I’ve been to Canada many times in my life, but until this past week, only to the areas near Montreal or Toronto. I just got back from a trip to Vancouver, and partly due to the unfavorable exchange rate, I found that the cost of the trip was much higher than I was used to. Of course for me, coming from NYC, it was going to be more expensive given the need for airplane tickets and passports… But just eating out racked up more quickly than I expected.
I was there for the wedding of a friend, and most of the attendees were either visiting or ex-pat Americans. I picked up the tab for dinner at one of our outings during my stay, and one of the dual-pats commented on my giving an outsized tip (my usual 17-20% of the pre-tax bill). “You don’t have to do that in Canada,” he said; “The minimum wages for restaurant workers are higher here, and there’s a GST. A 10% tip is standard.”
When I looked a little dubious, as I’ve seen my share of ten-percenters in NYC and heard the complaints from my friends who’ve worked in the service industry (the workers are taxed on an assumed average 15% tip rate), he continued, “In the US I always tip at least 15, usually 20 percent. But it’s different here in Canada. Trust me on this one.”
The person who said this actively lives in both countries, with a summer home in Vancouver they stay in at least 4 months a year, a permanent residence near Philadelphia and frequent visits to NYC. So his bona fides are pretty good. On the other hand, I’d not heard this angle before.
Have I just been an extremely generous tipper for the last 15 years or so when in the Great White North? Or maybe it’s a Vancouver vs. Montreal thing?
In Toronto I always tipped 15%, GST + PST tax of the total. In the US I tip 20% of the total. I’m not sure what others do but most of my friends in Toronto also look at both taxes and tip close to that.
I live in Toronto and frequently travel to Montreal, and my standard is usually 15-20% in either city. This seems to be the common consensus on Chowhound when the question of tipping comes up on their boards (which is usually every 3-6 months, like clockwork).
Yes, the wait-staff here do make a slightly higher hourly wage than their American counterparts, but they are still making less than minimum wage and are counting on those tips to make up the difference. I’m not sure where the GST comes in either, as the only person who ever sees that cash is the gubmint.
Your friend is sadly mistaken. Please don’t follow his example.
(ETA: it should also be pointed out that Vancouver has the highest cost of living out of the three cities you mention, so I’d be incredibly surprised to find out that our neighbours to the west are stiffing their servers when compared to Montreal, which has the lowest cost of living of the bunch)
They don’t tip norms in the big cities in Canada, just in the rural parts where there are norms to tip. Watch out for French-speaking farmers with guns!
15-20% is normal. Even my crusty old cheap-ass father who lives in Buttfuck Manitoba tips at least 15% (well, he tips EXACTLY 15% - he multiplies the GST by 3).
I have no idea where your friend got that idea. He is wrong.
I tip 15% of the total bill for average service, as does just about everyone I know. I adjust up and down by 5% for better or worse than average. Only once have I tipped zero, and it was very justifiable.
And what’s all this shit about adding the taxes together, or multiplying the GST by 3? Is it that hard to calculate 15%?
I was always tipping the GST and PST amount, so 15% of the total before tax but 13% of total with tax. I use the same approach here in the U.S., tip 15% before tax.
It seems Dopers tip higher than the population at large and I tip less than the average Doper but I don’t think I tip below the average of the total population. Very rarely do I tip nothing or in excess of 20% but I have when it’s warranted. I actually think 15% is too high and remember when it used to be 10%.
Yeah, and sometimes it isn’t worth hanging around for the change either. Let’s say your bill comes to $16. A 15% tip comes to $18.40, but leaving a $20 bill means leaving a 25% tip. In most cases, I’ll just leave the 20 and take off. I feel like a cheapskate hanging around for my buck sixty in change.
In Ontario, the Provincial Sales Tax and the federal Goods and Services Tax (our value-added tax) added together are 13% of the bill. It used to be 15% before the Conservatives lowered the GST to 5%. So if you round that up to an easy amount or the next dollar or whatever, you’ll be in the range of the standard 15%. I might add some more on, depending.
Other provinces have different provincial taxes. I believe that Alberta* has no provincial sales tax.
[sub]*The province where they gove money away![/sub]
I start with the sum of the taxes and add a few bucks, to aim for 15-20% depending on my level of satisfaction with the service, and I think that’s pretty standard among my friends and family.
Sorry to take this out on you, Leaffan, but I’ve always hated it when people say things like this. For me, yes, it is that hard to calculate 15% in my head, and it’s a lot faster to either add the taxes or multiply GST by 3. It just works better in my head. And before anyone says anything about how people aren’t learning math nowadays, I just want to point out that I have a degree in biochem and am now studying mechanical engineering - I can do math! Just not in my head very well!
I usually have no difficulty with percentages, but for some reason I always feel a little “on the spot” when calculating tips and can get a bit anxious. (Especially if the bill includes adult beverages.) To simplify it, I round & calculate 10% first. (That’s about as simple as it gets, eh?) Then add half of that for 15% or multiply by 2 for 20%.
Eg; if the bill is ~$35, “3.5 +1.75 = 5.25” for normal service, or “3.5 X 2 = 7” for slightly better service, etc, and just round from there. Cuts down on those “Wait, did I do that wrong?” moments for me.
Yes, 10%+ 5% is relatively easy, but I find GSTx3 or GST+PST to be easier. One answer, rather than two to get right! Going straight with 15% just is never going to happen. I learned to do math with pen(cil) and paper… I will always need at least that to do anything even remotely complicated! My dad used to tease me because I’d look at the ceiling when he’d quiz me when I was learning my multiplication tables. The reason I did it? I was mentally writing the numbers on the ceiling, and going from there!
OK so it’s pretty unanimous from the native Canucks that 15-20% is the standard for a normal tip in Vancouver as it is in Toronto or Montreal as it is in NYC or Philly or anywhere else in the USA… I’ll try to find out where my new-met friend got his info. I didn’t put him in the “cheap tipper” category because he said he did conform to this range in the US but specifically reduced it for Canada, citing some vague but (to my ears) potentially plausible reasons.
I bet he himself is just passing on some bad wisdom he received his first time through, with its roots in a self-justifying cheapskate.
