And TBH, of the hundreds of times I've eaten ANYWHERE in North America, the service has been exactly the same: "here is your food. [later]. Are you enjoying your food. [later]. Did you like the food? Okay, where's the 15% tip?"
To travel some place and then complain about the local customs there is just a rude if a someone goes from France to the US as if someone goes from the US to France. If you don't like the local culture in some spot, just stop going there.
In many jobs in the US, the tips ARE the salary, and the customer is the employer just as much as the owner of the place is. And if you (as a customer) don't pay for the work in such a setting.
Now if the locals don't like this arrangement, they should work to change it. But when we are visiting, we should try to adapt.
Partly for historical reasons. But also because it is one of the types of jobs where this actually works. (Because customers can experience the result of the work directly and because the quality of the work is quite variable.)
Other professions have other ways to provide incentive based salary. Lawyers, MD's, consultants, musicians or tech workers all have ways to (at least in some positions) profit from their own work directly. Construction workers may have team based rewards based on meeting deadlines, etc.
Then there are a few professions where such rewards don't make sense, including those you bring up. These are generally jobs where the quality of the work is either not very variable, is hard to measure or does not connect to any revenue streams. For such jobs, fixed salaries are required.
Typically, though, for most professions, fixed salary models tend to provide lower AVERAGE salary payments for those who opt for fixed salary. The risk involved in variable pay tends to lead to a risk premium benefitting the worker. And it may ALSO benfefit the employers, which in turn over time will result in an increased demand for workers.
Europe has a model with less incentive based compensation. Europe also has (on average) about 2x the US unemployment rate and about 50% of the salaries in many growth sectors for those who DO have a job.
In return, Europe DOES manage to have a lower salary gap between the warehouse worker and the software developer, but not necessarily a higher salary (even by PPP) than the US for the warehouse worker.
No, it does not work. Good service is not babysitting customers so that they are sure every minute that you’re there to justify your tips. Decent service is the baseline expectation when you go to a restaurant. I don’t tip my phone’s maker when it turns on, it’s stupid. The social aspects completely decouple the tip and the quality of service.
Well, I was a local in North America for decades and was ALSO a local in Australia for a long time where there was no tipping. So there.
Besides, I disagree. I think complaining about culture is fine. Culture should not be above criticism. After all, if other people write their perspectives, both positive and negatives, then it makes it easier whether to know when to visit. I have no idea why human behaviour should be above criticism just because it's been shoehorned into the nebulous concept of culture.
A lot of people here in Europe, perhaps particularily so in France, do NOT think it's ok when American's on vacation overtly behave rudely and without respect. One attitude they tend to bring (that is more true in the US), is that "the customer is always right", and that the staff should just suck it up when they're being rude about it.
Such Americans simply do not grasp that the small family restaurant in rural France has people in it that are NOT driven primarly by short term profit or tips, but (compared to a similar place in the US) more about tradition, professional pride and simply having an enjoyable time at work.
The same is true many places in Asia.
My point is that this goes both ways. That 21-year old waitress in that Hell's Kitchen restaurant has a completly different life situation. She may struggling to pay for her University fee, not to mention rent, and does not intend to stay a waitress forever.
So when the German tourist is offended when she (having experienced Europeans before) makes a point of making a circle around the 18% recommended tip when handing him the check, it's for good reason.
Also, just because even the base price of that steak he just ate is already higher than it would be in Germany, costs in Manhattan are correspondingly higher, so that price barely covers the expenses BEFORE the waitress can receive any kind of salary.
So in your particular case, you're not like that German. You simply favor a slightly different political/economic system than what is currently in place in the US.
Also, chances are that you WOULD pay that tip without making a scene.
Who said anything about making a scene? I was talking about complaining here, as it seemed to be implied by one of the GPs. I'm not a social dolt. If I think the price is too expensive, I simply don't visit the establishment in the first place.
Also, plenty of software developers work as consultants on some kind of commission model where part or all of their salary is some percentage of what they're able charge their customer.
Perhaps the customer doesn't pay the invoice, perhaps they don't want to hire you at all. But if you do a good job and manage keep the customer happy, you're likely to make a better wage than in a similar position with a fixed salary.
Nah. Moaning and complaining is a human right. What’s wrong is to expect the locals to care or change their ways for you. But it goes both ways. I tip when I am in the US because that’s how it’s done. I will never stop saying how stupid, inefficient and unfair to the staff that is. Or arguing vehemently against anything like that taking root here.
"pre-tip" is particularly insane because it comes across as "don't spit on my food" extortion.
I'm sure there are food outlets in your area who would like to hire wait staff with a will to succeed regardless of the customer's attitude and behaviour.
Better establishments might equal better pay and even some support from the company that's not been fought for by unions and lawyers; just common decency to the people who are the face of their business.
I may be imagining a utopian ideal there, but it never hurts to encourage someone, which was my intention in this post.
> I may be imagining a utopian ideal there
You definitely are. Most people need some kind of incentive to do their best. What those incentives are, vary wildly. In a family restaurant, the whole family may share in the pride of providing a great experience (and maybe get rewards from online reviews).
Tipping is simply ONE approach. Part of a tipping culture (when it works) is that tips is not something "extra", no more than smiling or saying "thank you, it was delicious" or any other way of showing appreciation during the social interaction involved in the transaction.
To not tip in such a setting (without good reason, such as bad service), is simply to behave in a rude uncultured (relative to the local culture) way.
Like drinking wine from the bottle and eating the steak with your hands in France.
If anything, tipping culture seems to have made it so that uber drivers feel compelled to make small talk or a waiter feels compelled to keep interrupting us to make it clear they’re being attentive, which is making the experience worse not better (IMHO).