Well if that’s the claim, then that’s a crock of freshly made fertilizer. If that were the case I wouldn’t have had to go to college than grad school and then worked 7 days a week for not a multi-six figure income in a super high expensive city. I should have just waited tables.
Yes, I posted upthread the average salary which is considerably less. I really wonder about the persistence of the six-figure salary fantasy, which also links up to the fantasies of privilege in sectors where the majority are exploited and a few successes are held up as the justification (in many ways, including the ridiculous amounts of labour and low to no pay set ups for stagiaires.
What’s also not taken into account is how race, class, and gender intersect with this pay and with tipping logic: My guess is that leaving it in the hands of customers enhances that pay disparity whilst everything else informs access to growth and getting a job in a top end restaurant. And then there’s also the health benefits and sick pay issue.
When I write all this, it isn’t to say I don’t tip when I’m in the U.S., but it is a deeply flawed system and it should change (as a lot of systems should-- everything that is offsetting costs of owners and managerial class and throwing them onto workers has got to go).
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I think it’s because those waitstaff who are making 100K plus are all on IG/TikTok/Twitter/Etc. crowing about it, and our (esp. American) media just LOVE to promote such stories. Yahoo feed is full of “lifestyle” stories coving the Hooters (whatever) waitress pulling down $800 a night - and yes, some very few of them do pull in over 200k, if you annualized their supposed nightlies.
Even still, I’ve not yet seen one such person claiming to make over 200K in a given year (in contrast to multiplying out the tiktokker’s “best nights”), which would be required of the claim of “multi-six figure”.
That said, I have chatted with guys at upscale restaurants who say averaging 3 tables an hour at upscale joints gets them over 100K.
But for every one of them, there’s probably (hey, I’m just guessing) 5-10 or more at Steak-N-Shake or just regular mom-n-pops who are doing 4+ covers an hour or more and getting $8 in tips. (That’s why I and many folks here in the other 96 Tipping War threads mention we have a minimum tip on cheap meals, ignoring percentages altogether.)
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As usual, I will protest comparing the behavior of a country the size of the United States to those that are dramatically smaller. In my mind, just too many variables for a simple explanation that applies to all. I can’t imagine that being true in any country, but I’ve never lived in another country.
I don’t compare Danville to Vallejo, both in the San Francisco Bay area, both in a state that pays at least servers minimum wage ( now $15.50 USD).
I learned this in tipping wars round 86, but just to be clear; what if any, are the countries in Europe that do have a tipping culture, and are those countries as “foreign” feeling as the US? Is a service charge, and that other named charge for a plate ( 
) and bread exactly the same as a “US tip”?
I am in Crown Heights Brooklyn right now,and it has been a pretty different “dining” experience than midtown Manhattan.
I love traveling in Europe, even the non Mediterranean parts, which I did not think I would. It’s fascinating to me, to get to such different places so easily. How about the European side of Istanbul ( I hope things are getting stabilized there) to Naples !
BTW, Doesn’t it take less time to get from maybe Paris, France to Amsterdam in the Netherlands than it does to get from San Diego to Tahoe?
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I do! But not with a group. So awkward.
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I like going to the pizza factory in Dunsmuir for lunch with my friend. We split the sub sandwich with a half pitcher of beer . Always good .Always friendly. Bill is twenty dollars. I leave five dollars for a tip . I will continue to do that … I always tip when going out to eat . Its my privilege.
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The other one is often known a “cover charge” (obviously different in whatever language). I often see it in Spain where it’s usually one euro or so. The service charge that’s added in a UK restaurant (generally at 10% in most of the country but at 12.5 in central London) is exactly the same as a US cash tip. Or, indeed, a cash UK tip in places that don’t have a service charge. Of course, the big difference here is that a UK tip or service charge is always discretionary whereas, in the States, there’s a cultural requirement to tip.
And let’s not forget that Americans are already very accustomed to seeing and paying service charges in restaurants - although I recall they are called “auto gratuities” often added to bills of larger (6+ ?) parties. But it’s absolutely the same as a UK service charge (although the discretion in paying may be different). It has always struck me as a bit odd that this practice never seems to get mentioned in “tipping wars” threads.
By the by, it’s increasingly the case, in the UK, that bread isnt served “free” but is a chargeable menu item to be ordered, or not, like anything else.
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FWIW, here’s a link to a 2020 UK survey carried out by YouGov on British tipping habits. Of most interest to me, was the clear difference in tipping habits based on age - with younger people tipping on a much less regular basis (and, very often, not at all) than older folk. It suggests to me that demographics will make the UK a tip-free zone within a few years. Can’t come soon enough for me. It’s a social anachronism that’s well past it’s “best before” date.
I admit my friends in NYC were the ones who let me know they were tipping taxis 10- 20%, and tipping around 18-20 % at restaurants 10-20 years ago.
I’ve been tipping 18-22 % on restaurant meals for the past 10 years in a midsized city in Canada, in Montréal, in Calgary and in Toronto. Most former Chowhounds who live in Canada, that I’ve met (around 40 people so far) tip 18 percent or more, unless there’s a bad service experience where they might tip 12- 15 % and let management know about the problem.
Since March 2020, I’ve been tipping 15-22% on take-out, and 10-20 percent at coffee shops and independent bakeries, since I don’t dine inside anymore.
I am shocked that one person in my family who lives in the States still tips 10 percent. He doesn’t live in NYC.
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I suppose a tip creep in percentages is a direct result of restaurant owners wanting to keep the apparent price of dining out low, pushing more of the actual cost directly on to customers. Had they proportionately raised menu prices in line with real costs, and real wage inflation, then a 10% tip would have remained fine.
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I think tip creep in the States and Canada mostly comes from a place of wanting better service next time a customer returns, feeling bad that servers make less than minimum wage at many restaurants, and the feeling of good karma. Tipping feels good to many North Americans.
It’s a cultural thing, and the same feeling won’t be happening in places where tipping isn’t the norm, or in places where servers make a living wage without tips.
I barely drink, and I acknowledge that my tipping at 20 or 22 percent is partly to let the server know I’m not drinking because I don’t drink, and not because I’m cheap. A lot of North American servers mistakenly assume people who don’t order drinks are cheap, and then the service suffers, in my experience.
I tipped 20 percent for a take-out dinner at a fish and chip spot in small town Ontario last summer. The cashier saw the tip, and made a point of saying thank you for my generosity. The next day, we were leaving the cottage I had rented for a week, and I had paid for a house cleaner to come clean the cottage, because I wasn’t going to spend 3 hours mopping floors and scrubbing bathrooms the day I had an 8 hour drive. I thought I recognized the house cleaner. Turns out, it was the cashier from the fish and chips spot I had visited the day before. This is a relatively poor part of Ontario, and I am glad in that situation, it’s possible to tip. It’s hard for many people to make ends meet right now.
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I was mainly relating my comments to the situation in the UK which is seeing creep, particularly in central London, from the customary 10% to 12.5% . It would not be required as such if menu prices had increased in line with inflation, etc.
And, yes, I recall from various Chowhound threads that the largesse of tipping makes many North Americans feel good about themselves. It’s a cultural difference from here in the UK that I have never really understood (although I think it’s probably similar to the feeling I get when I choose to give some loose change to a street beggar).
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I think also , philanthropy is a little different in the States, in Canada, in the UK and in EU. In places where the taxes are low and some people are very rich, philanthropy happens in a different way than in places where there are more people in the middle range economically and taxes are high. This is not to say that the very rich in a low tax region necessarily give more to charity. Often it’s the low-middle range economically that give the most, and the most frequently in lower tax regions, because they want to help people out when times are tough, because they have been there. I know my friends who have worked as servers, bartenders and hair stylists in Canada typically tip more generously than my friends who have not worked in the service industry in Canada.
I think philanthropy and/ or tipping sometimes steps up to top up wages, or to help cover things taxes would be covering in a higher tax region.
People get used to what is the norm for their own regions. I’ve tried to explain why taxes exist, from my slightly socialist Canadian perspective, to my very well-paid 39 yo cousin who is living in northern California after a decade in Texas, and let me tell you, we are not on the same wavelength. I won’t get more political than that. LOL.
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Thank you, although I am still trying to tie up some loose ends. Would you say that the UK, England, and/or London has a "tipping culture "?
I don’t know that a US cash tip in a restaurant in Winter Park, Orlando is exactly the same as a US cash tip in Marin, California ( meaning of the percentage? who gets it? Is it taxed?, taxed on what?, and to whom? Ive never workedfor tips, so mayb there is more or less).
So if the UK tip or service charge is exactly the same, in what way?
I don’t know that most in the US agree on what I see as a continuum between “always discretionary” and a “cultural requirement.” I know not everyone in my immediate family agrees.
But it keeps us engaged!
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In NYC many of us suffer from the same drink guilt, but for slightly different reason. Restaurant margins here are really thin, and much of the revenue comes from alcohol. The waiter is obviously well aware of that so its hard to say no sometimes. The pandemic complicates things further since many learned how to make their favorite concoctions at home, making restaurant drinks seem incredibly overpriced these days.
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A few dollars more on a tip doesn’t mean much to me, but it can turn around a bad day for someone living off tips. Always makes me feel good to help servers out. Very good point.
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One can hope, but they may get corrupted.
You would think, but apparently the biggest push for keeping the tipping structures are the waiters and waitresses. I know many restaurants tried to do the automatic 15% added, but the waitstaff hate it.
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Obviously only one Briton’s personal opinion but I’d say the UK has tipping but not a tipping culture. The support for that opinion comes from the YouGov survey I mentioned upthread which shows that tipping is not that widespread and is decreasing. I’ve previously mentioned the experience of my brother in law who, prior to Covid, drove a taxi. He would say that, when he started maybe ten years back, most customers would tip but, by the time he stopped it was common that he would not get a single tip in a shift, not even of the “keep the change” variety.
As regards your question as to whether British tips are the same as American tips. It is the customer paying extra money over and above the menu price. The operation of tipping will depend on the restaurant and it’s relationship with its staff. The law has a light touch here (and needs tightening up to prevent bad employers exploiting their employees - particulalry with regard to how card tips are passed on (or not). But everything will be clear to a potential employee before they take up employment.
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Anything to do with paying income tax (or not)?
