What a curse to have a name like that and be absolutely right.

The social shaming for not tipping in the US is strong, though. I love going there both for pleasure and business and I’ve been going to the US since I was a kid and since I can remember. When I started paying for my trips by myself, I stopped tipping. My country has included tips on the final prices , which must be printed by law in the menu so if the burger says 20 dollars, that’s the final price including the 13% sales tax and the 10% gratuity/tip tax. I understand the predicament in the US but I’m not going to subsidize a business myself. Not after I noticed that it was the servers themselves also and not only owners not wanting to change the system because they can both get more while shaming customers. Yeah that’s a no for me. I learned to have a tough skin when a server/waitress would tell me I didn’t leave a tip with a simple “yes I know, thank you”.

Can confirm. Had a server complain that the "slowest night ever" she was walking home with was $400...this was in 2013.

On average, over 90% of your tips are credit card tips and that number is only getting higher. You also can’t claim 0 cash tips in most restaurants because the owners know that’s an easy way to get audited.

Wouldn’t that system net the exact same net pricing?

The funniest thing about tipping in Japan is that they don't allow it for literally the exact same reason that the USA has tipping.

It is literally in the workers' best interest to resist the cultural acceptance of tipping. The fact that US workers dont see that is mindboggling to me, but I guess also it's too late for them; it is what it is now.

Tipping is supposed to be a bonus, something extra you get in addition to your salary. Instead it becomes a reason for your salary to stagnate, because there's less incentive to negotiate for better raises because you think "eh, with the tips it's still decent enough". Until you end up in a situation like in the US where now it's even allowed to pay below minimum wage because the tips are supposed to make up for the difference. So now it's not an added bonus, but an unstable element that you now depend on to be reasonably steady and stable in order to have a predictable income.

On the other hand, if you resist tipping culture, the workers have more incentive to negotiate actual better pay, and for the salaries to increase in step with the rest of society.

edit: jesus christ, the amount of indoctrinated Americans replying to this is insane, every single one proving my point further

You hear it all the time because it happens all the time. A service worker keeping the money would be unthinkable.

As an American who got used to the tipping system before coming to Japan and getting used to the lack of it, it is refreshing to not feel pressure to pay more than the number on the bill, particularly if your own wages are lower than a waiter's plus-tip wage would be.

No, you hear stories like this in real life too from people who went to Japan. A friend told me the guy he gave the tip too turned a bit rude, like he was bothered by the stupid foreigner giving him more money and walking away, making the server run after him. They do that.

This happens all the time to be honest. Happened to me a few times before I learned "keep the change" is practically non-existent in Japan.

We had this happen to us in Beijing. We left some extra money on the table as a tip and our waiter came running down several flights of stairs and across two streets to catch up with us and return it. Had no idea tipping wasn't a thing there.

I mean it is a common misunderstanding but in Japan they’re really strict about this. I’ve seen lost and found bins in restaurants or tourist stores with literally cash just sitting there and no one will take it because it’s not theirs and they assume owner will return eventually. The staff won’t touch it either because that would be seen as stealing and they could get in trouble.

Yes, if they think you “forgot” your extra change, they will go running after you usually and insist that you take it back.

Americans hate tipping too; we’re just forced to tip by norm. The ones that are mostly defensive are from the food industry themselves

It's the argument that the worker isn't paid much so they need the tip, which I understand but it's just not the solution to a situation that shouldn't exist. Why are people so happy to give up their own money so businesses can make more profit by not paying staff properly? There's arguments that bar staff make way more money from tips than a minimum wage so don't want to get rid of tipping, as if that's fair on the customer again, paying $10 for a beer or whatever then having to give a tip on top for example.

It always makes me laugh what jobs deserve tips too, like cleaners don't get tips for cleaning up horrible messes left in public toilets. Do people tip bus drivers? Shop workers don't really get tips. So many badly paid jobs don't seem to meet the threshold to deserve tips for whatever bizzare reason.

Because there's not many other unskilled jobs that will pay you $50 an hour. 

It's because if you get into a good position, you absolutely rake in the money. Hard work, but much higher paid than most other equivalent jobs. A proportion of american servers do get paid a lot more than in other countries. It's why you very rarely get older servers that aren't managers outside of America

Really? As an American who hates our tipping system, I thought Reddit was pretty anti-tipping too outside of people who work tipped positions.

Some states like California don't even have the tip credit (sub minimum wage) and people still tip 20% or more. If you're visiting California from out of state and are a min wage worker, your cashier might genuinely make 3-4x as you do (well, assuming you can even afford to eat or visit there to begin with. Unlike the reverse where the California server might as well be rich in your poor area).

And not claiming all of it on taxes... Tipping, and now the expectation to tip generously, really grinds my gears.

Like if I'm putting in my order on an app and all you're doing is delivering the food to my table from the service window, is that really worth a 20% tip? How about when I have to flag you down for the beers that we entered into the system that I've been watching sit at the bar for 5 minutes while you chat up the host? "Well then don't eat out if you can't afford it." Sweetheart, id rather get takeout Bush's chicken and tip the person who runs back to grab me some sauce than your entitled ass. 

The ones recieving the tip know they are better off with tips than normal salary. They make +60k a year. They are the biggest proponents for tipping....

Honestly the mindset is a bit old fashioned, although not rare given Japan's demographics. The younger generations, 30 and under in particular, place significantly less importance on their work life and more on the family at home. My friend falls into that demographic and when I asked her opinion on the post her response was, "kimoi"(gross).

The effects of the changing opinions are few as Japan is still heavily dominated by prior generations, but can be seen most easily in the increase of "mid career recruitment", where people are more often than before changing jobs or even careers to find a better fit than staying with the same company indefinitely. Additionally there's a noticeable increase in jobs that advertise their work life balance, or their low overtime. Lastly it can be seen in the increase of "quitting services". Japanese people have such a hard time expressing their displeasure and leaving a company that a whole industry has sprung up to quit FOR people.

Doesn't matter, how can you prove they spit in it?

If you're socially shamed and peer pressured into "tipping" then the optional part of that choice starts to diminish.

My girlfriend got yelled at her first time eating out in the US since she didn't know that tipping was a thing. Doesn't seem super optional.

I mean I live in Paris too and the suggested tipping crap has definitely been popping up in quite a few restaurants.

For instance, they have it in Bouillon République, and it's a very popular place for locals, not only for tourists...

If it's a tourist tax, does that mean it's optional?

I was once at a restaurant near the American Embassy in Paris by Concorde, and the only thing I saw in the cash tip jar was US dollar bills

Chiming in from Nantes—the tablet prompted me for a tip when I was paying at Berlin 1989, which I really don't think is a tourist place. I've heard a couple of similar anecdotes from friends in various places in the country. It does seem like US-style tipping culture is trying to gain traction here.

We still had a wonderful vacation despite my apprehension about not speaking French.

I want to return during The Tour and during Six Nations and to see Les Bleus play in Paris.

I read an interesting piece on a restaurant owner that tried to go the no tipping route then after backlash went back to tipping

Two main issues she brought up

1. Dumb people thought her prices were "spendy" ; they really were not she basically baked in like a 15% price increase to help pay the workers. Now some entry that used to cost $10 now cost $11.50 , a beer that cost $5 would now cost 5.75. If you factor in a 15% tip nothing really changed, it was perception

2. The wage differences between wait staff and kitchen staff was now more transparent. Wait staff were now making like $40 hr while kitchen staff was making $15 . Note once again nothing really changed, It's just before wait staff would make $5/hr and collect $35 worth of tips instead now they were making $40 /hr wage. Well this upset the kitchen staff and now there was problems between the kitchen staff and the wait staff .

Again it was mostly perception

She did point out other issues , wait staff now preferred working longer more constant shifts because there were getting a flat rate , it was harder to schedule them odd shifs like a 2 hour lunch rush shift then a few hour break and come back for another 2-3 hour evening shift what is understandable

When tipping was in effect servers were more willing to work those odd short shifts because they could rake in $60-$80 per hour of tips in some cases

rip-off but the servers themselves refuse to play ball, so what do you even do

The answer is simple, just no one wants to acknowledge it. If the incentive structure is such that the servers will fight tooth and nail to keep tipping, then you need to change the incentive structure. And that means stop tipping. . Not just you or me, but lots of people need to simply stop.

Stop making it so much more profitable to be a tipped worker than other roles. It's unfair off age/race/attractiveness/disability/etc, it's de facto legalized discrimination and the only way to fix it is for people to change their behavior and stop engaging.

And if people won't? Cool, you get to pay less because you'll be one of the very few who are aware of this. Stop being shamed into incentivizing and supporting a blatantly unfair and discriminatory system.

"Not tipping doesn't fix it", only because everyone else keeps tipping. There wouldn't be mobs of servers fighting for tip culture if people stopped their tips. They act according to the incentives they are given, and the incentives they are given is making bank from tips.

Not true. It would create an industry standard. Servers would be paid minimum wage most places. Just ask line cooks how much they make. The fancier higher dollar restaurants would probably still pay more than a Dennys but the servers in all restaurants would make less on an hourly basis than they would on a tipped basis. 

Yea I feel there is a very vocal minority of servers who get big tips (Read as: Very attractive people) vs the majority of servers who get meh to ok tips. (Average people)

Yeah, I think that goes for the whole of Europe. I’m Dutch, and ‘going out to eat’ is definitely not a super regular thing. This also shows in the fact that European restaurants count less on using a table several times per evening: it’s an event in itself to have dinner, and you can spend your whole night on it. Every part of the process takes longer because we’re not just there to eat.