Tips tips!

[tzikeh]

The tip poll--and only a week late!

This is a U.S.-centric poll. Tipping in the U.S. is very different from tipping in Europe; the results would be hopelessly skewed if it were a poll that included all nations. (I don't know if Canada's tipping etiquette is just like the U.S.; if it is, feel free to join in!)

If you find it interesting, please point friends in this direction.



[Poll #1439233]

Comments

[kerri]

The etiquette may be the same in some ways, but I wouldn't regard tipping as 'necessary' as it is in the US. I don't think there's a single province that allows waiters/waitresses to be tipped less than minimum wage because they're expected to make it up in tips, a practice I understand is common in the US?

[isagel.livejournal.com]

As a person born, raised and living in a country where you barely tip at all (I routinely leave a tip in restaurants where you get served at the table, and I may tell a cab driver to keep the change), I'm obviously not participating in the poll, but I will keep an eye on it, because I find US tipping customs hugely intimidating, and fully expect to get it wrong and be hated on when I eventually take a trip across the pond.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

waiters/waitresses are commonly paid less than minimum wage because tips are 100% expected and are therefore considered part of their income, yes.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

*I* find US tipping customs hugely intimidating, and I've lived here all my life.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

fully expect to get it wrong and be hated on

I would suggest simply asking people. :) I'm sure there are guides on the 'net, too.

[kerri]

That's what I thought. :) So there isn't the same factor of it being 'expected', here, other than what's rubbed off from the US - we do still tip, but I don't think it's considered quite as much a breach of etiquette if you don't, because at the end of the day the wait staff still have their wage to depend on.

[misachan.livejournal.com]

Between reading Nickel and Dimed and my future sister-in-law having worked in the hotel industry I always tip hotel cleaners. Talk about people who don't make enough money for what they're required to put up with. And I can't imagine not tipping food delivery people; if we have enough for the pizza but not the tip we just don't order. It's just not done.

I over-tip cab drivers, but that's mostly because getting out of a cab is not when I want to be figuring out percentages.:)

[katrimae.livejournal.com]

My dad, rest his soul, was probably one of the worst tippers in the world and I think I may be overcompensating in an attempt to improve the family karma but I tend to start at 20% and go up from there if the service was really good or if I'm eating with people like my sister who can be, to put it tactfully, slightly persnickity.

[lunaris1013.livejournal.com]

99% of the tipping I do is for food (delivery and table service) and haircuts. Table service is 15% for adequate service, 20% for good service. The pizza guy gets $2 ($3 or $4 if the weather is nasty) and my stylist gets $5 for each $13.00 haircut.

The best tippers I've known are people that have worked service jobs (also the people that will tip cash instead of adding it to the plastic) and some of the worst are those that have lived a privileged life, regardless of their current income.

[misachan.livejournal.com]

Always tip: wait staff, food delivery people, hairstylists/barbers/nail salon people(there's wiggle room if the stylist owns the place)/cab drivers/room service.

If there's a tip jar, you're usually fine just to drop in your change, but it'll be rare for a barista to give you a death glare if you don't.:)

[lynnmonster.livejournal.com]

The only services you listed that I did not indicate that I tip for are services that I have never used. (If I HAD a maid, you can rest assured that I would tip him/her.)

[lynnmonster.livejournal.com]

Oh, and while I don't feel a brief stint at McCrory's Snack Bar in high school qualified me to answer affirmatively that I've worked in the service industry, I married my bartender, so my awareness is high. *g*

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

"and some of the worst are those that have lived a privileged life, regardless of their current income."

Tell me about it. Those people don't want to pay for anything. (Billing clerk for a childcare program.)

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

The base tip I currently give is 15%. When our children were young we tipped 20% *at least*, because small children eat less but make more trouble for the waitrons.

[settiai]

I'll admit, after spending the last five years working as a waitress, I've started tipping a lot more when I actually go somewhere. After you get your first few paychecks where you're only paid $2.20 an hour without tips, it tends to make you rethink just how much you want to leave.

[bailunrui.livejournal.com]

Ditto

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Well...heh, I haven't lived a privileged life (except, yeah...I suppose I have in the greater scheme of things, just not relative to this poll) and I've *never* really worked in the service industry, but I tip like a crazy person.

(e.g., L, the young woman who washes my hair before I get it cut, gets $5.00 from me *g*)

[quatre_k.livejournal.com]

I also always tip Casino workers, Dealers,Floor Attendants,Cage Cashiers, Bingo Runners {I work in a casino}

[amilyn.livejournal.com]

I didn't check several boxes due to not using those services (like housemaid, doorman, etc.).

I'm adamant about tipping well in restaurants since servers don't get paid EVEN minimum wage. I think the U.S. should follow Europe's example and pay servers a living wage (with the concommitant increase in prices) and have tipping be for excellence. In lieu of that...well...I'll be tipping.

[movies-michelle.livejournal.com]

I always tip a base of 15% to waitstaff. If the service was particularly cheerful--or they seem particularly harried by people at other tables--I'll go to 20% or up. I think a server would have to be outright insulting for me to tip under 15%. The only time I can think of that I didn't give a tip involved the absolute worst table service in the history of ever, and I still felt slightly bad about it.

I figure that it's not a job I've ever had, it's not a job I've ever wanted, it sucks, and they get paid jack. I don't want to be the person that ruins their day.

My dad is pretty bad about tipping, mostly because I think he just doesn't think about it. He always leaves something, but up until a couple of years ago, it was always $3. Didn't matter what the bill was, didn't matter how the service was: $3, without fail. I finally went to throw down more money once because he was leaving his usual $3 on a $40+ check. He didn't seem to know anything about the 15-20% or even doubling the tax. I felt bad because I really embarrassed him, but he also seems to be tipping more now.

And, you know, he's not cheap! Not really! I tried to buy them breakfast one Father's Day, and they both hit the roof. So I think it's got to be a generational/regional thing or something.

[amilyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I kind of feel like I'm making up for people who are, in my view, stingy about tipping. And I'm usually with a talkative group...and/or a group with masses of food allergies/aversions, so...I figure it's well-earned.

Cute furries in your icon!

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

I often overtip, and always am aware of tipping, because I have had so many friends who earned a living being waiters and bartenders while trying to become actors. I do not feel it is necessary to tip someone who has been overly rude or unhelpful, and the group of people who most often fit into the "not tipped or undertipped" category for me are taxi drivrs. I have withheld a tip more than once, or made it very small, and have been cursed soundly on occasion. Once my friend and I were followed out of a restaurant by a waitress who we'd tipped at just under 15% for getting the order wrong, being rude when we told her (nicely), talking to her friends while our corrected order sat in the pickup window and never bringing us our drinks. We should have stiffed her, but I do acknowledge that no one makes a living from a waitress' salary.

[ginamak.livejournal.com]

I did say that I would undertip for poor service, but to me that generally means 15% instead of 20%. Only once have I left less than 15%, and that was when we were completely abandoned by our waiter and, after waiting 45 minutes for the check, had to find a manager to get it.

My sister's been told that you can always spot a girl from New Orleans, because they always overtip. I suspect that's because we're not good at math thanks to our crappy school system, and 20% is easier to figure out. XD

[lydiabell.livejournal.com]

Do you have a PDA or smartphone or anything? I used to have a tipping app on my Palm Pilot, and I know they exist for iPhones.

[deaver.livejournal.com]

As I live in a relatively small city (21,000 people, roughly) a lot of the services you would tip for in bigger cities don't exist here like: other than pizza we have no delivery, we have no cab service, no doormen, etc.. Of the things I do tip for (restuarant service, hair stylist, massage therapist, etc..) I tip based on a couple of things;

For resturants, I generally give a minimum $2.00 tip - even if 15% would only be a dollar and some change. Above $2.00 I tip around 15% - 18% depending on service quality. I rarely go above 18% - it's just not expected around here, when the average tipper leaves 10%. If the service or food is horrible I tip, but usually leave a not nice note and I tell EVERYONE about the poor quality - in a small city word of mouth is the most powerful tool ever.

For hair stylist, I usually just give a flat $15 tip, regardless of the service, as hair cuts around here don't really cost much. (I get a cut and color for less than $80.) It's pretty much the same with massage therapist - I generally leave a flat $15 as it's easier than calculating the tip.

It's interesting the vareties in etiquette.