Wait, wait, wait. We europeans don't tip?

I don't like the idea of an 'expected' tip, primed as a price tag when you walk through the door, there's already an agenda there. Whatever happened to someone doing a good job because they wanted to and not for the possibility of an extra money incentive? A tip should be a bonus not an expectation and the customer should not be judged a dick for not giving one. There's nothing more off putting than desperation and being able to see the strings behind a persons good deeds.

I guess (in the UK anyway) we don't suffer fools or fake people gladly and we don't like over attentive people. This might be a cultural thing where most things in America are 'rah rah' full on experiences so they want a show or a character from their waiters but what I expect from a waiter is to take my order and bring the food, nothing more nothing less. If you have a nice chat with them thats a bonus but I'm not going out expecting that.

This being said I do tend to give flat tip if I'm eating with multiple friends having a dinner, it all depends on the environment.

The guys always do this, say something about all of europe from a single experience despite it being extremely diverse between countries. I've always tipped in restaurants, except for when I got fish that was still frozen at it's center, despite being called fresh sea-food.

Tipping is normal in Sweden. There's an unspoken rule that people should tip 15%. (Of course, not everyone follows that) Tipping usually occurs in restaurants, at hotels, etc. But not at clothing stores or computer stores, and so on.

Yeah, what @jgf said. I never had anybody get 'offended' if I tipped them.

@razielcuts said:

It makes more sense when you consider that there are many jobs in which pay is based on commission. You get paid for the work you actually do. It seems to me that the same fundamental idea is at work in US-style tipping.

Bad service, bad tip. Good service, good tip. Exceptional service, exceptional tip. This is essentially how I approach tipping in the US, where servers usually depend on tips much more than their wages. I don't expect them to jump through hoops to impress me. Take the order as efficiently as you can; bring out the food; be reasonably attentive or at least don't disappear completely for the whole meal; try to accommodate any reasonable requests a customer might have; and if you're not a fan of your job, at least try to mask your disgust and avoid taking it out on your customers. Those are all reasonable expectations for any sort of service personnel.

For really bad service, I would rather leave an absurdly low tip instead of no tip at all. If you leave nothing in a place where tipping is expected, they might just write you off as an asshole who doesn't tip.

@low_tits_rider:

I never tip, fuck da police

Ha, I live in Australia where I only ever tip taxi drivers and pizza delivery guys. I'll also throw a few cents into a tip jar as I'm paying for a meal if I have it handy. Otherwise, nothing. I asked an American exchange student I have class with what she thought of no tipping, she described it as "so relaxing".

I dont know how it in every country in Europe but most places I have been to have the so called tip already in the payment plus people usually leave something more.

Same here in Hungary. My father is a waiter, by the way.

I live in Sweden and I rarely tip. The serving charge is generally already added to the bill and as far as I know it's not expected that everyone tips. Normally I always pay using my credit card as well, so tipping is not as straight forward as just leaving some change on the table.

I tip the pizza guy (when i order pizza, rarely).

'Tip' already included in the price here in Belgium. It does happen if people are feeling generous or you really feel like your waiter/chef/whatever deserves something extra. Generally I don't tip though.

In the UK, its common practice to tip. When I was younger and worked as a waiter, I did pretty good on them.

In Italy, it is usually included as a service charge (mandatory). I think its the same in Holland (I've only been to Amsterdam) and Greece.

France, Spain and Portugal and Germany (and seeminlgy most parts of the world) use the 'tip if you're happy with the service' policy.

And Australians don't seem to tip (at least during my travels there).

But anwyay, pro-tip: TIP! Waiters usually earn crappy wages, and it can be a darn hard job sometimes.

THAT SHIT IS THE WORST! If I see a restaurant with a sign that says "tipping appreciated" or some shit I walk right out the door again. I have never tipped in Denmark and I am not about to just because some managers like to shame their customers into paying extra.

In England we're expected to tip 10%.

Patrick's talking out of his ass.

Wait, it's wrong for them to even post a sign saying that they appreciate tips? I think that's just what it means. They appreciate tips. You shouldn't get offended just because they might appreciate if you tip their servers.

@truthtellah: As wilhelmnielsen said, the tip is already part of their salary so anything more than that is being very generous. Of course tipping is appreciated, who doesn't want more money for the same amount of work?

However, when you put up a sign you are putting pressure on the customer. Is it rude not to tip? Will the cooks/waiters be mad? Are they not paid well so they have to rely on tips? Tipping is incredibly foreign for most Danish people so when they are presented with the option a lot of them might do it just to avoid a fuzz.

To me it seems very, very wrong. I work as a tour guide and tourists have, on multiple occasions, given me a tip. I don't have expectation about being tipped, and even though the tourists are doing it because they felt I have done a good job I felt like I was taking their money from them.

So while were on the topic of tipping I'd like to know how this works. So you go to a restaurant and get your bill and you pay with your debit/credit card right? So they swipe it and then bring out your receipt where you sign it and write down what tip you are giving them. How do they actually get the tip that you gave them? Do they just pocket the equivalent of that money from the drawer is it somehow put onto their paycheck proper when they get it?

So after hearing all these stories about its alright to tip in germany, maybe that waitress was in emotional duress or something.

Low tipping in the US is considered an insult. If I tip 10% at a restaurant I'm saying the food was terrible, or the service was bad. Tipping in the US is about 15% to 20%, and yes tipping 20% is now common. Of course a dollar is worth less than a Euro, yet even if you calculate the exchange the tip is a good deal of money. But, back to low tipping, in the US not leaving a tip or leaving less then 15% is leaving a message. Low tips are meant to be insults, probably because leaving a tip is expected. Tipping is not optional, so for bad service we don't just not tip we intentionally leave 10% as a big "FUCK YOU". Ironically, most Americans are dopey/nice so if you have an accent or appear to be from somewhere else we are not insulted if you don't tip...or not 'as' insulted at the very least.

There are exceptions to all things, there are the "I don't tip" people in the US - they're animals. There are the stupid, "I tip only 14% to teach the restaurant owner to pay his employees more"...how, exactly, does that work jackass? But for the most part Americans tip everyone except the police. Anyone we cannot tip we give food. The guys painting your house or fixing something under your roof are given beer or a drink after work. It is not uncommon for professionals like teachers, cops, firemen/women, nurses, etc to be given food (cakes, sweets, etc) after the fact; i.e. "my house burned down,... so next week I'll bring the fire station a pound cake." As librarian I get about six or seven full cakes, three or more take-away meals, and dozens of muffins...and yeah cash (I can't keep cash) each year. If an Americans can't tip you, they will sometimes bring you a gift.

I think the gift thing is far more common across the world or serving drinks when someone comes into your home. That old visitor hospitality meme is still strong after 6,000 years. And, I say the gift thing is common because people from all over the world bring me gifts/sweets after I help them. I've received food gifts from people from everywhere - Poland, Ukraine, Nepal, Uzbekistan, Jamaica, Uruguay, Ireland, etc. Gifts seem common to me, but where I live I see people from two dozen countries, so I see the 'common thread'.

We tip here in the UK and every country I've visited (including Germany) but the amount varies greatly and it is definitely less than you guys tip in the U.S. Typically i'll tip around 10%, but it depends on the service, if they're nice, they may get a little more

Yeah, I was confused as well. I live in Germany and it's perfectly normal and polite to tip.

@abendlaender: I

'll be honest, tipping is getting out-of-hand in the US. Receipts now have "tipping lines" on them now just for someone taking my order, and I always feel like an asshole putting a zero on there, but I mean c'mon, they just took my damn order!

Several European countries actually pay their waiters minimum wage or better. In most states in the US you're expected to work below our already paltry minimum wage and get enough in tips to make up for it, and that's assuming they don't take the credit card "transaction fee" out of your tip or fire you when some asshole customer complains.

Don't like being hard-sold on tipping? Write your congressperson, demand they give all working people a minimum wage they can live on, then watch as they ignore you or whine that it will somehow destroy capitalism as we know it.

If you're bad at your job, there should be disciplinary measures in place that lead to you losing your job if you continue to do a bad job. Your incentive to not do a shoddy job should be so you don't get fired, not simply that you get lower tips. Anyone doing a competent job should receive a living wage, without having to worry about whether or not you're going to receive tips. Anyone doing an incompetent job shouldn't have the job for much longer.

Here in the UK I'll generally only tip if I get really good service. If I had more money, I might tip more often, but I earn pretty much the minimum wage, and I'm not allowed to receive tips, despite working in a service industry. If I accepted a tip, I would be sacked.

Another german here. I think this misconception has been cleared up, but once again: we do tip.

Maybe Patrick just misinterpreted the situation/her reaction or the waitress just had a bad day. I don't know.

@demoskinos: I work as a server, and for us at least, those credit tips get put into our paychecks.

On a similar note, and I think someone else brought up gratuity earlier, the people who try crossing out the grat to try and get out of it are the best. Never realize it just makes em look like an asshole, while we still get that money.

It's almost like he wasn't talking solely about England. Almost.

Speaking as someone who delivered pizza's for a couple summers, always tip the delivery guy. Unless you wanted double spit with the pepperoni and cheese on your next pizza.

This kinda shook me too. I live in the UK and have taken extensive holidays around Europe, and never once has anyone been upset that I've given them additional money. Weird, huh

I was merely adding my experience to the relatively indisputable body of evidence showing that Patrick was, in fact, talking out of his ass.

@low_tits_rider:

@i_stay_puft: Patrick just doesn't get the german happy face.

I only tip if the service is extraordinary, and even then it's typically leaving the change on the table if I paid cash. If I told a waiter that I want to pay MORE than it says on the bill through a credit card transaction they'd think I'm insane. I've done this all over Europe, including the UK, and never had a waiter frown at me. Typically there isn't a gratuity line on the bill in continental Europe, either.

Then again, underpaid as waiters are, they typically make more than minimum wage over here. So there's that.

@demoskinos said:

Other places allow you to take the money directly out of the cash drawer. Another way places do it is that the manager sees what your cash sales (that you have kept in your apron or pocket) are at the end of the shift and deducts from that cash amount what you have to turn in.

e.g.,

• total cash sales of shift you worked : $100;
• amount of tips written on credit cards receipts: $10
• manager asks for: $90

A server who loses the receipt with the tip written in, loses that tip (most of the time). A server who loses all or a large part of the money he or she has collected for the whole shift might not have a job or might be arrested (not typical).

I do tip, when I feel I should.