# Why do Americans tip bar staff? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2002, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637 "2002-04-03T19:54:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637/41 "2002-04-03T23:06:51Z")
You cannot pay a bartender or anyone else less than federal minimum wage if they are an employee (which a bartender certainly is), so your friend is entitled to 20 years of backpay for $2.13 an hour minus the minimum wage and interest. She could retire. She should definitely see a lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637/42 "2002-04-03T23:11:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Niobium Knight \* > \*\*I dont tip taxi drivers cos I know how much they earn, and how they rip you off. > > Waiters.waitresses I do tend to tip (up to 10% depending on service). > > Icidentaly, when I was in america I tried to tip a bartender once. I gave him a quarter I think, and he gave me it back and said “Tip properly or not at all. You dont have to tip every time”. Now a quarter is more than 10%. \*\* Um, honey, it’s 15 to 20 percent. Giving a guy a quarter here implies that it was poor service. Do us a favor-please don’t come back. ---
**Author:** ![Niobium\_Knight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@Niobium\_Knight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Niobium_Knight)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637/43 "2002-04-03T23:16:47Z")
If it’s 15 to 20 percent why do some of you bozos hand over a dollar every time you get a pint??? How the hell was I to know a quarter meant poor service? Nothing means poor service imho. God those bartenders in USA must make a packet. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637/44 "2002-04-03T23:29:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Niobium Knight \* > \*\*I dont tip taxi drivers cos I know how much they earn, and how they rip you off. > \*\* Heh. Umm, no offense, but you don’t **know** this. You think this. You are wrong. Nearly everywhere in the US, and especially in most major cities, cabdrivers actually pay the cab company for the right to drive one of their legal medallion taxis. For their money, they can turn around and deal with local laws which set the service rates just slightly over minimum wage, not counting the people that stiff them. The posted rates in any American taxicab are the _minimum_ rates. Pay more, or don’t bother calling a cab. Oh, and while I only occasionally work as a bartender, and have never supported myself exclusively thus, anyone who gives me a quarter is going to find themself eating it. It’s just as your barman said: tip properly, or don’t tip at all. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637/45 "2002-04-03T23:33:15Z")
Sorry, DPWHITE, it is perfectly legal to pay a tipped employee $2.13 / hr. Trust me on this one. I ain’t saying it’s right, but it’s a fact. > [@](#): > > How hard is it to pour a fucking pint??? Spoken like someone who has never set foot behind a bar. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637/46 "2002-04-03T23:40:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DPWhite \* > \*\*You cannot pay a bartender or anyone else less than federal minimum wage if they are an employee (which a bartender certainly is), so your friend is entitled to 20 years of backpay for $2.13 an hour minus the minimum wage and interest. She could retire. She should definitely see a lawyer. \*\* Most states with minimum wage laws allow for hourly wages much lower than regular minimum wage for positions where tipping is expected. See [Summary of Wage Order Rates and Allowances for the Restaurant Industry](http://www.labor.state.ny.us/pdf/part137.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637/47 "2002-04-04T00:16:28Z")
From the Glasgow (Scotland) Tourist website: > [@](#): > > In restaurants, check if a service charge has been added to your bill - if it has not, it is customary to leave a tip of 10-15% for staff. Taxi drivers are most appreciative a tip of 10%, with a minimum of about 50p. Hairdressers and barbers also appreciate a tip of 10-15%. If using the services of a bellboy or doorman in a 4- or 5-star hotel, he would expect £1 for his troubles. You are not expected to tip theatre and cinema ushers, but bar staff always welcome a wee contribution to their sometimes modest earnings. From Rick Steeve’s Travel Website: > [@](#): > > I am a bartender here in the uk. I get really peeved when I am not tipped. We are paid £0.20 over minimum wage per hour and are expected to make the rest up in tips. We only work 20 hours a week, when the club is open and we have to work for private parties when the club is hired out. The problem is that although most English people do tip, many americans do not. A friend told me that americans are told not to tip because the british get offended. This is ridiculous, nobody in the universe should be offended at being given money. Furthermore when a complex order is taken which might take me a few minutes and potentially deprive me of serving a known tipper, I feel very upset when I’m not tipped. In the uk in bars when your change is returned on a tray it is in order that you may leave something as a tip. so please americans and continental europeans, tip us. Tou get better service if you do and you know that you are helping pay the rent or college fees or gas supply of the bar people. From a great British Pub webpage by the Social Issues Research Centre, in Oxford: > [@](#): > > Rule number six: It is not customary to tip the publican or bar staff in British pubs. Instead, if you wish, the common practice is to buy them a drink. The web address for the last quote above is: [http://www.sirc.org/publik/ptpchap1.html](http://www.sirc.org/publik/ptpchap1.html) and it is a great read–any Dopers going to the UK would be well advised to dip deeply into it: lots of social tips on pubs, pubbing and pub life. Quite funny, too. As for **Niobium Knight** , well: “Had that Karl Marx in the back of the cab, once. Asked him what it was all about. Said that the workers control the bleedin’ means of production! I said don’t try any of your Trotskyite Entryism round 'ere mate, and put 'im out. Bloody foreigners! Hanging’s too good for 'em, know what I mean, John?” ---
**Author:** ![d12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/71c47a/32.png) [@d12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d12)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637/48 "2002-04-04T00:24:25Z")
NK, I dunno whats wrong in the ol’ UK but anywhere I’ve went we’ve tipped (and seen others do so too). That list includes (but is not limited to): Canada Czech Republic Slovak Republic France Bartenders usually make minimum or slightly higher wages. Tipping is basically forcing them to work harder, quicker, and better. If it were possible, I’d make the entire world work for minimum wage and make everyone tip 🙂 Cheers, d12 ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637/49 "2002-04-04T03:09:19Z")
In the US, I tip bartenders, because that’s the custom. It’s a peculiar custom, I admit, insofar as waitresses and bartenders each get 15% for different levels of service. Oh well. When I am in a foreign country, I open up a guidebook, peruse the tipping customs, and act accordingly. Why Mr. Knight prefers high wages paid by the bar owner / zero wages paid by customers over low wages paid by bar owner / higher tips paid by bar customers is unclear to me. Suffice it to say that my understanding is that the restaurant biz is pretty competitive in the US; ie not especially profitable. I suspect the same holds true for bars. (But I may be wrong, to the extent that liquor liscences are rationed out.) FWIW, I have noticed that service tends to be much better in the US than in the UK or (eeg) France. IIRC, in the latter country 10% is the standard tip; it is mandatory and is added to the bill. I must admit again though that this effect applies more to restaurants than to bars. ---
**Author:** ![baltotop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@baltotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/baltotop)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637/50 "2002-04-04T04:54:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by brondicon \* > \*\*The person at the supermarket is not in a “service industry,” under which I would place such employees as waitstaff, cab drivers, and barstaff. Tipping is an incentive for those people in service industries to perform their jobs well, which mostly means satisfying the customer from whom they receive their tips. Tipping, again, is also a way to express thanks for a job well done, or not done, as the case may be. \*\* :mad: id like to say that i am and have been in the sevice industry and i do believe that a cashier is doing u a service and they/we do get crappy wages…i would and have taken a tip form a customer as a cashier and as management…for doing a good job …it shows a sign of respect to the person who has to stand in the same spot for hours at a time and do the same functions over and over again… this kind of job can cause back and other health related probs. such as pulled muscles, ct syndrome and others of the like and i think it is rude that a cashier i treated as a lower than u human being not worth ur respect for doing a good job ,…and it is a service to u the customer and it does count as a respectable job… Honey it pays the bills don’t it …:mad: ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2002, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637/51 "2002-04-04T05:14:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Niobium Knight \* > **If it’s 15 to 20 percent why do some of you bozos hand over a dollar every time you get a pint???** Insulting your fellow posters is not permitted in this forum. This is not the first time I have warned you for that sort of behavior. Do not do it again. Since the question has been answered as well as it can be, this thread is closed. bibliophage moderator GQ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-tip-bar-staff/101637.md?page=2)