Here in Hawaii at least 50% of people tip counter service. I think it’s even more. If you don’t tip you get a glare. Sometimes I don’t tip, though, like if I’m buying a gift card. Even then they glare at me.
For my son at Jersey Mike’s he keeps declining promotions bc management doesn’t get tips, and with his regular shift lead wage plus tips he makes more than the assistant manager. He can’t go FT to be a manager manager bc he’s also a FT college student and trying to study for various exams. Managers work 60+ hours per week.
There are usually 3-4 kids on shift at a time, tips are aggregated, TAXED (of course), and are split among all the workers for the day, prorated for number of hours you worked. So, if you work the rush every day, but only 2 hours, you’ll get shafted on the tips compared to someone who does opening, 8-10 or so, when there’s not much business and lots of standing around.
1). 5$ per day. I just leave out $5 no matter what every morning. If they are just doing trash and towels, usually they leave the $ there. If I’m at a gross hotel overnight (I’m looking at you LA, all your hotels are gross and look like they were crime scenes) I’ll only leave $2-$3.
2). I don’t tip if someone brings me something that I think should have been in the room to start with. Like if they only give us 2 sets of towels or something. If it’s something special/above and beyond, maybe $5.
3). Bell Service always throws me. Do I tip when I drop off? When I pick up? Last time I tipped I believe $15 and it was just 2 bags. We were just going to just take our bags from the bell area and I was ready with $10, but the guy insisted on walking us all the way to the room. So I had to chit chat but he took us through a cast member entrance and that was pretty special.
4). Servers- Usually we stick to 20%.
Wow!!!
I posted this thread right before my trip the first week of March and then got distracted. I really just wanted to know how much cash to get out of the bank before the trip and in what denominations. I also wanted to make sure we weren’t being cheap.
Thank you to all who replied. I appreciate everyone’s points of view and input on tipping!
It’s a tough subject…
It is repeated again and again how tipping is an American thing. And some of our friends here in forum find it appalling and suggest it shouldn’t be a thing.
But I wanted to share that as I prepare for my trip to Africa, visiting Tanzania mainly, the tour company provided a tipping guide in the final documents.
The tour company is in Canada, the tour is in Africa, and I am an American.
So it’s definitely not just an American thing and I hope we will keep this in mind as we go forward. I don’t get into the debates over the tipping thing because my feeling is while I think everyone should tip (and well) it’s not my battle. Neither is the fight over whether service industry team members should be paid a wage vs working for tips. But I will admit that I do often find myself being upset over the disparaging remarks made about Americans and our tipping tradition that sometimes happens in these discussions.
Mods, my apologies if this causes a resurgence of the debate. I just found it important to share.
I can attest that tipping is a thing in Canada and works similarly to the United States
I think the relevant information to share as a traveler is, what is usual and customary at a particular destination. Then each person can make up their own minds on what to do, but at least it’ll be an informed decision.
If we’re talking about tradition, here in the UK we have a tradition. We punch up.
There’s a hilariously funny and wickedly cruel TV show over here called “The Windsors”. It’s about the UK Royal Family. We’re allowed to be mean to them because they have all the crowns and we don’t.
The reason why the USA finds itself the butt of so many jokes / massive ill-feeling is because it ceaselessly holds itself out as the Greatest Country In The World. If that’s a spot Americans think they deserve, then they can’t be surprised if other people punch up.
I was watching George W Bush at the White House Correspondents Dinner on YouTube earlier today. He was making fun of himself and everyone was laughing. He was laugh-out-loud funny. That’s what people at the top do. It was why jesters were a thing. It is perhaps notable that some US presidents have not seen fit to laugh at themselves.
Canada is widely admired around the world. It is itself the butt of jokes — usually made by Americans, actually — but it rises above them.
There is only one country that endlessly boasts about how great it is. And that’s why the rest of the world makes disparaging remarks about it. Just like that kid in high school who thought he was better than everyone else.
I was in both Quebec and Onterio this week, and believe me they expected tips. It is not an American only thing, for sure. Yet we always seem to take the judgement of it.
Genuine question because I have no idea - and you might not either tbh. Does Canada pay waitstaff $2 an hour and assume that they are making that up to minimum wage with tips? I think that’s what is so weird for us. We do tip but it’s just a bonus.
I tend not to jump on these threads because they do get heated but as @DWJoe pointed out, here in Ontario tip vs no tip doesn’t change your hourly rate. I’d say the median tip here would be about 15% - with some tipping around 10 and some up to 20 (for great service). We also have to pay 13% tax so you can count on paying about 30% above the menu price.
(ETA- minimum wage under 18 is $15.60 here so I guess that’s age dependent as well.)
(And as for hockey - it’s hard to get cocky about the Leafs (and Auston Matthews is American - growing up in the hockey Mecca of Arizona ) - but although there are only technically 2 Canadian teams left, there are a lot of Canadians on the Panthers (15 I think?) and the Golden Knights (18 I think?). Teams are definitely not as Canadian heavy as they used to be but we are still well represented.)
Regarding tipping I generally think of the line from Gosford Park that Maggie Smith’s character has as departure preparations are winding down. She’s complaining about all the tipping of the household staff that was expected.
I’ve always wondered how accurate that was. Also I recall that a cruise involved a lot of tipping.
and works similarly to the United States 
(and Auston Matthews is American - growing up in the hockey Mecca of Arizona 
