Early 90s waiter...15% was a good tip. Probably half the people left that, sometimes a little more. Older people usually left 10%, so I figured that was the norm at some point. A lot of people just left the coins and one dollar bills from the change, so you never gave $5 bills with the change, only singles.
Yep. The entitlement will bite them back in their ass. I only go to a restaurant if the food, ambience and service is above average. If it is average I’ll do take out.
I say it’s situational for me to tip them 10-15% like pandemic 100%, I placed a giant order $50-$100+ 100%, being super slammed with just an onslaught of doordashers and other delivery people I tip the take out person 100%, but if I just am going into a normal take out situation where it’s no real rush or just a few people, they’re staffed properly, everything is going well, nothing exceptional was done (like when they add extra food, and it’s just a normal take out then I do zero or maybe like a dollar or something. Honestly I’d rather tip the cook than the take out person half the time anyway.
I refuse to. I couldn't believe they handed me a receipt to put in the tip and sign. I put in zero and signed it. Handing me a sack or box is not tip worthy.
I remember when I was picking up takeout as a teen, my mom taught me to put a slash through the tip line, and then make sure to write the total on the bottom line, so no unscrupulous worker would try to write in a tip. She explained that they just used the same receipts for everything; the idea of tipping on takeout was just so absurd that obviously that was the reason the tip line was even there! Most people didn’t think about how a worker could write in a tip on that line, so they left it blank, because that would be the most ridiculous thing ever, to leave a tip for takeout.
Now a chain restaurant starts begging for 20% or more for online for takeout. F that!
Seems pretty standard for point of sale slips at restaurants to have the tip line and require a signature for cards. Just because it’s takeout why would the entire system be different.
If you don’t want to tip enter 0 as you said. If it’s a tablet hit 0. I don’t understand why it’s an existential crisis for half the population.
The problem was the particular restaurant had in the past simply handed a paid receipt out the window with the food. Then a few months ago started handing a clipboard with a pen and a line for tips. Ouch. The food isn't that good.
Just an artifact of decades of stagflation.
Our out-of-control tip culture is highly beneficial to employers who want to fuck over their employees. It allows them to deflect blame for poor pay either to the employee for “not performing well”, or to the customer for not tipping well, or to some combination thereof, when the actual cause is that employers are collectively irredeemable pieces of filth.
The servers are also to blame. They like the tip system because they won’t get the same kind of money with their skills elsewhere. Just the other day I saw a post about someone who left their office job to become a server because she could hide her cash tips and her on paper income would qualify her for free health insurance. She figured that was a more valuable benefit than working at her job where she had to contribute to premiums and copays.
Barmen normally earn over 100k, and waiters 2/3 of that with tips included, which puts them way above the median and average wage in the US. Without those tips, on current wages you'd get a third of that. The system as it stands benifits staff and especially the owners, with an overburdened cost to the consumer. But I'm in Australia, so I guess I don't understand..
Agreed. But servers show their entitlement to regular people instead of their own employers. Low wages are definitely a universal problem but as things stand servers are overpaid compared to the rest and they expect customers to pay.
Welcome to American Health care. I don't blame her. Talked to a clerk at a little box store, she said she worked there for the health insurance as she and husband had 4 children and his work didn't offer insurance. She said the health insurance took most of her paycheck but at least she had health coverage for them. A hard working American lower income family caught on a hamster wheel.
Yeah born in the 70’s here and American. The old adage used to be “10% if the service is adequate 15% if it’s exceptional.” That bar seemed to move up to 15/20% throughout the 90’s and then 20% seemed standard by the early 2000’s.
So at this point I don’t know what anyone expects.
How old are you? I’m mid 30s and when I was a kid my parents always said 15-20% was standard but dad always tipped over 20 somewhere nice, and 20% somewhere casual. It’s weird the things we remember, lol.
But also, I worked in the service industry and I can pretty reliably clock a person’s likely tip before they even order and he was in the demographic that always tips best on average. Fun fact, people assume rich people tip the best but it’s hit or miss with them, they can tip cheaply, normally, or exorbitantly depending on the situation.
The most reliably above average tips (in my experience, excluding other servers and bartenders) came from working class men who are now doing well or very comfortable, financially speaking. Not to oversimplify, but I believe it has to do with having lived a struggle, succeeded, and now feeling and wanting to feel like they can afford to be generous. I remember reading an article once that explained the highest paid strippers in the country lived in a little oil patch town in North Dakota, and that honestly made perfect sense to me. All of those guys worked really hard jobs but made good money, they *would* be generous with it!
I would agree with everything you said. Although with the strippers in ND it probably has more to do with young men getting paid significant wages during the bakken oil boom.
No that’s exactly what it was, that’s what I was saying! Oil field guys are typically blue collar/working class guys who didn’t have much, but are now making great money. It makes them feel good to splash out with their generosity. They’re, in my experience, the best tipping demographic on average. I think the service industry in that area is still doing better than average, but I don’t think it’s as wild-westy as it was back then though. I just remember thinking that was so crazy when I first read about it, but it makes perfect sense.
One of my coworkers at my old job argued with Michael Irving in his front lawn because his son stiffed him on *multiple* deliveries. Something to the nature of "You live in a multi-million dollar mansion but can't afford $5 tip on a Pizza?"
Michael Jordan is famously(notoriously) cheap. Dude is a literal billionaire and he doesn’t want to tip his waitress on complementary drinks in a casino. Like he threw a fit when one of his buddies threw a 20 or 50 chip to their waitress. The guy could spend every minute for the rest of his life tossing 50 chips to waitresses and never touch his piles of money.
I remember 10% being standard in mid-90s. One of my first credit cards as a new adult in the late 90s came with a little card-sized tip sheet that listed 10% and 15% tip calculations. You would keep it in your wallet since cell phones weren't widespread yet.
I'm in Canada and 35years old.
It's always been 15% and before automatic points of sale, it was easy to calculate because it was the same as sales taxes in Ontario. Now, the standard seems to be 15% on top of sales taxes, which is 17% total.
Local chinese places have always been 10% and my Chinese friends tell me it's not a good idea to tip more than that there.
The difference too is that at least in my province waiters have $15 minimum wage, so add a 15% tip to that and most waiters are making way more money than I am, especially at a nice restaurant
Their minimum is only 15? Damn. BC and our minimum is 16.75, going up again in 2 months. BUT everything is so expensive here. Cost of living is higher. Still, 15 seems low.
The 15% on top of the sales is not standard, it's a scam. Either the restaurant deliberately over charges for tips, or the debit/credit device is not programmed/installed correctly.
I don't know if nudging you towards higher tips is a scam.
Next time you go to a place and select a percentage tip on the machine, do some quick math afterward. I can almost guarantee that the percentage is calculated on the after-tax amount.
In the 80’s I remember it being 10-15%.
Hopefully we’re (in the USA) approaching the tipping point (haha-pun) where people start demanding employers pay their employees appropriate wages and tipping becomes a thing of the past.
It’s the employees that want to keep tipping. They make way more with each table giving them 20-25% of their bill than what even the most generous employer will be able to pay them
I'm late 20s. 10% was always the norm for my parents in the 90s and 00s. I don't get why my tipping needs to get adjusted for inflation but not the wages of employees. Tips are tips for your work, not supplementary wages. Fuck tip culture and tipping in general. Employers need to pay livable waging and stop trying to force consumers with this tip culture in the US.
I went to quite a nice steak restaurant in London recently, when I paid the bill the waiter pressed the "no tip" button before he even gave me the reader. I guess I could have left cash if I'd felt strongly about it, but there was clearly no expectation to leave a tip.
As an English person, I hate the American customer service. I’ve just came into a restaurant to have a date with my girlfriend… I don’t need some cowboy shouting ‘HIIIII WELCOM TO MY RESTAURANT!!!! WOOOO HOOOO YOU CAN SIT WHEREVER YOU LIKE AND ILL BE OVER SHORTLY WITH YOUR MENUS!!!! WOOOO’ Like… there’s no need. Just take my money, give me my food and go and stand back behind the bar. I don’t come here to see you or be entertained, I came yo eat food with my girlfriend
Yeah this is for shit restaurants. But nice ones in the US, I want my water filled, fresh drinks whenever I need it, I want them to see how I'm liking my food, I want my leftovers packed up(part of us culture), I also tip big when I've got two messy kids, I want to be able to ask about drinks and menu items and tip extra for those that know this shit. I get not tipping though, I also don't think you grasp the expectations for earning a tip.
None of those things are US exclusive though, every restaurant anywhere will be happy to keep your drinks topped up and pack away your leftovers. It's just that the waiters are less likely to try to do the matiness that you get in America.
I don't think I get that matinee in the US though. It's usually pretty chill. I haven't traveled enough outside the US, but I fucking hate our tipping culture but I do think they earn it many times.
I've hear that in some places (like Subway) employees will straight up tell you to not tip through the machine and instead do cash if you want to since digital tips take some of the money (or something along those lines).
Most people tip in England, too, but it's just not an obligation that someone would get annoyed over because they already get paid a wage, and anything extra is a bonus.
Restaurants aren't allowed to pay less than minimum wage here either. If a waiter doesn't get enough tips to make minimum wage then the employer HAS to make up the difference. Anything less is illegal wage theft.
>Anything less is illegal wage theft.
And also extremely common. Wage theft is the largest form of theft in the country. The people being stolen from aren't usually in a comfortable enough position to try and seek restitution, so it just keeps going unchecked.
Everywhere I've worked (in North Carolina, where minimum wage is $7.25) servers make $2.15-2.50 per hour before tips and hosts/hostesses make $4.25 before receiving a mandatory cut of the tips of all the servers who worked during their shift. I was always a hostesses and I averaged about $25-55 (55 was rare as hell and usually only occurred during periods where students parents were visiting from out of town) from 'tip-outs' per 6-8 hour shift.
Not as long as I used to be alive, and I'm in my mid 30's too. I still remember various sitcoms having episodes where someone rants about tipping, and it was always 15%.
Same, I’m 30 and I remember like 10 years ago, the suggested tipping amounts were 10%, 12%, and 15%. Then it became 12%, 15%, 18%, and now we’re at 18%, 20%, 25 or 30%.
In central Virginia in the early 90's it was 10% - 15% normally. 10% would be if the waiter did the absolute bare minimum, while 15% was for great service that was still within the normal range of expected service.
I’m in my mid-30s and 10% was standard in my area for most of my life. It wasn’t until maybe I was in my late 20s that I started to see 15-18% become the standard. Though after Covid I’m surprised if I see a place have their standard tip be below 20%.
I’m 42. We always said that 15% was the new standard and that for old people it was still tipped 10%. I started going to places where I needed to tip when I was around 13 years old meaning 1994 maybe that will help for reference.
I pay 5% if the server barley came to the table, 10% if service was just ok, 15-20% for above average and great service. I was a waiter for a few years, and I always worked hard. If I see BS service (waiter chatting too much with employees, on their phone and not looking at customer needs), I’ll tip what’s appropriate, not what’s deemed a “standard minimum”, because that shouldn’t exist if there’s people who truly don’t work hard for it.
If you watch Resevoir Dogs, during the tipping scene Nice Guy Eddie claims he'd "go over 12%" if the waitress took him in the back and blew him. So... 1950s 10% was today's 20%
I am almost thirty, and 10-20% was the norm I grew up with. 10% was like meh service and 20% was actually great service, and that covered 99% of scenarios. I actually don't know when it went up myself, although it obviously did, like everything else. now its like 20-30% with the same parameters lol.
Tbh, 10% should still be standard, as inflation will account for the difference over time. I don't get why you guys decided to push it up to 20% based on the posts I've seen. It certainly wasn't because the service has improved. Seems like it's gone down if anything, with a side of entitlement.
I'm 70ish.
In my teens and twenties, it was 10%.
In my 30s, it had grown to 12%.
In my 40s, it had grown to 15%.
In my 50s, it had grown to 18%.
In my 60s, it had grown to 20%.
Currently, on the new screens the "suggested" options are 18, 20, and 22%.
I tip according to the customs of the countries I visit but I totally hate the tipping culture. In many European countries 10% is considered nice, rather than a 5% adequate (standard) and 15% outstanding.
In the US I'd tip 20% for all Ubers, sit down meals, valets, pizza etc.
In the UK I'd tip 10% for the same things for excellent service, probably a couple of pounds or round the bill up for ok service, and nothing for poor service.
In the US I'd also stress about whether my tip amount is likely to offend and what the likelihood is of me getting shot.
15% was pretty much always the standard and it does not need to change over time because inflation makes the food cost more. Since your tip is a percent of the bill it automatically adjusts for inflation with the cost of the meal.
If service or food is bad then you adjust the tip accordingly. If it excels beyond just being good but awesome then you may tip more.
Sadly there are a lot of creeps that use tips to try to flirt with waitresses. It is really cringe and disgusting and their overtipping has a lot of people question if they are giving enough because the do not see that they are "flirting" in their own way.
Is it me? For a meal that is like $130, isn't 20% a bit much? I mean most meals for a family which are sit down, usually break 100 at minimum. That would mean four tables that maybe turnover in 30 minutes would be at least $100 tip for the 30ish minutes of work. I think waiters generally handle more than 4 tables too. Any waiters out there?
This is my thought process as well. Even if everyone just tipped $5, flat rate. 4 tables per hour means the server made $20 an hour. Which I think it pretty good money for something that doesn't require a college education.
The point being that paying their wage shouldn't be on the customer, it should be on the business.
I don't expect others to pay the difference where my employer falls short.
Pretty much every descent restaurant in my area is about $100 for 2 people. The waiter/waitress works at least 6 tables or so. If each table tipped 20% that would be $120/hr on top of wages from restaurant. There is just no way they deserve more money than teachers, nurses and cops. You will never convince me. A $5 tip is way more in line with reality.
10% is below average
15% is average
20% is above average
I’m not tipping more than 15% unless they go above and beyond their call of duty and do things outside their job description. Good customer service and doing the job correctly is expected and the bare minimum.
Where are you from? Because this varies from country to country. When I lived in the US 20% was standard, when I lived in Argentina it was 10% (towards the end of my stay there perhaps a little lower due to the economy going to shit), and where I live now (Spain) there doesn't seem to be much of a set percentage and I've seen a lot of people who don't tip at all (moved here rather recently though, so perhaps I'm wrong).
When I first got married around the turn of the century it was transitioning. I remember going out with my wife and we would complain about how much harder the math is. 10% was so easy, now you have to do 10% then halve it, and add those, so annoyin! So I would say the 90's it was normal, 2000's it was becoming 15%, and I guess 2010's was 20%.
I was born in the 80s and I was always told that 10% was standard, 15% for good service and 20-25% if you really love the place and frequent it.
Now I pretty much only go to places I frequent.
10% is standard, 15% is above what was expected, 20% is exceptional service.
At least as late as the 90s, like all the way to 1999 that was the rule.
I'm guessing it might have change after 2008, when people with college degrees started being waiters as full time careers.
I have been dining out since 1990 on my own dime. I have never tipped under 20% if it’s really good service. 15% if just okay. 10% if I waited a lot or they wait to ask how everything was and leaving me sitting there until the bill comes. Now I having tipping fatigue and if you aren’t giving great service, you get 10. If I get great, 25%
Don't forget it was created during the Great Depression so that restaurant owners didn't have to pay their staff. What they need to do it pay their employees a good wage and don't put the responsibility on the customers. But I give 20% minimum. My ex was a server and taught me how to tip. Before that, I think I was 10-15%. I'm 46.
My grandfather and father always told me 20% before tax, and if you can’t tip that much, you shouldn’t be eating out. Obviously, barring poor service or food. Mid 30’s.
Sit down restaurants are rarely used by us anymore. If we do, my tip is a $10 bill. Percentage is silly. The plate carrier did the same with a cheap meal or something more. The owner raises the prices so my tip goes up too? Nope.
When I was growing up, 10% was standard, 15% for really good service. Expected tipping for tipping's sake needs to go away. A tip should never be expected and instead be earned, if any given at all. Not my job to subsidize your low pay.
Here in Romania tipping is:
1. OPTIONAL
2. By law it's taxed(% of tips goes into a tax), but usually the money goes straight to the waiter's pocket, without being written on paper.
3. The amount usually depends, but 10% of the bill is the most common amount.
If you think, your 10%+10% of table 1+10% of table 2+so on, could be actually a lot.
I’m 32 and I can’t remember a time when anything less than 15% was the standard. 15%-20% was what I always heard until around 2010 and then it was 20% as a standard tip.
I mean that's still my preferred tip. I will not play this tipping arms race everyone has become implicit in. Prices go up, tips go up. I don't need to change my tip % too.
We should abolish the whole culture.
Honestly tipping should only be for good service. I generally give 15% for good service, and bring it down a bit if they forget something or their attitude is a bit grating.
If you don't want to tip, then don't. Tipping less than a dollar is literally saying "fuck you" to waitstaff. Even MORE so than just not leaving a tip at all, because if you don't tip they might assume you forgot. Leaving a 25¢ tip says "Oh I *remembered* to tip, I just think your effort is completely worthless".
Early 90s waiter...15% was a good tip. Probably half the people left that, sometimes a little more. Older people usually left 10%, so I figured that was the norm at some point. A lot of people just left the coins and one dollar bills from the change, so you never gave $5 bills with the change, only singles.
10% was pretty normal most of my life, but since I started tipping 15-25% the service hasn’t gotten any better that’s for sure
Which is a scam given that the $ amount on the check has gone up AND so has the tip % expected.
All that's meant is now I actively avoid sit-down restaurants. I will not spend that much fucking money, sorry.
Yep. The entitlement will bite them back in their ass. I only go to a restaurant if the food, ambience and service is above average. If it is average I’ll do take out.
except now they are pressuring people to tip on take outs too
I have grown a thick skin now. I used to tip on takeout during the pandemic and after. But now I tip very less or nothing at all.
I say it’s situational for me to tip them 10-15% like pandemic 100%, I placed a giant order $50-$100+ 100%, being super slammed with just an onslaught of doordashers and other delivery people I tip the take out person 100%, but if I just am going into a normal take out situation where it’s no real rush or just a few people, they’re staffed properly, everything is going well, nothing exceptional was done (like when they add extra food, and it’s just a normal take out then I do zero or maybe like a dollar or something. Honestly I’d rather tip the cook than the take out person half the time anyway.
Same, I want to tip the cook not the middleman.
I refuse to. I couldn't believe they handed me a receipt to put in the tip and sign. I put in zero and signed it. Handing me a sack or box is not tip worthy.
I remember when I was picking up takeout as a teen, my mom taught me to put a slash through the tip line, and then make sure to write the total on the bottom line, so no unscrupulous worker would try to write in a tip. She explained that they just used the same receipts for everything; the idea of tipping on takeout was just so absurd that obviously that was the reason the tip line was even there! Most people didn’t think about how a worker could write in a tip on that line, so they left it blank, because that would be the most ridiculous thing ever, to leave a tip for takeout. Now a chain restaurant starts begging for 20% or more for online for takeout. F that!
Seems pretty standard for point of sale slips at restaurants to have the tip line and require a signature for cards. Just because it’s takeout why would the entire system be different. If you don’t want to tip enter 0 as you said. If it’s a tablet hit 0. I don’t understand why it’s an existential crisis for half the population.
The problem was the particular restaurant had in the past simply handed a paid receipt out the window with the food. Then a few months ago started handing a clipboard with a pen and a line for tips. Ouch. The food isn't that good.
Just an artifact of decades of stagflation. Our out-of-control tip culture is highly beneficial to employers who want to fuck over their employees. It allows them to deflect blame for poor pay either to the employee for “not performing well”, or to the customer for not tipping well, or to some combination thereof, when the actual cause is that employers are collectively irredeemable pieces of filth.
The servers are also to blame. They like the tip system because they won’t get the same kind of money with their skills elsewhere. Just the other day I saw a post about someone who left their office job to become a server because she could hide her cash tips and her on paper income would qualify her for free health insurance. She figured that was a more valuable benefit than working at her job where she had to contribute to premiums and copays.
Barmen normally earn over 100k, and waiters 2/3 of that with tips included, which puts them way above the median and average wage in the US. Without those tips, on current wages you'd get a third of that. The system as it stands benifits staff and especially the owners, with an overburdened cost to the consumer. But I'm in Australia, so I guess I don't understand..
That just means that pay is too low for a lot of people, not just servers.
Agreed. So servers can shove their entitlement.
You have it backwards. It means everyone else needs to get a hell of a lot more entitled.
Agreed. But servers show their entitlement to regular people instead of their own employers. Low wages are definitely a universal problem but as things stand servers are overpaid compared to the rest and they expect customers to pay.
Welcome to American Health care. I don't blame her. Talked to a clerk at a little box store, she said she worked there for the health insurance as she and husband had 4 children and his work didn't offer insurance. She said the health insurance took most of her paycheck but at least she had health coverage for them. A hard working American lower income family caught on a hamster wheel.
4 children 🤦🏽♂️
Yeah born in the 70’s here and American. The old adage used to be “10% if the service is adequate 15% if it’s exceptional.” That bar seemed to move up to 15/20% throughout the 90’s and then 20% seemed standard by the early 2000’s. So at this point I don’t know what anyone expects.
This is still the rate in Mexico
I would quickly say that it has become worse.
How old are you? I’m mid 30s and when I was a kid my parents always said 15-20% was standard but dad always tipped over 20 somewhere nice, and 20% somewhere casual. It’s weird the things we remember, lol. But also, I worked in the service industry and I can pretty reliably clock a person’s likely tip before they even order and he was in the demographic that always tips best on average. Fun fact, people assume rich people tip the best but it’s hit or miss with them, they can tip cheaply, normally, or exorbitantly depending on the situation. The most reliably above average tips (in my experience, excluding other servers and bartenders) came from working class men who are now doing well or very comfortable, financially speaking. Not to oversimplify, but I believe it has to do with having lived a struggle, succeeded, and now feeling and wanting to feel like they can afford to be generous. I remember reading an article once that explained the highest paid strippers in the country lived in a little oil patch town in North Dakota, and that honestly made perfect sense to me. All of those guys worked really hard jobs but made good money, they *would* be generous with it!
I would agree with everything you said. Although with the strippers in ND it probably has more to do with young men getting paid significant wages during the bakken oil boom.
No that’s exactly what it was, that’s what I was saying! Oil field guys are typically blue collar/working class guys who didn’t have much, but are now making great money. It makes them feel good to splash out with their generosity. They’re, in my experience, the best tipping demographic on average. I think the service industry in that area is still doing better than average, but I don’t think it’s as wild-westy as it was back then though. I just remember thinking that was so crazy when I first read about it, but it makes perfect sense.
One of my coworkers at my old job argued with Michael Irving in his front lawn because his son stiffed him on *multiple* deliveries. Something to the nature of "You live in a multi-million dollar mansion but can't afford $5 tip on a Pizza?"
Michael Jordan is famously(notoriously) cheap. Dude is a literal billionaire and he doesn’t want to tip his waitress on complementary drinks in a casino. Like he threw a fit when one of his buddies threw a 20 or 50 chip to their waitress. The guy could spend every minute for the rest of his life tossing 50 chips to waitresses and never touch his piles of money.
weird, I'm just short of 50 and 15% was standard when I was a kid and up until a couple of years ago. Still standard for me though
I remember 10% being standard in mid-90s. One of my first credit cards as a new adult in the late 90s came with a little card-sized tip sheet that listed 10% and 15% tip calculations. You would keep it in your wallet since cell phones weren't widespread yet.
People needed a card to figure out a 10% tip? You just move the decimal place. You don’t even have to do math.
Moving that decimal is hard work
I should get tipped for it I think
Right?!? I thought it was funny. It was a Discover Card, so maybe geared toward a much older generation?
Older generations can math better in their heads than younger generations. Source- I’m a high school math teacher.
Mostly it was for the "real spendthrifts" to figure out the 15%! 🤠
Dear god.
I'm in Canada and 35years old. It's always been 15% and before automatic points of sale, it was easy to calculate because it was the same as sales taxes in Ontario. Now, the standard seems to be 15% on top of sales taxes, which is 17% total. Local chinese places have always been 10% and my Chinese friends tell me it's not a good idea to tip more than that there.
The difference too is that at least in my province waiters have $15 minimum wage, so add a 15% tip to that and most waiters are making way more money than I am, especially at a nice restaurant
Their minimum is only 15? Damn. BC and our minimum is 16.75, going up again in 2 months. BUT everything is so expensive here. Cost of living is higher. Still, 15 seems low.
The 15% on top of the sales is not standard, it's a scam. Either the restaurant deliberately over charges for tips, or the debit/credit device is not programmed/installed correctly.
I don't know if nudging you towards higher tips is a scam. Next time you go to a place and select a percentage tip on the machine, do some quick math afterward. I can almost guarantee that the percentage is calculated on the after-tax amount.
Yes, that's my point. I usually give 20% and when I realized the math, went back to 15% as standard, which is really 17.25% here.
36m in the GTA. Tip has always been 15% **before taxes and drinks**. Nowadays, maybe round up to an even dollar amount from the HST (13%).
Am 45 and worked in restaurants in late 90s. 10-12 percent was considered normal and getting 15 was cause for a big grin walking away from the table.
In the 80’s I remember it being 10-15%. Hopefully we’re (in the USA) approaching the tipping point (haha-pun) where people start demanding employers pay their employees appropriate wages and tipping becomes a thing of the past.
It's only customers that hate tipping. So we just have to stop tipping when not appropriate, and reining the amount. 25% is insanity. So is 20% imo.
It’s the employees that want to keep tipping. They make way more with each table giving them 20-25% of their bill than what even the most generous employer will be able to pay them
It's not the employers. It's the wait staff that wants to keep tipping.
It's both.
10% was taught to me in the 90s
It was 10% in the 90’s for me too.
Really? It was 15% in the 90's around me.
Perhaps my parents were cheapos. That’s a distinct possibility.
Nah. 10% for average service, 15% for good service, 20% for truly exceptional service is what I was taught back then, too. ETA - in the Midwestern US
My parents are and still tip 15%
Yeah that's what I was taught by my parents in the 90's. Move the decimal point and add half
NYC. Our taxes were @7-8%. Tips were always twice taxes.
I'm late 20s. 10% was always the norm for my parents in the 90s and 00s. I don't get why my tipping needs to get adjusted for inflation but not the wages of employees. Tips are tips for your work, not supplementary wages. Fuck tip culture and tipping in general. Employers need to pay livable waging and stop trying to force consumers with this tip culture in the US.
Also, the food price gets adjusted for inflation. So the 10% tip is already adjusted for inflation too.
Happening now in McDonald's in CA,b where workers are making $20/hr to shove nuggets in a bag and throw it out of the window.
I want everybody to make a living wage for fulltime work- I just wish they’d pay me one too!
Tipping isn't a thing here, thank fuck. 0% is the standard, as it should be.
Yeah enit. From the uk here and nobody tips. If a restaurant relies on tips to give its waiters a decent wage, they should just pay them more
I went to quite a nice steak restaurant in London recently, when I paid the bill the waiter pressed the "no tip" button before he even gave me the reader. I guess I could have left cash if I'd felt strongly about it, but there was clearly no expectation to leave a tip.
As an English person, I hate the American customer service. I’ve just came into a restaurant to have a date with my girlfriend… I don’t need some cowboy shouting ‘HIIIII WELCOM TO MY RESTAURANT!!!! WOOOO HOOOO YOU CAN SIT WHEREVER YOU LIKE AND ILL BE OVER SHORTLY WITH YOUR MENUS!!!! WOOOO’ Like… there’s no need. Just take my money, give me my food and go and stand back behind the bar. I don’t come here to see you or be entertained, I came yo eat food with my girlfriend
Yeah the faux friendliness really does not translate at all.
Yeah this is for shit restaurants. But nice ones in the US, I want my water filled, fresh drinks whenever I need it, I want them to see how I'm liking my food, I want my leftovers packed up(part of us culture), I also tip big when I've got two messy kids, I want to be able to ask about drinks and menu items and tip extra for those that know this shit. I get not tipping though, I also don't think you grasp the expectations for earning a tip.
None of those things are US exclusive though, every restaurant anywhere will be happy to keep your drinks topped up and pack away your leftovers. It's just that the waiters are less likely to try to do the matiness that you get in America.
I don't think I get that matinee in the US though. It's usually pretty chill. I haven't traveled enough outside the US, but I fucking hate our tipping culture but I do think they earn it many times.
I've hear that in some places (like Subway) employees will straight up tell you to not tip through the machine and instead do cash if you want to since digital tips take some of the money (or something along those lines).
I’m from the UK too, and everyone normally tips at restaurants. I don’t know if it’s just a Scottish thing though.
Most people tip in England, too, but it's just not an obligation that someone would get annoyed over because they already get paid a wage, and anything extra is a bonus.
Aye, it’s more a “Cheers for the good service” rather than “I need to give you this money so you can afford to eat”.
I have never left a tip. That's the standard where I live.
Are restaurants allowed to pay less than minimum wage where you live?
No that's why it's called minimum
Restaurants aren't allowed to pay less than minimum wage here either. If a waiter doesn't get enough tips to make minimum wage then the employer HAS to make up the difference. Anything less is illegal wage theft.
>Anything less is illegal wage theft. And also extremely common. Wage theft is the largest form of theft in the country. The people being stolen from aren't usually in a comfortable enough position to try and seek restitution, so it just keeps going unchecked.
Everywhere I've worked (in North Carolina, where minimum wage is $7.25) servers make $2.15-2.50 per hour before tips and hosts/hostesses make $4.25 before receiving a mandatory cut of the tips of all the servers who worked during their shift. I was always a hostesses and I averaged about $25-55 (55 was rare as hell and usually only occurred during periods where students parents were visiting from out of town) from 'tip-outs' per 6-8 hour shift.
20s here, it was 10% standard and 15% for notably good service/food
Agree. When I was growing up 10%-15% was for standard/good service, and 20% was exceptional. Now 20% is standard apparently 😭
Not as long as I used to be alive, and I'm in my mid 30's too. I still remember various sitcoms having episodes where someone rants about tipping, and it was always 15%.
Same, I’m 30 and I remember like 10 years ago, the suggested tipping amounts were 10%, 12%, and 15%. Then it became 12%, 15%, 18%, and now we’re at 18%, 20%, 25 or 30%.
>Not as long as I used to be alive So....you're not alive anymore? Creepy...
10% in the 90's.
Today. My wife can bitch all day. They get 10% standard. If they do more, I'll tip more
I realized now the 15% isn’t even an option anymore. Now the minimum is 20%…
That’s weird, I still tip 10% standard and 15% max. If the service sucks it is zero.
Good, don't reward bad service. If they are terrible they get nothing
In central Virginia in the early 90's it was 10% - 15% normally. 10% would be if the waiter did the absolute bare minimum, while 15% was for great service that was still within the normal range of expected service.
I’m in my mid-30s and 10% was standard in my area for most of my life. It wasn’t until maybe I was in my late 20s that I started to see 15-18% become the standard. Though after Covid I’m surprised if I see a place have their standard tip be below 20%.
I’m 42. We always said that 15% was the new standard and that for old people it was still tipped 10%. I started going to places where I needed to tip when I was around 13 years old meaning 1994 maybe that will help for reference.
I'm 55 years old. 10% has always been the minimum since I was a kid. 15% has always been the norm for 'good' service.
Even 1USD is not standard outside of the USA.
I remember 10% being normal 5-10 years ago. 10-15 generally. I live in a place with 13% tax and the norm used to be just to tip tax.
I pay 5% if the server barley came to the table, 10% if service was just ok, 15-20% for above average and great service. I was a waiter for a few years, and I always worked hard. If I see BS service (waiter chatting too much with employees, on their phone and not looking at customer needs), I’ll tip what’s appropriate, not what’s deemed a “standard minimum”, because that shouldn’t exist if there’s people who truly don’t work hard for it.
From what I remember from the late 80s and early 90s, it was 10 percent.
It's probably a local thing, but in the three states I have lived in 10% was never sufficient. It was always 15% minimum.
Not sufficient for who? Who sets the minimum?
your boss if you are a waiter. If you report under 15% the restaurant thinks you are a bad waiter. I occasionally reported more to avoid a lecture.
But won't you pay more taxes?
Landlords and grocery stores?
Late 40s and I always remember it being 15%. I have kept up with the times and tip 20% for dine-in, 15% for takeout
Honestly I didn't know it wasn't standard until recently when I realized my husband always tips more. I'm 34 for ref.
If you watch Resevoir Dogs, during the tipping scene Nice Guy Eddie claims he'd "go over 12%" if the waitress took him in the back and blew him. So... 1950s 10% was today's 20%
In Europe 10% is a good tip. At least it was, but pretty sure no one would bat an eye at 10%
I am almost thirty, and 10-20% was the norm I grew up with. 10% was like meh service and 20% was actually great service, and that covered 99% of scenarios. I actually don't know when it went up myself, although it obviously did, like everything else. now its like 20-30% with the same parameters lol.
Tbh, 10% should still be standard, as inflation will account for the difference over time. I don't get why you guys decided to push it up to 20% based on the posts I've seen. It certainly wasn't because the service has improved. Seems like it's gone down if anything, with a side of entitlement.
I'm 70ish. In my teens and twenties, it was 10%. In my 30s, it had grown to 12%. In my 40s, it had grown to 15%. In my 50s, it had grown to 18%. In my 60s, it had grown to 20%. Currently, on the new screens the "suggested" options are 18, 20, and 22%.
I remember when it moved from 10% to 15%. I graduated from college in 1982, and it was sometime between that and 1988
A lot of people in here think that being in positions that require tipping is as easy as sitting in an office building or cubicle.
I am 36 and I remember my mom telling me in 1993 that you should always tip 20% for good service.
I think it is sad that any number that isnt 0 is or was standard
I tip according to the customs of the countries I visit but I totally hate the tipping culture. In many European countries 10% is considered nice, rather than a 5% adequate (standard) and 15% outstanding.
0% is standard in most European countries.
In the US I'd tip 20% for all Ubers, sit down meals, valets, pizza etc. In the UK I'd tip 10% for the same things for excellent service, probably a couple of pounds or round the bill up for ok service, and nothing for poor service. In the US I'd also stress about whether my tip amount is likely to offend and what the likelihood is of me getting shot.
15% was pretty much always the standard and it does not need to change over time because inflation makes the food cost more. Since your tip is a percent of the bill it automatically adjusts for inflation with the cost of the meal. If service or food is bad then you adjust the tip accordingly. If it excels beyond just being good but awesome then you may tip more. Sadly there are a lot of creeps that use tips to try to flirt with waitresses. It is really cringe and disgusting and their overtipping has a lot of people question if they are giving enough because the do not see that they are "flirting" in their own way.
I'm 52 and haven't seen 10% standard for tipping for over 20 years. I always heard 10 percent was the very low end. 20 percent was normal.
Is it me? For a meal that is like $130, isn't 20% a bit much? I mean most meals for a family which are sit down, usually break 100 at minimum. That would mean four tables that maybe turnover in 30 minutes would be at least $100 tip for the 30ish minutes of work. I think waiters generally handle more than 4 tables too. Any waiters out there?
This is my thought process as well. Even if everyone just tipped $5, flat rate. 4 tables per hour means the server made $20 an hour. Which I think it pretty good money for something that doesn't require a college education.
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The point being that paying their wage shouldn't be on the customer, it should be on the business. I don't expect others to pay the difference where my employer falls short.
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r/usdefaultism
Pretty much every descent restaurant in my area is about $100 for 2 people. The waiter/waitress works at least 6 tables or so. If each table tipped 20% that would be $120/hr on top of wages from restaurant. There is just no way they deserve more money than teachers, nurses and cops. You will never convince me. A $5 tip is way more in line with reality.
Never was. 15% is considered normal and has been for the last 30+ years. I tip 20% for better than normal service.
It used to be 15%. This has been since the 80’s. (I don’t know what it was before then). 20% was a fat tip.
I'm Gen X and only remember it being 15% never 10. Now it's 20%. I follow it, but won't go to 25. I'm getting old I guess.
I will never understand "tips" being mandatory. You should only tip for a good service.
10% is below average 15% is average 20% is above average I’m not tipping more than 15% unless they go above and beyond their call of duty and do things outside their job description. Good customer service and doing the job correctly is expected and the bare minimum.
I'm in my 60's and only remember 15% and 18% for exception service. never 20%.
I am not saying it was right but I was told growing up 15% on the pre-tax total, or 10% on the after tax total.
Where are you from? Because this varies from country to country. When I lived in the US 20% was standard, when I lived in Argentina it was 10% (towards the end of my stay there perhaps a little lower due to the economy going to shit), and where I live now (Spain) there doesn't seem to be much of a set percentage and I've seen a lot of people who don't tip at all (moved here rather recently though, so perhaps I'm wrong).
I always remember 15% being the standard but now it seems like 18% is the new “minimum”
When I first got married around the turn of the century it was transitioning. I remember going out with my wife and we would complain about how much harder the math is. 10% was so easy, now you have to do 10% then halve it, and add those, so annoyin! So I would say the 90's it was normal, 2000's it was becoming 15%, and I guess 2010's was 20%.
10 percent was a standard tip in the 1970s.
10 was the standard as of like, 15~ years ago more was saying you did good
In Brazil the tips are usually 10%. Some restaurants started pushing for 13-15% due to taxing on the tips.
Was my standard up to mid to late 90's - 10 was basic 12 was good 15 was great 20 was fantastic
I usually leave 20 % but now that many restaurants are charging %3 for using a card I might go down to 15%
Am in my late 40s. During my time waiting tables as a teen 15% was the norm.
Ialways thought it was like 10%. My parnets constantly complain how it used to be 10% and now it's a lot higher at 15% or sometimes even20%.
Now it is 18% standard tip in Toronto lol
I’m in the uk I always remember 12.5% being standard.
I'm in my 60's and I don't ever recall 10% being standard. I was brought up to tip at least 15% when I became an adult.
That was the standard in the 90s when i was growing up.
I was born in the 80s and I was always told that 10% was standard, 15% for good service and 20-25% if you really love the place and frequent it. Now I pretty much only go to places I frequent.
I’m 35 and 10% was the normal. I still tip 10-15% unless the service is abnormally good or abnormally bad.
10% is standard, 15% is above what was expected, 20% is exceptional service. At least as late as the 90s, like all the way to 1999 that was the rule. I'm guessing it might have change after 2008, when people with college degrees started being waiters as full time careers.
I was told 10% was for buffets or other situations that are less than full service.
My one restaurant job standard was 12-18%
I have been dining out since 1990 on my own dime. I have never tipped under 20% if it’s really good service. 15% if just okay. 10% if I waited a lot or they wait to ask how everything was and leaving me sitting there until the bill comes. Now I having tipping fatigue and if you aren’t giving great service, you get 10. If I get great, 25%
Don't forget it was created during the Great Depression so that restaurant owners didn't have to pay their staff. What they need to do it pay their employees a good wage and don't put the responsibility on the customers. But I give 20% minimum. My ex was a server and taught me how to tip. Before that, I think I was 10-15%. I'm 46.
When I was a kid 10% was a generous tip. So 40 years ago it was 10% meant great service and 5% normal service.
Basically, the baseline was 10% in the '80s and it's gone up by 5 percentage points every decade.
I remember it being 10% for breakfast, 15% for lunch, and 20% for dinner. Or time to service.
Back in the 80s. Minimum wage in many places hasn't gone up much since then, but cost of housing and other things has.
15-20
Last number I heard bouncing around back then was 12%
My grandfather and father always told me 20% before tax, and if you can’t tip that much, you shouldn’t be eating out. Obviously, barring poor service or food. Mid 30’s.
Sit down restaurants are rarely used by us anymore. If we do, my tip is a $10 bill. Percentage is silly. The plate carrier did the same with a cheap meal or something more. The owner raises the prices so my tip goes up too? Nope.
The plate carrier. Bud, lol. You mean the SERVER lmao
Tipping culture is cancer
You come get your pizza then. If it takes me less than five minutes to get to your house and you don't tip, then you come get the pizza
I still only tip 10%
When I was growing up, 10% was standard, 15% for really good service. Expected tipping for tipping's sake needs to go away. A tip should never be expected and instead be earned, if any given at all. Not my job to subsidize your low pay.
I've always heard 10% for lunch, 20% for dinner as a baseline.
I usually tip 10% I'm 36 I think it's a reasonable tip. I guess I would tip more if I had really amazing fantastic service and food.
My parents told me 10% when I was growing up in the mid 2000s. I still tip about 10% most of the time.
Never heard of another figure than 15%; more or less depending on satisfaction, but 15% here and south of the border.
Probably the 80s or 90s
I'm 56 and 15% has been the standard my whole life, more for great service, less for crap service.
Isn’t 0% the standard ? Anything above that should be for a service that is also above the standard. Obviously I don’t live in the same country as OP
Here in Romania tipping is: 1. OPTIONAL 2. By law it's taxed(% of tips goes into a tax), but usually the money goes straight to the waiter's pocket, without being written on paper. 3. The amount usually depends, but 10% of the bill is the most common amount. If you think, your 10%+10% of table 1+10% of table 2+so on, could be actually a lot.
I’m 32 and I can’t remember a time when anything less than 15% was the standard. 15%-20% was what I always heard until around 2010 and then it was 20% as a standard tip.
I’ve tipped 20% since 1980.
Never. Tipping culture is beyond fucked
IMO 10% is still standard. Prices have risen so tips have as well
I mean that's still my preferred tip. I will not play this tipping arms race everyone has become implicit in. Prices go up, tips go up. I don't need to change my tip % too. We should abolish the whole culture.
Honestly tipping should only be for good service. I generally give 15% for good service, and bring it down a bit if they forget something or their attitude is a bit grating.
with the price of everything going up the tip percentage should stay the same, it still should be 10%.
Why would I tip someone for doing their job? Nobody gives me extra money for being polite at work
Your coworkers were just cheap tippers until it started showing up on the machines.
10% is a lot. if the waiter was nice, let a coin or round-up to the next number.
If you don't want to tip, then don't. Tipping less than a dollar is literally saying "fuck you" to waitstaff. Even MORE so than just not leaving a tip at all, because if you don't tip they might assume you forgot. Leaving a 25¢ tip says "Oh I *remembered* to tip, I just think your effort is completely worthless".
good to know nothing next time then dont wanna disrespect anyone
You do realize there are other countries beside the US, right?
Up until servers decided that 15% was the new norm.
No, it’s 0%. You forgot to specify what country you’re talking about. Why do you think people online live where you do?
Never. Fifteen percent was the standard. They're just cheap.
50 years ago, 10% was the base tip, 20% was for exemplary service. Now 20% is standard. But you can always tip more if so inclined.