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I've been living in Canada since less than three months ago. During this time I noticed that tips are expected in some places here, especially restaurants. When I'm paying the bill usually the payment terminal suggests me to pay tips of 15%, 18% or 23%, but it also shows options to customize the tip or just no tip.
When choosing to pay a tip, that can make a great difference in the final price. In Saskatoon the GST + PST sum up to 11% (or 15% for alcohol). Plus a 15% tip (which apparently is the minimum expected tip), that would be an increase of at least 26% to the value of the bill. $50 would become $63, $100 would become $126, or more.
But one thing makes me feel curious about tipping. Currently, servers at restaurants in Canada earn at least the minimum wage, with no difference to any other workers (who typically don't earn tips). As I know, not so long ago, servers earned a lower wage (that still happens in a large part of the USA). That would explain how the tipping culture started, because servers really needed these tips as an important part of their income. But now, what are the reasons to keep tipping? And why it looks like the expected tips are even increasing? I believe that 10% was completely reasonable years ago but now it would be well below the minimum expected tip.
What do you think about that? How do you deal with tips?
My answer: while I totally respect everyone's job, I don't understand why I should automatically tip a server for serving me. If they earned less than the minimum wage, of course I'd support them with tips, but now I see no reason. I can tip someone, server or not, for a really good and exceptional job, in rare occasions, and it would likely be a 10 to 20% tip, no more than that. Usually, I don't tip.
Here in Quebec at least, employees who get tips as part of their job are paid about three dollars less per hour than the regular minimum wage.
Oh, I thought that currently all over Canada servers were making at least the same minimum wage as everyone else. Are there any other provinces besides Quebec paying less to servers?
And by paying less to servers, does that make a difference in the the restaurants prices for the customers in Quebec, when compared to other provinces?
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That sounds almost exactly the same as here in the USA, Seattle area, where our sales tax on a restaurant meal is at 10.1% now, just barely less than your GST + PST. We also have similar or the same options for tips at the payment terminals. There is no way for diners to know whether the servers are being paid real minimum wage or the lower "restaurant" minimum wage. If we like a restaurant we will tip at least 20% just to help keep employees there so we can come back again. Last month when we stopped at Tim Horton's for coffees and Timbits in Abbotsford, we tipped but only 15%.
This is the movie scene I think of when I hear a complaint about tipping. If 20 or 25 percent is too expensive, that’s fine but please at least leave 12 or 10 percent.
Everyone is struggling nowadays and a luxury like restaurant dining, food delivery or getting your hair cut should warrant a little extra so the person serving you can put food on the table for their kids.
I hear most of the complaints coming from young people in their 20s/30s, when paradoxically these are the people most represented in the lower paying service jobs where tipping is expected. Wish there was more solidarity in our society
Oh, I thought that currently all over Canada servers were making at least the same minimum wage as everyone else. Are there any other provinces besides Quebec paying less to servers?
And by paying less to servers, does that make a difference in the the restaurants prices for the customers in Quebec, when compared to other provinces?
I just checked and in Ontario waiters and bartenders and others who get tips get the same minimum wage as everyone else. (Used to be lower I am pretty sure - but it has been changed.)
It brings up a dilemma because do you tip the cashier at Home Depot? She makes the same hourly wage as the bartender you're giving the 15% tip to. She scans all your items, puts them in a bag, wraps them sometimes. The bartender pours your glass and sets it down on the bar in front of you.
Good question, eh?
And no, there isn't really a difference in terms of the cost of going to a restaurant in Quebec. Not on average though we do have bring-your-own-wine restaurants that cut down the cost considerably if you like wine with your meal. But there aren't that many of these - and less than there used to be. There are maybe a half-dozen in my city of 300,000 that has a few hundred restaurants.
Can’t speak for the rest of Quebec, but I’ve found bartenders in Montreal to have notoriously eager hands when it comes to giving the wrong change to steal from customers. Maybe it’s partially the American tourists who are unfamiliar with our bills are easy to rip off, but I wonder if the lower wages is partially to blame as well. I see people take back their change without leaving tips all the time, so I don’t think bartenders make as much as servers do on tips, but maybe I’m wrong.
This is the movie scene I think of when I hear a complaint about tipping. If 20 or 25 percent is too expensive, that’s fine but please at least leave 12 or 10 percent.
Everyone is struggling nowadays and a luxury like restaurant dining, food delivery or getting your hair cut should warrant a little extra so the person serving you can put food on the table for their kids.
I hear most of the complaints coming from young people in their 20s/30s, when paradoxically these are the people most represented in the lower paying service jobs where tipping is expected. Wish there was more solidarity in our society
Quote:
Originally Posted by allthatglitters
Hmmm, well, it's not mandatory to tip - but IMHO that's rude.
I give EVERYONE 25%...I receive repeated excellent service every time.
Well. I work at a store and as a security officer, making barely more than minimum wage. Not a single cent on tips, only my wage and nothing more than that.
If I had to tip servers every time I dine out, by the end of the month that would have a considerable impact over my tight budget. I don’t dine out very often, but a few times would be enough for me to spend $50-$100 monthly on tips alone. I could give up on dining out, but would it be better for restaurants to completely lose a customer or to just not get the tips?
Also, it doesn’t seem fair. Servers struggle living under a minimum wage, as I much as I struggle too, earning the same minimum wage. They do their jobs as I do mine, but I don’t get tips. Why do they deserve this advantage?
When someone wins, someone loses, that’s how the world works. I would be just graciously giving out my money to someone who is not even in a worse situation than I. What’s the logic?
Also, it doesn’t seem fair. Servers struggle living under a minimum wage, as I much as I struggle too, earning the same minimum wage. They do their jobs as I do mine, but I don’t get tips. Why do they deserve this advantage?
Because in Canada it's CUSTOMARY to tip anyone in the service industry as a way of showing appreciation.
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