How much though? $3? $5? That would be a bit more than the tip to most NYC yellow cabs for in-city trips. Is that too little? It's over an hour to drive me home from mid town.

 
EuroMonkey:
Same here, surely the price of the service is what it's worth??? Usually no tip, especially for the guys who ask how much I'll tip or drive like shit.

I do tip if the ride was more pleasant than usual (nice car, jazz music etc).

do you tip waiters?

 

I could see why some Americans don't like Europeans and don't tip them when they take them on a taxi ride or were their waiter at a restaurant.

What foreigners need to understand is that waiters and taxi drivers have their tips factored into their pay. Waiters make like $4 an hour vs. the normal minimum of around $7 because they are expected to make tips. So if you fail to tip you are only screwing a hard-working person out of money. Yes, the system might suck but that's the way it is and until their wages rise I'm always going to leave 20% (15% if they sucked and 25% if they went beyond the call of duty).

 
brisbane:
I only tip the black car drivers because I feel guilty about slavery.

In all honesty, that's actually what I thought the thread was about when I read the title.

LOL. that's bad, but funny.
 

ermen and Euromonkey, not only are waiter's tips factored into there pay (so there actual hourly pay is less than minimum wage) but they also have to pay around 4% (depends on the place) of their total sales that day to the kitchen and bar....meaning if you don't tip, they actually have to pay extra out of there own pocket for that table. So they lose some money whenever you don't tip.

how would you like it if you didn't get a bonus?

 

commenting on the US vs Europe tipping customs

i know that in some places in Europe, direct experience being Spain, tips are actually considered ‘extra’. Service people are paid a normal wage and any tips are considered a generous bonus by someone who is in a position to give such a bonus. As a student there I was discouraged from giving a tip because it sends a message that you are in a position to give such a bonus to the waiter which should never be the case as a student.

 

The way a waitor or waitress tips the bus boys or the bar is largely dependent on the restaurant you worked at. The place I worked, the waitor got to determine what they wanted to give the bus boys / bar. It seemed like every day the waitors would claim they had a "horrible" day and would only give a meager amount out. I've never seen a culture as greedy as that of a restaurant.

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

Actually, restaurant tipping makes for a fascinating study of economics.

For instance, say you're a waiter. You get cash tips, but you are "expected" to report them and share with the bartenders and the kitchen. But, of course, you under-report and keep more for yourself. But if you get too greedy, the others catch on. Soon, you can't get your drink orders and kitchen orders filled correctly or on time. You get low priority. Your customers notice and tip less. If you share more tips, and you get better back-end service and more front-end tips. So you end up cheating just a little but not too much.

You have no incentive to share with the busing staff though. What are they going to do?

Sorry for the tangent. Thanks to everyone else for the advice, I won't feel guilty about stiffing the black car drivers.

 
Best Response
ToBankOrNotToBank:
b) is that passage from freakonomics? it seems really really familiar

Not taken directly from Freakonomics. But I fully acknowledge the influence - the book permanently changed my thinking. That and Co-opetition. And "The Education of a Speculator" especially the passages on games and deception.

Actually these specific experiences were told to me second hand by someone who worked as a waitress for a long time. She had this strategy worked out explicitly. I didn't really add anything. But it's the kind of story that would fit nicely as an example of freakonomics, or game theory.

Another aspect of "cheating but not too much" - you don't want to fully report your tips anyway because, everyone else is similarly cheating. If you report fully, you'll be the goody-two-shoes and it will be obvious to everyone, because the rest of the staff will always report lower. I heard another story where even the manager told such a goody-two-shoes to knock it off (subtly of course). The manager also has incentives to let "the system" continue in the status quo - who wants to alienate the whole wait-staff?

 

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