that is a point you would not tip someone at tescos for doing a good job. so why should it be any different if you have to pass someone their food.

i think the cheif should have a tip they are the ones making your food.

i think tipping shud be if a waiter goes out of their way to give u the best possible service that they can (which of course i always try to do) and markfox im afraid im gonna have to disagree with you, the reason waiters and barstaff don't get paid that much is because they get tips, if they didn't recieve tips then they would probably need to get higher wages in which case the prices of the drinks and food you are buying would increase, its just a way of trying to give the customer the best price they can, whilst keeping the staff quite happy even tho they are not recieving very good wages

Too bad there are mostly Brits in this topic, it seems like tipping is more common in the US... Please comment.

I always tip, usually 10-15%.

As long as the food is good, drinks are brought swiftly and the dining has been generally good then I don't mind tipping at all.

i understand the posts saying why pay again after you've already paid for the service but tips give a hell of a lot more incentive to give a table great service, like wildchild and rporter mentioned. if im going to get paid to "just do my job" then im definately not going to try as hard to please you as i would if most of my income came from your tip

I am a bartender and a waitress at a country club in my town and the people there usually tip pretty good...But I can't stand somebody that does not tip!!!! It really sucks!

I always tip 15-20% depeding on the service I get..

I haven't really noticed black people not tipping.....Most of the black customers I wait on always tip pretty good.....

Perhaps tipping is different in the UK.

In the US, servers make roughly half of minimum wage, with the rest of their earnings coming from tips. Tipping is expected at around 15% for average service. I adjust up or down depending on the level of service I get.

I usually tip very well when I go out to eat, these people are getting paid pennies and working their tail off. You don't know their situation or anything about them to assume they need to go to school and get a better job, some are doing both and maybe even supporting a family. If someone wasn't at your service giving you food and getting anything you need for you then no you wouldn't have to tip, why do you tip a hair stylist??? because they are serving you and yes they still get paid. I don't understand why this job gets paid so little maybe because there is so many workers? I have no idea but it's a tipping job and if you don't want to tip then don't eat there.

I will admit that I have gave a waitress scrap change as a tip though, the girl was a horrible waitress. She was clearly high on something, kept messing everything up, when we asked for our check she took atleast 15 minutes and we could see her just standing around gossiping to another worker. I tip mostly on the service I recieve.

if you get a wage why expect a tip?

oddly enough i got ver frustrated with my tips yesterday, as i recieved 50p for 3hrs work, even though i was actually given 5 pounds personally by customers, the cafe where i works has a rule saying that all tips must go into the tip jar, so even if im given personal tips for my work some1 else is gettin a share of it!!

If you actually read the posts in the thread, you would have learned that servers in the US make a wage that is well below the already-low minimum wage.

The tips a server gets are expected to cover the difference.

link [en.wikipedia.org]

i just take the view im not there to subsidise a bad paying employer.

I dont tip unless, like mark said they did something worth tipping for.

I went out to eat on friday night and my bill had already added on the service charge. And, our waitress was s***, we all had to send our food back and then it was cold and she spilt a drink over my sister. And yet we had to pay that. Its outragous

you have blatantly not read this thread then, i have already stated that the tipping system actually decreases the price of the food, drinks etc that you recieve, if waiters did not get tips the cost of your food would increase