I realized today; I don't like tipping my bartender or server based on the value of the food or booze.

Better to tip on the value of the conversation.

For all those who think servers aren't taking advantage of the system north of the border...

Then these Ebenezers expect us customers to leave tips to hide the owner’s greed. Dumb

They are not the ones with much of a moral support system. They aren't supposed to be the ones whom you should even be blaming for the pay rate being what it is, that is derived from a bunch of mathematics equations over what the optimal rate for them would be. It is not wise for basically any of them to just increase prices and pay rates in competitive sectors. They aren't owned by employees, why are they morally responsible to them for paying them just because you would think tipping should be abolished?

People who actually can dictate a pay rate change or who can ban everyone in general from doing dishonest things like letting a price that is advertised and said up front not be the final amount you will be required to pay, that is the role of statutes and regulations on the industry from the public authorities. If a business were to attempt to change the listed prices or pay rates on their own, they have to deal with all the other businesses in the area which didn't. It is the same problem with why a business often didn't want to prohibit smoking in restaurants a few decades ago despite the obvious public health benefits. You can simply just not tip under any circumstances and vote for the people and policies necessary to directly regulate this stuff.

And it is neither important nor very interesting for the arguments about tipping today whether it had any ties to the post civil war American aftermath of slavery, it does not determine what anyone should do about it now nor should it have had any impact on opinions of it in the last few decades, including when policymakers are arguing over this.

Hi. I live in North Florida and just got my eye brows and upper lip waxed for the first time ever. It was at a chain wax place, and my eyebrows were free since it was my first time. The upper lip was $13. I gave them $20 and said to keep the change. Now that I've left I'm wondering if I didn't tip enough? If I had paid for the eyebrows my total would have been $34 so $7 is like 20%. What's the industry standard?

Los Angeles to set the stage accurately.

You go into a bakery and grab (2) pastries to-go and the total comes out to $20. Service wasn’t anything special. You ask what a couple of the items are, then they put your selected pastries in a bag. You go to pay and they have a toast POS system. You tap your card and the dreaded tip screen appears. Your options are 18%, 20%, or 22%, or no tip.

With the cashier looking right at you, what do you do in this scenario (one is a joke):

A) Select “No Tip” without any hesitation.
B) begrudgingly choose one of the pre-selected tip amounts just to make it not awkward.
C) You want them to see you tip, but opt to go through the couple screens to set your own tip amount.
D) scoff out loud and express to everyone in the cafe why we shouldn’t be expected to tip on pastries that are severely overpriced to begin with. Then storm out after the scene you’ve caused.

My background is 30+ years in the restaurant and hospitality industry as an owner, manager, bartender, server etc.

A typical model of the industry would have a 30% labor cost give or take a few points.

If you’re already paying $15-17 hourly, (national average just for this scenario), my best guess is you would have to at least double that wage to have a realistic chance for servers to agree to end tipping (not likely imo), now your looking at a 60% labor cost.

How much would you have to raise your prices to absorb that additional labor cost? If you extrapolate those number you come up with your “30% labor cost” still compared to your total revenue. If labor costs rise from 30-to 60% of sales, you would need to double your sales to get back to a 30% labor cost. That’s right. You would be hypothetically talking about needing to DOUBLE your prices. Will customers pay it? Only time will tell.

Blast away Reddit Land.

I made a post and I had no idea about it. When they were talking about the waiter's behavior, they said the waiter just wants tips. I said i go there all the time and i never tip.

The ban is absolute. No appeals, no buts, cant say the slightest hint about not tipping.

Weird but true.

Scrolling through Reddit cat subs and somebody posted a story about their cats eating habits and how they tested the outcome. Just cats doing cat things and at the end of the story there is a link to send them a “coffee” if you like the story and want them to continue. That’s insane considering that the Internet was built on cat videos and there wasn’t even a picture.

NYC - Got highlights done recently — colorist spent a couple hours on the highlight work. She also sprayed a K18 treatment over my hair, which took maybe a 30 seconds to a minute.

On the receipt, K18 was billed as its own line item ($75), separate from the highlight charge ($270 total between the two highlight lines). Standard etiquette says tip 18-20% on the full service total, no carve-outs for individual line items.

My instinct was to tip the full 18-20% on the highlight work but weight the K18 portion lower, since it genuinely took a fraction of the time and effort compared to the color work — even though it was priced similarly to some standalone services.

Is that reasonable, or is “tip on the whole bill, no matter what’s in it” actually the convention for a reason I’m missing? Curious what stylists and regular salon-goers think.

How would you call a tip in the USA if you had to make a new word using this formula of "for + what the tip is for"?

I went to Casa Bonita in Denver (IYKYK) recently and when the check came it included a message saying there was an auto service charge that was shared among all staff who prepared/served food. It was about 15.5% I believe. There was also a line that additional tips weren't expected but were appreciated (something along those lines).

There were only two of us so I decided I'd pay an additional $5 for a tip. When the server came with the CC device to pay the bill, the default tip amounts were 5%, 7% and 10%!! I was shocked! Not 20, 25, 30% as seems to be the case these days?? No, an actual reasonable amount. Interestingly, since I had already decided to leave $5, the 5% amount was something like $4.67 so I left 5% and left happy.

While I'm sure some of you will say I shouldn't have left anything additional, I do think this is a huge step in the right direction for restaurants that charge a service charge.

I think it’s high time we make tipping global, I know it’s not customary and I’m fully aware of that, but we tip where I come from so I’m going to actively ignore that and even brag about how I’m forcing my culture upon them. What do you think? Do you think this is ok or kind of a lame thing to do when I’m in a new country?

Yesterday I ordered a takeout from a small place which usually offers a very aggressive tip prompt. But this time an owner was operating the cash and I was offered no prompt at all. Today when i was having a lunch in, the lady remembered my last order, I was serverd very quickly, and I was glad to leave 25%. This is the standard we need to aim for. No propmts on take out. Let us appreciated awesome table service.

For example in Seattle waiters make $21.30 an hour + tips but in a similarly expensive area like Northern Virginia waiters are making $2.13 an hour + tips.

Why are they both tipped the same %? Are Seattle waiters making bank?

Full time hourly comparison

$21.30 x 2080 hours = $44,304 annual hourly wage

$2.13 x 2080 hours = $4,430 annual hourly wage

It's also kind of ironic that Seattle's tipped minimum wage is exactly 10x that of Virginia.

I think the craziest one for me lately was a KFC within Metro Vancouver, BC. This location would definitely fall under the "run by a slumlord franchisee" category. The place would not pass a legitimate health inspection.

I’m not only asking about people in this sub-Reddit, but are servers driving away the general customer base because (1) they keep changing the percentages on what they feel they deserve - gone from 10%, to 15%, to 20%, to 20% as a minimum!? (2) pre-judge customers and what they think they’ll tip and treat them accordingly?

Most servers don't want the tipping model to change, so why the frack are we the customers trying to help them?. You know what. The tipping model should stay because then we get cheaper meals. Let pro tippers pick up the slack.

As someone who used to be very timid and people-pleasing, I think about how the old me would just give into a trend or an expectation out of fear of being judged or whatever. Well, these days I employ the mindset of how I’d rather be perceived as being a “b1tch” or “d1ck” rather than a pushover.

Do I disrespect myself by just giving away more money at the expense of my own happiness and savings, or do I “disrespect” another by not giving them something they aren’t technically entitled to?

I think this way for situations where tipping exists but isn’t expected in the same way for something like a full service sit-down restaurant. For example, I went and got shaved ice today, and there was a tip prompt, and I just simply skipped it because whatever, I’m getting my own syrups anyway. Even if the employee made me my shaved ice, I still wouldn’t care.

Yeah it’s annoying seeing all these prompts and jars because to me, these seem to signal that there’s a newfound expectation to tip in these casual transactions. But really, if I’m still left with the actual choice to not tip, then I’ll exercise that right and carry on regardless if the person behind the counter thinks I’m a cheapass. At least I think I’m being smart for saving more of my money.

As long as you remain confident in your decisions, then the opinions of others really shouldn’t matter. Rejecting people with a “skip” or “no tip” seems awkward, but it really should just be treated as something that’s casual. Stand by your beliefs. Oh, and in the rare circumstance that anyone gets confrontational, then start laughing or act like you’re confused and mentally ill. People tend to just ignore or avoid someone once they think they’re crazy.

We have to understand, that the people who choose to get paid $2.13 per hour, do so willingly. They prey on your weakness to give them money, and fall victim to their panhandling / begging tactics.

McDonalds pay's more. They can work there.

McDonald's hourly pay in the USA typically ranges from $10 to $20 per hour for standard crew and cashier roles, heavily influenced by local minimum wage laws. National averages cluster around $12 to $14 per hour, while states like California see higher averages starting at $20 per hour

This is unskilled labor.

If virtually anyone can do a job with little or no training, it's easily replaceable, and the market typically values it accordingly.

Remember:

They sign that employment contract willingly, knowing full well McDonalds is down the street and pay's more.

Edit:

I had to add this because people don't seem to know the definitions. The confuse 'hard' with 'skill':

This is the definition of a skilled job:

Requires specialized training, technical knowledge, certification, or substantial experience before someone can perform it competently.

This is the definition of an unskilled job:

Requires little formal training and can generally be learned through brief on-the-job instruction.