Tipping
Interesting discussion on how much to tip in restaurants, here at Amy’s.
Some people say that, even if the service is crappy, you should tip no less than 20% because “waitressing is hard”. I say that if the service is crappy, you should tip precisely the amount that the service was worth to you. I’m not talking about situations where the restaurant is slammed and the waitress is obviously struggling and trying her best, but straight-up shitty, apathetic service.
What I want to know is how much to tip cab drivers. I tend to tip too much in cities like New York and LA, because I find driving in those places such a drag, and the exchange rate so favourable to me, that it’s not a big deal to throw in a few extra dollars. In London, I give cheaper mini-cab drivers bigger tips than black cab drivers. Early morning pick-ups usually get bigger tips, too.
Sometimes I don’t really know how much to tip, like when I was in Chelsea recently, getting a black cab from the supermarket (I’d planned to walk, but bought way too much heavy stuff). It was only a £4 ride, so I had no problem just handing over a fiver, but it did strike me that the tip was probably too much. It just seems lame to tip anything less than a quid, though.
Filed under: Life
Here is the cultural difference between you as an American and me as an Australian. I do not like to tip anyone, ever. In Australia tipping is always optional. You might tip a small amount (perhaps 5%) in a restaurant if the service is particularly good, but tipping nothing is fine. Tipping in any other context is unheard of. In London I tip about 10% in restaurants (assuming a service charge has not already been added) as that seems to be expected, but I tip no other businesses, and it wouldn’t occur to me to do so.
I simply cannot see why working as a waiter or a cab driver should be any different to working in a factory. You are paid a wage, and that wage should be high enough to support you without you having to beg (and that it what it is) from customers. (Actually, that is what it is generously. Ungernerously it is asking for a bribe). A situation where begging is expected horribly distorts the relationship between the customer and the provider of the service (and between an employee and an employer, as the employer is then able to pay pitiful wages because further income through begging is expected).
Of course, when I am in the US, I do (for instance) tip taxi drivers and I tip higher in restaurants than I do in London because I understand that this is necessary in order that the person gets paid properly. The situation is entirely pernicious, but this isn’t the cab driver’s fauly. However, I would much prefer a situation (such as in Singapore or Japan or Australia), where the quoted price was 20% higher in the first price, and what I am asked to pay is a fair price and is what I actually do pay.
The expectation of tips in all kinds of contexts is horrible, and is one of the worst things about the US.
I’m with Michael. No-one ever tips me, so why the hell should I tip them? I’ll tip waiters in the name of tradition if the service has been good, but I would never tip for bad service — in fact, I’d be asking for a discount for really bad service. And, if I’m skint (as I often am), I simply don’t tip at all for anything, because I need the money myself. And I shouldn’t have to explain my own financial situation to some waiter to “excuse” my “behaviour” — tipping is optional, and I don’t appreciate it when people regard it as compulsory.
I would never tip a taxi driver anything unless he got off his arse and helped with some heavy bags — something which certainly no Glaswegian taxi driver would ever do — and even then I’d hesitate, because (a) I have known a taxi driver or two in my time, and, without tips, their work is a very nice little earner indeed, and (b) with very few exceptions, taxi drivers are bastards. And not just the way they drive: in my street, all the neighbours are dead nice and friendly and helpful, except the family of taxi drivers who live on the corner, who are obnoxious rude antisocial bastards.
Personally, I think it extremely rude not to honour a price that you have quoted a customer.
Waiters in the US are in many places (depending upon local wage/tax law) paid below minimum wage. Also, waiters are taxed on their gross receipts, not on what monies they actually take home. Factor also that they must “tip out” to bussers and other back of the house employees. So when you don’t tip, or tip below the expected amount, it is like taking money out of their pockets.
Personally, I think restaurants should just put a 18% or whatever service charge on the bill and be done with it.
Oh, and one more point, if the service is truly abysmal, you should inform the management.
Janet, I don’t think there’s any “should” about it - as a customer, I have no obligation to the merchant (or to other customers). Sometimes - most times - I will complain, but other times I just don’t have the bandwidth to get into it.
> Waiters in the US are in many places (depending upon local wage/tax law) paid below minimum wage.
Much as I hate to be irritatingly literal, that’s not what “minimum” means.
> waiters are taxed on their gross receipts, not on what monies they actually take home.
It is not because such an appalling tax law exists that people tip; it is because people tip that the law exists.
> So when you don’t tip, or tip below the expected amount, it is like taking money out of their pockets.
No, it really isn’t. If you do tip, it is like the IRS taking money out of your pocket; if you don’t, it is like the IRS taking money out of the waiter’s pocket. What kind of crazy view of economics do you have, to think that, in a transaction in which A pays B, A has somehow taken money away from B?