That's the same logic as if you don't like it, move......
Tipping, to me, is for good service. I do it to express my gratitude, not to fulfill expectations. I am very much against the mindset that it is expected no matter how the service is.
100%, if I get horrible service, I tip very little or not at all. Its the best way to speak with your wallet.
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Over here in the UK tipping is what we tend to do if someone provides a good service but its usually not expected as our minimum wage is around £6/7. If you give a tip it's usually collected by all serving staff & shared out equally.
It kind of works that way in the US, but the servers are paid far below minimum wage, which sucks.
So, to make a living, servers in the US need tips just to survive.
The closest thing we have to American style "tipping" would be what we call a Service Charge, it's usually applied to resturaunt bills if your party is over a certain number of people.
The US is the same way, if your party is over a certain number of people, they tack on gratuity, typically from 15-25% depending on the venue. The vast majority of people pay this, and then another 5-10% on top of that, depending how good the service was.
I think I can speak for a lot of folks on this side of the pond when I admit i had no idea how messed up the pay system is for US service industry workers. I'm sure more of us would tip if we better understood the way you guys do things.
It is a terrible system for most people. But it can work out very well for the server if its a high volume venu. I had an ex who worked at a crappy dive bar down in this terrible small town I lived in for awhile. She cleared 1500 dollars a week.
On a further note, I've always found the service in the US to be much better than over here. Maybe the tips are the reason? It's hard to find really good service in the UK
Yes, typically the better the service, the higher you tip. So service tends to be better.
I remember the 1st time I spent time with the GF and her family in France ( never date a French women, she will ruin your taste for any lesser women ), we went to this Bistro in Toulon, it took almost 40 minutes for the server to return with the bill, I was screaming in my then very broken French for a solid 5 minutes to even make that happen. All I said to him was tu es completement débile, the service was terrible at almost every place I've ever been in France.
Then, her family looked totally dumbfounded when we had amazing service, and I left a 35 Euro Tip. And it was rather amusing when the server attempted to return it to me.