Readers of this newsletter are firm that a 15 per cent tip at restaurants is just fine.
There were a few voices of dissention among the hundreds of responses received to my request for comments on whether a 15 per cent tip is cheap. “Tips should be 20 per cent,” one reader said by e-mail, while another wrote that “20 per cent should be the standard.” A few others leaned toward 10 or 18 per cent.
Where the general consensus on the 15 per cent tip broke down is on the question of whether it should apply to the pretax amount, or the tax-in cost you see on the payment terminals used in restaurants and stores. The idea of tipping on tax offends some, but most people seem grudgingly OK with it.
Now, for the problem with 15 per cent tipping. Restaurants and retailers make you feel cheap if you choose that amount. Payment terminals often present three tipping options – 18, 20 and 25 per cent. Going off the menu to choose 15 per cent or whatever makes people feel, well, allow me to quote a few readers:
- “I hate the awkwardness of tipping.”
- “With the suggested tip automatically displayed on the card reader, it is awkward and intimidating to reduce the tip with the waiter standing right there.”
- “I just hate being told not only that I have to tip, but how much.”
The word hate came up a bunch of times. “Restaurant tipping – I hate it,” said the subject line on one reader’s e-mail.
Quebec recently introduced new rules on tipping that are supposed to ease pressure to give higher tips and ensure tips are calculated on pre-tax amounts. Meantime, a recent edition of the Globe and Mail’s Decoder feature noted that restaurant bookings for April were up 20 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier, possibly because of cancelled plans for U.S. travel. It seems clear that as much as people dislike tipping, they love restaurants.
Now, it’s time for restaurants to love us back. Adding a 15 per cent tipping option on payment terminals would be a good start.
From our readers
Do you have a question for me? Send it my way. Sorry I can’t answer every one personally. Questions and answers are edited for length and clarity.
Tools and guides
A tipping calculator that asks for the amount of your bill and the percentage tip you want to leave.