Service charges, wellness contributions, admin fees, tips, delivery charge, booking fee, tax ... I confess to much preferring a system under which I'm told up front what I will pay, where the staff are paid a living wage for their service, and enjoy their work and the company that supports them.

There is a cultural difference in the USA and the UK basics; perhaps I am too left wing and see it as the role of an employer to ensure that his team is remunermated, motivated and a part of the team. And that is rather than an employer who remunerates a pittance - not enough for the staff to even get their healthcare - and then encourgaes them to be high class beggars looking to lever the funding the employer (IMHO) should provide out of the customers.   UK minimum wage - £12.71 per hour; USA stated server rates in many states are much lower - a fraction of that.
A conundrum - what and where should I tip in the UK?  In restaurants where the order is taken at the table?  Where you order online?  Where you pick up at the counter?   Should you tip the same percentage on an £50 bottle of wine as on a £20 bottle of wine - even though it's just as easy to open.

And should I tip food delivery people?  Taxi drivers?  Hotel staff?  People who help wheelchair on and off trains?  Information desks?  Bus drivers? Amazon, Evri, DPD, Royal Mail deliveries?  Tour guides? Workers send by their companies?

What are the standard in Melksham, Bath, England ... and elsewhere in Europe?

 
Clever of America to position it as an issue between customer and staff while the people responsible for this are able to stay out of the conversation completely.

Looking for USA hospitality businesses that have stepped away from the tipping model, here's an article:

https://www.fsrmagazine.com/feature/why-this-restaurateur-eliminated-tipping-and-what-it-means-for-the-future-of-hospitality/

Also, this article from National Geographic:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/what-you-should-know-about-tipping-in-us-tipflation


Mark

 
For some ten years, before I retired, I was a grocery delivery driver with Waitrose.

John Lewis (of which Waitrose is the grocery part) is a mutual partnership, where the partners are all members and there are no shareholders.

The partnership stance was that gratuities should be declined, politely, while the alternative of giving any customer feedback online was to be offered.

There was one memorable exception to that, in my experience, when a very strong-willed customer in Chew Magna (a village south of Bristol) almost bullied my line manager at the time into giving me a pack of beer in appreciation of my customer service.

That particular customer, by the way, was a very interesting individual: he was Greek, but he retired as 'Head of English' at a posh school, and is a keen Arsenal fan.

 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g36yze692o

 
I'd like to see things go further with the removal of a separate service charge, the full cost of each item on a menu just being what it says on the menu. I know there is a perception that for particularly poor service you can choose to exclude that element, but the same doesn't apply when buying most other products, or indeed when paying for other services such as home, bike or car repairs, or (say) private dental treatment. I express my appreciation for good service by repeated patronage, and avoid places that give poor service while trying to avoid basing my entire judgement on a single experience unless it's obviously indicative of the general attitude.

 

It's a fair point but if you try to double the pay of waiting staff in the UK in the manner suggested, an already fragile hospitality sector will almost certainly collapse in a heap.

I don't think tradesmen, mechanics and/or dentists generally rely on tips to make up their salaries to a reasonable level - certainly not judging by the BMWs and (one!) Aston Martin in the staff car park at my Dental surgery!