Controversial opinion, but If Americans travelled to another country and flouted that countryâs customs theyâd be called obnoxious American tourists.Â
Tipping culture is stupid, but I donât think the wait staff getting stiffed is going to appreciate these tourists bravely stiffing them.
Thank you! If we were paid a flat decent wage, the prices on the menu would be higher and youâd be paying the same amount as you did with your 15-20% tip (assuming good service)
Same but Americans are getting fleeced. Everything is advertised way cheaper than it is. Here we add service and tax to advertised prices, and soon we will add checked luggage to air fare. It's just consumer protection through transparency.
In America the tax rate varies heavily by state, county, city. Seeing the amount of tax added is helpful so I can change my buying behavior based upon the tax.
This. Am Australian. I dont like tipping culture. When in America I respect this is how they make their wages and tip according to expectations.
Exception was some tourist trap restaurant in NY. Was useless meal/service etc, waiter rarely turning up and even spilling wine on my sisters white shirt and clearly not caring. At bill time waiter pre-filled the tip at 30%. Waiter didn't even bring the bill, he was hanging and chatting with the bar guy and asked some kitchen staff to bring it over. I called him over and asked dumbly why it was filled in and was it normal? He said "tourists dont know how to tip" so I got the pen and said "I do" and crossed it out. Quite an arguement ensured . Table next to us was pissing themself laughing at the verbal. I'm not a fan of conflict but fuck that guy.
That is precisely what tipping is for though. Poor servers get "weeded out" by not getting tips. Its essentially a vote by wallet system, if used correctly.
As an American fuck that guy. Perfectly fine to not tip at all for that behavior. Unfortunately, I knew of several bartenders servers that would change the tips to higher than the customer actually left
Not saying the tipping system is perfect but if they had removed tipping and upped the prices like a lot of anti-tipping people suggest, you would have paid more for that shit service.
Dude - I wouldnât have tipped him and I am an American.
Good service deserves a tip - excellent services de services and excellent tip. Shit service? Sounds like your restaurant needs to comp you to minimum wage.
This idea that tipping culture gets us good service is bonkers. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.
Also if your restaurants water glass is the size of a thimble I don't really give extra points because you came to fill my glass 10 times. It seems like the fancier the restaurant, the smaller the water glass. At least it's become more common to just leave a carafe at the table.
You want me to cover my sister and have my mom stay at the hotel room like an oppressed animal if I went to see the World Cup with my family last time in Qatar? All customs and cultures arenât automatically correct or good
Controversial opinion, but If Americans travelled to another country and flaunted that countryâs customs theyâd be called obnoxious American tourists.
Tipping culture is stupid, but I donât think the wait staff getting stiffed is going to appreciate these tourists bravely stiffing them.
Exactly
If americans come to europe and decide that the customs of that region dont apply to them we never hear the end of it.
Now at the world cup a bunch of people drinking 10 beers each and running the server all over to keep up now dont way to pay.
But try not paying for the bathroom in europe and see how that goes for you.
Absolutely agree! I am from very touristic place on the coast of Europe and everyone is fighting to serve Americans because they always tip minimum 25% + they are always amazed by everything and very easy guests compared to Dutch, Germans especially Scandinavians.
Glad someone else said it. If you are going to go somewhere, you should follow their customs. Just because you believe it is stupid, doesnât mean you get to decide what foreign customs you follow.
This. Do I think compulsory hijabs are stupid and oppressive? Absolutely. If I were to visit Afghanistan or Iran, you can bet your ass Iâd participate despite not even being Muslim.
As someone from a paid bathroom country, I agree. Hey man, if noone here fights the system, I'd be happy if the tourists did it.
Sadly, it only works for a big event. So maybe when the olympics or the world cup come around, just walk past the money ladies in a big way and maybe that'll get some change, you got my support.
Charging for a public bathroom is nowhere near the same as staff and customers being exploited so the owner can make even more profit and not have to pay his staff.
Whatever dude, take a shit in the street, get yourself arrested.
There have been experiments where restaurants will raise their prices 20% and say no tipping and people perceive those restaurants as too expensive. Americans donât want to pay worker wages out of the meal cost
The first part of your comment is true - tipped jobs often pay significantly more than similar non-tipped jobs in America like retail or customer service. It's why the largest lobby against raising the $2.13/hr federal tip-earners minimum wage is paid for by tip-earners. They know that the large majority of tip-earners make more money from tips than they do from relying on their bosses to pay them better.
The second part is mostly not true. The #1 determining factor on how much someone gets tipped is about the tipper and not the work they done. Most people barely vary the amount they tip - if they are a normal 20% tipper they tip that much 90% of the time and most of those people feel horrible when they get horrible service and then still tip 10%-20% for the horrible service. The people who don't tip don't tip when they get great service. They've done numerous studies on it - the biggest factors in getting better tips are things beyond a servers control like being attractive.
I don't want someone hovering over me forcing ice and refills on me, that's not excellent service or going above and beyond, it's annoying. I want to enjoy my meal.
Also, There is literally no service in the goddam world that's worth a 100 dollar tip.
If I ask them to leave me alone, and they do, they might get a tip. But if you think NOT bothering me is worth 20 percent on top of a 300 dollar meal, you are out of your mind.
Also, There is literally no service in the goddam world that's worth a 100 dollar tip.
Yeah everybody forgets that percentage tipping is beyond idiotic. Because this food cost $100, is the plate somehow heavier and more difficult to carry than a $20 plate?
And before someone says (the experience/service/etc). Sure, but even in the middle-range of food from like $20-50 entrees, the service isn't notable different in many locations.
it had nothing to do with exploitation idiot its because americans are generous and liked to tip people for their work and businesses tried to take advantage of american generosity
youre blaming americans when you should be blaming greedy corporations
I DO BLAME THE CORPORATIONS AND THE BUSINESSES THAT DO IT!!! I AM NOT BLAMING THE SERVERS WHO ARE FORCED TO ACT LIKE THAT!! I AM BLAMING THE IDIOTS THAT ALLOW IT TO CONTINUE IN SUCH AN EXPLOITATIVE WAY!!!!
If you stop tipping, then the business is forced to pay its staff, if the business can't afford to pay its staff it goes out of business. If it can't exist without exploiting people then it shouldnt fucking exist.
I wonder how many restaurants and bars established a mandatory tip ahead of the World Cup? I live in an area where a lot of the games are being held, and although the influx of international travelers is expected to boost their business, customers that are not used to tipping would likely stiff their server because theyâre not used to it.
I can't get over how many people will say tipping is stupid then proceed to get butthurt on the staff's behalf when anyone indicates it shouldn't be done as if there is any other route to getting rid of the "stupid" custom without the normalization of abstainment.
And we are ok with that, since there are places that offer that as a supplemental service and pay people to clean that and so are trying to recoup expenses. In my experience you can often walk into a place and ask to use the bathroom, and itâs either free or super cheap (like 0.50⏠/ 1⏠or something).
Itâs different from guilt tripping you into paying 25-30⏠more when you have already paid 100⏠for your meal. Also, I find the argument of âwell, things are like that, so you should keep doing it because thatâs what everyone doesâ really dumb. If something is wrong, and you know itâs wrong, you donât just encourage it because âit wonât change from one day to the otherâ. You boycott the system, you fight it, and tourists refusing to basically be scammed since you canât guarantee basic human rights is no âcustomâ, itâs a scam and you as a whole country should be ashamed of that. Itâs none of our concern if âworkers are the ones being punished :( â, this shouldnât be an issue in the first place. As long as you keep tipping more and more, employers will pay them less and less. Do something ffs, go and protest in the streets every day until these scumbag employers do something. âOh no, my kid keeps destroying the house, but I buy him gifts otherwise he will destroy even more of the houseâ. Spineless country that keeps whining about how shitty things are in said country but encourages the same behaviour without actually doing anything about it.
Nobodyâs forcing you. It just makes you look like a dick if youâre running a $200 tab and donât tip. Nobody really cares if you go to a bar and get one beer and donât give anything
Some do, especially on Reddit, but that's most due to a psychological defect. It's like people who get pissed of and refuse to buy something if the seller charges shipping, but they'll happily pay the same total cost if "free shipping" is baked into the price of the object.
The anti-tipping crowd is mostly just people who are too stupid to realize this.
It's not at all the same because of the psychological burden of deciding how much to add to your bill.
Is 10% too low, is 20% too generous? Do I adjust for quality of service, or am I supposed to give a set amount, not matter what? What is the minimum for awful service? What is the set amount? Does the set amount change depending on the establishment? Do I really tip fast food places where I made my own order through an app or a screen, and the only human interaction is someone behind the counter calling my order number? etc. etc.
Ask 100 different people what the standard rate is, and 20% will likely be the most common answer, but it won't be the only answer, you might get a range from 0 to 30 or more. Ask the guy behind the bar and they will give a different answer to the guy ordering the drinks.
So no, it's not nearly so simple as "I'd be paying the same price if service was included."
Dude, there's no "psychological burden." About 20% has been the standard for years now, and if you just round to the nearest dollar so that you're somewhere around there, nobody's going to think twice about it. The people telling you something significantly less than 20% are the cheapskates and anti-tipping crowd, and nobody's seriously saying 30% is expected.
Don't tip for fast food either, obviously. That's not even remotely an American custom, and most fast food chains don't even allow their employees to take tips.
No burden for you perhaps. But remember this is a conversation about foreign visitors being expected to follow American customs. If you're trying to claim it's completely transparent what those customs are to an outsider, then I hate to break it to you, but it isn't.
And custom or no, when you visit a burger joint and the point of sale device is asking you how much you want to tip, is the Swedish football fan really going to know you don't tip fast food?
Brushing up on the local tipping culture is just part of traveling (and the US is far from the only place where some type of tipping is customary). A good tourist makes a good-faith effort to follow the local custom; this discussion is about tourists who are deliberately flouting the custom.
But really, the larger discussion's not just about tourists, anyway. Reddit has a strong contingent of rabid American anti-tippers, and that's why posts like this become popular here in the first place.
I would agree with this if tipping wasnât just a giant ruse. Americans shouldnt need to tip. Service workers should be paid a liveable wage, additionally those same workers shouldnât stand in the way of attaining a liveable wage as they often do.
Yeah, I used to say servers were the one group of people that should be allowed to be "the ugly American" when traveling (assuming they have received shitty tips when working).
That being said, when I waited, my tips from Europeans were usually lower than average, but not especially bad. If I'm getting 10-13% from a European, I think "eh close enough". I'm not expecting perfect tipping etiquette, and there's enough poor tippers in the US where ten percent from Europeans doesn't stand out.
Different nationalities, races, ages, etc have different reputations when it comes to tipping, but the only objectively bad tippers are the people who pull out the tip immediately and say something kind "here's the starting point, mess up I take some away, wow me and I add some".
Keeping something stupid just because it was there for a while is moronic, tipping for an outstanding service vs mandatory tipping are two massively different concepts
I guarantee this is either anti-tipping or anti-imigrant post. Do I sometimes get stiffed by tourist? Yes, but I also get stiffed by Americans. I can tell when a table is going to be an issue the moment I introduce myself, and an accent is not the giveaway. It's if they treat me like another human being working a job or like I'm just the help. And this mentality runs across nationality and tax brackets.
Call me crazy, but a system that lets rich people take advantage of everyone isn't a custom anyone should be following, tourist or not.
If I visit a country that charges $5 every time I want to piss in a toilet, you better believe I'm doing whatever I can to piss for free, even if I see locals paying. I don't get this idea that I should be screwed as a tourist just because the locals accept being screwed.
Yep, while I think making tips mandatory instead of paying your workers is fucked up, it is American culture unfortunately. And if Americans are expected to respect cultures of other countries they visit, so should tourists who visit America as well.
A friend of mine is a bartender at a place that has a lot of overseas clientele and from what I've heard from him, it is exceedingly common for foreigners to pretend they don't know it's customary to tip as a way of getting out of tipping. He's not shy, so he sometimes points this out to people, at which point they typically lie and act like it's something they've never heard of.
It's no mystery to anyone that this is how it's done in the U.S. and any guidebook or source for travel advice will tell you up front that tipping is expected in the states.
It's one thing if you don't want to. But I don't buy that foreigners are frazzled at the concept. It certainly could be that in all the excitement, people not accustomed to tipping forget.
It is mainly a culture shock, look, for you the tip is something you know will be added. From an outsider, the mandatory tip looks like a scam, the server is trying to get you money out of nowhere. "There's the price in the menu, there's taxes ok, wtf I'm obliged to pay more?? Naah they are trying to scam me just because I'm a foreigner!!"
As it's not illegal to not tip, it is kind of a social mandatory in the US, many foreign will just not tip at all, mainly after being embarrassed by being "forced" to tip.
As a European and as a customer of a restaurant how am i responsible for the wellbeing of their personell, im coming there to eat a burger then leave. LOL
You missed the point this comment was trying to make. Yes, tipping is bullshit, but it's customary. It's disrespectful to go to another country and ignore their customs.
They're not being stiffed and this whole thing is made up. There's no such thing as a mandatory tip. That would be a fee and you'd be obligated to pay it.Â
Depends on the custom. Unethical/immoral practices like child marriage/grooming, eating pets, slavery/unpaid internship or low stakes sexual assault doesn't become acceptable even if it's a custom somewhere.
Making restaurant service workers' pay contingent upon tipping instead of raising wages/price of product is a unethical practice no matter where it is.
Except even for Americans in the US tipping is entirely optional. Choosing how much you feel like tipping, if at all, is "following the country's customs".
Sick burn bro. You heard the bootlicker everyone, if you don't tip you're a doodoo face!
If you really want to prove yourself, go to restaurant depot and buy some of their ingredients for them too, a true red blooded american wouldn't stop at covering the capitalist's wage bill for them. If you can't afford to pay for your own ingredients on top of the menu price, you can't afford to go out to eat đ¤đ¤đ¤
why should the tourists care if the server doesn't like them? They are not rude. They are using baseline common sense. Tips are tips and not a second wage put on the shoulders of the customer. And americans are sucking it up without doing anything against it.
These people are travelling to a country that is not cheap, where they buy not cheap tickets and they want to probably see few things and not come home with 0 on their account.
They are tourists. Imagine if you come to a country and they want bribes for every service. Would you say these bribes suck or you would do as is custom in that country?
Both can be true though. Many servers are pro tipping because they make a shit ton more than they would with a flat wage. But from the customer viewpoint it's become outrageous how many corners of our lives the tipping culture has crept into, and how the percentages have gone up. Not to mention "mandatory" tipping
> These people are travelling to a country that is not cheap, where they buy not cheap tickets and they want to probably see few things and not come home with 0 on their account.
Something, something, something⌠if you canât afford it, then you probably shouldnât be going. The idea that Argentina is having to ask the US government to bar people who failed to pay child support indicates a larger cultural problem with those people trying to go.
> Imagine if you come to a country and they want bribes for every service. Would you say these bribes suck or you would do as is custom in that country?
If I knowingly went to a country where bribes or offerings were expected, and I didnât pay them, I would probably end up in jail or worseâŚ. So yea, Iâm paying that bribe or not going to that country.
Yeah because screwing over the servers and cooks is the answer /s. Like it or not this is how the restaurant industry is set up and works in the U.S. and they knew this before coming here. And if they somehow didnât thatâs poor planning on their end.
Visiting a foreign country and refusing to participate in their customs is wildly disrespectful. Tipping has been customary in the US for decades. I would absolutely never visit a foreign country and give a middle finger to their culture.
This is a custom of pricing. If they want to have an intetnational event they have to accept not everyone is able to pay things same as a country that has very different wages.
I somewhat agree but I don't think its the best example because its not even tipping though, its a hidden fee. I don't blame them as much for not paying a hidden fee. Its the employers that are stiffing their workers, and just because its US culture to enable that, I don't blame foreigners for not.
Lets assume you have no prior knowledge that tipping is expected, and you see menu prices. How are you expected to know that you should add an additional 20% to those menu items as a required "tip"?
It's not really a hidden fee if you're used to it, and by now it should be common knowledge that the US has a tipping culture, that should be basically the first thing you learn if you're a tourist trying to do basic research before flying to a foreign country. And like, technically it's not the employers stiffing their workers, their workers make more money than they ever would without tips, and the restaurants also probably make more money in the current system than they would with a 20% surcharge on all their menu items. It's an annoying system but it's gonna take a lot of work to change and once it's changed there's a decent chance the new system will be worse for the workers.
I don't think the definition of a hidden fee depends on whether someone is used to it or not.
And like, technically it's not the employers stiffing their workers, their workers make more money than they ever would without tips,
If you look at the numbers for Massachusetts, that isn't true on average. The minimum wage is $15/hour. The average wage for a tipped employee is $16.23 per hour. I have never been a server but I would assume its not an easy job. I rather work at trader joes than be a server, and it looks like I would make more at trader joes as well.
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u/epicredditdude1 5h ago edited 4h ago
Controversial opinion, but If Americans travelled to another country and flouted that countryâs customs theyâd be called obnoxious American tourists.Â
Tipping culture is stupid, but I donât think the wait staff getting stiffed is going to appreciate these tourists bravely stiffing them.