4 ms·
In some countries like afaik Japan, it's customary to NOT tip and actually leaving a tip might be seen as an insult - as if you tried to insinuate they aren't p
by hooby 4y ago
In some countries like afaik Japan, it's customary to NOT tip and actually leaving a tip might be seen as an insult - as if you tried to insinuate they aren't paying their employees enough.
I don't know why here in the west it's common practice to actually not pay employees enough and rely entirely on tips. Without those tips, many job offers in the service industry would not be attractive, as they don't pay enough to make a living. Without tips, many of those positions never could be filled, unless wages were raised.
Of course, if wages were raised, the increased cost would ultimately have to be passed on to the consumer. So instead of paying €9 for your order, and placing a €1 tip - you might end up being billed €10 instead. At the bottom line, on average, this would work out to the consumer paying the same with or without tips, and the worker earning the same, with or without tips.
But with tips, that's just the average - while in actuality, some patrons will tip a lot more than others. And some workers might earn a lot more tips than others.
If you assume that workers are unfriendly by default, you could see this as an incentive to make them behave more friendly in an attempt to earn a tip. If you assume that workers are friendly by default, you could see that as a green-light for them to be unfriendly to those customers who don't tip.
Not sure if creating a competitive environment between your workers is a good thing...
What tipping does, is make things more uneven. Some customer will pay more, some customer will pay less, some workers will earn more, some workers will pay less, some patrons will be treated more friendly, other patrons will be treated less friendly. The average stays the same, but the variance increases.
Without tipping, things would be more even. Individual cases would stay closer to the average.
- rapht 4y ago> I don't know why here in the west it's common practice to actually not pay employees enough and rely entirely on tips It's really mostly the case in North America. In most of Europe, tipping is more an exception than a rule. "Normal" service (i.e. being nice to clients and appropriately responding to requests given the standing of the place) is expected to be included in the price. I tip only when I got really outstanding service, and even then, mostly as a symbolic gesture of appreciation (2-5% ballpark figure).
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- courgette 4y agoIt’s a US and Canada thing. I’m 40ish and I gave a type twice in my life in France. Both were exceptional situations were I felt that the normal compensation was not enough and I felt bad for the worker. And even then.. I might have been influenced in my reaction by a long period spend in the US.
- hooby 4y agoNot necessarily only US and Canada. Support for tipping is actually a much requested feature for the payment software of the company I'm working for, especially with customers from the restaurant business. I don't know though, which of the EU-countries we serve drive most of those requests. I suspect Germany, Austria and maybe Poland?
- RobinL 4y agoIn Britain (where I live) it's standard (I believe?) to leave a circa 10% tip at a restaurant. When I've travelled to Europe I've done the same (but haven't thought much about whether it was expected). Restaurants are the place I'd associate most closely with tipping
- ciupicri 4y agoIt's not quite the same thing if you take into account taxes. If tips are cash only and missing from the bill, the worker gets more money. There's no sales/VAT tax, no income tax, no social security tax and so on. So instead of getting something like €5, the worker gets €9. This is how things are most of the time in Romania.
- dragonwriter 4y ago> t's not quite the same thing if you take into account taxes. If tips are cash only and missing from the bill, the worker gets more money. Tips, cash or not, are subject to taxes usually where they exist enough to have been considered in tax policy. (E. g., in the US they are subject to both income and payroll taxes.) If you mean “it is easier to commit tax fraud/evasion with cash tips than other compensation”, that’s probably true, OTOH, tax authorities tend to also be aware of this and scrutinize people working in traditionally tipped fields, especially if they repirt less tips than are “expected”, for this exact reason.
- ciupicri 4y agoYes, I meant tax evasion :-)