How the UK’s tipping culture compares to other countries

Half a century before Scott wrote his book, one of America’s most seismic events had oiled the wheels for tipping culture. After the American civil war ended in 1865, the nation’s enslaved people were set free. However, many struggled to find employment and ended up in service jobs. Some of these roles paid very little or even nothing at all. Instead, employers expected them to rely on tips to get by, seeing this not only as a big saving on wages, but also a means of ensuring excellent service for customers.

For instance, the Pullman company employed African Americans as porters, shoe shiners and other service staff for its famously luxurious railway coaches and paid them only a pittance. Its mainly white clientele made up the difference in tips – meaning they were always likely to receive the red-carpet treatment.

Aware of the racial and social sensitivities, by the early 20th century a small number of mainly southern states banned tipping. Anyone who accepted a gratuity was subject to a fine or even imprisonment, while Georgia declared all tips to be commercial bribes. Yet the American people largely ignored the laws, which by 1926 were all repealed. The demand for gratuities spread throughout the country, and tipping was there to stay.

In 1938 the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (pictured) introduced a US Federal minimum wage, but this didn’t apply to tipped workers. They remained unprotected by law until 1966 and even then, their minimum wage was allowed to include the tips themselves. Even today, while the Federal minimum wage is $7.25 (£5.55) per hour, up to $5.12 (£3.92) of this can be tips.

Despite some individual states now having higher minimum wage levels and some requiring the entire rate to be base pay, service workers’ dependence upon tips remains high. It’s the main reason why the US has the strongest tipping culture in the world.

From its European and American roots, tipping culture has spread far and wide. You can now encounter people from Africa to Asia and beyond who know the rules of the game: the waiter who gives you free chocolate along with your bill; the taxi driver who claims to have no change for your paper money; the hotel doorman who fixes you with a knowing eye….  In many cases, this is a direct consequence of Western visitors exporting their own cultural norms, unaware that the countries they visit are – or at least once were – blissfully tip-free. As a result, international tourist and business destinations have been among the first places to change.

The long shadow cast by the COVID-19 pandemic might also be encouraging more people to tip in the belief that it will help a beleaguered hospitality industry, as might the advent of digital payment and food delivery apps. Nevertheless, the extent, amounts and compulsion involved in tipping vary enormously in different countries. And just a few places still consider gratuities to be gratuitous.

Now, let’s take a look at how tipping culture varies around the world…

Try walking out of an American restaurant without paying a gratuity today and you could be chased down the street; it’s almost compulsory and every bill leaves a space to write in a generous tip. And these tips are only getting bigger. Around 15% of the bill was once routine, but now options to pay 22%, 25% or even 30% are common. One reason is the emergence of electronic payment machines that offer pre-calculated amounts to add, inviting customers to feel guilty if they don’t pay the larger amount.

The same technology is also responsible for so-called ‘tip-creep’ where previously untipped transactions have begun to attract an extra payment: In 2023 the unionised staff of one Apple Store proposed adding a tip option to their e-payment menu, and even some self-service store checkouts now offer the option to give a little extra.

A 2024 survey found that three quarters of Americans now think tipping is ‘out of control’. Yet there seems no way to stop it.  Across the US waiters, taxi drivers, bartenders, doorkeepers, hairdressers and many more workers will all bid you not to have a nice day unless you show them sufficient appreciation.

In Egypt as well as other Middle Eastern countries the custom of baksheesh is widespread. Stemming from the Persian word bakhshish, this means a discretionary payment given to expedite service, and it can apply to administrative or professional tasks as much as to paying for your Arabic coffee. It’s a kind of pre-tip that helps ensure good service for the donor. Given this culture, it’s no surprise that conventional tipping is popular here too, for waiting staff, drivers, tour guides and others.

Egypt has high unemployment, plenty of poverty, and a large informal employment sector, so as in the US, service workers might have little to rely on other than customers’ generosity. It’s worth noting, too, that as much as 95% of the Egyptian population identifies as Muslim, which means they must abide by Islam’s five core principles, one of which is Zakat, or charity. If they can afford it, the faithful should give 2.5% of their wealth per year to the needy. Tips do not form part of Zakat, but the religious ideal informs local attitudes and encourages generosity.

Many things in Canada are heavily influenced by its much bigger neighbour to the south, but tipping isn’t one of them. It’s customary and expected unless you’re unhappy with the service you’ve received, but Canadians are generally less likely to tip at US levels.

About half of people in the Maple Leaf Nation habitually tip between 10-15%, and only about a quarter will give up to 20%. Much depends on the province you’re in because some have lower minimum wages than others. The province of Quebec is a clear outlier; tips there frequently top out at around 25%. However, even here, the local government has tabled a law to try and eliminate overtipping by requiring suggested charges to be calculated on the pre-tax element of a restaurant bill rather than the full amount.

A survey earlier this year by e-commerce software company Lightspeed Commerce suggested that Canadians – along with Belgians – are world leaders in wanting to eliminate tipping. The same study suggested they’re cutting back on tipping more than any other country, with 25% tipping less than they used to. More than half blamed inflation for their thriftiness.

Ironically for the country often seen as the inventor of modern tipping, there’s no hard and fast rule in the UK. A 10-15% tip for drivers and waiting staff is common, and a service charge is often added to a restaurant bill, but this can be accepted or declined. Staff in pubs, where customers order at the bar, will not expect anything. As e-payments proliferate, some pubs have started offering the option to tip, but many people have complained about this.

Britain has now introduced a law to ensure that where staff do receive tips, they get to keep the whole amount, with their employers banned from skimming any off the top. If tips are withheld, the worker can take the business to an industrial tribunal, with fines or compensation among the possible penalties. Legislators say that this way, a whole range of service sector workers will benefit, though a cynic might point out that, since tips in the UK are counted as taxable income, the government itself might also be cashing in…

Argentinians appreciate a tip, though giving over 10% at a restaurant is fairly uncommon. Meanwhile, tip jars usually suffice in a bar. Today the country’s reforming president Javier Milei is actually formalising tipping culture by insisting that employers must allow the option of electronic tipping and remove tips from the legal definition of wages. A new Latin American fintech app called Mercado Pago allows users to add a gratuity when making a payment.

Tips are going digital in Argentina because of the dwindling value of Peso banknotes. Until recently the largest denomination was 2000 Pesos, worth only about $2 (£1.50). Nevertheless, cash tips in Dollars remain prevalent.  As for the extent of the generosity, Argentines tend to give around 10-15% to waiting staff, but typically don’t tip taxi drivers.

In 1955, France passed a law requiring restaurants to add a fixed service charge to bills, a practice that has since become common across Europe. Today the cost of your meal will typically include a 15 % addition and the words service compris (‘service included’) will be prominently displayed. The French veneration of food means waiters are generally considered cultural ambassadors deserving of a professional salary, rather than casual workers reliant on customers’ goodwill.

That said, it’s far from unknown for French diners to add a modest pourboire on top of the service charge. There appear to be significant regional disparities in their generosity; the Provence-Alpes-Cotes-d’Azur is the apparently most charitable with about one in three people choosing to add a tip. Diners in Centre-Val de Loire, however, tip only 6% of the time.

Recently, some people have reported Paris waiters asking for bigger tips on top of the service charge. Card and electronic payments, as well as the city’s hosting of the Olympic Games, could be the catalysts.

India is a country of enormous contrasts with a big gap between rich and poor, so tipping here is diverse. Giving tips is not an ingrained custom, but with the country growing and becoming more exposed to foreign cultures, it’s far from unknown. A 2015 survey found Indians to be among the highest tippers in Asia. Another thing driving the phenomenon is the increasing popularity of food delivery apps which often prompt customers to tip their couriers.

These days more expensive establishments in bigger Indian cities tend to expect a tip, and the practice of adding a service charge to the bill (usually around 10%) has taken hold. On the other hand, people in more rural areas might not ask for anything extra.

India enjoys a vast range of informal service providers, from tuk-tuk drivers to street food restaurants. These will rarely expect a tip, but the custom is to round up cash payments instead.

Hungarians appreciate a tip but it’s not mandatory. A service fee of between 10-15% is increasingly applied to restaurant bills, and where this is applied it’s part of the sale price and therefore must be paid, though the establishment has to spend the entire amount on wages. According to a recent study by Budapest Business University, the majority of diners tip a little even beyond this, and contrary to expectations, those tipping the most are not always the wealthiest. Instead, people’s propensity to tip seems to be based on impressing those they are eating with. Leaving a tip on the table can be considered rude so it’s usually given directly to the waiter.

One peculiarity of Hungary’s tipping culture is that until recently it applied in the healthcare sector. So-called Gratitude Money (Hálapénz) was a centuries-old tradition that emerged because of doctors’ poor pay. In 2020 the government improved medical salaries and made it illegal to accept tips from patients. Yet as investigators subsequently discovered, the practice has continued illicitly to some extent, with payments sometimes equivalent to hundreds of dollars.

In Soviet days Russia embraced communism, encouraging its people to see the giving and receiving of tips as an intrinsically capitalist endeavour which belittled them as workers. The revolutionary Leon Trotsky famously refused to donate even when he was overseas and found himself on the receiving end of a culture clash in New York when a highly displeased waiter deliberately spilt soup on him. Today, some older Russians might still find the idea of giving a tip offensive, but most other people have moved on.

Restaurant staff will welcome a chayeviye – literally, ‘for the tea’ and may add one to the bill. Around 5-15% is common. Meanwhile, bar staff might make most of their salary in gratuities, so it’s customary to ‘make friends’ with them by giving regular tips in the expectation of faster service. Funeral directors sometimes even advise mourners to tip the gravediggers at a funeral, in the belief that this will help prevent their early return to the cemetery as the one to be buried!

Germans do not view tipping as obligatory, but many consider it to be good manners. Restaurant menu prices may already include a service charge and staff earn at least the minimum wage. Where customers add more on top of that, the amounts can be modest – just a few euros sometimes, or 10% for good service (a 15% tip would be relatively rare). Some establishments simply place a cash box at the counter. Unlike the service charge, tips, or trinkgeld, are not taxable and are usually given in cash.

Beyond the restaurant industry, it’s normal to give small cash tips to cloakroom and WC attendants in Germany. In stores and supermarkets, you might be asked to round up the cost of your purchases to the nearest euro, with the proceeds going to charity. It’s entirely up to you whether or not to do so.

Australia’s tipping culture is as laid back as its lifestyle. The minimum wage is high by international standards, and food eaten in a restaurant will usually attract a service charge, so there’s no pressure to add a tip. Meanwhile, hairdressers, bar staff and taxi drivers won’t expect anything extra, though it’s normal to round up the cost, and casinos will even prohibit tipping in case it’s interpreted as a bribe.

Even so, tips are not unheard of, and where Australians do give them they normally add about 10%.  A recent survey suggests that tipping is increasing among some people, perhaps because of the effects of the pandemic on servers’ incomes. It found that a quarter of those canvassed were happy to give a tip, and that the most regular tippers are aged under thirty. 

Tipping is not a way of life in Spain, and is more of a reward for excellent service than an expectation. Some restaurants will add a service charge, usually 10%, and this rarely finds its way into the pockets of staff. Consequently, if Spaniards do leave a propina, they will tend to do so in cash, but this is usually only a modest amount. Frequently, waiting staff will get nothing at all. Beyond the restaurant trade, some more expensive hotels and drivers might command a tip, but otherwise, the custom is to round up the bill or just give a little loose change.

In 2007, Spain’s Economy Minister, Pedro Solbes, criticised his compatriots for tipping too much, saying it was fuelling inflation. However, the increased donations were blamed on confusion over the value of recently introduced euro notes and coins, rather than increased Spanish philanthropy.

The People’s Republic once prohibited tipping as unequal and potentially a bribe, but today it’s no longer forbidden in the Forbidden City or other big, international tourist destinations. Westerners and other foreign visitors are permitted to tip, though local clients in smaller restaurants still tend not to partake.

In more rural parts of China, tipping remains unusual. Meanwhile, big hotels will accept tips, and it’s fine to give to tour guides. Taxi drivers might accept you rounding up the bill, but more to speed things up than to take extra money off you.

Japan is perhaps the least enthusiastic country when it comes to accepting tips. It prides itself on giving excellent service by default, with no need for additional financial incentives. Giving extra money here can be embarrassing or even cause offence. Hotel staff will politely decline such offers, and restaurant staff typically prefer to receive words of thanks. That said, more expensive establishments may add a service charge of 10-15% to the bill, so long as they’ve made clear on the menu that this is the rule.

In 2021 an initiative called the Tip Project tried to introduce a US-style tipping culture to Japan, partly as an attempt to help the hospitality sector recover after the pandemic. It received a very hostile reception and was abandoned two years later.

One exception to Japan’s discomfort over tipping is on special occasions such as weddings or funerals. Then, staff may accept a payment for having executed their duties to perfection. Also, when staying in a ryokan, an ancient and traditional Japanese inn featuring tatami-matted floors and futon beds, you may tip the server. However, even in these examples, the customer needs to exercise great caution; payment needs to be made discretely and not in public, with the money placed in an envelope specially designed for the purpose.

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Publish date : 2024-10-23 04:30:00

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