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The best rule of thumb is if someone has transported something you own. You tip a waiter at a restaurant because they brought you your food, but you don't tip a
by freehunter 10y ago
The best rule of thumb is if someone has transported something you own. You tip a waiter at a restaurant because they brought you your food, but you don't tip at McDonalds because you go up to the counter to get your own food, it's not brought to you. You tip a pizza delivery guy because he brought it to you, but you don't tip if you went and picked it up yourself. You tip a bellhop (or porter) at a hotel if they bring your luggage to your room, but you don't usually tip the doorman. You would tip a valet who parks your car for you. A restaurant is 10%-20% of the bill, a porter is $1-$2 per bag they have to carry. $2 is fine for a valet, $2 every time they bring your car to you. You don't have to tip when they take your car.
There are some places where people tip merely because there is a tip jar available... usually you just dump small change into there (the coins you get back or maybe a dollar). Starbucks comes to mind: there's no reason to tip at Starbucks other than the fact that there is a tip jar sitting out. If you're not used to tipping culture, ignore it. Same thing with ice cream shops or take-out windows. Absolutely no reason for there to be a tip jar there other than they're trying to guilt you into paying more than the advertised price.
There are certain situations where you might tip for extraordinary service rendered. You don't tip a doorman for opening a door, but you can tip if he calls a taxi for you. You don't have to tip at Starbucks, but if you ordered an extraordinarily complicated drink and they got the order right, a tip is called for. I usually tip even at take-out restaurants if I'm picking up an order late at night while they're getting ready to close the restaurant, or if it's a holiday and I feel bad that they're stuck working.
Some people get really mad if you don't tip a waiter. People rarely get mad if you forget to tip anyone else. So if you're confused, just tip your waiter 10% or 20% of the bill if they brought the food to you and forget any other tipping. If someone complains, just say you're European and aren't clear on the rules.
- spinlock 10y agoFYI - waiters also get _really_ mad if you only tip 10%. That's basically 2% less than minimum wage the way the IRS taxes waiters.
- hunter2_ 10y agoMy interpretation, perhaps widespread in the US, is that giving anything under 15% is specifically done to ensure that the waiter understands that the service was sub-par, so the bitter feelings are ideally balanced out. Getting "really mad" or instead realizing "ah, this is because I didn't check back after bringing their food for a good 20 minutes, so that request for ketchup only came after their fries were almost gone" is their own prerogative. If in fact they did everything by the book, especially that crucial "check in after 3 minutes / 3 bites following food delivery," and still got less than 15%, then "really mad" is probably warranted given the current situation of a sub-minimum-wage base. I typically map it out as follows: Less than 15% = You were nowhere to be found while my food was getting cold and I needed something for the food. 15% = Nothing terrible happened, but maybe we sat there for a loooooong time with menus closed or empty plates. 18% = Normal / everything as expected. Greater than 18% = You rock. I asked for suggestions and you had great ones, you comped something not related to a bad screwup, etc. Notice that all of the variation is in a pretty tight range. We could easily normalize it down about 10 points (and reinstate minimum wage) and remap the 4 levels above to <5%, 5%, 8%, >8%.
- freehunter 10y agoWow that's intense. I've never worked in food service, but if I want to leave a message saying "I want to let you know that I didn't forget to tip you, you just gave bad service" I usually leave like a dollar or something, not 10%. But really if I had bad enough service to warrant sending a message, I wouldn't give them 10% on top of the price of the food. They would just get zero (or damn close to zero) tip. Do people really say "you suck so I'm going to give you 15% more than the list price"?
- hunter2_ 10y agoI guess it all boils down to just how bad it was. Although I concluded above with a proposal to significantly reduce the range of the "bad" category, in today's reality the wide 15% range allows you to dial it in granularly. Once in a blue moon that is damn close to zero, sure.
- crazygringo 10y agoThat explains it for food -- but you also always tip bartenders (just like waiters, essentially their entire income is tips, so stiffing them is just as bad), taxis, barbers/hairdressers and massage therapists.
- aanm1988 10y ago> stiffing them is just as bad So not bad at all. It's in no way my responsibility to cover their wages. If the bar wants to raise prices a bit compensate then fine, but tipping is a ridiculous practice.
- freehunter 10y agoBartenders yeah, I treat them like waiters. You're right on that one. The others I usually lump into "tip with extradordinary service" and so do most people I know, so maybe it's regional. I've never tipped for a cab but I don't live in a cab-heavy city like NYC. I always tip my regular barber though, just because my barber is awesome. That's where it gets super confusing though, so a European can pretty safely ignore those and play ignorant.