Why Tip? The history of tipping in America

Will they also accept spit for bad cooking? LOL

Cooks get about the same wage as the serving personal. In larger restaurants, with more cooking personal (and a more qualified 'hierarchy') the chefs/demi-chefs get more (as well as those of star restaurants).

"Wait staff" are covered by minimum wage laws in Canada, and the tipping merry-go-round is just as crazy here.

Minimum wage in British Columbia is currently $8.00 per hour.

This hit-and-miss business about tipping for service (here) is preposterous. You work in a restaurant you get a tip. You work in a retail store as a cashier, you don't get a tip. Both offer personal service.

Besides, what exactly is a "living wage"? In my opinion, if one lived in BC, the living wage would need to be between $15 to $20 per hour. Housing, food, gasoline take a big chunk out of one's budget.

Minimum wage for waitstaff in Canada is less than the general minimum wage. It's only one group that's excluded from the general law.

Good point, Reyn, but what's worse are government workers who gets paid for good or bad service - with a good retirement benefit to boot. They just count the numbers of years on the job. Quality is never an issue.

I should not have spoken for all of Canada.

What I do know for a fact is that wait staff in British Columbia are paid $8.00 per hour. Employers can pay younger folks $6.00 per hour if they have "X" number of hours of work experience (or something like that).

Here, if you work for McDonald's, you can get paid $9.00 per hour to start. This is because they are having trouble keeping staff.


I worked for BC Hydro (1974 to 2003), the "provincial crown utility company" (read public/government) and then from 2003 through to 2006 under a contract company (forced) that came out of part of BC Hydro.

During all those years, I worked mainly as a meter reader (electric and gas), a phone customer service rep, and as an inventory clerk. Basicly, I considered myself as "government" and we were union workers. I might as well of as the interference from government was frequent. At no time did I feel I was not doing my best, or slacking off.

As far as pension was concerned, it's "okay", but certainly no screaming hell, and I worked hard for that benefit. So, I'm sorry, but I really don't want others to tar "government workers" with the same brush and feel they've been on easy street for all their working life.

After the bad strike we had here in 1981/82, any increases until 2005 were virtually non-existent (1-2%), and mostly zero.

Let's not generalize, please. There are always exceptions to the rule.

I agree that generalizations do not apply in 100% of cases. My bad.

What I have personally observed over my 73 years of life is that "service" has disappeared from most service industries. I remember a time when we drove our car to a gas station, some attendant came to our car and not only pumped our gas, but washed our windows, and we didn't tip them. Some places still provides that service, but the gasoline price per gallon is about .10c more.

I won't generally disagree with that. Work ethic seems to have changed.

I believe this is for mainly 2 reasons. I am speaking for British Columbia, Canada here.

1- The service sectors pay lower wages. I do note that this is a generalization. There are exceptions, one being nurses. They are paid quite well, albeit their workloads are ridiculous. Which leads me to #2.

2- Since (in BC) the minimum wage is $8.00 per hour, employers have tended to under-staff, to keep labour costs down. The result is that the employees on any particular shift have to work even harder to try to keep up with their workloads. I have no problem with working hard, but worker safety should never be at risk because of it.

So, with the above 2 examples, service has suffered quite a bit.

That is why in the US Canadians are reknown in the restaurant industry to be "bad tippers" - more they don't understand the US custom. If you don't tip at least 15%, the waitstaff get screwed - especially since they will be taxed on this tip even if the tip is nonexistent. So remember not only are you screwing them in a sense (if you don't tip or tip low) as they will earn less than minimum wage, but they will also be paying taxes on money they haven't even earned.

Agree. My wife was a nurse at the local hospital, now only one block from where we live, and she now volunteers there. Her pay was pretty decent when she worked only three days a week, but I told her she could retire several years before she did. She loved her work.

So, which one of your politicians are going to fight for these people and get them a better wage? Or, at least the same as your general minimum wage?

Instead of blaming some groups as bad tippers, shouldn't Americans spend their time lobbying for folks to increase their income, like wait staff?

wait staff make far more money than the back of the house does, it is the cooks who don't make enough to live on. Changing the tipping custom on its own does not fix this.

FYI wait staff show low wages on government pay charts only because most report the bare minimum of their tips to the government so as to escape taxes on the tips.

we have travelled quite a bit in the good ol' U.S. during the last 25 years .
we have noticed that some americans can be "really" bad tippers ! particularly in the south we've seen diners at a buffet that might charge around $15 - 20 a person , leave a $5 tip for a table of FOUR !!!
waitresses in myrtle beach and area have told us more than once that canadians are generally pretty fair tippers .
we also customarily always leave a gratuity for the housekeper in hotels and motels . if we staid several nights we've more than once found a personal thank-you note scribbled on the phone notepad or received a personal thank you .
imo you find good and bad tippers in and from any country anyplace .
my preference is that people should NOT have to rely on tips to make a decent income - but i don't think my opinion has made much of a difference - so far !
hbg

As a fellow traveler, I have always tipped the housekeeper staff, and always leave a note on the telephone pad with a "Thank You, Rm xxx."

I have never understood the buffet tipping, I have been to buffets where even the drinks are do it yourself, and the bussers/check handerouters expect a tip. For doing what exactly?? If you must, leave a bus tub out for us to dump our plates in, but don't you dare stick your hand out and expect money.

When we go to a buffet, the busboys/busgirls pick up our empty dishes and used utensils as we go back for more food on clean bowls and dishes. We usually leave a couple of bucks for them, but never $5 for 3 people.

we've found that at the buffets at the better places , such as at the hotel dupont in wilmington , delaware , wait staff attend to the needs of the guests . they'll help explain the dishes offered , bring coffee and tea ("what kind of tea would you prefer , ma'm ? ") , remove plates and used cutlery quickly - we certainly enjoy their services and are quite prepared to tip for that service .
hbg

i was wrong in the price of the buffets : they are more in the $25 to $40+ range . 20 years ago it was $15-20 - but not today .

segue; I was in Malaga Spain in a few years ago and visited a local coffee cafe on the dock over-looking the harbour on a daily basis, on the 5th day i left a 1 euro tip and the waitperson came running after me saying she could not accept such a large tip and gave me back change Iwas red-faced but suggested she accept it on the basis that I was an ignorant american and didn't know better.

A few weeks ago I was in the golf club shop at Wawona, CA and I gave the girl behind the counter a dollar from my change because she had just fetched me some fresh milk for my coffee and she gave me the dollar back saying "Thank you sir, but we're not allowed to accept tips here"

It's all most confusing.