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| Tipping Guidelines, Practices and Charts |
Tipping Standards - United States
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| Note: There are no hard and fast rules about tipping, nor are there laws requiring tipping in the United States. The list below are generally accepted guidelines. |
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Waiters/Waitresses:
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15% - 20% for average - good service
More for exceptional service.
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Headwaiter/captain:
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May get a cut of table server's tip; so tip your server extra to reward captain, or tip captain separately.
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Bartenders:
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$1 - $2 a round -or- 15% to 20% of the tab, with a minimum of 50 cents per soft drink, $1 per alcoholic drink
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Cocktail Waitresses:
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$1 - $2 per drink
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Sommelier or wine steward:
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15% of cost of the bottle
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Buffet Servers:
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At least $1 per head if you get your own beverages. If you order beverages (or more) from the server, then you should tip 10-20% of the bill based on service quality.
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Coatroom attendant:
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$1 per coat
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Room Service:
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15% - 20%
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Valet Attendant:
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$2 - $5 average for each trip to the car, more may be appropriate given conditions. (Like weather or location)
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Pool Attendant:
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$1 - $2 for each service (providing towels or lounge chairs)
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Showroom Maitre d':
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$1 - $2 for preassigned seats
For unassigned seating, you may tip according to where you want to sit (usually a tip over $50 will guarantee your seat)
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Washroom attendant:
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50 cents to $1
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Taxi driver:
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Varies depending on locality. Assume 15% will be enough; an extra $1 to $2 for help with bags.
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Food delivery person:
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The Greater of 10% of the bill or $2.00. Should tip 15%-20% for a difficult delivery.
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Grocery loader:
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Check with store policy if tips are accepted. If so, $1 for bringing bags to car; $1.50 to $3 if you have more than 3 bags.
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Barber:
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15% to 20%, minimum $1, for a haircut. For other services (shampoo, shave or manicure) tip $1 to $2 to service provider.
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Hairdresser:
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15% to 20%. (It is acceptable to tip owner, unless he or she says otherwise.)
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Shampoo person:
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$2
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Manicurist:
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15%
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Spa service:
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15% to 20%. If service is provided by owner, no tip.
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Coffee/food retailers w/ tip jars:
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Tip is optional.
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Handyman:
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Tip is optional.
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Gas attendant:
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Tip is optional.
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Skycap at airport:
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$1 per bag if you check-in curbside; $2 per bag if skycap takes bags to check-in counter.
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Hotel doorman:
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$1 per bag for help with luggage; $1 per person for hailing a cab
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Hotel bellhop:
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$1 per bag for bringing luggage to your room (but a $2 minimum if you have just one bag)
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Hotel housekeeper:
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$2 to $5 per night
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Hotel concierge:
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$5 for getting you tickets or reservations ($10-plus if they're hard to get). No tip required when you ask for directions.
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Cruise:
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Varies. Ask cruise line about customary gratuities.
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Movers:
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Tip is optional.
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| The general rule is that you do not need to tip on tax. It has been our experience however, that most people just look at the bottom line (tax included) and just tip on that. |
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Tipping Standards - International
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Country
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Restaurants |
Porters
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Taxis
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Argentina
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Tipping is officially illegal, but waiters expect a small tip |
None
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None
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Australia
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10%-12% |
Not expected
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Round up
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Canada
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15% |
$1-$2 a bag
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10%-15%
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China
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3% in major cities |
$1-$2 total
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None
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Costa Rica
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None |
$1 a bag
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$1 for special services
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England
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10% if no service charge |
$1 a bag
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10%-15%
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France
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Up to 10% |
$1 a bag
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Round up
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Japan
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Tips are viewed as insulting |
None
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None
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Mexico
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10%-15% if no service charge |
$1-$2
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50 cents-$1
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New Zealand
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None |
None
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None
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South Africa
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10% if no service charge |
50 cents total
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10%
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Thailand
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None |
None
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None
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Sources: Magellan's, Travelocity, Fodor's, USA Today
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| Why Should You Tip? |
by Thomas A. Mason
Founder Tip20!
Why should you tip? It is amazing how often this question is asked and debated. To me the answer is painfully obvious. When someone asks me why people should tip, I answer their question with a few of my own. Do you want hot food? Do you want your drink refilled? Do you want the person taking your order to care about the quality of food you are going to eat? The answer to these questions is always yes. So why would a person that is getting paid hourly whether you eat there or not care about any of those things if there is nothing extra in it for them?
T.I.P.S. - Often interpreted to mean, Tipping Insures Prompt (or Proper) Service. The argument above is usually very hard to argue against because there is no doubt that servers give good service based on what they perceive to be a carrot on the end of a stick. They will work hard for you and you will reward them at the end for a job well done. So to me, the question is not really to tip or not, but rather how much to tip.
Tipping standards vary greatly from region to region and country to country. To complicate matters, tipping standards change over time and what services require a tip also change. Back in high school I had a friend who believed that tipping on drinks was not necessary. I never did figure out his logic on that one but it does go to show that there are many ideas about tipping.
When figuring your tip, you should consider the following circumstances that may or may not apply to the server depending on which state you are in.
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- Hourly wages are typically significantly less in the service industry, because tips are considered part of the servers income.
- Your server does pay income taxes. In absence of proper documentation of tips, the government will look at the servers food and beverage sales and base their taxable tip income on a percent of it. (see sidebar) So if you do not tip the server, it has actually cost the server money to serve you. See the IRS tipping tax laws.
- Believe it or not, servers do not always get a paycheck. Sometimes, because of the taxes they pay and/or deductions, servers must pay in to the company rather than get a check.
- Your server has to tip too. It is very common for a waiter or waitress to have to tip out their supporting staff, ie; the bartender, buss person, food runners and others. Bartenders may have to tip out their bar backs. These tips are based often on the sales of the server, so if you don’t tip them, in addition to the 8% the government gets they often have to shell out money to the support staff putting them further in the hole. Sometimes the support staff is tipped a percent of the servers tips. So not tipping the server is the same as not tipping any of the hard working support staff in the restaurant.
- Servers do a lot of work that they are not tipped on also. It is called side work and it is work that is done for no more than their hourly rate. Side work usually involves cleaning the restaurant, stocking supplies and getting the store ready for the next shifts business. Side work can be time consuming and at times physically straining.
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The most common argument (and frankly the most annoying and ignorant) against tipping is that by not tipping you are helping? the servers cause for better hourly rates. For starters, hurting one server here and there on any given day is not going to further any cause. Second there is no cause. Most servers do not rely on their hourly income. Serving is hard, fast paced work. Servers can earn a good living from the tips they get. If servers were going to work for a strictly hourly rate, I can assure you that rate would be high. If the hourly rate were high, guess what would happen to the prices you pay when you go out to eat or drink? That money would have to come from somewhere.
Do you legally have to tip? No. Occasionally, you will have a situation where gratuity has been automatically added to your bill. This is usually on larger groups or parties. This gratuity has been added because it is easy for the server to get a tip that is far less than they deserve, because in a group setting it is easy for one or two people to under pay causing the rest of the group to fall short. Again, you do not legally have to pay this gratuity, but if you don’t you should have a talk with the server and/or manager and explain why. Remember, just because a gratuity has been added, it may still be less than a good tip for the server. For example, a gratuity may have been added at 15%. This is a tip for average service. If your server did a great job it is good to add in the difference to make up to 20% or more. Many times the server had to give up several other smaller tables to take your party, so even with automatic gratuity they end up making less on their shift.
After all that, why do servers do it? Well in the end, there are enough people out there that understand that a good tip is a kind reward for a job well done. And waiting tables can be quite profitable. It is no surprise that the most financially successful servers are typically the most friendly, efficient and entertaining. These servers are rewarded for exhibiting those behaviors. And we all want to encourage those behaviors. Don’t we?
Article updated 2/2/2006
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Please take a minute to read.
Tipping your server at a restaurant has been a long-standing American tradition. While tipping 15% of the total bill has been the standard for a long time, that tip can vary depending on the service you receive. Here are a few ways to determine how much you should tip... more... |
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| Be sure to check out our information and resource page on Gluten-free dining and Travel. If this is important to you, you won't want to miss it! |
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| Top Ten Things I Wish People Knew About Waiters |
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| We found this little nugget on the web at tipthepizzaguy.com and thought we'd post it out of sheer sympathy for those that deliver. It's called What the Tip is NOT. |
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There is a misconception that servers are required to report their tips as at least 8% of their sales revenue. 8% is simply a bottom line that the IRS uses when attempting to determine how much a server earned in tips over the year. The IRS does not expect to be paid 8% of a server's sales as tax - that would be akin to taxing the customer for their bill. What it means is that in the absence of documentation to show how much that server earned in tips the IRS is going to assume that they earned at least 8% of their food and beverage sales. So if a server sells $1,000 of food than the IRS is going to automatically assume that they took home $80 in tips that night. They're going to treat that $80 as taxable income and depending on what tax bracket the server is in they might get 25% of the $80 which is $20. So when a customer tips 8% it isn't all going to the government, it's simply that all of it is going to be taxable automatically.
To put it another way, if everyone tipped 8% the server would still make some money (albeit half of what is typical), it wouldn't all go to the government. Most service employees average 15-20% of their sales in tips, so using 8% as a default is conservative from the IRS's point of view. Servers are required to report ALL of their tips, even if they made 25% (or more) of their sales in tips. Naturally most of them will report far less than this, but still more than the default assumption of 8%. In places where credit cards are used the IRS can use the tips on charged receipts to estimate the amount of tips received from tickets paid in cash. The two are generally close to each other, so if a server shows 16% of tips on all of the charged receipts they'll be sending up a red flag if they underdeclare their cash tips too drastically (e.g. 6%).
Still when a server is stiffed they are still losing money - they're getting zero on a ticket that the IRS will assume they made at least 8% on, paying taxes on revenue they didn't make.
| Tip20! extends special thanks to Nathan Schumer for clarification of taxation on tips. |
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