alt Hacker News> Pay for your meal
Not sure you know what tipping is, but it's not paying for the meal. It's paying for the service.
1. I like being able to pay for better service
2. Despite what people like to think, everywhere in the world has appreciated tips. I've never had a waiter refuse extra money. Literally dozens of countries, you get better service if you tip.
Replies
The cost of a ”meal” in a restaurant is: rent, wages (for chefs, managers, wait staff, etc) ingredients, profit margin, taxes and likely a dozen other things.
Taking one of these items out of the cost and trying to charge it separately is a strange practice.
Japanese waiters will literally refuse your money of your try to tip. It's literally insulting to them if you offer more than asked for
The tip is usually given at the end of the service. How does that ensure a better experience during?
There are 3 types of countries x industries (because even within a country different cultures may apply)
1. Places where service workers are paid peanuts or nothing and tipping is considered mandatory
2. Places where workers get a basic actual salary and tipping is rather voluntary (and can be more or less expected)
3. Places where tipping is not an actual practice and can make things awkward even, depending the amount.
In reality, 2 is a spectrum between 1 and 3.
Not sure where you have (or haven't been), but I've been to several countries where I've tried to tip, and it's confused or even embarrassed the staff. They insisted I take my change. Granted, this was 15-20 years ago, and unfortunately tipping has become more pervasive, not less, so maybe if I were to revisit those places, things would be different.
But I do know this is still the case in Japan. Some Japanese service workers or small business owners will even be insulted if you try to tip.
Not sure you know, but in literally dozens of countries, waiters get a proper salary.