Same thing used to happen here. Was a bit of a joke like doing things the Italian way.

Problem - few years back - under the veil of anti-terrorism and anti org crime Blair made it pretty serious. Employers now go to prison for evasion so its taken a little more soberly now.

Josser, that is the tackyest thing I have ever heard of ,, that cashier was insanely rude.
I never tip at cashiers, I think it is begging,, and I think it is tacky and I do not give a crap that they only make such and such an hour.. for goodness sake , this is getting sick, so like should secretaries start putting little jars out on their desks or what. ! ??

I don't see why waitstaff introducing themselves is such a bad thing? It's nice to acutally know the name of the person giving you your food, plus, if you need to get their attention, it's way better than a "hey, you!" Not that I would do that but.. sometimes you gotta go with desperate measures.


I have worked as housekeeping at a hotel before, and we didn't get paid very much at all. It was nice to find tips, just a little "thank you" for the service that makes their stay nice, even though they may not see us doing it. Most people don't, but I try to.

Now I work at a bookstore, with a Seattle's Best cafe. The cafe workers get tips now, but I think they get paid less than the other employees (which isn't much), and they have to declare the taxes.

I don't think any of them would lie about what they got at all. I doubt very many people would feel right doing that, you'd have to be especially jaded to do so. Besides, they don't get very many tips. Any tips have to be split up between at least two people, if not three, and they usually get less than $10 a night it seems like. A lot of people don't tip, or even notice that there is a tip jar there!

caladrius..

perhaps I'm not reading your post correctly...do you really think that in those places such as but not limited to Las Vegas where a bartender or waiter in a fancy place can pull in lots of money, especially cash from some of the high rollers who send chips their way, they report all their cash tips? Sure those who are supplementing their income with a few bucks from waiting, who are not in a high tax bracket anyway, will probably report all their tips because it's the right thing to do (just like when a contracter came to my house and told me he would give me a big discount if I paid in cash rather than with a check...I wonder why).....of course I was only too happy to pay with a check to make sure a record existed so the contracter would pay his fair share of taxes <g>

The tipping system in the USA is indeed one big example of the underground ecnomy allowing so called honest citizens to evade their fair share of taxes and don't tnhink for one second it is not a big reason why so many can make a career out of bartending or waitressing or dealing (cards at a Las Vegas casino not the other kind of dealing) or....

NeoPatrick - where in England are those amounts routinely added?

In some places in London yes, but not everywhere and rare outside London.

I get laughed at for tipping by my friends, they call it a "London thing" and it probably is.

I tend to tip if I have had good service and the tip reflects that service not a percentage of the bill.

Oh and I always tip in cash. I may pay the bill with a card but the tip is always cash so the wwaiting staff and not the restraunt get it.

Re hair sallon - tiping is an option. If you are in a posh place where a junior washes your hair and a stylist does the actual cutting then you may give the junior a £ but they won't expect it.

Caldrius,, you are very naive if you think a person would have to be particularily " jaded" to under declare tips. You are also young and inexperienced and that is stunningly obvious. I do not think this makes you a bad person, but you'd be easy to fool since you don't seem to grasp human nature yet,, LOL . Every place I have ever worked, tips are routinely under declared,, duh..

And, guess what , I do not need the waiters name." Excuse me...." seems to work well enough to summon a server once eye contact is made.

xyz123- I didn't say that no one would do that, I just don't think that most people who get tips would, in general. And not living in or near Vegas or any other main gambling city, I wouldn't know any of those people. And I don't know very many people who do such work for a living that requires tips. But the ones I do know, they wouldn't be doing that.

"But in France, a couple of euros ALWAYS produces a short personal thank-you note. Are maids especially poorly paid there, or is this just a different view of politeness?"

I worked as a maid during an internship in France and we never got any tips. We were REALLY badly paid as interns and could have really used a few euro for all the hard work, but the French maids were paid fairly well.

>>>>>
In the UK - in the main what you see on the menu is what you generally pay. If the service is good you will leave a gratuity not a tip.

Seems a far clearly, fairer system for all involved.
>>>>>>

different places in the world have different tipping practices and different ways of compensating workers within different industries. if you want everything exactly as it is in the UK, then stay home.

some countries like china often have entirely different pricing structures for foreigners. etc, etc.

anyway, here in the uk, we are expected to tip almost to the level of the US in restaurants...but unfortunately, we have to tip but don't get the good service. your suggestion that you throw down a ha'penny if you receive good service is laughable. in the last few years, more often than not, you will have a tip added automatically to your bill. i think you're living about three decades behind the times.

as ever, travel is about seeing the positives and negatives in different systems so maybe we can look at it another way. in the US, people overall seem to accept tipping (some even enjoy rewarding good service). waiters work for their tips for the most part...connecting their rewards with the extra effort in their work. in the UK, people generally don't have a good attitude towards tipping. so now we are forced to tip as it is added automatically in many, many places and waiters do not relate their tips with extra efforts to provide good service. the worst of both worlds, i would say.

seems bizarre that anyone would be arguing that the british concept of 'service' be universal around the world. yikes!

Walkinaround I agree with virtually everything you said except the bit about UK tipping being at the level of the US. It only reaches that level (and service) because we as customers let it.

I now work to certain principles.

1) If a waiter comes and asks a whole table "how is everything" then Brits will always say "lovely" that is how we are brought up.
2) I now, if disappointed, go and find front of house and detail to him/her exactly what is wrong and how I did not want to make a farce in front of my hosts/guests. Clearly I don't tip and cross out all automatic tips if this is required
3) If service has been good I round up to the nearest £10 assuming a min of 5% and a max of 10% and I thank the waiter for his/her good service.

Tough love I guess

"different places in the world have different tipping practices and different ways of compensating workers within different industries. if you want everything exactly as it is in the UK, then stay home"

I have a 7 year niece who frequently states the obvious. Strange - she also uses the word bizarre a lot.

1) If a waiter comes and asks a whole table "how is everything" then Brits will always say "lovely" that is how we are brought up.

That made me chuckle because we recently went to a favourite restaurant that has changed hands.
We put up with mediocre lukewarm food and didn't complain.
We then did the British thing of deciding never to return and told all our friends to avoid the place.

"different places in the world have different tipping practices and different ways of compensating workers within different industries. if you want everything exactly as it is in the UK, then stay home" Agreed. Now explain to me again why many Americans (including people posting here) insist on tipping to US standards in countries where it is not the local practice.

..because they don't know any better...for the same reason they expect US currency will be accepted and welcomed everywhere...for the same reason they get upset when they're told it's 15 degrees outside and wonder why everybody isn't bundled up in their winter clothing...for the same reason when they're told something is 500 meters down the road they don't know if it's near or far...since the USA is so large, many people wait till very late in life to begin travelling and they just can't handle all the differences and the way the USA is so contrary minded on so many different nuances of daily life.

"Now explain to me again why many Americans (including people posting here) insist on tipping to US standards in countries where it is not the local practice."

First of all, I doubt that all Americans do this. Perhaps they tip more than the local standard, but probably not at the 20% level we're used to. Some want to be generous if everything was great, and few expect to hear complaints or grumbling about OVER-tipping. Also, there's the idea of "when in doubt", where if one isn't clear on the local standard it's better to tip well than to under-tip.

When the dollar was strong, there was a tendency perhaps to "share the wealth", but now that the dollar has tanked I bet over-tipping by Americans won't be as common.

alan's points are good. And whether all Europeans want to believe this or not, most European waiters are NOT stupid. They actually EXPECT better tips from Americans and yes, they do appreciate them.

And I've said it a million times, but I consider myself a rather "high maintenance" customer in most European restaurants. I often ask what a lot of things are or how they are prepared. I generally ask detailed help with the wine. When a waiter doesn't glare at me as if I'm taking up his time, and specifically when he is overly friendly and helpful to me, I certainly like to reward him with a little extra for the way he has treated me and for taking the extra time for someone who doesn't speak the language. Still, I'm not saying I tip the same as I would in the US, but yes, I will tip more than MANY (but not all) locals do when I receive such special service.

American servers do not expect 25% but it is nice when some extraordinary wonderful people do!

15-20 is normal... 15 being on the "cheap" side.

I am a server and we pay 17% taxes on our sales so if we do not get a proper tip we have to pay the taxes anyway.

20% tip is the high end. 18% is more customary.

The places where I've seen "18% is automatically added for the convenience of our guests" is in South Beach and south Florida, and some foreign-owned restaurants.

One place is South Beach had uncommon nerve doing this, as it rates as THE WORST service I've ever had -- ignored; no one asked to refresh the drink; had to wait forever for menus. I well understand the concept of waiters not rushing you, etc. but this was a case of real neglect. I hesitate to name the place as it MUST have improved if it was going to stay in business. (Yes, I crossed off the tip on the bill, and left no tip. This was probably the only time I left no tip in my life -- I know that the staff usually works hard in most places. I usually ip 18%, at least 20% for fine restaurants.

I just came from the San Diego GTG and want to report that I have changed my tipping practice due to this thread. Our waiter was really great....Mario from Roma, so I tipped him 20% and I tipped separately in cash. I never realized before that they had additional hardships when their tip is on a credit card.

Well, I'm sure this post will shock and horrify Fodorite's on many levels... My family and I were in Spain this week and on the way to the Malaga airport wanted to stop at the Picasso Museum. There was a marathon of some sort going on in the city and traffic was blocked and we couldn't drive to the museum so my husband stayed with the car and my kids and I walked off to the museum.

Afterward, we needed to get something quickly to eat, meetup with my husband and rush to the airport to catch our flight home. We were starving and nothing was open for a quick meal but McDonalds. I haven't eaten there in a billion years (although I used to work there as a teenager) and I'm a pretty finicky eater, but our options were limited.

We went in and placed a pretty large order of sandwiches, drinks and fries. Well, our Spanish isn't very good, but a sweet young man and womanbehind the counter cheerfully helped us and after a lot of pointing and sign-language rang us up. The servers cheerfully packed everything securely and beautifully to go so we could eat in the car. These 2 young people couldn't have been nicer and more efficient. They even remembered the straws, napkins and ketchup without our asking, which almost never happens when you get takeout...

I remember when I worked at McDonald's we weren't allow to accept tips. Well, that was a zillion years ago and I'm sure the rules have changed. I handed the 2 kids who helped us a few euros as a tip and they were really tickled. Well, they deserved it, since they were so pleasant and helpful and I bet they make very little.

I know I've broken serious tipping rules, but it was worth seeing their smiles and I hope I encouraged them to keep up their great attitudes toward helpless and hungry foreigners.

gruezi