Trying to get tips is one step up from begging
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When I was in a small bar in Manhattan and not really on the tourist trail and I asked the barman to be honest and tell me what the going rate for tipping him was. A buck a beer apparently.
Trying to get tips is one step up from begging
If you go somewhere or use a particular person's service on a regular basis it's in your own interest to give a decent tip. Those places/people will look after you in future.
That makes sense, but many give a tip even though you will never see that person again. You could walk out and keep that money to spend on yourself or your loved ones (assuming you have any). However, there is a little voice inside me saying I must not leave without rewarding the server. It is a cultural thing to do with our sense of fairness.
Sense of fairness?
It is the same 'sense of fairness' that makes it OK for landlords to hike up rents in the knowledge that we will all pay the increase through housing benefits and that makes it OK for employers to pay poverty wages in the knowledge that we will all pay the difference to a living wage through social security payments or tax credits. The tipping culture in the USA seems to be one based on low pay and exploitation of workers and customers. It is my definition of unfair - a warped system that should be ended by paying people a proper wage and leaving space for tipping where there has been exceptional service.
I have never been to the USA (apart from transit airports) and this fleecing culture is one of the disincentives for me. I have though just come back from Australia and (as someone above said) there is little or no tipping there (just rounding up on a bill) and service from people on a proper wage was always excellent.
America is miles behind the developed world in many ways, and their lax attitude to sharp practices in pricing is one of them. The escalation and extent of tipping is part of it. The reason generally given for the increase to 25%? Inflation. Moronic. I think waiters are actually taxed on deemed top income so if you tip below a given amount, they end up taxed on income they don’t earn.
What really irks though, is that tipping has become a latent part of pricing for so many things. We did an expensive whale watching tour a year or so ago. On getting back after a thoroughly shit experience, the captain told us that the staff rely on tips to supplement their wages so please be sure to tip generously. **** off. Pay your staff properly you slaving wanker.
And don’t get me started on “resort fees” at hotels. Stating prices before applicable sales taxes is enough of a piss-take but the resort fee is abhorrent. Hopefully the IRS will nail these charlatans soon.
That's the precise reason I never tip. Well, that and being a cheapskate.
Best non-cough incident was Harrods in 2016. Went there purposefully for some nosh at one of their restaurants knowing they tacked on 8% to the bill as a gratuity (a highbrow term for tip or service charge). I presumed - correctly I discovered months later - that the store pocketed all those discretionary payments that the cheeky baskets added automatically.
I declined to pay the excess and a manager was called. At first glance, and as I hoped, I could tell he was a seasoned bullshitter. Told him I wasn't prepared to contribute to his company's sneaky maximising profit scheme. He persisted with the faux charm offensive and only scuttled off when I amplified the same line twice more.
Nice try, Organ but I think you've forgotten why the manager really talked to you. You were seen in the pet section of Harrods crouched over a distressed cockatoo in a suggestive position that even shocked the shop's many Arab customers. When you told the manager you were a Pet Groomer he said "We can see that". Shouting "I just wanted to touch a cockatoo" as you were hurled into the street only led to looks of revulsion and did nothing to help your cause.
People in the West have an unusual sense of fairness. People at the bottom of the ladder have it very good compared to those at the bottom in Asia, Africa and South America. In India if you are born into the lowest caste then you will treated as filth for the rest of your life. It is the same in most places. In the West not only do we treat outsiders as equals but we sometimes give them preferential treatment – e.g. positive discrimination. That is so unusual that Third World people must think we are mad or mugs.
With contactless payments fast becoming the norm in most city bars and restaurants, what will be the way to tip then ?
Which bit? All of it? Do you believe people in India, for example, have the same sense of fairness as those in the West? In business in India you would be seen as a very immoral person if you did not favour your relatives over a stranger. But we regard nepotism as unfair. In sport we used to see most other countries as more likely to cheat than ourselves. We saw cheating as being unfair. Exam taking in India and China often seems to be about finding clever ways to cheat. We see that as unfair but they see it as normal. Corruption seems to lowest in Western countries. Why is that? I would say it is to do with our sense of fairness.
I'm not sure about that. The two most outrageous pieces of racism / inequality I've witnessed have been by Australians against Aborigines & Canadians against Inuits. I've spent some time in both countries and would say that it's comparible with your Indian caste example (where I also work regularly).
I might have mentioned it before ( but will repeat especially for JtJ and Dembe who i know loves it ) i know a Server who works at one of the top end disney restaurants ( its a pricey place ) who earned more than $ 200K last year, he has put his 2 children through school and lives in a 6 bed house in orlando, says the rush to get some of the better restaurant jobs in " disney springs " when they recently refurbished it was scary, servers on the weekend have to have disney security escort them to the car at the end of a evening shift as they often have over $1000 in cash on them
I guess a $5 doesnt cut it anymore
This is all about ripping johnny forefinger off to supplement the poor living wage standards the USA has in place ,pay people decent wage USA I say ,begging OR FORCING ONE TO BEG IS POOR
It is 18% , On a " vacation planners " FB group, people have been saying that places in NY have started add a " 25% recommend tip " and i know in a few of the " high end " disney restaurants they list 18, 22 and 25 %,
Blue Bayou & Napa Rose in DisneyLand Cali both have had 25% listed as a recommended tip, sure they are pushing it to see how far they can go, tables over 6 normally have 18% service charge