I thought I’d try and move the conversation to it’s own place so not to hijack @raclut post.
It seems like there is a lot of disparity in who and when to tip.
I always tip delivery people. Make sure I have cash to tip them. I remember being at a relative’s vacation lake house when she received appliances. After they left, I mentioned, oh you forgot to tip them? Thinking she just forgot. Nope! She’s paid enough for the delivery charge, she doesn’t tip. Ok?
So who do you tip? And what tipping do you think is out of control?
I think tipping is important. I always tip people who come and work in or on my house like the guys who install countertops. That is a lot of work and they aren’t getting much of a cut on high price items like that. We also often buy workers pizza and beverages when they work for several hours.
Delivery people - probably. Especially if its a challenging delivery (stairs, difficult driveway, setup etc.).
In my town, I tip no one except servers in restaurants.
When I travel, I tip taxi drivers, hotel housekeeping, bellmen, etc. I always take lots of small bills with me.
We get deliveries at the office nearly every day and we don’t tip them. We do offer a soft drink or water, though, but we offer that to everyone who comes in.
Delivery fees almost never go to the driver/delivery person. They go to the company and does not trickle down.
First off, I DESPISE tipping culture and want it to burn in a trashpit. But I recognize that it’s how our culture and economy work, unfortunately.
Basically, I tip everyone who I am paying for a service more than their labor. So that includes restaurant workers (waiters and takeout people), delivery people, beauty techs (the rare times I get my hair or nails done lol), uber/lyft drivers, etc.
I don’t pay people whose labor I’m directly paying for because it’s built in to my billing- mechanics, plumbers, etc.
There are shades of grey with all of these, obviously, and not everything is neatly divided but it’s my general rule of thumb.
Waiters, bartenders, hotel housekeepers, resort staff, tour guides, tour bus drivers, delivery person, movers, hair stylist, hair assistant (shampoo person), taxi/Uber drivers. golf caddy, manicurist, doormen, bellhop, valets, bathroom/locker room attendant (if they hand you a towel or actually do something), shoe shiner, and I’m probably forgetting a few.
Any place where I order, pay, and pick up at the cash register, which is generally any place that has a tip jar next to the register.
I don’t like tipping culture either. I loved it when a bellhop at my hotel in Spain walked me several blocks across Sevilla to unlock the parking garage where my car was, took me down several levels, unlocking the elevator as we went, carried my luggage and when I offered to tip him generously, he absolutely refused it. Tipping puts the person wanting a tip on a sort of servile level, which I find uncomfortable.
I tip for those making a wage based on tipping like waitstaff.
If you deliver stuff to my house (absent food delivery which I don’t do anyway) you do not get a tip unless you go above and beyond in some way outside the scope of your normal requirements.
I felt guilty recently because we got some beautiful flowers delivers to our house, and my husband didn’t tip the delivery person anything. But we never have much cash, and it was unexpected.
If The person I am working with is the owner of a company, I do not tip.
ETA - how much do people tip on bar drinks? Apparently I’m higher than some people, but my mom was a waitress, so I’m probably more generous than some.
We don’t always tip on carry out, but we do tip well for delivery of food.
I don’t tip delivery people unless it’s a particularly hard job. I had furniture delivered this fall and that was tough for those 2 guys, that was heavy, and they did a great job of placement. $20 each. I had a mattress delivered this week and paid $75 for delivery. I didn’t tip. Just depends.
For drinks? Same as food, 20% sometimes a little more. If service sucks, I’ll give less. But going to or sitting at a bar is extremely rare. Any drinks are usually with a meal.
For housekeeping, I’ve heard tips range from $1-5 per day per person, given each day that the room is cleaned. We tend to have them only clean in the middle of our stay and after we check out.
As I think we’ve talked about before I don’t mind tipping a non serving, semi fast food restaurant if there are teens or young adults working - like I know that tip in the tip jar means a lot to them.
But I kind of hate the whole thing where they flip the iPad type screen around for you to tip or not tip - right while they are standing there. It’s just really awkward to me.
Sometimes I also kind of hate the tipping prompt on a screen of a semi fast food place - I’d rather just throw a couple bucks in a tip jar.
I hardly use cash anymore except for tipping. Wasn’t there a scandal when Uber Eats tips were going to the company instead of the driver? Or maybe it was Grubhub. At least when you hand currency to someone it goes where you want it to go, but who has currency in hand any more?
It can be hard when you move from one area to another even within the US because there are variances in the tipping customs.
When we moved to Florida, we didn’t realize in our area many people tip the trash collectors at Christmas. I found out that week before Christmas when I was out walking in our neighborhood with my kids, about 1/4 mile away from my house but still within the neighborhood, and the garbage truck pulled up to us. This huge guy jumped out and asked, “hey, are you the people that live at the end of the road on _____?” When I said yes, he asked if he was doing a good job, if we had any complaints. I said no, that we appreciated what he did and thanked him, to which he replied “because you’re the only ones on that road that didn’t take care of me and leave me a little something.”
He wasn’t rude or threatening at all, it was - as odd as this sounds - like he was puzzled and just checking so we all understood where the other person was coming from. If he’d been rude or pushy or outright asked for a tip, I would have been offended and probably pushed back. But I actually respected the way he handled it and his direct approach (and he does do a great job - never spilling things and sometimes taking big or awkward things that he probably doesn’t have to take), so I told him I didn’t know that was done here and would leave him something next week.
The funny thing was when I asked all my neighbors, they all did leave something out for the garbage guys, but it was an interesting mix of stuff. A very few just left an envelope with cash but many more left out baked goods and/or alcohol.
This all floored me. How could you leave cash and know it wouldn’t be stolen? Who would eat baked goods left on the top of a trash can? Can you really leave a case of beer beside the road and hope the neighborhood kids don’t get into it? So many questions…
I think that wait-staff are underpaid so I do my personal best to solve the problem
At our favorite neighborhood dinner joint, I routinely tip the waitstaff 40%
At my local bar, I regularly tip the bartender in the neighborhood of 50%. This is a special case though. I go every week with the same group (ranges from 6-10 people) and typically end up only buying <5 beers… I have no idea how the others tip so I want to make sure he is taken care of. He also takes care of us. For example, the kitchen closes at 10 and if we are running late, he will place our standard order (wings, fries and pretzel) for us
I do not tip tradesmen. The mechanics who service our boiler are billed at $250/hr - I assume the small biz employing them pays them a fair share of that $$.
Regarding those iPads with a tip line - a winery owner apologized to us for having that window pop up after we bought a bottle. She said it came with the software, and there was nothing she could do to get rid of it.
