# British pub tipping etiquette Q **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pub-tipping-etiquette-q/318892 "2005-08-27T19:38:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Future\_days](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Future\_days](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Future_days)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pub-tipping-etiquette-q/318892/41 "2005-08-30T21:55:15Z")
> [@Mr. Slant](#): > > My point is, pay your server cash if you can and you just increase what they get from your tip by 3%. Big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pub-tipping-etiquette-q/318892/42 "2005-08-30T22:00:14Z")
> [@Future days](#): > > Big deal. Well, a 3% increase in your income if you make $20K in tips per year gives you an extra $600 per year. I like the idea of giving it to my waitron, and I have no urge to hand it to my financial institution and VISA. ---
**Author:** ![Future\_days](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Future\_days](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Future_days)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pub-tipping-etiquette-q/318892/43 "2005-08-30T22:06:50Z")
Or you could reduce the tip you give by 3% and give it in cash, that way you save money and the waiter is none the wiser. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pub-tipping-etiquette-q/318892/44 "2005-08-31T14:43:11Z")
But then you have to carry cash. And if you’re carrying cash for the sole purpose of leaving tips, then maybe you can be charged with aiding and abetting felony tax evasion. 🙂 Keep in mind that for crappy restaurants that would be so cheap as to charge the 3% to their waitstaff that (1) vote with your dollars and (2) it’s not 3% of the meal; it’s 3% of the tip. So say on a $20 tip, it’s $0.60. So on that hundred dollar meal, I’m still giving a much better tip than a cash tipper at 15% ($19.40 vs. $15.00). But… I see the point; the waitperson may not realize the difference and just think I’m a creepy idiot without the sense to leave a cash tip. Really, I can appreciate the difference if the restaurant charges the processing fee, but I won’t support any waitperson that wants to participate in tax evasion. If you read the waitress forums, you see that waitress either claim to be poor (won’t pay taxes anyway) or make more money than they would at a different job (deserve to pay their fair share). ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pub-tipping-etiquette-q/318892/45 "2005-08-31T15:43:47Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I worked in a pub in England for about a year, and i often had people say the magic words to me. Sometimes i would wait for my break, pour myself a drink, and go and sit with some of the patrons. I very rarely actually pocketed the money, as i felt bad taking cash if someone had specifically offered to buy me a drink. I know now that it’s generally-accepted practice, but i was pretty young then. > > Anyway, after i’d been there a while, i got to know most of the regulars. The pub was in a pretty poor, working-class community, where a lot of people were unemployed or underemployed—an English “pit town” in the post-Thatcher years. Sometimes, when people told me to take money for a drink, i would put the money in the till and keep track in my head of how much credit i had. Then, when one of the locals who never had any money came in, i would use it to buy him or her a drink. > > This had two salutary effects. It made me feel better, and it stopped some of these folks from spending half the evening trying to mooch drinks off other patrons. Pretty dam decent of you. If we run into each other in a pub somewhere,t 🙂 he Guiness is on me. ---
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pub-tipping-etiquette-q/318892/46 "2005-08-31T16:21:17Z")
Here’s the US profit margins. You can buy a keg of Samuel Adams (a reasonably respectable US beer) for $100 RETAIL. The keg holds about 120 16oz Glasses of Beer. Figuring wastage and crap at the end, let’s say you can sell 110 of those beers. When I go to a bar/pub I’d be happy to get an SA for about $3 (fairly standard. Go to a sports game and you’ll be paying a lot more than that!). This means that on every keg, one can make AT LEAST $230. Not bad. Hard alcohol is goes even further. A fair amount of restaurants around here make almost no money off the food they serve, but all the profits from drinks. A liquor licence is a MUST. ---
**Author:** ![Future\_days](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Future\_days](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Future_days)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pub-tipping-etiquette-q/318892/47 "2005-08-31T16:29:58Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Finding wholesale prices isn’t easy, so all I can come up with is an admittedly-biased [Camra](http://www.camra.org.uk/pages/p2595c.htm) article, which has even the lowest price of a barrel of cask beer at £130 - after wastage, that’s about 70p/pint. According to **garius** ’ links, the average cost of a pint in 2000, minus duty, was about £1.30. So that’s 60p profit, for the biggest pub chains where they can negotiate huge discounts. With a small chain or independent pub buying a barrel at the full price of £250, the profit’s down to 10-20p, which was what I vaguely suggested earlier. £1.30 for a pint in 2000? Utter rubbish! Try £1.80+ ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pub-tipping-etiquette-q/318892/48 "2005-08-31T18:24:43Z")
> [@Future days](#): > > ÂŁ1.30 for a pint in 2000? Utter rubbish! Try ÂŁ1.80+ Note the words **minus duty** :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![dottydumpling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@dottydumpling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dottydumpling)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2025, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pub-tipping-etiquette-q/318892/49 "2025-07-25T00:33:10Z")
I was always taught that “and one for yourself” means take a tip. Traditionally this was 20p but with inflation this has increased. I still only take 20p max if an elderly customer says this. I add 50p to some payments and a £1 to others. I weigh up what I think matches the budget of the customer. Occasionally a customer will say “and take a DRINK for yourself”. There is a distinct, but subtle, difference between this and “have one for yourself”. I am really good ar my job and super helpful yet co- workers who make no effort earn more tips than me. They have misconstrued the gesture, and may deter customers from returning due to this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-pub-tipping-etiquette-q/318892.md?page=2)