1) On my first adult trip to the U.S. I was in Orlando, Florida and the correct tip at the time was 10%. The waitress went ballistic at me, yelling about how she can’t afford to live on the basic wage and that she expected 15%. I can’t remember if I tipped the final 5% or not. I just remember feeling really chilled after eating my meal and then suddenly being barked at.
2) In the UK where we don’t always need to tip: My dad had a funny incident at a pub in England. After he paid for a meal with his relatives, he had a few pennies change. He was just messing around, trying to give them to my uncle, but nobody wanted them. So he left them on the table. The bar staff saw this and thought it was a tip. Oh dear lol. While everyone was getting ready to leave outside, the bar staff ran out, shouted “WHAT AM I MEANT TO DO WITH THIS?!” and threw the coins at him LOL.
3) My Dad tipped 10% in New York in the 1980s. When he (and my mother) left the restaurant, the waiter chased after them down the street, got in front of him, and yelled in his face “what’s the problem?! You got a problem with the food or something… you say it to my face!”.
At the time, it was shocking. But now, we just think it’s a great story about New York. We’re proud of the experience. Over time, hopefully everybody sees stuff like this as just funny. Well, it’s funny to us anyway.
Disclaimer for the butt hurt: I’ve had thousands of meals in America and 99.9% have been wonderful experiences.
Edit: Regarding paragraph #1 – As for the idiot who said I should have checked Google for tipping etiquette, this was in the days before the internet, ya dope. We asked locals before tipping and they always said 10% was the right amount. This was in the ‘80s. However, as the years went by, the amount has increased of course.
To the person suggesting this couldn’t have happened because the waitress would have lost her job. I don’t know what to tell you. It happened but I don’t know if she lost her job. I was quiet back then and would never have complained or said anything to her boss.
Regarding paragraph #2 – It was just a mistake by my Dad. He thought the coins would get thrown aside by the servers as junk. We don’t need to tip here anyway. He hadn’t imagined they’d think it was an actual tip. I find this story quite funny because he accidentally got into trouble.
Final thoughts:
Minimum wage in the US is not enough to live on. That’s why so many people working in bars and restaurants over there have to work another similar job at night. I know because I’ve met so many of them. Yes there are wait staff earning loads of money each night, but it’s not the norm. Using tips to give people a living wage is NOT the way to go. If enough people realise this, that’s how social reform begins to take shape. Most young Americans and many older Americans already realise this so that’s great. There are still some ‘dinosaurs’ out there who think minimum wage without tips is fine to live on in the U.S. Sorry, but you’re wrong! By their reasoning, we MUST tip no matter what our experience is, even if it’s terrible otherwise the wait staff won’t make enough to get by on.