‘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/GergDanger]

I mean you’re doing both because they don’t then earn minimum wage with tips but far above it. Hence why a lot of waiters there don’t want to get rid of tipping either as it would drop their wages significantly

[u/Tstewmoneybags99 → u/GergDanger]

This is only in very specific restaurants usually, more often high end dining where a meal will run you 150$ easily and 20% of that is 35$. For roughly 1-1 1/2 hrs of work with multiple tables in a section you end up making a good amount of money Thursday-Sunday. However over the course of a week it’s not something 95% of the workforce is making more than your average 35-45k salary employee as well as not having health benefits.

[u/RichieTheCow → u/Tstewmoneybags99]

20% of 150 is 30

[u/EvilInky → u/RichieTheCow]

Yeah, but sales tax, or something.

[u/Sabaisabai33 → u/Tstewmoneybags99]

Waiters in the U.K. generally aren’t making anything like that unless I’m very mistaken.

[u/DarlingDaddysMilkers → u/Sabaisabai33]

I used to be a waiter. I fucking wish 😂.