Name: Tips.
Age: Unclear, but a tip-like custom emerged in Tudor England where wealthy guests left money for house servants after a stay.
Appearance: Some coppers and a supermarket trolley token? 20%? More? No one knows.
Ah, the bonus course of sweaty awkwardness after coffee and before coats. I never know what to tip. It’s a minefield, and it varies across the world for extra confusion and cringe.
It’s rude in Japan, isn’t it? Tipping is certainly not customary and possibly insulting.
And the US is the opposite, right? Yes. A group of European diners who left a 10% tip on a $700 bill in a New York restaurant were called out by their angry waitress on Twitter last week. “We need to ban Europeans from travelling here until they learn how to act,” Madison Tayt wrote.
Surely there’s no shame in coming from a place that pays its service staff properly so tips aren’t needed? Yes, lots of people told Tayt that. (She has since deactivated her Twitter account.)
Plus isn’t a tip supposed to reward good service? Well, the European customers were “OVER THE MOON,” Tayt said, so that wasn’t the issue. And given terrible service sector wages, tipping is basically a social duty now.
Tipping cultures reinforce economic inequality; it’s a sticking plaster, not a solution. Sure, Karl Marx, but your principles don’t help the poor men and women serving your tofu scramble to pay their bills, do they?
Fair point. I need clear tipping guidance, though. New York Magazine published an update on the city’s gratuity etiquette recently, advising 20-25% at any kind of restaurant and 20% for corner shop coffee. “Anything under 20% is rude,” apparently.
Noted. Time for the real dirt – who are the best tippers? A New York cop who offered to split his lottery ticket with his waitress instead of tipping ended up giving her $3m – half his winnings.
Wow, but I meant celebs, obviously. Drew Barrymore reportedly has a blanket policy of tipping 100%; David Beckham and Harry Styles also get good reviews.
And the worst? Men tip less than women, according to 2019 research, and millennials are stingier than boomers.
Because the boomers have all the money, duh. But you know exactly what I mean. OK fine, David Bailey has pointed the finger at a young Mick Jagger and there are reports of Kendall Jenner not tipping at all in a Brooklyn bar.
What’s the etiquette on non-monetary tips? Best not. Unless you actually trained it, no one wants to hear about your “sure thing” in the 2.30 at Kempton Park. And don’t do a drawing on the bill – you’re not Picasso.
Do say: Nothing. Quiet generosity is classier.
Don’t say: “Keep the (14p) change and I drew you a pigeon!”
