Tipping is experienced very differently around the world. In Japan it can be insulting, since it is considered that providing good service is a duty that comes with your salary. In Europe, tips are usually associated with gratitude for good treatment and, in any case, they are relatively low. In the United States, however, they are practically an obligation, as they constitute a substantial part of the compensation of hospitality employees and other sectors. The general impression among Americans is that this obligation is gaining more and more ground and consumers are increasingly clueless about how much to tip and when.
The tipping phenomenon has roots in 16th century England and until the 19th century it was more common in Europe than in the United States. But the tables turned to such an extent that at the beginning of the 20th century, waiters in fashionable restaurants in the United States They had to pay the owner to work there (and thus collect tips). The reprisals to clients who did not loosen their pockets were varied and in Chicago the police dismantled a network that He poisoned those who didn’t tip.
Unwritten rules generate legal uncertainty. In the absence of law, custom prevails, but when customs change, trouble is guaranteed. A report released last month by the Pew Research Center shows that only a third say that it is very easy to know whether to tip (34%) or how much (33%) for different types of services, according to the results of a macro survey of 11,945 people.
What the majority (72%) do agree on is that they increasingly find themselves being asked for a tip in a greater number of places, in a phenomenon baptized as propinflation (tipflation, in English) and spurred in part by the pandemic. While in countries with less established tradition in this regard, such as Spain, the decline in cash payments has affected tips, in the United States it has found a breeding ground in which to reproduce. Screens with suggested tips are multiplying and appearing everywhere: fast food chains, self-service, automatic car wash tunnels and even in some merchandise stores. Even the robots, Like someone who makes milkshakes in San Francisco, They want your tip.
Full table service restaurants are still the kings of tipping. About nine in ten adults who eat there (92%) say they always or often tip. A compensation of 15% is considered the minimum acceptable and 18% or 20% is more common, although the conclusions depend a lot of the guide to be consulted.
Beyond restaurants, tips are also very common when getting a haircut (78%), for delivering food at home (76%), when ordering a drink in a bar (70%) or when using a taxi or a shared transportation service (61%). In contrast, few Americans tip always or often when they buy a coffee (25%) or eat at a fast food restaurant (12%), but payment screens suggest doing so more and more frequently.
To complicate things even more, in more and more restaurants in big cities like New York or Washington, the bill is accompanied by a surcharge or a service charge (which the owners keep) to which taxes must then be added and also the tip (this goes by law to the waiters). Restaurants justify it due to inflation and laws that have required improving the remuneration of waiters. Some, adding insult to injury, argue that they charge a surcharge to avoid having to raise prices. How thoughtful! They deserve a tip.
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