Tipping culture in the USA

gatorcpa · Sun. 7:41am

DoctorEvil
That's interesting. I wonder if anyone has questioned what this "kitchen fee" actually is and what it pays for?

It generally means the minimum wage for the servers went up and the restaurant owner doesn’t want to raise prices on the menu to cover it.

I avoid restaurants that do this. I’d rather pay it directly to the servers if at all.

DoctorEvil
How is it possible that someone can be paid below minimum wage?

It’s allowed by state law as a separate minimum wage for wait staff in a restaurant, based on the tips they are expected to receive. That means there are 51 separate laws (including Washington, DC which is not a state) and all are a bit different.

IMO, it’s a terrible system, but some of the blame has to go to the servers themselves.

I remember that right after COVID there was a larger restaurant chain that did away with tipping. They raised prices to cover the cost of living wages and benefits for the servers. This experiment last less than 6 months as all the servers quit because they made more with the tips and patrons complained about the prices.

This system is too ingrained in our culture to be changed.

gatorcpa

hen · Sun. 8:40am

Kitchen fee!!! Damn, its not called "the land of the fee" for nothing.

Skin to skin contact with your new born baby, cost from $39 and upwards in US hospitals. Just shameful.

Larry S · Sun. 10:09am

20% is how I roll. If I’m feeing generous 10% on counter service. Non Americans must understand that staff are paid very little base salary here. They depend on tips. Before the finger wagging starts, they prefer it this way and have batted back efforts from politicians like Chicago’s soon to be one term Mayor to change it.

Dan S · Sun. 11:13am

Walrus
I call BS. I waited tables for years getting through school. If I left a note like that I’d be fired. It does stink as wait staff can be paid less than the state minimum wages due to the pay bring based on tips.

This was my thought exactly. A large fraction of social media posts are fabricated BS posted to get clicks. You need to be skeptical.

But to answer the question, my default in a full service restaurant is 20%. Less (but not zero) for situations that aren't full service.

pdxleaf · Sun. 11:16am

DoctorEvil
How is it possible that someone can be paid below minimum wage? Isn't that illegal?

It was born in the Jim Crow South era. In short, employers did not want to pay recently freed slaves the same wage as the white workers that did the same work.

The solution was low wages for all and adding tips for good service. Guess who got the tips?

That history is forgotten but the idea of paying employees as low a wage as possible has remained.

[Sar] We call keeping a poor underclass "freedom" and worth the trade for the opportunity to become a billionaire. [/sar]

I just tip 20%. When I travel to Europe, VAT makes up for any lack of tip.

spacemission · Sun. 11:28am

The USA will always be a country of frontiers.

Spruce · Sun. 11:31am

Interesting topic - from a London perspective.

Over here we’re fascinated by all things American - particularly at present.

As someone with family members who are professional ballet dancers - and contracted on a full time basis - we are perpetually surprised that in the US, full time company dancers are only paid for about 40 weeks of the year and, during the 'off season' are expected to claim benefits or gain some alternative employment until they rejoin their company for the next season.

I don’t know if in US schools, teachers are unpaid during the school holidays?

On the subject of tips, whether or not they’re included in the bill, generally at 10%-12.5%, we always ask the server if they get the tip included in the bill and, if not, we sometimes deduct the amount indicated and leave the cash equivalent on the table.

Vinz Clortho · Sun. 11:58am

Spruce
I don’t know if in US schools, teachers are unpaid during the school holidays?

Know with teachers, they negotiate it in their contracts. Personally believe they're underpaid in general since they are definitely working over 40 hours a week, but they are paid for a 9 month contract with holidays, sick days,, insurance, etc.

Also depends on the level of education/experience they have on what their pay is based off of. Once they receive an advanced degree, base pay increases.

Now the contract can be paid out either over 9 or 12 months, depending on the individual teacher's needs and budgeting concerns. This is why many teachers usually have a summer gigs teaching at a camp, summer school, or something unrelated to education.

Spruce · Sun. 12:06pm

Vinz Clortho
Know with teachers, they negotiate it in their contracts. Personally believe they're underpaid in general since they are definitely working over 40 hours a week, but they are paid for a 9 month contract with holidays, sick days,, insurance, etc.

Thanks for the clarification.

In the UK, all jobs apart from seasonal/freelance/fixed term jobs, are, as far as I’m aware, paid on a 12 months basis including holidays, statutory sick pay and maternity leave, and with Employment protection after (I think) 24 months.

Not just those with Union protections (and having watched Mr Majestyk I know it’s similar over there 😬) but also with statutory regulations and protections.

I’m not an employment expert but that’s my understanding.

Donn Chambers · Sun. 12:44pm

Vinz Clortho
Know with teachers, they negotiate it in their contracts. Personally believe they're underpaid in general since they are definitely working over 40 hours a week, but they are paid for a 9 month contract with holidays, sick days,, insurance, etc.

Also depends on the level of education/experience they have on what their pay is based off of. Once they receive an advanced degree, base pay increases.

Now the contract can be paid out either over 9 or 12 months, depending on the individual teacher's needs and budgeting concerns. This is why many teachers usually have a summer gigs teaching at a camp, summer school, or something unrelated to education.

The same holds for University faculty as well - a 9 month appointment with no guarantee of pay in the summer. For faculty who do teach in the summer, they get extra pay. For faculty who conduct research and write grants (like myself) we can pay summer salary out of grant money.

Dan S · Sun. 1:12pm

pdxleaf
[Sar] We call keeping a poor underclass "freedom" and worth the trade for the opportunity to become a billionaire. [/sar]

You can remove the sarcasm as far as I'm concerned. This succinctly summarizes the most important theme underlying US domestic politics. It never stops amazing me how people are willing to buy into it.

Dan S · Sun. 1:18pm

Donn Chambers
The same holds for University faculty as well - a 9 month appointment with no guarantee of pay in the summer. For faculty who do teach in the summer, they get extra pay. For faculty who conduct research and write grants (like myself) we can pay summer salary out of grant money.

At one point our university was toying with the idea of converting our 9-month salary to an 8-month salary (without a change in annual pay), as a way to increase overall compensation. This would have allowed us to pay ourselves 3/2 our AY salary, instead of 4/3, with enough grant funding. There was really no downside to it, and I was in favor. But I think it sounded bad politically, like we were only working for 8 months, so it didn't move forward. And who knows, maybe some faculty members would have refused to work more than 8 months, which could have caused problems.

gatorcpa · Sun. 1:23pm

Now, let’s make this really complicated!

I live in a very tourist oriented area. Many restaurants here will disclose on their menus that they charge a “service fee”, generally 18% to 20%, to the total bill. This is supposed to take some of the guesswork away from tourists not used to the U.S. tipping culture. They will say that you are free to raise or lower the amount as you see fit, but it will be there on your bill.

However, state and local sales tax (generally 5% to 15%, depending on where you are) is not customarily included in the menu price like VAT is in Europe. To add insult to injury, Florida law requires payment of sales tax on these service charges, but not on cash tips that you leave on the table. This will add another 1% to 2% to your overall bill.

I have seen some places that add the service charge into the base bill and when you pay with a credit card they will print a line for a tip even though it is already included and hoping you’ll get confused and leave even more.

This kind of thing ought to be illegal, but restaurant owners and banks have powerful lobbies in Congress and state legislatures to protect these practices.

You really need to be careful eating in heavily touristed areas in the US.

gatorcpa

Dan S · Sun. 1:28pm

gatorcpa
Now, let’s make this really complicated!

I live in a very tourist oriented area. Many restaurants here will disclose on their menus that they charge a “service fee”, generally 18% to 20%, to the total bill. This is supposed to take some of the guesswork away from tourists not used to the U.S. tipping culture. They will say that you are free to raise or lower the amount as you see fit, but it will be there on your bill.

However, state and local sales tax (generally 5% to 15%, depending on where you are) is not customarily included in the menu price like VAT is in Europe. To add insult to injury, Florida law requires payment of sales tax on these service charges, but not on cash tips that you leave on the table. This will add another 1% to 2% to your overall bill.

I have seen some places that add the service charge into the base bill and when you pay with a credit card they will print a line for a tip even though it is already included and hoping you’ll get confused and leave even more.

This kind of thing ought to be illegal, but restaurant owners and banks have powerful lobbies in Congress and state legislatures to protect these practices.

You really need to be careful eating in heavily touristed areas in the US.

gatorcpa

As you know, this automatic tip is also common for parties over a certain size, everywhere in the US. But there is always a line to add a tip, and unless you read carefully, it's easy to miss the fact that 20% was already added.

Larry S · Sun. 5:02pm

gatorcpa
Now, let’s make this really complicated!

I live in a very tourist oriented area. Many restaurants here will disclose on their menus that they charge a “service fee”, generally 18% to 20%, to the total bill. This is supposed to take some of the guesswork away from tourists not used to the U.S. tipping culture. They will say that you are free to raise or lower the amount as you see fit, but it will be there on your bill.

However, state and local sales tax (generally 5% to 15%, depending on where you are) is not customarily included in the menu price like VAT is in Europe. To add insult to injury, Florida law requires payment of sales tax on these service charges, but not on cash tips that you leave on the table. This will add another 1% to 2% to your overall bill.

I have seen some places that add the service charge into the base bill and when you pay with a credit card they will print a line for a tip even though it is already included and hoping you’ll get confused and leave even more.

This kind of thing ought to be illegal, but restaurant owners and banks have powerful lobbies in Congress and state legislatures to protect these practices.

You really need to be careful eating in heavily touristed areas in the US.

gatorcpa

Good point. Watch for the service fee and tip only on the pre tax amount. Disregard the tip suggestions on the bill.

adonalsium · Sun. 5:54pm

Pay attention to your bill. I would never tip 0% unless I actually didn't receive a meal. Reason being, even if service is poor, the wait staff came into work and their time is worth far more than their base salary.

Evitzee · Sun. 7:31pm

It depends on what is on the bill. If it includes an expensive bottle of wine or two I'm not going to tip 15%-20% of that, a $150 bottle requires no more work than a $15 bottle of cheap plonk. And I always back off the sales tax, no need to tip on the tax. If the service is good I'll add 15% to 20%.

A good waiter in a decent restaurant can earn a lot of money and don't want any part of a 'minimum wage' structure of $17-20 like they have in California and some other states. Minimum federal wage is $7.25.

gbesq · Sun. 7:38pm

I generally tip 20% at a full service restaurant in the US. For those who are visiting to the US, it's important to remember that restaurant wait employees generally get a very low hour rate. In my state (Pennsylvania) the wage for restaurant waiters is $7.25 per hour. Tipped employees, including waiters, must receive a cash wage of at least $2.83 per hour, which is the base wage, plus tips that bring their total earnings to at least the minimum wage. If tips do not cover the full minimum wage, the employer must pay the difference.

wagudc · Sun. 8:41pm

I have been known to tip 30% to 50%. My wife and I don't buy drinks and are not big eaters. Sometimes we split a dish or get something small. If our total bill is $20 and there was good service, I'll tip $10. They really do no less work for us than a couple that spends $50, and I want to compensate them appropriately.

Faz · Sun. 9:13pm

Minimum wage up here is $16.10/hour vs hotel/restaurant workers 12,90 $/hour. I struggle to understand $7.25/hour let alone $2.83/ hour??? Dare I ask if they get any benefits….

Tipping culture in the USA

gatorcpa

hen

Larry S

Dan S

pdxleaf

spacemission

Spruce

Vinz Clortho

Spruce

Donn Chambers

Dan S

Dan S

gatorcpa

Dan S

Larry S

adonalsium

Evitzee

gbesq

wagudc

Faz

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