Which brings me back to my previous question. Why do you not use the same logic with your dentist ? Or your accountant ?

I don't. Having travelled reasonably widely, I loathe tipping systems, and find them both stressful and utterly unintuitive (particularly the "tip by default" aspect prevalent in restaurants and bars). My experience of bad, mediocre and good service is that it is entirely independent of whether the server is getting paid a decent wage by their employer.

The two biggest complaints I have with the US style system [in restaurants[ are:
* You "have" to use your designated server. Want something and they're busy ? Short of practically tackling someone else as they scoot by, you'll be ignored by the rest of the waitstaff (and I assume from the server's perspective, "stealing" someone else's customers is considered pretty poor form).
* The result of waitstaff desperate to appear "good" and thus maximise their tips is constant fawning, asking if everything is ok, can they get anything else, etc. Americans seem to lap this sort of obsequiousness up and consider it to be the ultimate measure of "good service", but I just find it annoying, if not embarrassing.

Then why tip some people and not others, despite them ostensibly delivering "service" ? Why tip bartenders but not a fast food checkout staff ? Why tip a masseuse but not a dentist ?

As I said. The only common theme I've been able to identify behind tipping is whether or not the person is getting screwed by their employer and not being paid enough to survive without tips.

+1 can't agree more. Where do you draw the line? What about all those people who are not in those tipping industry but still treat you nice?

Local custom.

May have tempted fate there planemechanic.....he has just lost his job so any ideas?

Oh and if anyone knows of any restaurants in Toronto hiring.......

Any suggestion for someone with no skill qualifications?

Yes, drsmithy, perhaps a campaign for fairer wages for our servers etc and we wouldn't have to tip at all!

I can tell you from my days in the practice that clients "tip" their attorneys, just in a different way -- there's the dinners at the incredible restaurants when you win a case or close a deal, the thank you trips to world capitals, etc.

Heck, even vendors tip -- three times a year, you can count on huge baskets of baked goods on your desk from various vendors, hoping to either keep your business or woo you over to them. On a cold morning, that was almost as good as a first class trip to Paris.

Factory work, cleaning...... there are jobs. If your son is still young, perhaps get he should get some education to make him 'skilled'.

Yes, trade school or junior college.

The company Mr. Nacho works for has a very strict policy about NOT accepting any gift from vendors.

It sounds like bribery more than anything else. In a way, tipping is also a kind of bribery. At least by definition from Wiki:

Go to school and obtain at least a two year degree. Preferably in an area that would lead to work in an area that he is interested in. That's what I did (and then went on to more advanced schooling) when I was young and the company I worked for went out of business, and now I make six figures. We all start somewhere.

One thing for me is that I simply find the act of tipping in settings where you directly hand the tip to the service personnel a very awkward thing to do, especially when there is an expectation of a certain amount that a foreigner wouldn't necessarily be expected to know. You are then faced with standing face to face with someone that you may or may not have tipped adequately. Actually quite stressful. There are also situations where it would not occur to foreigners to tip, and they simply don't consider it.

Also, save the explanations over tipping about how poorly US wait staff are paid, and how it's somehow my (the customer's) problem. I'm more than happy to (and do) do it because it's customary, and because I generally receive excellent and friendly service at most places in the US - I'm not doing it because I am somehow responsible for the fact that the employer doesn't pay their staff properly.

The way I was taught is to fold the note(s) so that it fits into the palm of your hand and then palm it as you shake hands with the person and say thank you. The person, if they are of class or have been trained well, will pocket the note(s) without looking at them and return the thank you. This provides a degree of discretion and removes the stress of over/under tipping when you hand the tip to the person.

Yes - that doesn't sound socially awkward at all...

Why should it? The person does his job, you shake hands, they go. What's so awkward about that?

http://www.ehow.com/how_112004_tip-properly-north.html
Read point 3.

ehow - the fountain of all knowledge...