Tip creep in UK

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Anyone here from the UK noticed that requests for tipping in restaurants is becoming more common? It only that, but requests from charities are really starting to get out if hand?

I was recently in a pub that I decided to visit for the first time in 20 years. Food was a rip off so decided to have a pint instead which was also a rip off. I was at the bar where he pulled the pint and it was £5.80 for a Guinness but when the turned the card reader it also had a 15% tip option which I had to opt out of while the guy was watching.

Tipping makes a lot more sense in the US where the food is usually cheaper, the staff depend heavily on tips and they also come and serve you rather than going to the bar but this place was robbing people blind and still expected a tip. They were acting like homeless pan handlers.

I opted out of the tip anyway. I'm not paying an extra 15% for on top of a rip off price just for pouring the beer. I would go behind the bar and do it myself for that.

That's tip creep in the UK?

Oh my you would absolutely hate it in Canada.

Bar tenders have been tipped for literally generations. Even without table service. Bartenders can actually make some really good money thanks to tips. Their hourly wage is low, food isn't that cheap anymore, everything is expensive.. I had a beer in a pub tonight - a local craft sour. Clicked the 15% tip option and paid $10.38 or something like that for a beer about 14 ounces.

Tip creep here is retail stores having those tip options.. liquor stores are very common for it. Other places besides bars and restaurants too I'm sure too but I don't go to very many retail places at all. I remember some little healthy foods shop in Alaska where I bought some kombucha and sauerkraut had one of those auto tip options on the card reader. All sorts of other places are doing it now.

Here tipping has never been a thing. The staff have been paid minimum wage for a very long time now and currently minimum wage isn't too bad but i have no odea what its like in Canada.

Tipping is considered a rude here. Retaraunts and bars have always paid minimum wage and 90% of the time never full service. Staff here traditionally only do the basics. The local I usually go to even have the customers pouring pints and stoking the fire.

Asking for tips here makes the establishment look desperate. Guilt tipping like what I experienced is considered very obnoxious a d probably costs them more money in lost custom than they get in tips.

I didn't know, but i don't eat in restaurants really so i suppose i wouldn't have.

I hope it doesn't catch on though. I hate tipping when I've travelled, i find it stressful. Just tell me how much it costs to sit down, eat a meal and leave. Just pay people properly. It's not difficult.

I think people have become more entitled after the pandemic. Post pandemic UK seems to be more accustomed to begging.

I can't think of anything more pathetic than asking for a tip via a touch screen while sneaking off into the corner of the bar hoping the cross the entire retaraunt visible LCD displayed begging will actually work. They should be embarrassed asking for 60 pence of 30 seconds of pouring a pint after I got out of my chair, walked to the bar with my empty pint glass and gave it back to them.

I should have asked them for a tip instead, I done more work than them.

It's so dirty asking for tips in a culture that's completely different to the US. They don't realise that UK restaurant and bar culture puts much more onus on the customer to partially serve themselves.

I have noticed this too in recent years, Nades.

I have had tip prompts on card payment machines in pubs that are a rip off as you describe and where the bar staff don't do anything for you apart from pour a drink.

There are also pizza places that have tip prompts when paying by card on a card machine and it is just annoying and awkward.

Even ordering fast food online has started with prompts of "tip your driver" with some places, where it never happened before.

It's cheeky as hell given British service in restaurants is not up to par with American service.

I was never asked if I wanted another pint and walked to bar, handing them my empty glass and they still asked me to tip them.......will I f**k, douch bags. Service like that would probably be refused a tip even in the US.

They would ask for a tip if we had to brew it ourselves given half a chance.

Went through a drive thru window to pick up an order and they asked for a tip.
No.
I did food service , tips are for serving , refilling drinks, bringing extra butter pats and desert.Not food handed out the window in a bag.

They need to be careful with how much they push for tips otherwise they'll start ending up with people refusing irrespective of what it's for.

I noticed the same with charities. They're constantly on everyone's backs now asking for money, much more than I remember.

I hate tipping me

For several years in BC alcohol servers were paid $1/hr less than minimum wage (to save bars and restaurants money/everyone knows they make cash tips) but now it's back on par with minimum wage which is $16.75/hr. (which is not even enough money after tax to pay for rent in a 1 bedroom apartment in the city and you'd need to earn several times minimum wage to be able to buy a home.)

Not tipping is considered rude here, especially if the service is good. A date will judge you on how well you treat service staff and how well/poorly you tip them. etc.

It's illegal for customers to pour their own drinks here, so that pretty much Never happens as it risks getting the bar or restaurant shut down. People have to have a "Serving it Right," certification to legally be able to serve alcohol. Simple course, makes people sign off on liability knowing to not over serve people etc -> technically it's illegal for anyone to get drunk in a bar, and if someone drinks and drives then they can sue the bar and bartender/server.

Even in self serve lineups where people stand in a "queue," to buy drinks directly from the bar people tip. In the days of mostly cash sales they leave their change, and now with cards they select a % and tap a card. In a busy bar it can be lucrative for bartenders. Even in a dive bar when it got busy I could bring in over $100/hr into the tip jar at the self service line to be split amongst the bar tenders on shift. Some servers and bar tenders make the equivalent of a 6 figure income or so -> but that may be changing as things go more and more cashless and there are records of their incomes that they may have no choice but to pay taxes on.

Taxi/pizza delivery/uber drivers etc have all traditionally been tipped forever. They make minimum wage or less ($x/delivery) so rely on tips and usually get them. People do not expect people to go drive around and burn very expensive gas and put wear and tear on their cars etc etc and to have that deducted from their minimum wage or less.. Most people simply understand that they're to tip drivers so they can afford food & shelter. Literally ~no one can afford to own and operate a car on minimum wage here, so it's crazy to think someone's going to fund delivering your food in their private vehicle and take the expense out of a minimum wage paycheque. Delivery tips are pretty much culturally mandatory.

Also, the way tip shares usually work in restaurants and bars, if you don't tip your server at all you cost them money as they have to pay a % of food sales out of their tips into the kitchen tip pool and a % of alcohol sales out of their tips to the bar tenders. Table servers tend to make the most in tips so it's generally them who pay these. Bar tenders pay a % of any food sales into the kitchen tip pool, too, if bar customers order food. Kitchen staff get the lowest tips - their share tends to work out to around $1-2/hr, but their wage is higher. (even with a higher wage they make the least amount of money usually, though. Servers make the most, then bartenders.)


Minimum wage is typically lower in the USA. They have a federal minimum wage of only $7.25/hr (but it's also WAY cheaper to live) and some states have laws that allow restaurants to pay their servers like $2/hr so they Heavily depend on tips.

Cliff notes of tipping culture history in North America: It's deeply rooted in racism/post legalized slavery days. Basically, young black children through to adults were "allowed the privilege," of having a job serving white folk for the generous wage of $0 BUT if they did a good job they could earn and keep tips for themselves. Fast forward a couple hundred years and here we are with the customs and traditions we have.

The biggest difference seems to be pay between the UK and Northern America. The pay from working in restaurants and bars is abysmal in Northern America and always has been. It's a given that tipping in north America is an essential supplement to meager pay.

In the UK, minimum wage is mandatory and depending on where you live, can actually be pretty decent relative to living expenses. Restaurants have always factored in the price of wages in the food and drinks bill so typically the prices here are more expensive than you would see in the US or even Canada.

What I don't like is that they're trying to shoehorn tipping in a growing number of places here without properly understanding the reasons, like you mentioned, why people pay tips.

They should by all means ask for American tipping culture in the UK but I expect American services and prices for it, not being asked to pay a tip after doing the traditional British custom of clearing up my pint glasses so the staff don't have to.

It's hard to tell where it's going in the UK. I expect dark roads ahead for the hospitality industry if they're not even planning on adjusting their prices in places that already rip people off to begin with.

Tipping culture is just a means by which to externalize some portion of the worker's wages. Nip it in the bud before it becomes more widespread.

Not quite the same thing, but what rattles my cage is the 'since the pandemic' increase in minimum spend needed for delivery +delivery charge,re the Chinese takeaway I use .It's not a large charge but (a) it wasn't done pre pandemic (b) it's about 10 minutes walk and <5 minutes via car, I'd guess(same small town) from the takeaway to my place.

My regular takeaway has done its best to keep the price down which is good

I have noticed in the pub on the card machine it comes up with a tip thing. But the bar person always cancels it off before you tap your card

I don't think there would ever be an exception for minimum wage with hospitality workers, rather I think the establishments are just trying to rinse people of money.

They thought "this looks like a good way of getting customers to pay more" without realising workers wages are already being paid by the price increase in British restaurants........and they forgot that it's customary to provide an actual service to be paid a tip.

It also brings into question how fair it is to other minimum wage workers. Will shop staff start asking for tips? It's all pretty weird and alien here and just motivated by greed of the restaurant.