Im having beers at bar ordered wings and tipped $2 everything the bartender brings me.
Beer = $6
tip for beer $2
wings = $20ish
Tip for wings from bartender = $2
Total tips = $4
==============================
Same order from waitress/er = $26
Tip = $5.20
Now I know this is micro example but extrapolate this over several drinks with food and the difference swings the other way. The question remains tho, am I tipping correctly?
You guys sound crazy
- non-american.
Couldn’t imagine tipping for EVERY drink, idk how I would keep track. I can barely afford drinks as it is. I once got tipped and I politely declined. It’s the responsibility of the workplace to pay fairly, not other people who are just trying to get by.
True but tipping was created generations ago for the wealthy to not have to pay living wages and it’s going to be as hard as taking guns away to get it to change. Remember, all this talk about “fair wages” and “equality” was planted and cultivated for a LONG time with a specific reason to hold down the poor and create different classes. It’s a shitty system getting worse by the day.
in australia they serve bottles of water for free. so im not even out there buying drinks. some places have carbonated water for free too.
Dont tip. Covid killed tipping, after covid you dont need to tip
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Tipping caught Covid and now it is dead?
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Before covid there was a lot of inservice work that you tipped for. During covid it became a lot more digital and the tipping didnt go away so everyone realised its bullshit and stopped tipping. Once tipping culture starts infecting digital transactions you got to stop it before it infects everything.
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I tip nothing for drinks, maybe 5 or 10 quid for a meal (for 3 or 4). Pay your staff so they don’t need to rely on tips.
You not tipping doesn’t teach the business owner, it just hurts those who aren’t in a position to change things and depending on the place, really need help. I’ve known too single moms who were servers to agree with this.
Lobby your local politicians, seek out places that don’t accept tips but don’t be a cheapskate and act like it’s a noble cause.
I’m neither being a cheapskate nor acting like it’s a noble cause. Not sure what you read.
Not tipping for drinks, 5 or 10 on a meal for 3 or 4 is being cheap. (Even if you manage to all spend only 20 a person, 5 on an 80 bill is less than 10% and such a bad tip that depending on the establishment, it may have cost the server money to feed you.)
I assumed you were justifying it with “pay your staff so they don’t need to rely on tips.”
Thinking a tip is owed for anything is being wildly presumptuous. Nobody is owed a tip, never mind a tip of an arbitrary value below which you describe people as cheap. Wise up.
Might be different where you live but at least in North America, a lot of places split tips between front of house and the back (cooks, cleaners etc) and they do that on a percentage of volume, not the actual tips that come in.
Say, back of house takes a standard 5%. If you tip the server 5 quid on dinner and drinks for 4 which is almost certainly over 100, the difference comes out of the waitresses pocket.
Personally, I find that a form of theft from those least able to absorb it. And being a person with empathy, I think that is wrong. But to each their own.
There is no convincing them to change their behavior because it’s an emotional reaction they backfill with paper thin logical.
These are people who, if given a position where they determined employees wages they would pay the bare minimum. The temporarily embarrassed millionaire mindset, class traitors, etc.
If they were approaching this from a truly moral position they would boycot establishments where tipping is expected. Instead they freeload and feel entitled to a server paid the literal minimum wage.
If they were approaching this from a truly moral position they would boycot establishments where tipping is expected. Instead they freeload and feel entitled to a server paid the literal minimum wage.
Exactly my thoughts. All this attitude does is punish a probably vulnerable person trying to make a decent living.
You can seek out non tip places etc but to go to ones that are tip and just give a shitty tip… Ugh.
For anyone who mightn’t know, tipping culture is rooted in slavery and exploitation. It existed in Europe to an extent but really spread its wings - like many awful European things - in the USA.
I support workers rights, but I don’t tip. The way I see it, if the place requires tips for their staff to get by, then the staff are being financially abused and I would be propping up a system of exploitation. Prioritise places that pay their staff above the minimum wage.
The way I see it, if the place requires tips for their staff to get by, then the staff are being financially abused and I would be propping up a system of exploitation. Prioritise places that pay their staff above the minimum wage.
Second sentence is fine, feel free to boycott places that pay below minimum wage. But if you do go to an establishment that pays based on the assumption of tips, and you don’t tip, you’re just joining in the exploitation.
if you do go to an establishment that pays based on the assumption of tips
In the USA, there are only 7 US States (and Guam) which mandate that the minimum wage be paid prior to consideration of tips. All other states permit some fraction of tips to be considered as part of minimum wage, with some states limiting the employer contribution to as low as $2.13/hr.
This is indeed an absurd situation outside of those seven states, but it also means that it’s nigh impossible to avoid establishments that rely on tips to supplement wages, in the other 43 states.
With this background, I can understand why the earlier commenter views tipping as exploitative, for both the consumer and the staff. The result of either choice – boycotting places that pay less than minimum wage, or not tipping at those places – doesn’t change the fact that the staff are being underpaid, which is the root exploitative practice.
you’re just joining in the exploitation
I think reasonable people can disagree on this point, on whether not tipping constitutes a secondary exploitation. Firstly, this framing places blame on individuals when the whole situation is a systemic machine of abuse. It is no different than the nebulous idea of personal responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions, when large polluters have the actual levers to make real change. Secondly – and this is an economic policy argument which I personally don’t subscribe to – it can be argued that prolonged employment while underpaid is better than no employment at all, based on the premise that the employer would close down if a boycott was successful.
But like I said, the initial exploitation is root. Everything else is collateral. Systemic abuse is fixed by systemic overhaul.
I think reasonable people can disagree on this point, on whether not tipping constitutes a secondary exploitation.
No, they cannot. Disagreement here is not reasoned, it is just another example of clever people using their cleverness to justify unreasonable prior beliefs.
You can boycott a business, and write them to express that your boycott is based on their tipping policy. That would be a reasonable strategy to support the workers.
By still giving the business owners money, knowing they pay their staff sub-minimum wages based on the convention of tipping, and then not tipping, you have not communicated any disapproval to management. You have in fact directly supported the business owner exploiting their workers, and joined that exploitation for personal benefit. That’s the opposite of supporting the worker.
The result of either choice – boycotting places that pay less than minimum wage, or not tipping at those places – doesn’t change the fact that the staff are being underpaid, which is the root exploitative practice.
Yes, but boycotting those places is justifiable. Going anyway and just not tipping is actively participating in the exploitation.
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I thought bar food is tipped the same as restaurant food.
Tipping a dollar a drink is standard because
- It’s easy
… that’s really it. No thinking, no math, etc. which is important when you’re drinking.
Also, you too per drink so the bartender knows you tip right from the start.
You mention the key for tipping, IMO. Bartenders are pretty damn good at identifying who gives a little. I feel it definitely helps me get my drinks even at a very crowded bar.
I tip the first drink, but not every single time I get a beer. Not paying a dollar for them to crack a Miller Lite. Maybe every other or third drink I’ll throw a dollar on there, maybe more at the end of the night.
Yalls are insane: $1/drink tip. For a sit-down restaurant, 20% minimum because that’s the expectation in 2025. There’s a special place in hell for people who decrease a server’s tip bc service wasn’t up to par. Either tip the full amount or eat at home, this ain’t 1952.
No
When servers say “just eat at home if you don’t want to tip 20%”, do they realize this is the exact same energy as “just get a real job if you can’t afford your bills”?
I do 20% for table service by wait staff and 1 dollar per drink at a bar, unless I run a tab over a long session, then I often default back to 20%. Also if the bartender is putting a lot of time and effort into making me fancy cocktails and not just pouring me a draft.
I think it’s insane too. I understand that tipping goes (theoretically) to the waitstaff, but I have a hard time tipping $1 per $4.50 bottle of beer handed to me. If it’s more complex of a drink than x and coke, sure it took their time.
Tipping table service used to be good amount only not drinks and tax. Now it seems to be on top the final total with 20% being expected.
You can still tip based on the subtotal before tax
No, you and I tip similarly.
Not wrong, but it’s okay to tip the bartender 20% as well.
Minimum $1/drink from the get go… possibly $2 if it’s a cocktail. The quicker you catch the attention of the bartender the faster your drinks will flow.
IMO: it boils down to my happiness v. debating the whole tipping culture.
Start a tab, tip at the end
Ima dive bar kind of guy lol the place I was at had cash registers so old they didnt print receipts. 90% of places I frequent are cash only and they arent setting the beer down till they see cash on bar.
You dont need to tip
