Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

How much do you tip?

Do you tip?

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 50.0%

  • No

    Votes: 4 22.2%

  • Sometimes

    Votes: 5 27.8%
  • Total voters
    18
nadroJ

nadroJ

CF Legend
So to support myself at Uni I work at TGI Fridays as a waitress. A big source of my income is my tips, and I've always found tipping culture very interesting. When you work the same job for over a year, you get to a point where you can not only predict who is going to tip you or not, but actually how much they will tip you. So this says to me that service standards don't really come into the equation and that people have already decided before they sit down whether they'll leave a tip or not.

So, do you tip?
 
I've only ever not tipped once. That was a special situation where the server was really really REALLY awful and just didn't care.
 
I don't really see it in the UK Culture to tip. We have a pretty good minimum wage, service normally comes included in bills for large parties..

But.. I guess if it's a really nice attentive person you kind of go for 10% on the bill?
 
I've always tipped restaurant people, even when they're horrible (but I give them much less). I give about 15% for average service, but if the person is exceptional then they get more. I never thought it right to tip bartenders and shooter girls until I actually became one and realized that if you don't get tips, the pay is poo. So, now I'll generally give maybe a dollar or two per every transaction.

I agree with you though, you can sort of predict the type of people who do and don't tip. I don't find it necessary for people to tip me $15 at a time for doing nothing, but hey, can't complain.
 
10% in UK restaurants (I did my time working in one as a student and it was the hardest job I've ever had, so I try and be nice)
15 to 20% in the USA.
I don't really tip in China as it's just not the culture.

I won't tip if food's like a hour to come or if the waiter is rude, but it's very rare
 
Mysterious Sue said:
I don't really tip in China as it's just not the culture.
Click to expand...

Chinese people NEVER tip. I mean NEVER. Like, I get it if it's not their culture, so if I went to China I wouldn't tip. But over here it is customary to tip 10%, and when I go to say, America, I make sure I tip 15-20%, because that's THEIR culture. I hate it when people are like well it's not my culture so I won't tip. Especially as Chinese people usually come in in massive groups (I'm talking 20 people walking in and wanting a table without a booking) and we usually manage to sit them down. Then they're really demanding, which I don't mind, but at the end of the day when you're a table of 20 with a bill that's going to end up over £300 and you leave me nothing it does take the piss really.
 
In the UK, no.

Waiters and waitresses in the UK get minimum wage. I don't get tipped for getting people on the Bubbleworks, or for selling someone a cinema ticket, or even if I worked in Starbucks and made them a coffee, so why should people get extra income in a restaurant? No.

If they've been extra awesome? Yes. Maybe.

In the US, I leave the bare minimum you can get away with without being seen as a jerk.

However.

I'd prefer if the UK was like the US, with staff in restaurants being paid below minimum wage. (What is it? Like $2 an hour?) Why would I prefer this? Because it would improve the service if people had to work for it.

But, I refuse to pay someone extra for doing their job right in the current culture. They should be doing that anyway. And since the standard in the UK is SO POOR anyway, I fear a better tipping culture would actually encourage people to not work so hard.

Of course, I've never seen Jordan working, so I can't judge. But the majority of staff in UK eateries are terrible. My glass is **** empty. Where ARE you? And why do you only ask if I'm enjoying my meal when I clearly don't want anything? Why doy ou IGNORE me when I look around for you? </3
 
I don't know if it's different in the UK, but in the US the the minimum wage is lower for jobs where tips are expected. In New York for example. Minimum wage for non-tipped employees is$7.25 an hour. Minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 an hour.
 
Joey said:
Of course, I've never seen Jordan working, so I can't judge. But the majority of staff in UK eateries are terrible. My glass is **** empty. Where ARE you? And why do you only ask if I'm enjoying my meal when I clearly don't want anything? Why doy ou IGNORE me when I look around for you? </3
Click to expand...

See, I think I make a good waitress because I'm exactly like you when I'm being served. I don't want to sit with an empty glass for ages and I hate it when I need something and I'm looking around for ages and the waitress is nowhere to be seen. So when I'm at work I try to refill drinks before they're finished and always make sure my guests have everything they need, and if they look like they want something I actually go to them instead of walking straight past.

But I do think there is a misconception by people who have never waited on tables that if we're not in our section then we're sat out the back doing nothing. There is a lot of other stuff behind the scenes that needs seeing to and sometimes you do find yourself just stuck doing something when you know you need to get to your tables. This is when it annoys me that people say they got bad service because the waitress wasn't around 100% of the time, if they knew the job then they'd know there's other stuff that needs to be done. And I also find that if I just hang out in my section that I'm bothering my tables and would rather wait for them to ask me for something rather than keep going to them and seeing if they're OK. But generally the response to my service has been a positive one ;]
 
When in the USA I tip the correct amount that is recommend as from what I have been told people get taxed on it.

In the uk I tend to tip 10%.
 
Youngster Joey said:
I don't know if it's different in the UK, but in the US the the minimum wage is lower for jobs where tips are expected. In New York for example. Minimum wage for non-tipped employees is$7.25 an hour. Minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 an hour.
Click to expand...
Indeed. As I explained, in the UK minimum wage is the same regardless of the job.
 
I don't think people get taxed on tips because you never have to claim them or report how much you got at the end of your shifts.

And yeah, in Canada the minimum wage is $10.25 I believe, which I make hourly at McDonalds, but at my other job I get server's wage, which is only $8.90 an hour. So, it ends up being pretty crap pay if nobody tips you.
 
I'm sketchy about tipping, mainly as I'm always anxious about where the tip money actually goes to. I know that it used to be not so long ago in the UK that tip money could be taken by the company to cover staff wages, which I thought was terrible, so I always used to ask where my tip would go to. Thankfully, the law has changed, but even so, I'm anxious about tipping.

For me, there are 3 things that make a good meal: service, food quality and atmosphere. When you tip, you usually take all of these into consideration to come up with a suitable amount you wish to tip. However, it's very, very rare that any of the money I tip goes to people who I feel deserve just as much credit as those who serve me - the chefs. I really feel for them as they can do an excellent job preparing the food you actually eat and them get **** over because as a society we kind of ignore their part in the creation of the meal when we hand over our money to the waiter/waitress.

So I sometimes tip, sometimes don't. In all honesty, I do tend to tip the more attractive waitresses even if they do a piss-poor job.

I'm going to hate doing to the States and being FORCED to tip way over the top...
 
ciallkennett said:
I'm sketchy about tipping, mainly as I'm always anxious about where the tip money actually goes to. I know that it used to be not so long ago in the UK that tip money could be taken by the company to cover staff wages, which I thought was terrible, so I always used to ask where my tip would go to. Thankfully, the law has changed, but even so, I'm anxious about tipping.
Click to expand...

People ALWAYS ask me where the tip goes, and I always have to tell them I get it. I got it when I worked at a different restaurant too. I don't know that that's not just a myth people came up with to excuse themselves for not tipping to be honest. There are people I work with who have waited tables for their whole lives, at many different restaurants, all of whom say they've never had to hand their tips over. So yeah, bit sketchy of that one.

ciallkennett said:
However, it's very, very rare that any of the money I tip goes to people who I feel deserve just as much credit as those who serve me - the chefs
Click to expand...

You do realise that chefs don't (usually) earn minimum wage though? They're paid a substantial bit more than that, many of them are on a salary even (at least from what I and others who I work with have experienced anyway).

Also, in my experience, most of the things that can go wrong with the food is the fault of the chefs, NOT the person taking your order. Of course it happens that once in a while I will take an order wrong, I'm only human, but at LEAST once a shift I have a chef try to hand me the wrong food. It kind of annoys me that because I'm the one the guests interact with, they think the mistake in their order is always my fault. The majority of the time this is definitely not the case.
 
nadroJ said:
ciallkennett said:
I'm sketchy about tipping, mainly as I'm always anxious about where the tip money actually goes to. I know that it used to be not so long ago in the UK that tip money could be taken by the company to cover staff wages, which I thought was terrible, so I always used to ask where my tip would go to. Thankfully, the law has changed, but even so, I'm anxious about tipping.
Click to expand...

People ALWAYS ask me where the tip goes, and I always have to tell them I get it. I got it when I worked at a different restaurant too. I don't know that that's not just a myth people came up with to excuse themselves for not tipping to be honest. There are people I work with who have waited tables for their whole lives, at many different restaurants, all of whom say they've never had to hand their tips over. So yeah, bit sketchy of that one.
Click to expand...

It wasn't ever a myth, some cheeky bastard managers did used to do it! The law changed in 2009:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7533863.stm

And yes, I do realise, it doesn't detract from the fact that they cooked my meal and I wish to thank them in terms of tips for doing so. And I agree, chefs are usually the ones who make the mistakes, and when that does happen I judge how well the waiting staff deal with the situation at hand. If they deal with it well, swiftly, with a smile and apologies, then they're very much deserving of a tip.
 
I think it's silly that it has become an obligation to tip. I like it because half the time I don't do **** all at my job and I get handed a fiver for it, but usually that's from people who I actually take the time to get to know. I don't think people should tip if the service was poor, or have to tip 15% of the bill. It should be based on service alone. Average service should get about 10-15%, poor service should get nothing or very little, and good service should get a little extra.

Though, I do find it odd when people tip me more than the cost of what they're buying, haha.
 
I usually tip 15 to 20 percent, depending on the service. If its really bad, I'll go down to 10%.

Oh, and this chart is pretty interesting. Shows how different cultures are.
 
It'll upset Jordan but I don't tip unless my waiter or waitress does something AMAZING, and really gets involved with my experience (without becoming annoying at the same time). It's a fine line, but customer service is something I'm very fond of and will show my appreciation for.

If ever I visit America, I would still disagree with the tipping culture, BUT, I also feel being paid below minimum wage expecting a tip is wrong. So granted whoever is serving me isn't a total dickhead, then I'll provide enough to ensure they're being paid at least minimum wage for the hour or two I'm there - it's only fair!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top