- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- world@lemmy.world
Many international fans visiting the US for the World Cup have become frustrated by the culture of tipping servers, telling the BBC that tipping fatigue has set in.
England supporter Geoff Pryor said he understood tipping for good service, but he found it “weird” when buying a bottle of water and “they try to get a tip for doing nothing”.
In the US, staff at some restaurants and bars are paid just over $2 (£1.50) an hour, and they expect customers to tip about 20% of the total cost of the bill so they can earn a living.
Frustrations have also been shared by hospitality staff, with one bar owner telling the BBC that many World Cup tourists have been bad tippers.
You must log in or register to comment.
This is why no one should ever visit the States for holidays. Lots of better countries to go that don’t have this bullshit.
Kinda weird that US culture tends to demonize handouts, yet handouts in the shape of tips is expected and you’re a bad person for not providing them.
Aha, but the great old USA love to think it’s a meritocracy, and since tipping is something that was originally merit based, it’s a very American expression. You work a little harder, you get a little extra.
But also, in a uniquely American way, capitalism turned tipping a moral dilemma.
Also, tipping is a way to legalize paying marginalized groups less. It enables a system where young attractive White people make more money for the same work.
Handouts are accepted based solely upon how much money you make.
If you’re poor? You’re a leech on society.
If you’re rich? You clearly know money and you’ll obviously invest that back into the economy and it’ll trickle down to the poor people any minute now.
Handouts to people are demonized.
Handouts to companies are perfectly fine.
Tips get a pass because everyone (at least instinctively) understands it is benefiting the company more than the people officially receiving it.
This shit is being pushed so much that I’m starting to think it’s just more culture wars shit to keep sowing division between people
Or… And hear me out…
America is a genuinely corrupt and exploitative country that your own society perpetuates by allowing these oppressive standards on your fellow low wage citizens to continue to be the norm.
Or, you know…
‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
I’m an American. I love my country. I am a patriot.
Unfortunately you’re right.
I just want to say that there are genuinely good people that live here and there are some amazing wonderful parts to this country.
My wife isn’t American. She wasn’t born here. She’s only been in country for maybe 3 or 4 years and she has a lot of very strong opinions about various aspects of our society and culture and politics. And I keep telling her that she moved here literally the worst possible time in recent history.
I genuinely apologize to everyone on behalf of my country for what we are doing.
“I keep telling her that she arrived at one of the worst moments in recent American history.”
The whole thing around tipping in restaurants and bars has been a thing for decades in America.
Yes but I was responding to the comment above not to the post itself… 🤷
Or… And hear me out
Let’s not generalize 345 million people.
It absolutely is. Trump created the July 2025 law “No Tax on Tips.”
Let’s fix this headline.
American’s Confused By Fair Wage Practices of Civilized Countries
The article could start like this:
Some Americans, more specifically those from the socalled “United States”, are confused by fair wages and other basic social norms on civilized countries.
Ci… Civ… Civ-il… Civil-i? Civil-iz? Civil rights? CIVIL RIGHTS COUNTRIES?! Does your country’s ICE know about this???
If there’s a problem, yo, they’ll solve it. Institutionalized racism, no laws to resolve it. ICE ICE baby
Really putting that vanilla in the ICE
Which American?
You know who! It’s the American with the Confused. He owns it!
I never tip, unless i received exceptional service.
Then again i only eat out at venues where I pay up front or self serve, or in places so posch - I actually WANT to tip the staff for providing an outstanding experience.
On the rare occation I am in a venue where tipping is expected and service and experience are not phenomenal I do not tip and happily send any staff to fuck right off if approached - that sort of establishment SHOULD go under.
You suck for not tipping people who are paid in tips.
Pay your staff properly
Yeah, pay a livable salary and fuck off with begging for money.
You are only harming workers and are an asshole if you withhold tips.
Tell that to the owner and not the staff.
It is not the owner’s fault, it is everyone as a nation, accepting the practice and blaming customers.
It’s very much also the owners. Outsourcing your staff’s salaries to the customer while being able to advertise cheaper prices is an incredible deal for them while dropping all of the responsibility on the customers.
The customers end up paying the extra however you slice it. Be it tips, a non optional gratuity, or baked into the price. Most restaurant margins are surprisingly low, its not like theyre being greedy and hoarding the ‘extra’ money that would otherwise go to servers salary.
The tip passing direct from the customer to the staff prevents it from being taxed 2x, (both sales and income dont get charged on tips) you’d be adding an extra 10% or more on top of the 20% if you moved to to a baked in cost.
You guys are always so worried about your taxes. With the current administration I can see why, I guess. We’re not asking to not pay what we owe, we’re just asking that what we owe be transparent, like in a civilised country.
Why do you give the employer a pass and blame the customer?
I don’t get the employer a pass. But I live in a reality of tipped wages and have had a job like that before. I have solidarity with those workers by helping the make a livelihood. Me not tipping only benefits me and the owner. Not the laborer. It is immoral to withhold the money earned
No, you suck for accepting and perpetuating a culture where it is necessary. Do the right thing and refuse to go along with it. Insist that all staff are paid livable wages. Petition your state to force the issue if necessary.
Yes because me not tipping is going to end the system. Not tipping only benefits me and the owner. The staff is fucked. Only assholes think their individual lack of tipping with change a system. Systematic change requires a system to change.
Actual clown take
I have solidarity with the people who labor under the system.
I have only read the comments here. I see employers are not paying minimum wages is the problem here.
If minimum wages were paid tipping or not tipping is a question of good service and appreciation and not a question of survival.
Place the blame on the business owners who refuse to pay fair wages to employees. This is a criminal act and customer not tipping is just a question of social politeness.
You suck for living in a nation that allows employers to use tips to make up a half decent wage.
Yes I have a choice in that matter. I live in a reality of tipped wages and I have solidarity with the people who labor under it
That’s not solidarity in terms of labour. It’s just accepting the status quo, while doing a lip service to the people affected. If you really want to show solidarity, join a union and participate in collective action to improve the working conditions. The more people a union has, the stronger it can get. Worker rights in Europe didn’t come out of the good hearts of politicians or companies.
You fight the system by fighting the system, not punishing people who are even more vulnerable to the cruelty of the system.
Then join a union.
I’m literally in the IWW
Dont visit here. Problem solved.
That’s not happening. Football fans are irrational, they’ll will follow their teams anywhere, no matter how bad, even places like qatar or us.
It is completely out of control. I have been asked to tip at self operated vending machines. WTF?
That’s because vending machines aren’t actually paid at all and rely entirely on tips. Little known fact.
Damn. What a heartless bastard I am.
Stop being a robophobe
Clankist.
Genius.
They’re unconfigured PoS systems. Look at all the different PoS solutions out there. You never know where or when to tap your credit card, hit yes before or after the transaction is initiated. It’s generally smaller vendors not configuring non-out-of-the-box solutions. Simple as that.
Well if you travel to the US for the World Cup you’re either ignorant as fuck or you like the direction they’re going and want to sponsor it.
You chose to go. Stay and suffer or leave and get better.
Or maybe they like football?
You can like football and not support america and FIFA’s blatant corruption.
I like cocaine but I’m not going to hang out in rural Colombia anytime soon.
This is Lemmy sir, only extremes are allowed here.
Fuck you for having hobbies, you should 110% dedicate yourself to fighting foreign country at any cost!
Frustrations have also been shared by hospitality staff, with one bar owner telling the BBC that many World Cup tourists have been bad tippers.
Should read
Frustrations have also been shared by hospitality staff, with one bar owner telling the BBC that many World Cup tourists have been making staff aware that I and other businesses are bad employers.
Yeah, why’s the bar owner being quoted in a paragraph about the frustrations of hospitality staff? He’s the one not paying them a fair wage and expecting the customers to subsidize his payroll!
And he is.
Making others aware? (commendable)
or
A bad employer? (not so commendable)
There should never be an incentive for someone to work hard. The incentive is the paycheck. If they give bad service you fire them, every other scenario should be they are paid fairly and the customer leaves happy because they got good service.
Exactly. Like every other job, poor work performance should be handled by feedback and clear targets, with dismissal used as a last resort.
Nobody should be forced to give fake smiles to appease awful customers in order to not starve.
“We need at-will employment to ensure good service”
“We need to allow tips to ensure good service” Naw the tips are there so they can list lower prices than you’re going to pay.
Tipping culture is getting crazy.
It’s gotten out of hand. I ordered winter boots via an online shoe store and the check-out prompt asked if I would like to tip. There’s a tip prompt when I buy a container of carrot sticks at the roadside convenience store.
I would love to do away with the awkward conversations about what I’m doing next while using the point of sale terminal at restaurants. The ritual of annoying small talk in the hope that I select 20% for a tip is tiresome.
For some weird reason I read that whole post in the voice of the woman that does the virgin adverts in the UK.
For all you know, maybe I AM the voice of the ads!
We don’t pay our workers, lol. That’s on you!
How many times is this shit going to get reposted?
Welcome to the wage slave states of America! Hopefully you get out before you find out how much I.C.E. costs here. Ha!
Seriously don’t come here if you value your safety or your possessions.
My favorite thing I saw recently in relation to tipping - was this sign at a restaurant about what the minimum wage was and encouraging tipping.
I’m assuming that sign was put up or at least tacitly endorsed by the management.
It’s almost as if they don’t have any agency over what they pay their own workers and they are then shaming customers into making up the difference? WTF?
Of course it was. Tipping is a scam by business owners to have customers pay wages so they don’t have to.
It’s almost as if they don’t have any agency over what they pay their own workers
They kinda don’t. To pay their workers an acceptable base wage, they’d have to raise their menu prices 20%. They can put up as many signs as they want explaining the prices, but customers are pretty bad at reading signs. Many, if not most, customers are just going to see the higher prices and go somewhere cheaper. It doesn’t matter that the final price is the same, there’s a reason the whole $X.99 is so prevalent, monkey brain see smaller number, think better value.
It’s kind of a game of chicken, any one individual business that tries to eliminate tipping is going to risk losing customers to competitors. This isn’t really a problem that can be fixed at the individual business level, it would require legislation that forces all businesses to raise prices roughly the same amount at the same time.
