Tipping in the service industry

[emjay]

From this thread it's pretty clear that the situation regarding tipping is very different between the UK and the US and that rightly or wrongly it's a very real, and necessary, part of a living wage in the US whereas in the UK it is not. Basically in the UK, minimum wage is a fair wage - personally I've only ever had minimum wage jobs and been perfectly happy with the amount - probably in part because of the NHS. The NHS, as well as other welfare benefits - like the state pension - is still paid for by 'National Insurance' but it's clearly not the same thing, nor anywhere near as expensive as health insurance in the US, though I don't know exactly how it's handled in the US, having never experienced it. In the UK, the current rate of National Insurance is 12% of earnings between £162 and £892 a week and 2% of earnings beyond £892 a week. And that... your 'NI contributions' ... is calculated/taken at source on income alongside your tax calculations.

So what I'm saying is if I was in America, with that different system, I'd probably see tipping in a very different light and see it as much more necessary. But here in the UK I see it, in that arbitrary form, as rather superfluous, and thus as I said I just see it as a strange and arbitrary custom rather than the merit-based essence of tipping I think it should be. From that perspective I agree with RR... that it's never made sense to me any rational reason why it should be a percentage of the bill; just as I disagree for similar reasons with Amazon or eBay taking a percentage of the sale price from sellers, as if such a commission has any bearing whatsoever on the administrative costs/work done on their end to process a sale. I guess I just disagree with commission in principle when it is arbitrary and doesn't relate to work done. But as I said I understand from this thread that it's a whole different situation in the US, due to an insufficient minimum wage (in and of itself and/or as a result of additional healthcare costs etc), so in that situation I would see that sort of arbitrary percentage tipping in a much more necessary light as a very real part of a living wage.