Originally Posted by
John Aldeborgh
The US and apparently Canada are not is step with the world. Tipping is not a good system, it doesn't exist in Asia and it's only very minimal in the EU. In these countries being a server is a profession and the workers are paid a market based salary. As someone who spends roughly 50% of his life traveling internationally I find the tipping system repugnant, restaurateurs should pay their people fairly and servers should act professionally, so customers don't need to be math experts or feel guilty about the tipping process.
While I'm neither advocating for nor defending it, there are many other countries in the world where tipping is the norm - including in parts of South America, Africa, and Asia.
Originally Posted by
homa2001
The sad part is this ...... concept of tipping is bleeding into Europe and other places.
Which is funny, since the concept came to North America
from Europe in the first place!
I would prefer not to have to mess with tipping, personally, but of all the things that concern me in my life, tipping is pretty close to the bottom of the list. 25% as a default is pretty silly though IMHO.