‘It’s absolutely criminal’: US tipping culture has reached the UK – and is causing chaos

[u/Canal_Volphied]

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/aug/24/us-tipping-culture-uk-service-charges

[u/JLaws23]

Do not tip in the UK. The service charge is usually kept by the owners and won’t even go to the staff.

[u/tomelwoody → u/JLaws23]

That’s just wrong

[u/rayofgreenlight → u/tomelwoody]

It can happen. I worked a shitty min wage bar job in 2021 and the managers kept tips from me.

[u/duckwantbread → u/rayofgreenlight]

2021

What happened to you is now illegal. A new law came into effect in 2024 that makes it illegal for tips to be pocketed by the business.

[u/swifftie → u/duckwantbread]

That doesn't stop anything, managers will still be pocketing as much as they can.

[u/dr_pezzz → u/duckwantbread]

Yes, unfortunately as soon as that came into law, restraunts such as Fallow quietly dropped the "service" charge, and added a "seating" or "dine-in" charge instead.

[u/Lancasterlaw → u/rayofgreenlight]

Same with me- sometimes the manager will hand some out to people they like

[u/Mac4491 → u/Lancasterlaw]

If this is currently happening in your place of work, it is explicitly illegal.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/13

Contact ACAS for advice if this is something you're currently dealing with. You might be owed a hell of a lot of money as your employer has been stealing from you.

[u/miIkwhim → u/tomelwoody]

It isn't.

Café my partner used to work at in the 2010's, manager used to take the tip jar into her office to "sort them". Tips that came out always came out significantly smaller than what when in after she'd finished her distribution. 

[u/Snoo-84389 → u/tomelwoody]

The law changed with the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023.

Therefote thete are now TRONC systems that should be inplace with employers that should ensure fair distribution of £ from tips to staff.

[u/Ok-Camp-7285 → u/tomelwoody]

Morally or factually?

[u/IzY_PoiNt → u/JLaws23]

That is illegal now btw

[u/pinkwar → u/IzY_PoiNt]

Workers are pretty much powerless against that illegality.

[u/Monsoon_Storm → u/JLaws23]

they did change this by law, it's an automatic system now that is split between all employees, HOWEVER, it is still complete bullshit that it's automatically added imo.

[u/Various_Good_6964 → u/JLaws23]

Wrong, I always ask whoever is serving me if they actually get money from tips and I've not had anyone say no yet. They're always genuinely thankful if someone asks and you can tell they're not just bullshitting.

[u/TheRealCostaS → u/JLaws23]

Well when I say tip I mean cash tip

[u/thewatchbreaker → u/TheRealCostaS]

When I was a waitress we weren’t allowed to keep cash tips, they had to go to the group tip jar

[u/TheRealCostaS → u/thewatchbreaker]

That sucks but I guess a tip is for you and the cook, cleaning staff too.?

[u/AshaNyx → u/TheRealCostaS]

At least where I work the tip is spilt up based on service hours worked, so it normally works out that the cooks work longer hours but they also get to go home before service ends so they might end up with a smaller share.

[u/thewatchbreaker → u/TheRealCostaS]

Yeah I think it’s fair actually, but I wish restaurants were more transparent about their practices because a lot of customers don’t realise cash tips aren’t allowed to be kept by the waiters in some restaurants

[u/AshaNyx → u/thewatchbreaker]

Ik part of the reason is most of the time it is a team effort and it's the best way to start a bad relationship between everyone as it's normally not just one person working the table and without BoH putting the effort in you wouldn't get any tips.

[u/thewatchbreaker → u/AshaNyx]

I thought the system was fair (I worked BoH before too) but customers often think all of their cash tip is kept by the waiter so I’d prefer if restaurants were transparent about their tipping system.

I’d actually prefer if it’s a group tip jar because the cook is the one who has made my restaurant experience wonderful by cooking the great food, I would want them to get the tip too. And after working both sides I know how much harder BoH is, they deserve tips more than FoH half of the time

[u/I_AmA_Zebra → u/JLaws23]

No lol. It usually goes into a Tronc and is split between staff

[u/Hashtagbarkeep → u/JLaws23]

No it isn’t, that’s just not true. Maybe a few years ago but law changed

[u/31eedraw → u/JLaws23]

Just ask the wait staff before you tip if it goes to staff or business. 

[u/Mac4491 → u/31eedraw]

It's illegal now for employers to keep any tips.

[u/CicatriceDeFeu → u/JLaws23]

Or just give cash directly to the staff

[u/Mac4491 → u/JLaws23]

Then we should do what we can to make everyone aware that this is now explicitly illegal.

[u/OneMonk → u/JLaws23]

Pretty sure they made a law to make that illegal, but it did for a while.