I’m under the impression that tipping is endemic in the US. Here you tip cabbies, if they don’t go more than ten miles out of your way to bulk up the fare, and restaurant wait staff, if they don’t spit in your food. But you don’t tip them that much really, and a lot of the time the restaurant tips go into a common fund anyway
And that’s about it. (Except for barbers at the old Gowings store in Sydney, and cheeky fuckers in bars who return your change on a plate, virtually challenging you to scoop it up).
Just wondering who should I be tipping in the US, and how much?
Dammit, I’m first again. I HAVE a life, fuck ya’s.
I DO.
Anyone that services you I believe boss. I like a good servicing occasionally. Clears the cobwebs.
“I’m under the impression that tipping is endemic in the US.”
You’d be right.
Cabbies I tip based on (as you commented) not taking me five miles out of my way, and how helpful they are. Bonus if you find one who speaks decent English.
Wait staff, definitely. 15%-20% of your restaurant bill is the norm here. Tipping at restaurants is pretty much expected (fast food places excepted of course) More is OK if you get fantastic service and the waiter/waitress did an exceptional job. Leave the minimum if your dining experience was lousy. Most of those people don’t make a whole lot of money.
If you spend the night drinking at one establishment, a tip for the bartender is appreciated, again only if he/she does a good job. Say you buy $40-$45 in drinks. Toss the person $50 and tell them to keep the change.
Always good to toss a couple of dollars to any valets, skycaps, anyone carrying your luggage. That isn’t expected but it is good practice. If you’re driving, tip the parking valet.
If the hotel maid does what you feel to be an exceptional job picking up after you, $5-10 left in the room after you check out are appreciated, but tipping the cleaning staff is by no means a requirement.
Use your best judgment. If everyone is polite (it’s New York, so ‘polite’ might be nonexistent) and helpful, be a bit generous. If you feel you’re getting shafted, leave the bare minimum.
Good luck!
OH, and in Reservoir Dogs I think they said 10%.
Better off asking a Seppo. Seeing as they’ve been there….and shit. ;o)
I pass this one onto the Foreign Devils among us.
Dont know about the US but in the UK its become fashion in pubs to do that change in a plate thing or soemtimes not even to bother to give back change unless you ask (they expect it!). Cant stand that – Its a pub not a restaurant, things have gone downhill since ozzy barstaff all got replaced by Poles. Atleast Ozzy chicks behind the bar gave the impression that they might go home with you, whoever you were- whereas the Poles will only flirt if your’re showing conspicious wealth…
YD has the numbers right. You don’t tip in retail establishments, except for haircuts, etc. If you go to a fancy place where a hottie shampoos your hair, you tip her and the person who cuts your hair, and the tips can run $5 in a regular place to $20 or more in an upscale place. Pretty much any personal service generates a tip. Otherwise, print YD’s post.
Hi -
Think of it this way: in a restaurant, you are paying for the food, but not the service. If you are happy with the service, 20% is a basic tip; if they’ve gone out of their way to make your meal really enjoyable without being obnoxious, then 25% is not absurd. If they’re obnoxious and won’t leave you alone, don’t tip them at all; same if the service was indifferent at best and forgetful at worst.
These folks basically live off their tips. A good waitress can bring in several hundred a night, a mediocre one will quit unless she’s sleeping with the cook and wants to keep an eye on him so that he doesn’t start sleeping with the good waitress.
Wine stewards and the like: if you can afford to have a meal where you want a bottle of wine and you get something that is even remotely acceptable, be happy but don’t tip too much. They’ll get a cut of the waitress’ tips, generally. If you know your wines, you can sometimes have fun with clueless sommeliers who are pushing something that the cook’s girlfriend – remember her? – picked up at the discount supermarket because it looked French (Chateau Migraine).
Taxis: round up the fare to the next comfortable integer. If it’s a short trip, to the next dollar; longer fares round to $5 increments. More so if they’ve helped you put in the luggage in the middle of a snowstorm and still managed to get you to your airport on time.
Basically, if someone does you right, give ‘em a tip. They don’t have to and they can make or break your evening. I’ve even given a 100% tip to a lovely young thing who made the meal we had extremely enjoyable simply by wanting to make sure that we had a nice meal by dealing with the kitchen to make sure that everything arrived at the same time, that things were right and proper, and was eager to help us make the best of a new cook and hence somewhat mangled menu. She told us that the cook was new and at the end of the day we simply laid the menus away and told her to bring us what she thought the cook could do the best.
That’s who you give a big tip to.
Luggage etc: $2 per piece. Got five suitcases? $10 gets them to your room without you even noticing it (was creepy the first time this happened: I thought he had stolen the luggage, but he knew which room we had and simply brought it up…).
Of course, your mileage will vary according to living costs. Tip more in New York and Los Angeles, less in Tennessee and in Cleveland, anything is appreciated. More so in Toledo, Ohio.
The Obamessiah is in!
I for one welcome our new overlord.
In the States, it’s considered polite to tip your readers.
Ok, ok, just joshing. We sometimes tip in hotels, sometimes we forget.
What YD and Mc said – except it is important to point out that the percentage is dropping due to economic troubles. Where 15 percent used to be the base tip with a 20 percent tip being given for exceptional service, many people are now tipping a maximum of 10 percent. Many are not tipping at all.
You also need to consider tipping hotel employees who do virtually anything for you. You tip the guy who helps get your bags into your room. You tip the guy who brings you the extra towels you called down for. You tip the valet who goes and gets your car. For me that tip is usually three to five dollars. I have tipped more, depending on where I am and whether I anticipate needing a contact within the hotel staff.
You don’t tip the person at the check-in desk and you don’t tip the concierge.
Tipping is also a way of indicating your level of satisfaction with the service. Crappy service yields a minimal or no tip, excellent service may yield a better tip. I usually tip heavy when eating out if the service was good, especially when the place is busy and I frequently visit that place, to encourage that person to repeat the service in the future.
It also depends on local economics. NYC will certainly be more expensive than KC when it comes to tips. And we’ve all seen the stereotypical scene in movies where someone gives a porter, a bellboy, or someone else a large tip. The idea is that they’ll remember and bend over backwards for more. I’ve had some moderate success with this but my wallet is pretty shallow so I do not engage in it often.
A lot of places will have tip jars, such as any given coffee shop. Some places will not or will not accept tips at all. The general rule is that if you sit down to eat and someone brings it to you, then a tip is needed.
Respects,
Murph
On the Outer Marches
Birmo, I suggest you take a book out of the movie ‘My Blue Heaven’. Don’t believe in tipping, but over tipping :-)
Anyway back on topic, everyone else pretty much have covered it. Waiters, Delivery people, hotel employees, etc. I usually start at 20% in most cases and go up from there.
from a Brisbane boy (Toowoomba originally), living in Denver for the past eight months.
keep plenty dollar bills in your wallet – kind of awkward when you need to sling someone a couple of bucks and you have to ask them for change. (could be a big reason why dollar coins haven’t really taken of here. Tipping someone in coins kinda feels cheap)
with cabs, don’t bother saying “keep the change”. Unless you pry it from their hands, they’re keeping it. again, keeps lots of notes so you can pay and give a tip without expecting change back, or use a credit card (write in your tip)
I have been told that when tipping for meals, etc, you can calculate the tip based on the pre-tax total (I hate it that for everything the price quoted is not the price I pay. It is always “plus tax”)
If getting free drinks included, it is correct to tip the waitress based on what the drinks are worth.
at a bar, try and run a tab. Easier to add a tip at the end of the night instead of every time you get a round.
Sparty – so true about the Poles v Aussies, I like the Poles and all but where Aussies or Yanks are like “Hi, how you doing?” Poles are “No, we don’t have.” Still, no falseness.
Lobes – also true, I really do welcome our new overlord!
When do we start work in the sugar mines?
Good grief, how complicated can you yanks makes something?.
Thank god only a few countries have this insane tipping culture. My own experience traveling around the world is that North American service is nothing out of the ordinary and that the food prices that should be lower because they can’t be arsed paying their staff a decent wage are about what you’d pay in most countries that do.
I was once advised to tip big on the first drink in a bar so that the bartender will look after you well for the rest of the night.
Lobes, I also welcome our new overlord and at the next Australian Liberal party conference there will be many toadies from the previous regime.
There are also some people loitering here who have leanings towards the previous seat warmer in your position, whilst I cannot supply you with their address’s, I am sure Mr Birmingham could supply you with email addresses after a short spell at your Cuban retreat with the special CIA massage therapists and swimming instructors.
Mr B is currently touring your magnificent land & the FBI could collect him without too much inconvenience or bloodshed.
It may be of interest to you Mr President that the previously mentioned Mr. Birmingham wrote a book which killed the entire structure of the USA, if you do not pick him up on national security grounds, I suggest you grab a copy of the book, it is a cracking good read.. And see if you can find him a comfy seat at GITMO, just so he can stop gallivanting around and get the sequel finished.
I once got an entire evening’s drinks free for myself and friends by tipping the bartender $100.00+ and the waitress 30.00+. I didn’t intend it as a bribe, but I didn’t complain when the tab appeared. It was a nice grill with a good band playing – well worth the tips.
Because the economy is poor, I’ve begun to tell smiling people at take-out windows to “Keep the change.” Americans must help each other through this damaged economy. Basically, tip anyone that performs a service.
J.
I have to mirror Moko here:
“Good grief, how complicated can you yanks makes something?”
What an insane system!
You know what…
Just dont tip, i used to be a waiter and there not payed that badly. Tiping is a scam you only do it cause you see others doing it and you feel like you should, its social networking gone wrong.
Jane…um…yeah. So your ‘free’ drinks actually cost you $130. Not sure that’s actually free sweetie.
Strangely, I find myself in agreement with SJS. Most people who park cars and wait tables are in it for the tips. Whether you like it or not, this is how they make a living. When you go to a restaurant, you go knowing that valets, waiters and bartenders will be serving you and that tipping is how they make their living. If they do a decent job, they deserve to get paid. JB, when I go out or travel, I carry $50 or so in small bills, 5′s and 1′s. Minimum tip for anything is $2 and that is rare, i.e. I usually tip more, with the exception of the tip jar at service counters–just drop the loose change and a dollar in the tip jar and you are good to go.
Be aware that service staff in the U.S. are now taxed based on the bills presented. That is, if they present you a bill for $100, they pay tax on $8 – whether you tip them or not. So tipping any less than that is not only failing to pay them for personal service, they end up paying tax because the government assumes you tipped them.
Personally, I tip wait-staff around 20%. The difference between a 15% and 20% tip is the difference between 115 and 120 for me (almost in the noise), but a difference between 15 and 20 for them.
Ahh Darkman, he did make Hilary a hero in AoT though, wonder if that will keep Homeland Security off his ass.
If you feel you’re getting shafted, leave the bare minimum. WTF?!? Aren’t you encouraging shit service? May be the wait-staff hear the Aussie accents and know they are going to get shafted.
Thanks for this. Another highly educational forum.
$130.00 for drinks, serving a party of four, for an entire evening of entertainment is a bargain with a group of friends that drink only imports and/or mixed drinks.
J.
Yeah, what Orin said.
Has anyone any suggestions on how to punish the bosses for being too cheap to pay their staff properly?
Of course tip the staff but at the same time give their boss a good hard kick in the wallet for being a Scrooge.
One thing that annoyed me last time in the States was when running a tab at a diner/bar, the waitress brings over the bill to settle when we weren’t finished. Because she was going off-shift, had to settle that one and start another for the next waitress to get hers.
But unlike Orin, I did find the service levels a good deal higher than a lot of places here.
Its just a different system, you adjust, and definitely keep a good supply of low denom notes.
I think service based wages are so poor they survive largely on the subsidy on the tip. it also deters room staff in hotels from robbing you blind and ensures decent service and notice. Yes I am cynical.
In terms of service, I’m not just thinking Oz, but other places I’ve traveled to recently like Malaysia, Japan, and Denmark. I’ve had woeful service in both Oz and the USA and I’ve had exceptional service in both places – the tipping aspect doesn’t seem to make much difference (except as an additional cost) and I’ve noticed that many Americans will still provide a tip anyway because it is the polite and culturally appropriate thing to do. The other thing to keep in mind is that one tends to eat at better establishments when traveling overseas than you do at home and that is also going to influence your perceptions (that’s why its probably better to compare foreign against foreign rather than foreign against domestic).
Please do tip your waiter/waitress! I waited tables for eight years. The restaurant paid me $2.65 an hour. Yes, yes, yes–the servers most definitely live off their tips.
Will someone remove the Sweet Jane above and bring back the real SJS.
Sweet Jane Says is actually helpful and making sense.
Welcome back SJS. Good to see you lurking again.
15% is the normal. Anyone who tells you 20% is often a waiter. If you’re tipping more than 20, then you better have gotten a handy out of the deal.
I worked my way through college tending bar and waiting tables. I, and everyone else I worked with, was perfectly OK with having our compensation tied to our job performance. Who do you think will work harder? Someone who knows they’ll get paid the same amount whether they do a shit job or not, or someone who knows they’ll be rewarded for their hard work?
Hey Cheeseburger Gothic is back! Ok so it may have been for a couple of weeks, but this is my first time back.
Now how do I get one of those World Press accounts…
A friend once described being chased down the street after she forgot to tip in a New York City cafe – the waitress was all very polite about it explaining that she simply needs the tips to get by.
So with this story forever in the back of my head, eating out in the US was always a bit nervy for me.
I also recall a bar in Canada that had a ridge on the bar top. When they gave you change, they slid it towards you over the ridge, you took what you wanted to keep and pushed the rest back over the ridge for them. Couldnt say why but it was much better than the change in a plate deal – even though it was still obviously expected, it was like you had an option.
Who do you think will work harder? Someone who knows they’ll get paid the same amount whether they do a shit job or not, or someone who knows they’ll be rewarded for their hard work?
The theory would seem to be common sense, but (as is the case with many things that seem intuitively true but where reality seems to differ) my experience in visiting restaurants around the world is that your chances of getting exceptional or crap service doesn’t depend on whether tipping is the local cultural norm.
Which sort of makes sense if you compare it to something like executive salaries. You’d assume that given how much executive compensation rose in comparison to the average wage that the quality of executives and the decisions that they’d make would improve. Don’t pay peanuts and you don’t end up with monkeys. Except that what we’ve found in the current crisis is that you still get the same people making the same poor judgment calls irrespective of how much you compensate them.
This, of course, flies in the face of our cultural memes about incentivization. What is probably true is that the amount and quality of effort someone puts in isn’t tied directly to their expectation of compensation (most people who work as hard as they can do so in any job and can’t work harder if offered more because they are already putting in 100%, most people who are lazy will remain lazy independent of what they are paid). How well you get served at a restaurant probably has more to do with the work culture at the restaurant than anything else (more expensive restaurants tend to have better service wherever you go).
All that being said – in the USA of course you tip because someone has come up with a great system of charging you the same amount for food as you’d pay anywhere else, but not putting some of that money back into the pockets of the people waiting on you (as they would have to in a society that doesn’t tip). There’s a pretty good reason though why the system of tipping is limited to certain parts of the world – for all the intuitiveness of “they’ll work harder if they think they’ll get a good tip” – if it were blindingly and obviously true, the system would have been adopted in the rest of the world.
In my experience in the land of the big PX waiters, bar staff, cabbies, porters, hair dressers, toilet attendants, caddies, pool cleaners, sedan chair carriers, fan wavers and grape droppers all get tips.
15% standard, 20% for good, 25% for very good.
Someone told me just take the tax and double it for the tip so I was using the tax as the base but got caught out when I went from NYC to Virginia – different tax rates.
‘It may be of interest to you Mr President that the previously mentioned Mr. Birmingham wrote a book which killed the entire structure of the USA’
This. Good luck with Customs and Immigration JB. We ever likely to hear from you again or are you going to be helping certain peeps with their inquiries for a couple of years?
Playing the tourist, you’re going to tip like its going out of style. You don’t doing everyday stuff like shopping or buying gas… I mean petrol. The only places here I’ve had bad service where you get paid the same no matter what, but that may have something to do where I live in Alaska. Places and people think who else are you going to do business with. For example the local utility companies and hospital.
.
Pan McMillan proudly present the latest action packed political thriller from the author of the Axis of Time Series and the foreshortened Without Warning series, John Birmingham’s auto biographical “The Last Man in Gitmo”.
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Reviews:
Sydney Morning Herald: “If there was a Booker for explosive aternative history techno-thrillers with guts and brains, it would be a cinch”
Steve Sterling: “An unexpected turn of events…”
James Phelan: “B/tard got what he deserved”
Matthew Reilly: “John who? … snigger snigger snigger”
Jane Birmingham “Honey, if you read this please try and ring the kids miss you. I can’t find a good lawyer to help you.”
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;o)
What will start to piss you off about North America is the fact both the US and Canada still use copper coins.
When I was in Syracuse on our 2006 Lacrosse Adventures the local (Hi Wink) who was showing us around told us if you were going to be at a bar ALWAYS start a tab as it was cheaper. The theory was if you paid cash as you went you were tipping $1 a drink while if you ran a tab you just added the 15% on the end.
Remember having two completely different times with taxis in London ON, one night I gave the guy a $20 for a $16 ride and started to get out and the guy leaned over and practically forced ALL my change on me. Night after, different taxi, cheaper fair and I thought I would give him a $20 and then split the change with him. Driver took the note, pocketed it and gave me the ‘why are you still here in my taxi’ look.
Canada was pretty easy as they have $1 and $2 coin. Pay for the drink with a $10, pick out the $2 coin from the change and leave the rest and everyone seemed happy. Then before you leave the place at night dump any other unwanted coin in the jar.
The two nights I was in Seattle I (vaguely remember) drinking $4 pints, paying in notes and leaving the coin change each time.
(actually I DO remember the drinking – just not what I was paying :D I also remember being hit onto by some guys girlfriend, getting with her and then buying a band t-shirt off the boyfriend. Fun place Seattle)
Basically from my experience you will WANT to get rid of all that annoying bloody coin anyway :)
I also remember being out one night in London Ontario in a more ‘student’ type night club and trying to get a drink by leaning in with my elbow on the bar and holding my hand up with a 20 spot in it.
Some girl there looked at me and sneered ‘Is that how you get a drink in YOUR country?’
‘Well YES actually.’
MudCrab-My only time in that part of the world, I was in a truck plant just south of London working on an overhead lifter project. Got out of there at 11:30 pm, went back to the hotel, had a Labatts, and watched curling on CBC.
Obviously I was with the wrong people. Alas.
Yankeedog – was mid July so really good long barmy nights to go drinking in. I am told that since this was the summer break there wasn’t as many uni student types about as there normally is but my three mates and I had a great time :)
“Which sort of makes sense if you compare it to something like executive salaries”
I’m afraid you’ve lost me. There is a vast difference between corporate governance and the contract between a food server and their customer. I don’t have time to explain all the differences, but if you think stockowners get the same amount and type of information at the same speed about their officers as customers get about their servers, you need to read some more about Enron and then maybe work in a restaurant.
“more expensive restaurants tend to have better service wherever you go).”
and that’s because only the best servers have been hired there. They are looking to make more money.
“because someone has come up with a great system of charging you the same amount for food as you’d pay anywhere else, but not putting some of that money back into the pockets of the people waiting on you (as they would have to in a society that doesn’t tip).”
Not true. I suggest you look up the most expensive cities in the world. Most are in western europe and Japan and Australia, not the US. Here is a list for you. Only one american city in the top 50. New York.
“if it were blindingly and obviously true, the system would have been adopted in the rest of the world.”
this is kinda funny. On the one hand, you say people act independently of the outcome. But then you’re saying people would adopt what’s good for them.
Oops. Here is the list:
http://www.mercer.com/print.htm?indContentType=100&idContent=1095320&indBodyType=D&reference=#Cost_of_living_top_50_cities
Puma–My Man! Orin, most restaurants run on very, very low margins, even the high-end operations. Regardless of price point, two things make a restaurant desirable: food and service. Rather than absorbing labor costs, marking them up, passing them along in the form of higher prices (and getting a less motivated wait staff) and paying additional matching taxes, restaurants let the market set labor costs and the server can do a great job and get a great tip or not.