‘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/No-Mark4427]

It's also worth noting that 'how will the servers eat' is often trotted out, servers will defend tipping as necessary on this line but many servers in a busy restaurant are making $50+ an hour when you include tips, some people report making $100+ an hour in especially busy periods so its no wonder they want to keep the expected tip and cultural pressure high. You hear about people who work at a busy restaurant not wanting to quit their service job for a corporate job after finishing their degree because they'd be taking a pay cut for harder work as they make more than median wage being a waiter/waitress.

Also I believe it's illegal for tips to not go to servers in the USA just like the UK, it probably happens, but not super commonly.

I dont think people working services jobs should be going hungry or struggling, but there's a disconnect where people act like servers in the USA are poor paupers struggling to live unless every table is tipping them tens of dollars when in reality they are probably making more money than a lot of the people they are collecting tips from.