Hey Folks!
I’ve been living abroad for over half my life in a country where tipping is not the norm. At most you would round up. 19€ bill? Here’s a 20, keep this change.
Going to the US soon to visit family and the whole idea of tipping makes me nervous. It seems there’s a lot of discussion about getting rid of tipping, but I don’t know how much has changed in this regard.
The system seems ridiculously unfair, and that extra expense in a country where everything is already so expensive really makes a difference.
So will AITA if I don’t tip? Is it really my personal responsibility to make sure my server is paid enough?
Umm, legally that is correct. But when I was waiting tables the owner was a crook and just didn’t do that. Not to mention, it gets calculated at the end of their shift or maybe end of pay period, I can’t remember for sure. So the other tables may have brought them to minimum wage even if you didn’t tip. But none the less, the server essentially lost money on you, they could have potentially gotten a tipping table instead of you. (Tables are typically rotated between the servers. Assuming 2 servers, Group 1 goes to server A, group 2 goes to server B, then group 3 goes back to server A, and group 4 goes to server B). And if it’s busy, the server may be offering service that isn’t as good to other tipping customers because they’re busy wasting time on your non-tipping table.
Frankly, if you don’t want to tip, that’s fine. Just don’t go to places where you’re expected to tip.