Asklemmy

I always tip 20%, more for exceptional service. I've worked as a cook for about 15 years, at various places from dive bars to fine dining. At some places the servers and bartenders make insane money, often more than the chef who is usually on salary and not eligible for tips. But at a lot of places, the servers barely make ends meet and live not only check to check, but hand to mouth, week to week depending on the business. I never assume anyone is making bank so I tip well as a professional courtesy and to make up for people who don't tip.

Increasingly these days, I've heard about and worked at places where the tips are split with the back of house crew, up to 40%. That ends up meaning that nearly 50% of our monthly pay is in tips, and that's a blessing and a curse. Having PTO is basically worthless because missing out on the tips hurts so much.

Here in Seattle, they just raised the minimum wage to just over $20 an hour, and tips and benefits can't be counted towards that. It's a step in the right direction, but because capitalism is going to capitalism, it means that's barely enough to live in the city with a single income source. So I still tip well regardless.

Most places in the country are not that fortunate, so I encourage everyone to tip their servers. If you think you're going to force owners to pay people more by not tipping, you're not only wrong, you're actively making life harder for people who will likely never make as much as you if you work any sort of office job.

The system sucks, and needs to change. Some people can't afford to tip generously, and that's fine. But if you don't tip out of principle, you're just an asshole.

Americans: "I don't care how bad the service is, you HAVE to tip a minimum amount."

Also Americans: "My experience at the DMV was bad. Fire all government employees!"

As a transplant I refuse the whole US tipping system and stick to the way of “rounding it up”. It often ends up around 10% of the bill but % tipping seems absolutely stupid as you are being punished for buying more. A few rare times I actually tipped 20% because the service was very good. Nobody tips me on my job and on average I make less than these people so I don’t see the logical connection of this whole stupid tipping culture

20% for excellent service.

It goes down from there. Yes zero tip is acceptable if the service sucked. If I ordered medium rare steak and I get well done steak. I normally won’t deduct that from the tip since that is a hard one for the server to see. But if it’s something they could have seen and didn’t fix, yeah I’m probably reducing the tip.

The tip is for service above and beyond, not a required part of the bill.

20%—I feel for tip-based workers, but I'm also not running charity nor am I in a financial place in life to be tipping much higher than that.

If 20% is not in the list I will enter 20%.

20% minimum even if service sucked since it's virtually always systemic reasons why the service sucked

i live in vietnam. it's a poor country. but restaurant workers here get paid in money, so they don't need to work for gratuity. it would be strange or insulting if you tried to give extra money to the staff.

I do the same as you with a few exceptions:

Laugh at my old man's jokes about the weather when we go out for our weekly breakfast? You get an extra buck or two

If I order water, an extra buck or so. It takes the same energy as bringing me a beer. Especially at night clubs.

Bring me back my change but didn't break up that fiver? I'll tip you exactly 18% and make you bring me back five singles

The bars empty, you're not making squat in tips and you hang out and chat with me. Could be an extra five bucks or so

Give me a free beer? I'll tip an extra five bucks

0, after reading the comments I realised you do not want my answer, since I live in the EU

Followup question, how much do y'all tip your landlords /s

20 standard

Nothing, I live in a country where it's the employer's responsibility to pay their staff a livable wage.

Nothing I live in Australia

I typically calculate a 20% tip and then round up. For demographic purposes, I'm a millennial in the US.

always 15% regardless of service. best or worst, i don't care. im not going to judge anyone. i just want a meal and consider the 15% to be a convoluted tax for meals here in the US.

15-25% usually 20%. I have worked for tips so I get it.

My wife tipped 25% at an ice cream parlor last night. Which I thought was ridiculous considering he just pulled three pints out of a freezer behind him.

It's too many places now.

but I’ve heard these days it’s not unusual to tip up to 40%!

That seems pretty unusual to me.

I normally tip 20%.

I'm almost always a 25%. I used to work in the industry in a previous lifetime, and tips were what kept me afloat. Now I'm an overpaid professional, and have no qualm paying it forward.

The only situations I will tip much less is if:

• Service was just absolutely fucking abysmal due to very clear negligence.
• It's one of these new hipster restaurants that keep popping up, where you order and pay for your food upfront and are expected to tip then as well, without knowing how service will be. I'm not talking about food carts or kiosks either, these are actual restaurants. I hate the expectation that I should just pay an extra premium without even having a chance to evaluate the experience.

When I have been in the us I used to tip around 15%. Accepted that as a weirdness of the us.

On my home country tipping is just weird and unheard of, so 0%.

Edit: last time I was in the us was like 15 years ago.

I was going to answer, but then you clarified on the body of your post that you only wanted answers from people in the US, lol

I don't live in the US but I tip around 20%, sometimes more or less depending. Tbh I'm never sure what tipping etiquette is supposed to be here, but if it's obvious how much the worker is getting (eg ride shares or food delivery where you can see the delivery fee), I tip them how much I think is reasonable to be paid for that job, which is usually quite a bit more than I'm charged for the service. And ofc not all of the initial charge goes to the worker anyway.

I avoid restaurants that require tipping. When I do have to tip, I give way too much if the service was good. IMO, good service is to not try to talk to me too much, and to be responsive to what I need done (refilling drinks, taking additional requests). Bonus tip if I know they're overworked and handling it well.

15% floor. Throw an additional $10 sometimes. Always direct to the worker because these places steal tips. Also I tip cooks sometimes.

But I avoid going to these restaurants.

!AskUSA@discuss.online

Typically 20-25 at a restaurant. I’m not a fan of tipping for transactions where I’m not served. I only tip when someone does something.

15% flat always. Canada has sadly embraced tipping culture so I'll not deny anyone the going rate or judge them at their workplace - but Vancouver is also expensive as fuck and anything over 15% starts putting meals close to the 100$ mark.

I did round up a few times. It seems strange to base the tip off a percentage.

I usually try to tip relative to the cost of the food. If I bought something really cheap (few dollars) for a few dollars I might tip up to 40% but if I got something more expensive I will usually tip like 15%. I try to consider how much effort the server has put in since I think it makes sense that way. If I only see the server 3 times but they deliver a really expensive plate of food I don't think they deserve as much as someone who might have delivered multiple plates or had to do extra work like splitting the check.

in Canada, usually 15%, if the service is outstanding or i'm a regular I'll tip 20%

Growing up, and even after working in foodservice, I was always told to tip at least 20% (almost) regardless of service.

There's been maybe two times I didn't tip 20% and the lower tip was definitely earned.