How to tip in the US
Having just returned from New York (see NYC biz class for £500 blog) I thought I’d report back on the restaurant tipping system. There, rather sensibly, the receipts give instructions on how much you need to tip…
The receipt pre-calulates the suggested tip amount, for example underneath a food and drink total of say $47.30 it’d say:
Suggested Tips…
Good Service 15% = $7.09
Great Service 18% = $8.51
Excellent Service 20% = $9.46
Ignore the level of tipping
Of course it’s far higher than in the UK, though that is an accepted convention in the USA. Often restaurant service levels are excellent there, and with such things as ‘bottomless drinks’, waiting staff tend to do more things that don’t generate incremental revenue to the restaurant.
The key is it links tip to service
What I like is the fact there’s no “service charge included" (see my view on that with if service is included why isn’t it in the bill?) and that the amount you pay is supposed to relate directly to the service received.
Here we have a service charge that seems to be mandatory at a fixed amount, whether you’ve had a rude and surly waiter, or someone with the charm of Don Juan.
Comment and Discuss
