Waiting Staff - Tipping

Tipping

In the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, many other Western countries and parts of the Middle East, it is customary for customers to pay a tip to a server after a meal, with a possible range from 10% to 25% depending on the level and quality of service. In some situations, a tip or "service charge" will be included on the restaurant bill in the U.S. This charge is usually applied to parties of six or more. Also called a gratuity, a "service charge" will be automatically applied for situations where the restaurant management imposes this to ensure that the servers working in such situations earn their usual tip income. Such service charges are usually around 18%; an additional voluntary tip is sometimes given. There is some debate in the U.S. whether a "minimum tip", usually 15% to 20%, exists as a convention, regardless of the level of service. In many U.S. states, servers rarely are paid over the minimum wage for tipped employees, which is as low as $2.13 per hour, leaving the server almost entirely dependent on tips as income. This leaves servers particularly vulnerable to the whims and cultural expectations of their customers. Some believe that a "minimum tip" is a way for employers to shift the responsibility of paying employee wages onto the customer. These issues are regional, cultural, and very subjective. Taxes on wages are taken out of a waiter's hourly pay depending on allotted tips.

In Germany and other Western countries, where minimum wages exist for servers and where tipping is not culturally entrenched, most tips take the form of rounding up to the nearest whole or half denomination of currency when the server is cashing a party out at their table. In the United Kingdom it is common practice to tip 10% of the cost of the meal.

By contrast, servers in Japan refuse tips because it isn't a Japanese custom.

Tipping is not customary in South America, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand and is not factored into wages of staff, however tips may be appreciated. This is especially the case if the customer or party has been unusually difficult or has left a mess - parents of small children, for example, may leave a small tip. In these countries, tips are often placed into a Tip Jar and pooled rather than being kept by individual servers. This money is usually then spent on things that directly benefit staff - it may be used to maintain staff facilities or to fund events such as Christmas parties, for example.

In Taiwan and Hong Kong, a 10% service fee is often added to meals in middle-to-upscale restaurants. However, this fee does not go to the waitstaff - but is simply a surcharge that is added to the price of the meal.

Where tipping is common, it may be encouraged as a social convention, but on occasion may actually be vehemently enforced by the restaurant.