.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Tipping shouldn't be necessary if the employers are doing their job (well, depending on how you define their job). They exploit that culture to offload more of the cost onto the consumer and increase their profit. Seen it around, notably on cruise ships where the staff are paid fuck all and rely on large tips which are pretty much compulsory for the customer to pay.

And yeah, here in the UK tipping only really exists in restaurants.

 

[AnarchistFish]

you have to work out VAT yourself

oh this pissed me the fuck off in miami airport. had just come back from a month long trip in south america and we were in transit back to the UK. decided to get a big meal cos we hadn't exactly feasted much but throughout the whole meal I was trying to work out how much it would cost me and whether a tip would be added, and whether that would be vat'd as well. And I forgot what I'd actually bought cos it was one of those "build your own burger" things or w/e. Ended up being ok but only just. Then I forgot about the VAT thing when I tried to spend the last few coins in another shop and had to borrow some money off someone else after all.

 

[newfoundsky]

Tipping shouldn't be necessary if the employers are doing their job (well, depending on how you define their job). They exploit that culture to offload more of the cost onto the consumer and increase their profit. Seen it around, notably on cruise ships where the staff are paid fuck all and rely on large tips which are pretty much compulsory for the customer to pay.

And yeah, here in the UK tipping only really exists in restaurants.

I would define their job as maintaining a safe work environment (beyond what the law says is the bare minimum. Ex. The law says don't store your toxic sludge next to the lettuce. The Company should not store toxic sludge at all, and serve lettuce while it is still fresh.) If my workplace is anything to base a judgement off of, all employers will do the bare minimum required by law, use loopholes, etc, and (at the risk of sounding like a commie) exploit their work force with unfair wages.

Captcha:
Uncle leo? Where are you? Did you get served as a number 4?

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

I work at Timberland in the UK, the shoes here are expensive as fuck. And although im paid (minimum wage) by the hour I still have a sales target for how much money im expected to make from selling shoes. This is a weird enough practice since buying shoes isnt something i can convince someone they need to do, they need to do it or they dont, but also there is literally NO reward for selling many pairs of shoes and beating my target but not meeting it gets you a yelling at. Its weird to have a sales target and not get paid AT ALL on commission.

In a shift of 7 hours im expected to sell 1200 pounds of shoes. Ill get paid less than 44 pounds for doing this. But remember people, this is shoes. Ive had people on MANY occasions take up 20 minutes of my time, asking for 5 pairs of high boots (im serious, they wanted 3 boots in 2 different sizes for 2 and 1 size for one). I then have to locate them in the stock room, bring downstairs, unpack, unlace, offer to you while kneeling on the floor, take back, relace, repack and stack the box out of the way 5 times. These customers always go "i cant decide, ill think about it" and then leave. They usually return 5 mins later and the SAME 5 boxes of shoes come down for them to decide again. I spend about 40 mins on a single customer returning and leaving to think. I have to sell 171 pounds of shoes per hour or face a pretty huge lambasting. Ill probably get yelled at because that customer took so long. Sometimes they dont get any of the shoes and ive carted boxes of shoes up and down for them for no reason at all.

I have to kneel on the floor and put shoes on for you and retie laces and locate the packaging you toss around the store. I have to carry armfuls of boxes down for people who dont even want shoes. Id say 1 in 3 customers tell me with a straight face "Im not even interested in buying today/ Im going to Store X i just wanted my size". Even those that do buy them usually have the audacity to say "Can i have a discount for no reason?"

I think i should get tipped to be honest if waiters are. I have to sit down, advise you, lace and unlace shoes for you, package and repackage shoes for you on a whim, and cater to your every need so you dont have to. Every decision you make means a trip up and down stairs for me with boxes piled high and a tonne of packaging to keep track of.

Imagine working in a restaurant were people came in, got seated, asked to see the food and went "That looks good! Ill come back tomorrow!" Leaving you with armfulls of plates to take back to the kitchen. If waiters deserve a tip why on earth dont people who work the jobs i do. Then imagine that whenever you gave them food you had to get down on your knees to hand it to them AND you had to ensure it was all cut up correctly and ready to eat with minimal effort.

 

[Vegosiux]

If waiters deserve a tip why on earth dont people who work the jobs i do.

Excuse me, but where has such a claim been made around here? For the life of me, I can't find anyone saying "Waiters deserve a top, as opposed to everyone else."

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

If waiters deserve a tip why on earth dont people who work the jobs i do.

Excuse me, but where has such a claim been made around here? For the life of me, I can't find anyone saying "Waiters deserve a top, as opposed to everyone else."

Not anyone on this board. But the existence of tipping waiters as a social grace coupled with the lack of tipping anyone else as a normal social grace was what i was aiming to address with this point. It was more of a rhetorical question based on the way things just are rather than a point made on this forum. Just because no one on this forum believes this to be right doesnt change the fact that when you go outside thats not the way it is.

"If in society we tip waiters, why not people who earn the same wage but do a similar/more difficult job? Why is only one socially acceptable"

I wasnt trying to go against what someone else said.

 

[itsthesheppy]

Someone has clearly been reading Cracked.

But yeah, you should tip.

Confession Bear Time: If you don't tip, or advocate not tipping, I just immediately assume you're not that good a person. Sorry.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

I tip in restaurants, if the service was great. I'm not paying someone extra for doing his job.
I'd never tip in a fast food restaurant

Also our fast food guys do not have such horrible circumstances at their workplace and the inspections are much more rigid, frequent and definitly a suprise everytime.
Our family had a restaurant once and you can actually get a verbal warning for some dust on a shelf.

Your broken oven alone would result in a 4-digit fine. The incident with the spider? Closed restaurant.
Has none of your guests filed a complaint? I'd bet my ass, that if someone would walk into such a lousy place in my country, they'd call the health inspectors themself (if someone files a complaint they usually show up 1-2 days later).

 

[omega 616]

(And the UK, I think) we tip people

Not true, there is the odd occasion where some say "keep the change" but it's not in our culture.

In the UK min wage is about £6.08 an hour, which is $9.77 ... I assume that is more than your min wage, so it doesn't have to be "topped up".

I always thought it was strange that American business owners expect there employees to be payed by the customers directly. We should pay the establishment, then they pay the staff.

Then again I think America sound like the weirdest place when it comes to cash, you're charged for medical stuff, you have to work out VAT yourself, tip people ... how do you afford to buy food!?

In the uk, I can go into a shop, pick up something for 99P and pay 99P. If my meal costs £20, then I pay £20 and leave From what I have heard you pick up something for $1 and pay $1.20 or something. You to a restaurant and your meal is $20, you pay $24 for it then tip the person serving you an extra $4 or something.

I might be wrong about the VAT though.

I honestly prefer tipping.

In what other occupation is your daily income directly effected by your work quality? Should be every service job if you ask me.

The ones that work on commission? You don't sell anything and you make the basic pay, you sell 100 items then you walk home with a big fat bonus.

Why would you prefer to pay more to a person who is doing there job correctly? The way I understand it is, if you work in customer service of any kind, it is your job to go out of your way to make your customers happy.

I shouldn't need to sweeten the deal for you or financially blackmail you into being nice to me. In fact, don't you feel like the people serving you are just being fake so you will give them more money? 'cos you know that they all go into the "staff only" area and talk about some customers, then come back out with a big fake smile.

 

[omega 616]

The thing with many jobs and jobs related to service in particular, is that it's not enough to just do the job, doing it WELL is important to, you do the job? Fine, you make your basic pay. You do it well? You get a nice tip.

As for financial blackmail? Since when is rewarding someone for above average service blackmail of any kind? The problem you have seems less about the actual concept of tipping and more about what is perceived to be incorrect application.


EDIT: And so what if the smile isn't genuine? A fake smile is still lightyears better than a genuine frown, eyeroll and irritated sigh when you ask for another glass of water.

Remember, you're not paying based on how much they like their job or you for that matter. You're paying based on how quick and professionally they did their job, and part of many service jobs is "Service with a smile" as they say.

In your culture it is expected that you tip, that is why. Business owners actually work that into there employees wages, so that you're now obligated to top up them up.

It would be a reward if that wasn't a factor. If they got there full wage and they did a good job then it would be an acknowledgement of that but 'cos you're expected to tip it's no longer an act of generosity, it's an act of guilt.

"I better tip this person or they're going to be short this month" rather than "This person worked there butt off for me, I think I will show my appreciation".

I wouldn't be bothered if they did do that, as long as they get what I asked for. People sometimes have bad days or are just fed up for whatever reason. I would rather a person be honest than look like some creepily super happy person.

 

[ATRAYA]

Are you freaking kidding me? You think people should tip you because you work at a place of business that shouldn't exist in the first place? If the profit margins are too low to even keep a minimum level of acceptable standard, the place should be shut down. Either by the owners themselves or by the authorities. Places like that are the reason we need more regulation.

So your solution to his whining is that instead of making a little extra pocket money, he should LOSE HIS INCOME ALTOGETHER? Sounds like a plan to me.

No, I'm saying he shouldn't have a job there in the first place because that place shouldn't exist.

There are other jobs.

If there are so many other jobs available, why on EARTH would he still work there? Sorry, but some communities are so bad it's either pain and suffering for minimum wage or death.

Sweatshops in Indonesia shouldn't exist either, yet they persist. And you know what? If you closed them down, all the kids that work themselves to the bone for almost nothing would most likely have to be killed (so the family doesn't have another mouth to feed), or sold, since the family NEEDS the pitiful amount of income the child brings in.

So you're condoning child labor. Okay...

No one condones necessary evils... Without the child's income, the family will collapse.

 

[Catrixa]

I tip (when available, I pay primarily by card and do not carry cash) so that I will receive service in the future (I'd like the knowledge that the service people are not going to take an arbitrary 40 minutes longer to get to my house, or that the waiter/waitress aren't going to spit in my food), the people working there will be paid (you did a job, your work isn't paying for it, you get a tip), and to adhere to the strict (if arbitrary) norms of American Society (of which there are many, some more ridiculous than others). I will tip more, however, if you've had to put up with a large group of my friends or if the service was outstanding.

I will not tip you if I physically can't (I can't add it to the total), the establishment does not actually charge me for it (I check my credit card, some of them don't), it's not a thing I know I'm supposed to tip for (I've never tipped the people who work the cash register at Target, for example, although if that was a thing I should be tipping for, I'd start the moment I knew), or if the service was particularly abysmal (if you haven't taken my order until 45 minutes after I've been seated and don't even recognize that time has elapsed [i.e. you don't give me an apology and just pretend like it didn't happen], I probably won't tip).

What I can't do is tip enough to make your working conditions OK. I can't tip you enough to buy better equipment or replace bad product. I can't tip you enough so that all of the bad customers don't seem so bad (I will, however, try to be a really nice customer or tip you to make up for my nonsense, because I do know you get your fair share of awful customers). All I can tip you for is what I've seen, because I cannot afford to tip you for everything that may have gone wrong during your time working there. I'm sorry, I just simply do not have the funds.

 

[mitchell271]

It feels weird posting here. In Canada, minimum wage is $10.10 (I think, I know it's above 10) and we tip. Maybe it's because we're nice or because of the states' influence on our culture, I don't know.

OT: I almost always tip. It's a little hard to justify doing a 15% right now because I'm in university but I still try. Having worked in the service industry (not restaurants, but it's still experience) having customers be nice to you is great thing. When people come in super surly and just being a dick, it's infuriating. Or having a customer say, "I don't want anything else, just ring it up" is annoying as all hell because I was required to ask if they wanted something else or I could have lost my job!

tl;dr Just be nice to people. if you're nice to them, they'll be nice to you. not just to get a tip, but because they feel like it