We tip everyone these days don’t we? The cab driver, the waiter, the barber, the doorman, the mover, and the valet (among other people). If you take a cruise or a guided tour, you’re also going to be tipping everyone. However, I feel this culture of tipping is mostly prevalent in the US (based on my travel experience). When you visit places like Europe, a service charge is usually added to a bill (and yes sometimes people leave a tiny bit extra on top of that). When you visit China nobody tips. I spent a month traveling all over the country and several times people have actually returned my tip to me. The same goes for New Zealand and Japan.
So my question to everyone is, have we gotten a little out of hand with the tipping? This sounds like a conversation that should be had on an episode of Seinfeld now that I think about it. In reality when you get your haircut or take a cab, you’re paying for the actual service, so why do we then add money on top of what we already pay? We all do it, but it’s mainly out of habit because that’s what everyone else does. If I work with a client I charge them a certain amount or a fee, they never tip me (would be great if they did). I know that tipping is a main source of income for many people so I have no problem doing it.
I found an interesting little guide to tipping around the world and it’s just interesting to see how it varies from country to country. Of course I’m not saying don’t tip, heck I tip everyone anytime I go out but it’s just one of those things that sometimes I wonder why and how all of this got started. Wouldn’t it make more sense just to add the tip amount to the bill instead of expecting people to pay something extra on top of what they already paid? Like I said, something that belongs in a Seinfeld episode. I’m not sure when this was published but here’s a tipping etiquette post that provides guidelines on tipping everyone from a garbage man to a dog walker! When I travel I usually follow the recommendations that I find in a guidebook that I purchase.
I asked the same question on twitter and these were a few of the responses I got:
Do you tip everyone? What’s your tipping policy and why?
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