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Many international fans visiting the US for the World Cup have become frustrated by the culture of tipping servers, telling the BBC that tipping fatigue has set in.
England supporter Geoff Pryor said he understood tipping for good service, but he found it “weird” when buying a bottle of water and “they try to get a tip for doing nothing”.
In the US, staff at some restaurants and bars are paid just over $2 (£1.50) an hour, and they expect customers to tip about 20% of the total cost of the bill so they can earn a living.
Frustrations have also been shared by hospitality staff, with one bar owner telling the BBC that many World Cup tourists have been bad tippers.
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All you can do is refuse to tip in solidarity with the workers.
This shit is being pushed so much that I’m starting to think it’s just more culture wars shit to keep sowing division between people
Or… And hear me out…
America is a genuinely corrupt and exploitative country that your own society perpetuates by allowing these oppressive standards on your fellow low wage citizens to continue to be the norm.
Or, you know…
There should never be an incentive for someone to work hard. The incentive is the paycheck. If they give bad service you fire them, every other scenario should be they are paid fairly and the customer leaves happy because they got good service.
“We need at-will employment to ensure good service”
“We need to allow tips to ensure good service” Naw the tips are there so they can list lower prices than you’re going to pay.
Kinda weird that US culture tends to demonize handouts, yet handouts in the shape of tips is expected and you’re a bad person for not providing them.
Handouts are accepted based solely upon how much money you make.
If you’re poor? You’re a leech on society.
If you’re rich? You clearly know money and you’ll obviously invest that back into the economy and it’ll trickle down to the poor people any minute now.
Dont visit here. Problem solved.
That’s not happening. Football fans are irrational, they’ll will follow their teams anywhere, no matter how bad, even places like qatar or us.
I remember long ago someone broke down the math for me and it became simple. If the bill is $53.27, for example, then 10% is $5.33, just by moving the decimal over one spot. A quick estimate tells me half of that is $2.50 (5 halved) + $0.15 (33 is close to 30 and that halved), so $2.65-ish. Add them together and 15% is close to $8. 20% is that initial $5.33 doubled to $10.66. Roughly between that is my tip on average service, probably rounded.
… Is that weird written out like that?
no, what’s weird is tipping in the first place. tipping shouldn’t be a fucking thing period
and don’t come at me with the “servers need to make money” then the fucking business should pay them a living wage. if your business can’t survive with paying your employees a living wage, then they don’t deserve to exist. that’s capitalism.
I’m not defending tipping. The business should pay them a livable wage. But if I’m going to go out to eat, which I have occasionally done, I’m not going to lecture the server about capitalism. They’re relying on tips. They get it.
Damn, you’re grumpy, huh?
A very simple solution is for restaurants to offer a second all-inclusive version of the menu with taxes and suggested tipping included in the prices. Can’t cost more than a half hour of work and the price of ten printed pieces of paper.
So if you order from the all inclusive menu you are served by a different server who is paid properly?
What I’m saying is just take the existing price, add the sales tax, add a 15% tip, and show the resulting price to the tourists. Same result, less head math for the tourists.
If you want proper wages for workers, you need unionization.
or how about fuck off with the tips and just pay employees a living wage. I the customer shouldn’t have to cover the gap in your employees wage.
Yup. If you’re serious about it, and not just an upset customer, support hospitality workers’ unions.
When I was in the US it was just confusing sometimes. Like I went to this restaurant to order a pizza, to-go. They had a sign outside and the pizza was like 18 dollars, but when you want to pay its more because of tax, and now they also expected a tip. Ok but it’s to go right? So you also tip when getting groceries? The entire system just felt very arbitrary.
Each place has its peculiarities. Bagging groceries and sorting garbage in Germany. Avoiding giving offense when ordering food or coffee in Italy. Etc.
A non insignificant number of owners would steal the money and you would still have to tip. Such is life here.
You make it sound like a third world banana republic…
Tipping culture is getting crazy.
It’s gotten out of hand. I ordered winter boots via an online shoe store and the check-out prompt asked if I would like to tip. There’s a tip prompt when I buy a container of carrot sticks at the roadside convenience store.
I would love to do away with the awkward conversations about what I’m doing next while using the point of sale terminal at restaurants. The ritual of annoying small talk in the hope that I select 20% for a tip is tiresome.
For some weird reason I read that whole post in the voice of the woman that does the virgin adverts in the UK.
It is completely out of control. I have been asked to tip at self operated vending machines. WTF?
They’re unconfigured PoS systems. Look at all the different PoS solutions out there. You never know where or when to tap your credit card, hit yes before or after the transaction is initiated. It’s generally smaller vendors not configuring non-out-of-the-box solutions. Simple as that.
That’s because vending machines aren’t actually paid at all and rely entirely on tips. Little known fact.
Damn. What a heartless bastard I am.
Stop being a robophobe
Clankist.
Genius.
Fuck this is a difficult one.
Tipping culture is a throwback to slavery times and is very typical of the predatory nature that exists within employment in the US. The position that customers need to pay a tip because the server needs a liveable wage that isn’t covered by employers and built into law is essentially being held hostage due to an unfair system.
That said, waitstaff depend on this for a liveable wage and by not paying the tip, you’re denying that worker fair income. It’s not their fault directly, it’s the system they are under.
Looking from the outside, it comes back to the same thing; the reluctance of Americans to engage in building a decent society by collectively voting to build that, rather than voting or even not voting at all to take care of themselves. Again, it’s another case of ‘you get out what you put in’. A 60% voter turnout reflects the quality of what’s been elected and makes it easy for bad actors to get what they want, especially when their base does turn out.
To get those things, they need to at least vote and vote for people who will give them the things they want like legislated, decent wages. Sometimes it also means some hardship or compromise. Here, that means wait staff would be giving up the potential of big tips for the benefit of decent wages and perhaps healthcare.
Personally? Of course I’d tip them; I’m in Rome so I’d do as the Romans do and I’m aware that’s their income. I’d also feel like I was held hostage by a shithouse, predatory system brought about by Americans lack of care for their own people though.
I’m in Rome so I’d do as the Romans
You’d own and rape slaves too?
No? So there is a Rubikon that you don’t cross after all?
If I was a tourist in Rome, and the only currency was raping a slave then i wouldn’t visit rome. But if I was visiting Rome and knew that the people serving me food needed to be paid directly because they would otherwise starve and become destitute then i would pay the Roman workers directly as is the custom of Rome.
If they would starve when we don’t give them handouts, they should riot and change the system. Not blame tourists.
paying their exploiters while telling the exploited how to solve their problems. i bet you think rapists are justified when they rape people in revealing clothes
Easy as hell to say when you don’t say to do it yourself. Revolution is bloody and things more often than not end up worse after. Especially with how heavily armed US police forces are
Only the naive would think that a mass riot would somehow make things better.
Yeah and it’s much closer to “I’ll pay a little more to make sure that person can afford to eat today” than, “owning and raping slaves”.
The point of that argument is to give an example on why the other argument does not make sense.
“When in Rome, do as the Romans” is bullshit. No matter the context.
Well, no, don’t go crazy here. Changing some of the behaviour is okay. For example, when I visit foreign countries I try to greet people in their native tongue. When in Brasil during the Carnival I dance on the streets, in Germany in October observe Oktoberfest, when in Zurich on weekend snort cocaine, you know - harmless stuff ;-)
So anyone who is underpaid at work should ask customers to pay extra instead of taking it up with their boss? Should grocery store staff start spitting in people’s food if customers dont hand over 20% more money at the checkout?
I’m all for supporting workers and i begrudgingly tip in our broken system most of the time… but i cant stand the entitlement of service staff who get pissed about bad tippers… take it up with your boss…
This is just the rich business owners (who are underpaying their staff) dividing the working class by framing this as the fault of the customer (typically also working class people…)
So now waitstaff are complaining about bad tippers and fighting other workers rather than focusing on the real problem.
It’s been pointed out to me a few times recently that a lot of hospitality staff don’t actually want the system to change as they usually don’t declare their full income from the tips to the taxman.
If they unionise and change things, their whole income becomes taxable, and they feel that they lose.
This seriously undermines the sympathy I have for the staff as a group. The tools for change are right there, but there are enough bootlickers and foolish individualists to poison any attempt at change short of a general strike. (I’m under no illusions as to the inevitable violent government response to such a thing either.)
Ultimately it comes down to; “Either change your system with group action, like everywhere else did, or keep whining about getting stiffed, your choice.”
Servers in America can work 20-30 hours a week and pretty easily make 40-50 dollars an hour. Very few restaurants can afford to pay their staff that much. These servers aren’t making 5 dollars an hour like everyone thinks. I personally think the most messed up thing about the restaurant industry is the cooks make the least amount of money out of everyone. Sysco reps, delivery drivers, servers, bartenders, owners, they all profit off of the kitchen.
Very few restaurants can afford to pay their staff that much
Most other countries have figured out how to make it work.
What country’s are paying their servers 45 dollars an hour?
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So you agree it’s dumb s fuck that only the last chain, those who carry the food to the table should be tipped
Welcome to the wage slave states of America! Hopefully you get out before you find out how much I.C.E. costs here. Ha!
Seriously don’t come here if you value your safety or your possessions.
Let’s fix this headline.
American’s Confused By Fair Wage Practices of Civilized Countries
The article could start like this:
Some Americans, more specifically those from the socalled “United States”, are confused by fair wages and other basic social norms on civilized countries.
Which American?
You know who! It’s the American with the Confused. He owns it!
Ci… Civ… Civ-il… Civil-i? Civil-iz? Civil rights? CIVIL RIGHTS COUNTRIES?! Does your country’s ICE know about this???
My favorite thing I saw recently in relation to tipping - was this sign at a restaurant about what the minimum wage was and encouraging tipping.
I’m assuming that sign was put up or at least tacitly endorsed by the management.
It’s almost as if they don’t have any agency over what they pay their own workers and they are then shaming customers into making up the difference? WTF?
It’s almost as if they don’t have any agency over what they pay their own workers
They kinda don’t. To pay their workers an acceptable base wage, they’d have to raise their menu prices 20%. They can put up as many signs as they want explaining the prices, but customers are pretty bad at reading signs. Many, if not most, customers are just going to see the higher prices and go somewhere cheaper. It doesn’t matter that the final price is the same, there’s a reason the whole $X.99 is so prevalent, monkey brain see smaller number, think better value.
It’s kind of a game of chicken, any one individual business that tries to eliminate tipping is going to risk losing customers to competitors. This isn’t really a problem that can be fixed at the individual business level, it would require legislation that forces all businesses to raise prices roughly the same amount at the same time.
Of course it was. Tipping is a scam by business owners to have customers pay wages so they don’t have to.
You think that’s bad? We have ads on our gas pump handles and a ‘donation’ question everytime we use a pos
Unfortunately my local gas station (Netherlands) also puts ads on the pumps. Glad I never have to go there anymore (recently switched to an EV)
Frustrations have also been shared by hospitality staff, with one bar owner telling the BBC that many World Cup tourists have been bad tippers.
Should read
Frustrations have also been shared by hospitality staff, with one bar owner telling the BBC that many World Cup tourists have been making staff aware that I and other businesses are bad employers.
And he is.
Making others aware? (commendable)
or
A bad employer? (not so commendable)
Yeah, why’s the bar owner being quoted in a paragraph about the frustrations of hospitality staff? He’s the one not paying them a fair wage and expecting the customers to subsidize his payroll!
