It is not US/Non US. Tipping is prevelant over most of the world, but in various fashions.
Take a chart I found in the June 3 Travel section of the San Jose Mercury News:
Nation…Restaurants…porters…taxis
Australia…10% fine dining only…$2 per bag…change
China…3% in major cities…$1 to 2 total…0
England…10% if no service charge…$1 per bag…15%
France…5-10% (may be service charge)…same…round up
Germany…same…same…same
Italy…10% plus service charge…same…same
Japan… none (service charge?)…none…none
Mexico…10-15%…$1…50cents
New Zealand…none…none…none
In many european nations they have a service charge, supposed to be instead of tipping but sometime a tip is expected on top of it. A 15 % service charge is tipping, but a forced tip, no matter how good or bad the service is.
Dudes here on the boards insist that the 10% tip figure in Aus is only in major cities, and came from Americans, many said there was only a “tip jar” in most areas where change was thrown.
I used to order pizza for my classes for lunch when we were trying to finish early. The pizza place had great pizza and did a freaking awesome lunch business. I would generally call within 5 minutes of their opening and ask for an 11:30 delivery. I would get told that it would be much later than that due to the orders ahead of ours. OK, fine just do the best you can.
Then the total would come up “That will be $50 dollars, do you want to put it on a credit card?”
“Yup.”
“Do you want to put a tip on the credit card?”
“Yup, put 20% on it”
(phone call finishes)
Fast forward to 11:31 that day
“Here are your pizzas sir, and thanks for the great tip”
“No problem, have a great day”
I tipped 20% when I took the class out to lunch, and pizza was cheaper, so why not tip 20%?
Considering that I’d be making $2 an hour at most without tips, yeah, it’s expected. Also, why would you ever expect a pizza in 30 minutes or less? How many places actually guarantee that? The place I work tells people an hour, they get the pizza hot within an hour. If it arrives in 45 minutes, you’re not tipping even though the drivers don’t make minimum wage and it was impossible for them to get there in an arbitrary time limit set by you? If that’s the case, yes you’re an asshole.
For the record, I get $7.50 per hour (CA minimum wage), the 80 cent per delivery to help cover gas, and tips.
Last night I made 17 deliveries, and kept track of my tips so that I could share the data here. For once everyone tipped well, and I went home with a coupla’ bucks.
Ah, yes. Every single waitron and tippable employee in the country should join up and lobby for a totally different system, just to not inconvenience you personally in some way (even though you’d end up paying the same or more).
Sure we do. We say, you’re a fucking douchebag and a freeloader.
The tricky part is understanding who ‘everyone’ is. If you have no idea you’re supposed to tip in the first place, 20% of nothing is…[Jayne Cobb]uhh… let’s see… carry the zero…[/Jayne]…yep, nothing.
He was 11 and I never found out what was in his envelope. He said it was his & it was his business, not mine.
My father never gave me a hard time for the incident. My mother was pissed because it made for a less comfortable neighborhood cocktail party. (she never did out grow the '50s) That, and as president of the local GOP chapter (and his wife dearly loved to lord that over God & Sundry) it was understood that phone calls could and often would be made to make life difficult for anyone who displeased them. It’s still local lore about how a pothole that dared occur in front of their house was filled with asphault and smoothed by a steamroller less than 24hrs after its appearance. Also, in my political pin collection, I still have the 4 inch diameter ‘Nixon-Agnew’ button that I found run over repeatedly in the street in front of their house in 1974.
I often get a pizza and a 2 liter drink delivered, and I always give a $4 tip. Unfortunately, I like to order from Papa John’s online, and I kind of like to just tip on the credit card - so if you’re ages late and it’s the wrong pizza and you dropped it so the toppings fell off you still get your 4 bucks. Irritating, and I will call to complain. It’s too bad there’s so much turnover in pizza delivery, though, since if I get the same driver more than once they’re usually quite grateful - most people must tip like crap, because I don’t consider four bucks to be that great, personally.
So wait, you EXPECT them to show up in under a half hour, but you don’t tell them that, and punish the driver for not meeting your undeclared expectations?
If the people at the pizza joint could actually read minds, don’t you think they’d be playing hight stakes poker or something instead of delivering pizzas from a living?
See this is where your logic is flawed. If I do not give them a tip, it’s not a punishment. On the other hand, if they get a reward (a tip), it’s because they delivered my pizza hot and when I was expecting it.
Do you not understand this? Is it really that hard to grasp? You keep going on the assumption that a tip is mandatory. Sorry, chump, you shouldda stayed in college.
I would say that 30 minutes or less is a reasonable expectation for a pizza. The funny thing is that most of the time it IS under 30 minutes and the pizza is hot – so that proves it’s doable.
Not my problem. Find another job if you feel that your wages are in question.
If I called your place and they told me that, I’d cancel the order.
You’re going to have to provide a cite that says that your pizza place is lawfully paying you under minimum wage, because as far as I know, your employer is required the make up the difference in your pay if it is under minimum wage.
But then again, I don’t give a shit. If you’re a pizza delivery driver, you’re either a) an underachiever, b) financially irresponsible, or c) a kid. In any case, I don’t give a rat’s ass if you think you’re getting short-changed.
Yes, of course I know what unions are, freeloader. The point is, people shouldn’t have to organize and massively restructure the entire restaurant industry just because you’re fucking cheap.
Are you arguing that you are closer to cultural norms in regards to tipping than I am?
Would you argue that waiters cannot and are not paid less than minimum wage because of the expectation of tips?
Would you argue that they are not in fact taxed at a percentage of expected tips, whether they get them or not?
Would you argue that restaurant owners, operators, and waitstaff do not set up their wages and food prices dependent on a tipping system?
The friend I mentioned earlier who’s retired military, it’s a medical retirement. Until she finds a better job fitting her skills and her disability, she needs to work. She’s not an underachiever, financially irresponsible, or a kid.
But you’re definitely a douchebag. Add me to the growing list of not-spokespersons for society who think so.
People should organize for all sorts of reasons. The fact remains that restauranteurs are guilty of short-changing their waitstaff, and the burden rests on the public’s shoulders to compensate. I don’t have to play the game, sorry. Call me what you want, it doesn’t really matter.
Nowhere did I say that, and I am not even sure where that’s relevant. What I was saying is that you were laughably appointing yourself to be a spokesperson for society, because you disagree with me.
No, I’d argue that restauranteurs underpay their employees, charging that it’s due to system where tips are almost guaranteed. Further, what happens if the tips are pooled and there is one outstanding waiter and two shitty waiters? Does the one outstanding server just get screwed?
They’re SUPPOSED to be taxed. But how can you guarantee they are? Whether or not they’re supposed to be taxed isn’t relevant.
The premise of your argument here needs a cite. I have never heard that a given restaurant’s pricing structure is different because it’s in a system that uses a tipping model. I’ve been a lot of places around the world, and I’ve never noticed higher prices in restaurants that do not accept tips.
