Let’s play a hypothetical game pitting visitors’ resistance to North American tipping practices against how we defend them.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
World Cup fans from around the world are getting a baptism of fire with North American tipping culture. They seem to hate it more than we do.
In the spirit of the tournament, let’s play a hypothetical game pitting their resistance to North American tipping practices against how we defend them. Who wins? Who loses?
Traditional table service
In the best of situations, a host welcomes and seats you. A server makes you feel like an honoured guest, explains the menu, and asks about dietary concerns. Water glasses stay filled, and while the increasingly aggressive ask about how the food is now comes before you actually take your first bite, tipping can incentivize attentive, pleasant service.
Our visitor may still wonder why adequate compensation is not built into menu prices and servers need to rely on the generosity of patrons. Alas, this is North America’s strongest case for tipping, so we’ll give it to the home team.
Goal, North America. Score 1-0.
Transit services navigate the unknown to get fans to World Cup matches
Counter service
Buying a coffee, ready-made sandwich, or even a bottle of water is often automatically met with a request for a tip by a payment terminal. This practice has long been divisive.
Many home fans have even adopted the “if I’m not sitting, I’m not tipping” rule of thumb, but even then, they don’t always select the zero tip option when the employee is standing 18 inches away.
By comparison, in Britain, where businesses often use the same payment terminal software as North Americans do and the tipping prompt is automatic, employees will press zero before swivelling the pad towards the customer. Ironically, I would tip them for that.
Goal, Rest of World. Score 1-1.
Tipping percentages
A group of fans have a lighter meal with a bill of $200. They select a 20-per-cent tip and it comes out to $40. Everyone is happy. The next day, after their team has won, they decide to celebrate by going back to the same place. Same food order, but maybe they order a bottle of champagne.
The bill is $600. The 20-per-cent tip option now comes out to a $120 gratuity. In retrospect, they regret ordering the champagne. They leave with a bitter taste in their mouth.
Goal, Rest of World. Score 1-2.
Opinion: When did tipping diverge from a reward for good service to a wage-subsidization tactic?
Automatic tipping and tip stacking
Automatic, but discretionary service charges are becoming more common around the world but, for example, in London, they are about 12.5 per cent. You can ask to have them removed if you desire, though few people do.
Some World Cup host cities have restaurants that include automatic service charges of 20 per cent, and there are some that are even cheekier by prompting for an additional tip. On a recent visit to Miami, I was prompted with three options: 6 per cent, 7 per cent, and 8 per cent.
Initially I thought the world had come to its senses with lower default options. Alas, no. It was an “additional” tip on top of the automatic, and non-discretionary tip of 20 per cent.
Goal, Rest of World. Score 1-3.
Living wages
It seems that many people prefer the idea of menu items that include the cost of paying workers a living wage. The problem is that unless all employers are forced to do it, there is a competitive advantage to not doing it in favour of lower sticker prices.
Compounding the problem are the differing rules and norms across both Canada and the U.S. Some jurisdictions have a separate, ridiculously low minimum wage for servers and the social expectation of how much tips make up of a server’s compensation is much higher.
Then there are the varying rules around how tips are shared with management and the rest of staff, like bussers and cooks. On top of that are the unwritten rules about how things work in practice versus how they are expected to work in theory. All of that is to say that in North America, eating out requires a double major in human resources and sociology in order to figure it all out.
Goal, Rest of World. Final Score North America 1, Rest of World 4.
The real acid test might be to see which countries import the tipping practices of Canada and the U.S. (Mexico has its own, different rules.) Based on social media reporting, I don’t think they could defend it.
That is the real story. It is not that visitors can’t – eventually – figure out tipping culture here. It is more that we can’t really justify it.
Preet Banerjee is the creator of YourMoneyDegree.com, a financial literacy program with an AI companion app.
