Your thoughts on Tipping

[Magnus McGinty]

We all do it in restaurants where there's no service charge on the bill we add a percentage of our reckoning that ought to go to the person delivering and collecting to our table.
This is problematic to me because you never have any proof where the money is actually going and it's also a form of performance related pay from the customer with a random outcome.
As such, should they be done away with in favour of just paying the right amount and staff receiving the correct wages? This random aspect stands in the way of that somewhat I think.

 

[weltweit]

Last time I ate out they added a gratuity to the final bill so I paid it.

But I find tipping to be a bit of a minefield, when to give, how to give, how much to give, how to be sure the person you want to get it will get it. etc ..

 

[farmerbarleymow]

We all do it

I don't. But then I don't eat out because I'm an antisocial bastard. Chippy is the nearest I ever get to fine dining.

 

[kalidarkone]

We all do it in restaurants where there's no service charge on the bill we add a percentage of our reckoning that ought to go to the person delivering and collecting to our table.
This is problematic to me because you never have any proof where the money is actually going and it's also a form of performance related pay from the customer with a random outcome.
As such, should they be done away with in favour of just paying the right amount and staff receiving the correct wages? This random aspect stands in the way of that somewhat I think.

I tip in cash and that includes deliveroo riders/ drivers, to ensure the person directly benefits.

 

[kalidarkone]

Last time I ate out they added a gratuity to the final bill so I paid it.

But I find tipping to be a bit of a minefield, when to give, how to give, how much to give, how to be sure the person you want to get it will get it. etc ..

I give about 15- 20 %.

 

[Raheem]

I tip in cash. The whole system of tipping is evil and dehumanising, but not doing it doesn't help.

 

[bored@work]

agree if i tip, i tip in cash but increasingly it's added in the bill so i hope it ends up where it should (it wont )

 

[Dandred]

When I worked in restaurants in the UK a quid or two was nice, not excepted though. Here in South Korea it is considered rude to tip.

 

[Callie]

You can ask for automatically added service charges to be taken off the bill if you wish to pay by card then tip with cash.

I don't like the idea of tips by card cos how do you know who gets it? But that said you don't know if tips go to kitchen staff rather than front of house. Minefield!

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I don’t carry cash at all any more, so it’s via a card machine or nowt.

 

[Riklet]

I ate at a chain thai restaurant (Thaikhun since you ask) last weekend and no service charge was included and we didnt tip. It was refreshing.

Fuck off % tipping. I do give 10% if its a proper independent restaurant and basically expected but anywhere else nahh. In Spain or Portugal id probs give 1-3 euros depending on various factors but not always. I think the French have got it right tbh.. it's expensive to eat out there but you know it's going to the staff not via charity.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I just think it’s an odd concept where the customer is expected to pay part of the staff’s wages on a voluntary basis but is kept a bit in the dark as to who gets the money.

 

[Yossarian]

Tipping's a crappy system in many ways - studies have found that tipped workers are a lot more likely to experience sexual harassment and employers are notorious for stealing tips - but obviously only massive arseholes protest the system by refusing to tip or undertipping.

But at least the UK requires tipped employees to get the same minimum wage as everybody else - in the US, the minimum wage for tipped employees is the equivalent of £1.75 an hour, and it hasn't gone up in 30 years.

 

[Yossarian]

I ate at a chain thai restaurant (Thaikhun since you ask) last weekend and no service charge was included and we didnt tip. It was refreshing.

Fuck off % tipping. I do give 10% if its a proper independent restaurant and basically expected but anywhere else nahh. In Spain or Portugal id probs give 1-3 euros depending on various factors but not always. I think the French have got it right tbh.. it's expensive to eat out there but you know it's going to the staff not via charity.

Why do you think workers at chain restaurants are less deserving of tips than workers at independent restaurants? Do you think their corporate bosses are giving them higher salaries?

 

[platinumsage]

What is so different about restaurant workers compared to say care workers or supermarket checkout staff, that means the former can expect tips but the latter can't?

Is it about not being kept waiting for wine or something

 

[Aladdin]

Pre covid if I was eating at a restaurant with a few friends I always tipped the person who served the table. Always cash and always a group thing. It was always handed directly to the waiter.

 

[platinumsage]

Tipping's a crappy system in many ways - studies have found that tipped workers are a lot more likely to experience sexual harassment and employers are notorious for stealing tips - but obviously only massive arseholes protest the system by refusing to tip or undertipping.

Surely you refuse to tip most minimum-wage service workers because it's not expected. How is that different to refusing to tip restaurant staff?

 

[Yossarian]

Surely you refuse to tip most minimum-wage service workers because it's not expected. How is that different to refusing to tip restaurant staff?

Are you seriously introducing the Mr. Pink argument?

 

[JimW]

Especially not if it's fly.

 

[Riklet]

Why do you think workers at chain restaurants are less deserving of tips than workers at independent restaurants? Do you think their corporate bosses are giving them higher salaries?

No of course not. They are generally being paid about the same or a bit less. I would rather have no tipping at all. They're doing a job, not being private butlers or servants. In most chains I am unsure about where the tip money goes, especially when paid on a card. At least elsewhere you know it is almost always going to staff.

In an imperfect world, I dont mind tipping a bit as a gesture of appreciation I just dislike the US/Uk system where its used to subsidise low wages and has stedily crept up so that now 20% is pretty normal and 10% is stingy.

Do/did you tip everyone equally in Hong Kong then?

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Also, if customers are paying part of staff’s wages in cash isn’t this basically colluding in some tax dodge by the restaurant even before we get to whether they nick the tips or not?

 

[Saunders]

Where I work, the card tips on each day are divided between all floor, bar and kitchen staff according to hours worked. They are then added to wages at the end of each month and count as earnings, so taxed. We are all very appreciative of them, although more appreciative of cash tips. Generally if one of the floor staff is personally given a cash tip, they offer it into the kitty.

 

[Yossarian]

No of course not. They are generally being paid about the same or a bit less. I would rather have no tipping at all. They're doing a job, not being private butlers or servants. In most chains I am unsure about where the tip money goes, especially when paid on a card. At least elsewhere you know it is almost always going to staff.

I don't know if independent restaurants are any more likely to let servers keep their all their tips than chains, probably less so, IME of working in a few - with chains you generally get some consistency at least, independent restaurants are personal fiefdoms where owners can take whatever cut they feel is appropriate.

Tipping was a whole different minefield in Hong Kong - it's not generally expected, a lot of places just add a 10 to 15% "service charge" to the bill and nobody's under the illusion that it's going directly to the server, upscale places with a largely Western clientele might dispense with the service charge but then a tip would be expected. When I worked in bars and restaurants there tips definitely didn't make up a big part of my income.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Keeping the thread title ambiguous has naturally led us to discussing restaurants. But that wasn’t what made me think about starting the thread.
It was actually Uber. Like, why not just charge what you think the trip costs and pay the driver accordingly. What’s with the tip options after the trip? Is it because Uber aren’t paying them enough? Is it to give us the option to dock part of their wages for some abstract reason? I just find it weird tbh.

 

[kalidarkone]

I just think it’s an odd concept where the customer is expected to pay part of the staff’s wages on a voluntary basis but is kept a bit in the dark as to who gets the money.

I always ask the waiting staff what the deal is, but still slip them a note. I tipped the hairdresser tother day and my lash lady as she has small kids and despite being a Grinch.

I've had patients try to tip me.....but I've just told them to donate it to the hospital trust charity and write to my matron to tell her how great I am!

 

[friedaweed]

If I pay every everyone else gets tge tip. If I get the tip I do itbin cash min 10% in the hand of the person who served us.

 

[kalidarkone]

Keeping the thread title ambiguous has naturally led us to discussing restaurants. But that wasn’t what made me think about starting the thread.
It was actually Uber. Like, why not just charge what you think the trip costs and pay the driver accordingly. What’s with the tip options after the trip? Is it because Uber aren’t paying them enough? Is it to give us the option to dock part of their wages for some abstract reason? I just find it weird tbh.

Yes agreed and that's why I do t ever use the tipping online function- it's the same for deliveroo.

They are always fucking delighted and very surprised, I'm like but you brought ME food to my DOOR!

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Yes agreed and that's why I do t ever use the tipping online function- it's the same for deliveroo.

They are always fucking delighted and very surprised, I'm like but you brought ME food to my DOOR!

That's definitely a reason to tip, especially if the weather is particularly shit. But if it's a 'bonus' rather than part of their wage, what are cab drivers meant to do to earn it? Being stuck in traffic is hardly their fault and they can't get you there any quicker than not losing their license allows. Some drivers are very friendly and chat the whole way but that's the exact opposite of my ideal journey. I want peace and quiet, not my ear chewed off.

 

[kalidarkone]

That's definitely a reason to tip, especially if the weather is particularly shit. But if it's a 'bonus' rather than part of their wage, what are cab drivers meant to do to earn it? Being stuck in traffic is hardly their fault and they can't get you there any quicker than not losing their license allows. Some drivers are very friendly and chat the whole way but that's the exact opposite of my ideal journey. I want peace and quiet, not my ear chewed off.

I always tip cab drivers.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I always tip cab drivers.

I do when paying cash to minicabs, I never do black cabs, and uber depends. They charge on a supply and demand basis and should be paying a proper wage.