1a/b) Where/why did tipping begin? Why give someone more than the price of the service rendered?
2) Is the tip typically 15% for all ‘tippable services?’
3) Who do you tip? barber, bar tender, cab driver, doorman (if so, everytime he opens the door?), elevator operator, waiter (of course, but do you tip them the customary 15% if it is a buffet if not how much???), valet, delivery men, etc.
4) Anyone else that needs tipping that I did not mention?
Who else needs tipping? Don’t forget manhattan, your friendly GQ moderator!
For the origins of tipping, I imagine they are lost in the dawn of time. (Watch someone come along and prove me wrong with a citation showing that tipping began with King Louis IX in 1257.)
15%? In large urban areas, in restaurants, I believe that 20% is considered the norm. At the carwash, I personally tip a dollar (on a $9 carwash), which would be an 11% tip. I’ve never heard a convention that the 15 or 20% would be applied in all cases.
Whom do you tip? I imagine anyone that offers a personal service. I personally tip at the carwash, in a restaurant and the delivery person if I have something delivered. Adding of course bellboys in hotels and the like. In Switzerland people it’s customary to leave a gift for the mailman around Christmas, and my cousin who delivers government checks (also in Switzerland) to retirees say they often tip him on “check day”.
I should’ve known that the master would have covered this question.
Here is a site I’ve found pretty useful for tips for all kinds of stuff. Other pages on the site have guidelines for tipping internationally and other situations.
I decided that tipping has gone too far when they put a tip jar at the Starbucks downstairs. I mean, the whole service is the product - the cuppa Joe. (Of course, I still tip :o ).
So, I took the other track … figgered if any service is worthy of a tip now, I should get them too. So I have a tip jar on my desk (I’m a lawyer). Not much return yet, but give it time … ;j
V. (not Jewish, but love the new Smiley)
I thought this was going to be a thread about **COW **tipping…
I have to concur that tip means “to insure promptness”. I read somewhere (Uncle John’s bathroom reader I beleive) that the custom was originated in a restaurant. The idea was, you put some cash in a box near the Maitre d’ and he’d give you the best available seat/waiter/etc. I worked as a bartender for a few years in college, and to prove this theory, go to a bar and start ordering. If you like mixed drinks (I could always fill in if you don’t start tipping at least a buck for every drink and watch how each drink has more and more liquor in it. Unless of course you get one of the shitheads that only serve single shots no matter what. In that case don’t give a penny.
Keep in mind though that most states have minimum wage laws where if an employee is in a position to get tipped, the employer can pay less than min wage. For example, I was making $4/hr in wages, but averaged $9/hr in tips, bringing it to $13/hr.
I can tell you at Boston’s Logan Airport, if you use the skycap service (curbside checkin- a must at Terminal E since the curb is quite a long distance from the actual terminal due to construction) the skycaps will repeat “This is Skycap service” over and over giving you the feeling that if you don’t slip them some Washington’s they are going to forget to bring your bag to the nice people who put it on the plane. I actually had a guy almost yell at me because I didn’t tip him (Why should I, I reasoned: it was his job and my bags were not overly heavy) and he gave me the distinct impression that although I was heading to Memphis, TN my bags were on the next Egypt Air flight to Memphis, Egypt. Ahh, the pleasures of Boston.
As a former bartender, I can also attest that the above is true. I would pretty much drop everything if a good tipper looked like his drink was getting low…
The other advantage of being a good tipper. Bartenders don’t ID your underage friends when you bring them in.
The other advantage of being a good tipper. Bartenders don’t ID your underage friends when you bring them in.
Back to the OP, question 4: I always tip my building super around Christmastime. Even if he hasn’t had to fix anything specifically in my apartment, he dumps the garbage and keeps the place clean. I also tip the mail carrier around that time of year.
Also, when I visited England this year, my cousin warned me not to tip the bartenders. What’s that about?
Simple. In most countries, employees get paid by their employer, and that’s all. Service is included in the price, because service staff are just doing their job like anyone else. You get paid by your employer if you do your job.
Somehow this bribery thing where if you do your job really well you get paid more by the sap customer came into play in some countries.
Bollocks to that.
–In England offer to buy the bartender a drink.
“And one for you?”
Whether he/she takes a slug right there in front of you is not important.
Whilst it is certainly true that in some countries the “service” cost is added to the bill, generally one still rounds up a bit… basically, adding enough change to get up to the next “round” number. But that’s usually pocket change.
Shulmahn suggests reluctance to tip because “it’s their job.” But most of those jobs do not pay a reasonable wage, because of the expected tips. I don’t like that system, but it would be cruel to the workers not to recognize it.
Also, Shulmahn, it’s especially dangerous not to tip the skycaps if you’re going to Memphis, whether Egypt or TN. This is because the planes carrying the luggage can’t locate Memphis with their compasses… You’ve heard of (ready for it) non-compass Memphis?
Philosophically, I’m against the whole concept of tipping waiters, but I do it because I know that if I don’t, they don’t get paid.
It would be much better for the workers if we in the US would adopt the system used in many places in Europe. There a service chargee, typically 15%, is added to the bill. Why should any working person have to fawn to make a living?
I will usually tip for wait staff, bell-boys, and hair stylist (I don’t live in an area where it is the norm to take a cab). Yes, I tip my stylist, and she looks forward to having me as a customer because she knows I’ll leave a tip.
I generally will tip a little more than 15% for wait staff because I used to be one and it SUCKED. I know what they go through and they work their butts off, so I’ll tip more on the whole. The exception is if the service is especially bad… and I mean incompetance, not just “it was unusually busy”. I can tell the difference, and will tip accordingly.
Personally, I think tipping is something that shouldn’t be needed, but it’s a necessary evil.
Tip:
Waiter/waitress
bellboys
barber
Do Not Tip:
delivery people (pizza is usually the only one I have to worry about, but if I tip him, why not the UPS guy, or the mailman?)
Anything else is grey area for me. Tipping always feels lose/lose to me. There are people that I’m never sure whether they are expecting it… and its always kind of awkward for me. Either A> I’m a total loser for not tipping the person, and they think I’m an ass. Or B> I’m a sucker for getting rid of my hard earned cash.
In general, I tip well, because I used to work for tips as a waiter, and you pretty much don’t work for your check. You work for your tips. So, I tip well. But I also believe that a “full” tip shouldn’t be guaranteed. If I thought I had a bad service, I’m not gonna give them what I’d normally give.
Just a thought
Screeme
If you are at a restraunt and order the buffet, and assuming that you get your food yourself and the waiter/waitress only brings you drinks and removes dirty dishes, do you still tip the same as if you ordered off the menu??
A good indication on wheter to tip or not is how much the person is getting paid.
Cab drivers, pizza delivery people= don’t get paid well so tip
UPS drivers= paid well so don’t tip