Ten Things About US Labor Law（2）Why are American tips so high? Which countries have tipping?
Tipping is not small! I'm afraid that tipping is the biggest problem when enjoying "American service". Whenever you see a line under "Total" in a restaurant in the US, you can't help but wonder how much you should give. Give less it seems to lose face, give more it is too expensive. 18%-35% has been the norm for tipping, in this kind of tip guide (Tip Guide) is more and more magical today, we also have to dig deeper into the past and present life of tipping, tipping habits of various industries, and the deep-seated social reasons behind. The next time you fill in the numbers on the Total line, you will know which way to turn the scale.
Recently, I went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, and since it was a business meeting, I didn't look at the bill carefully, plus the restaurant itself made pretty good food, so I gave a 25% tip, only to come back and look at the bill and realize that it had actually covered the 18% basic tip in it. That's like me giving 25% on top of the 18%. So when you do the math, I tipped almost 50%! What a loss! Actually, tipping in the US has always been higher. I've been coming to the U.S. for almost ten years now, and in the beginning, when I first came to the U.S., tipping was about 10% or 15%. But after the epidemic, not only did prices go up, but tipping also started to soar. Now basically restaurants have three levels of recommended tipping: basically 15%, 20%, and 25%, and there are even some stores that are even more exaggerated by having 18% as the first level.
Before the restaurant, the price of food and tip added together, almost two people fifty or sixty dollars will be able to eat well, but now basically 100 dollars to eat. And now the U.S. restaurant a variety of cleverly named, with different names charges, such as Gratuity, I really do not recognize the word before, and then came back to check out, in fact, this is also the meaning of the tip, but is a change of expression, so that you are not easy to pay attention to, as well as Wage & Benefits, that is, the staff's wages and benefits, this kind of still have the nerve to write to the bill on the guests! Pay, and Surcharge is surcharge that is more straightforward. In fact, the use of tips is very wide, not only the United States, many countries have. And not just in the catering industry, it can be said that tipping is everywhere.
1. Tipping Around the World
The following chart shows tipping around the world. The more blue-purple the color, the lower or lower the tip, and the more red-orange the tip, the higher the tip. Let's take a look at the blue-purple area, where there is no tipping at all, or even tipping is considered surprising or even disrespectful to the waiter.
Let's take a look at the blue-purple area, where there is no tipping at all, or even tipping is considered surprising or even disrespectful to the waiter. The green and light yellow ones are the ones that don't tip, but if the waiter receives a tip, he or she is neutral or appreciative, and even if he or she does tip, it's very small, 5%-10% is very good.
The third group is orange and red, which means that tipping is mandatory and the tip amount is not low, 10%-20%. I know we must want to how to summarize a law, but I advise you not to bother, I summarized half a day is not summarized what, like some economically developed places such as Australia, Finland, and Sweden actually do not have a tip, but on the contrary what Poland, Ukraine, Uruguay, these places are actually still the highest consumption of a grade.
So it should be said that more cultural factors, not completely linked to economic development.
But no matter how to say, the United States is the highest, from the chart we can see, it is the only big red country, and if according to the consumption in recent years, the United States have been more than 15%-20%, now all 18%-25%.
2. Tipping in all walks of life
What's even more annoying is that most countries have tipping, but it's limited to restaurants, hotels, and taxi cabs. But in the United States, there is tipping in all walks of life, as long as it is direct contact with the customer's blue-collar services, that is, in addition to the kind of blue-collar workers inside the factory, the other to provide customers with manual labor services, will need to pay a tip. For example, if someone helps you carry your luggage at the airport, if someone helps you park in the parking lot, or if a hotel bellboy helps you open the door and carry your luggage, these are usually tipped $1-$2. So when you stay at a hotel, you should always park your own car, open your own door, and carry your own bag.
In fact, did you know that you have to put $3-$5 under the pillow of the cleaning lady in the guest room? I've never had to give) Uber and Lyft, you have to tip $1-$2 even if it's a short ride, scary, right? There is also what beauty, hair, nails and all these, also 15-20% tip, now also more and more intense, approaching 25%.
There is also a kind of tip is the most pit of acupuncture massage kind, Americans seem to be very popular this, so many Chinese medicine to the United States are open this kind of store, although I have not been, but I understand a little bit, each time 10min almost $15-$20, if calculated in accordance with the 20% of the words is not only $ 3-$4 it? But acupuncture massage massage, is indeed a physical work, than those who serve a plate, carry a bag or something more tired, so usually the original price of $15-$20 service, to give a tip of $8-$10 dollars, that is, half of the tip. Do the math ah, might as well go home to find a partner to give yourself a massage.
3. The source of tips - the British aristocracy
In the seventeenth century in England, the aristocrats visited friends and relatives on horseback with their families, and stayed for more than a week. In this process, the nobles often like to give the other family's servants some reward, on the one hand, is to thank, on the other hand is actually reflect their own class superiority.
But this one is like the story of the pilgrimage, where the pain of losing a hundred dollars far outweighs the pleasure of gaining a hundred. If you have not tipped in the beginning then the servants will not do anything, but after once getting such small favors, if you don't give again, instead the servants will get angry. Next, if you don't tip the other servant then the servant will continue to hold your horse's rope, smile and not let you leave. It even got worse later on, when you didn't tip the aristocrat, the other servant would spit inside the soup of the non-tipping guest, and others would put food scraps inside the pockets of the non-tipping guest's coat.
The United States does not have a royal family and aristocracy, but after the second industrial revolution, and in the two world wars in other countries have to fight the people's livelihood, but the United States is a great wealth of national difficulties, the third industrial revolution that is, the information technology revolution, the United States is far ahead, which make the Americans really rich. But the United States has always emphasized the equality of the United States is absolutely impossible to learn the royal aristocracy of these feudal remnants, then how to reflect their own sense of superiority?
Tipping is a good way. In fact, this is the same idea with luxury goods. Can't a ten dollar bag hold something? Why would anyone want to buy a ten thousand dollar bag? Are rich people stupid? The willingness to pay IQ tax is actually to reflect a sense of class superiority in this classless modern society.
Once I had a British client to Silicon Valley, we went to dinner together, I chose a steakhouse, he gave only 5% of the consumption in the restaurant, I was embarrassed to find a crack to drill in, at that time, I thought that he was not satisfied with the restaurant, did not ask more,. So the next day I let him choose where to go to eat, he said or yesterday that it, I thought to myself, is he realized that yesterday's tip is too small, today want to go again to tip more, will make up for the past, reform. I didn't expect him to give 5% this time, and sometimes he even told the waitresses that the store was too good to be true. I realized something was wrong. However, I couldn't poke holes in it on the spot, so I found an opportunity near the end of the trip to ask him if he knew that tipping in the United States is 15%-20%, and he was shocked. He was shocked, "Ah? Our side is 5%.
See here, have to say, after these centuries of development, once the historic Sunset Empire has been less rich than today's young New World countries.
4 Economic Factors
4.1 Labor Shortage
People will wonder why Asian countries tend not to have tips then. Western countries always have more or less tips? In fact, my understanding is that the Western countries have always been less people, always in a state of labor shortage. Population is actually the most fundamental factor in economic development, and demographics also determine the economic model of a country's development. Asian countries basically have a high population density, many people but few jobs, it is easy to involution. Although this inward spiral is a new term that has come out in recent years, this phenomenon has actually existed for a long time. In order to get a job, less money or even do not want money are willing to do it, not to mention also want to tip, so in the high population density of Asian countries, it will not be able to form such a kind of tip payment market.
Another is that the high population density of the place is easy to form a more serious class division, although the United Kingdom also has a royal aristocracy, but compared to the class of Asian countries, that is really too much equality. Think of our ancient Chinese society, the low social status of people accidentally offended the high status of people, then may be life and limb are not guaranteed, do a little work is not supposed to, but also dare to ask for tips?
4.2 Cost shifting due to rising prices
After three years of the epidemic, prices have risen "solidly". You can see this graph, the epidemic just started in 2020, inflation has reached the peak of the last 30 years, and note that this graph is only up to 2020, I did not find the full version of this from the Second World War until 2023, but there is a recent ten-year inflation rate, we look at the 2020 to 2023, the slope is steeper.
After prices have risen, restaurants or other direct-to-consumer trades, if this price is directly reflected in the price of food, or the selling price of the product itself and the service, it will appear to be particularly expensive, right? So these businesses pass on the cost by raising tips, in effect passing the cost on to the consumer. That also raises a question: why is this not the case in other countries? It is because the United States as the representative of these countries, it itself has the existence of the tip system, there is such a flexible space. So this is a good way to "shift costs", right? This is actually a bit like "path dependence". It's easier to plug it in when it already has such a way out, right?
4.3 The Tax System
There is another logic here, but the difference is that in the United States, there is a sales tax on top of the price of the food, which is a consumption tax on the price of the food itself. And in China, for example, only buy some what luxury goods, cosmetics and so on this kind of price is relatively high, there is a consumption tax, ordinary products levied is the value-added tax. But the U.S. does not have the kind of value-added tax like we have in China, so the product sales process mainly relies on sales tax to collect taxes. Because the consumption tax (Sales Tax) is calculated according to the price of the food itself, and will not count the tip part, so if part of the price to the tip (Tips) inside, this part will not be levied consumption tax (Sales Tax). Note, however, that this does not lower the payroll tax. Both base wages and tips are subject to payroll tax.
5. The campaign to abolish tipping in the United States has failed time and again.
Do you think everyone in the United States is so willing to give such high tips? That's not true, the United States still fought for the abolition of tipping a few times in its history, but it's really a campaign to abolish tipping that has been banned and failed time and time again.
These include a 2006 attempt by a small restaurateur in San Diego, California, a 2013 attempt by Sushi Yasuda, a famous Japanese restaurant in New York, and a 2015 campaign started by Danny Meyer, the godfather of New York dining. But all ended in failure. That's because there's a 40 percent turnover rate among wait staff. Servers say wages are not only lower than they were when they were tipped, but they are busier again because more customers come without tips and turnover rates increase. Then they all jump ship to restaurants with tips. Therefore, or that the birth of the system is not only man-made rigid formulation can be, more is the birth of this system of cultural soil, if the basic conditions can not be achieved, rigidly increase or decrease a system can not really be implemented.
In the face of the United States high and repeatedly prohibited tipping, friends next time you go to the restaurant to eat, can be the bill to see clearly, do not be a variety of hidden tips pit!
