iaink

So cash tips are worth 30+% more than credit card ones potentially. Unfortunatley Im a bit like the queen (Not just cos according to dbd I live in Windsor Great Park), as I seldom carry much cash. My wife sees to that

hot wasabi peas

No.



I've never heard of that scenario.

Biiiiink

I always do cash too, but not for that reason, just that I'm so crap at maths it takes me a while to work it out, and I can't ever do it on the spot when the server puts the card machine in my hand

I did a student summer in a Balti restaurant run by a Ghanaian in Cardiff (!) one year and the number of Brits tipping was higher than you'd expect from reading all these threads. The customers were all off their heads of course, and sweeping up most weekend shifts, the number of notes dropped on the floor could really boost your tips!

rwin

Double the amount for GST and add another couple.

iaink

divide by ten (move the decimal point one spot to the left), then double it. How hard can that be?

If you are cheap its probably worth the extra effort to divide by ten and then add on half that number again to get 15%

Now you are in Ontario the taxman has figured out 14% for you anyway.

Doesnt your cell phone have a calculator feature anyway

Biiiiink

Funnily enough, it has a "calculate tip" feature, but I don't take phones in restaurants

Maybe it's the wine but when that machine is in my hand, I just can't even be bothered to start sorting a tip out. Rather do it at my leisure after and leave cash

montreal mike

I have never been embarrased to tip directly and in cash. If a waiter or waitress were offended, or somehow put out, well I have never noticed it. I know that I am probably in the minority here as most times people will leave cash on the table or add a tip to their bill. In my younger years I never waited tables but I don't feel I would have felt offended being handed some cash.

As to the taxes, my understanding is that the quebec revenue dept, will compel employers to add the value of the tips for tax reporting purposes. This is feasible where the client adds the tip to the bill and the resto collects. However as to direct tips, aka the montreal mike technique, well I do not know how it works. I do know the tax boys have found religion and take the holy scriptures very seriously: I mean that cute bit which dictates 'render to caesar the things that are ceasar's'. They are god-like, all powerful, all knowing, amd may deem a person to have earned X dollars, tax him or her, and the person then has to contest it. That is my understanding but don't take it as gospel (pun intended).

Souvenir

In the big London hotels, at least, that job is highly prized. They can make shedloads.

stepnek

It may not be popular but here's what I think about tipping. As someone who has spent most of his working life on quite a low income I've often wondered why certain service jobs attract tipping and others don't. At the moment I'm employed as a cleaner for $9 per hour which is actually above the minimum but still pretty bad. I'm never offered any tips and I don't expect to be but I work hard and do a good job. My daughter works at McDonalds and earns minimum wage and works hard. She doesn't get tipped either.

On the other hand when we paid to have our stuff moved from England to Canada we paid something like $7000. We didn't tip the guys that delivered the stuff to our door and that was an oversight but it would only have been $20 to buy a small pack of beers or something not $120 as someone mentioned earlier. No, we'd paid enough already and it's not my worry as to how much they get paid because throughout my working life I've never expected anyone to concern themselves about how much I earn.

It should be that you pay for a service and if you get exceptional service then maybe you tip. It doesn't work that way of course so on the rare occasion that we eat out we tip because it's meant to be and the same for cabs and hairdresser's etc. But there are a lot of jobs out there that are poorly paid and those that work at them are not tipped (does anyone tip the Walmart checkout person on minimum wage expected to work open hours?), yet strangely other jobs do attract tips and people are upset if someone chooses not to. I know people will think I'm mean but none of this tipping has ever made too much sense to me I just go along with it because that's how it is. I've spent most of my life on a low income for long hours so maybe I'm less sympathetic to the traditionally tipped workers.

Souvenir

I did a fair few removals when I was a teenager. The less well-off people (eg council house moves) always tipped better than the rich ones.

startwin

No, I don't think you're mean. This actually sums up many of the comments made in our local newspaper debate on this issue, and your points make sense to me.

a1anm

I think to say someone is cheap for leaving a 15% tip is verging on ridiculous. I worked in a chain restaurant as a busser when I was in Vancouver for a year through Bunac.

The restauarant was by no means posh however the Servers could easily work a 3-4 hour shift and walk away with $150 in tips as well as their standard wage of $7.50 an hour. Granted, some of them work hard but not to the extent where they should be making almost $50 an hour and no harder than the people who work in McDonalds. The dish washers in the restaurant I worked in would be lucky to walk away with $20 after getting tipped out even though they worked harder and were still cleaning up when the servers were enjoying a pint in the bar.

Bar staff in the popular night clubs also make hundreds of dollars a night whith the majority of people leaving a dollar tip everytime they order a drink/drinks. All they would do is open 2 bottles of beer, set them on the bar and take your money. I can't see how that warrants walking away at the end of the night with 100's of dollars. We were actually talking to a girl one night who worked behind a bar in a club and she said if someone didn't leave a tip she would serve everyone else before them the next time they were at the bar.

And taxi drivers - in Vancouver the majority of them weren't very friendly and gave you the exact same service as any other taxi driver, yet you're expected to tip them (for what?!?? - doing their job?))

I would also like to think that the resaon someone is being extra nice and going out of their way to help is because they are a nice/hard working person not because they want you to leave them more money.

I agree it would be much simpler to pay them a bit more and abolish tips. It would make it so much fairer (ie. all staff would get the same - servers, chefs, dish washers etc.). And i'm sure the price of your food/drinks would not have to increase by 15% in order to do this.

When i'm out in Canada or in the UK I always tip as it's the done thing, however I think it's an extremely strange system with to much emphasis put on it.

dbd33

They exhance the sales at the place by looking good. Their appearance is what is worth the money.

Daedra

I'd want my money back from some of them then!

citicat

Fully agree