Why some US restaurants are banning tips • Hacker News Board

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#61

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 10:48 AM UTC

jamisteven wrote: post #39

getfacl wrote: post #31

The biggest barrier to ending tipping in the USA is that restaurants are almost always over staffed there. The owner wants the maximum ratio of servers to customers possible. In the typical USA system, being paid primarily in tips means the server is highly incentivized to upsell the customer as much as possible and do everything they can to increase the total bill, and therefor increase their tip. Essentially a comm…

LMFAO, have you ever been to a restaurant in Europe? The service is horrific. Sit down and wait 15 minutes for the menus, another 15 to place a drink order, another 10 for the drinks to get there, another 10 to place food order. Now you finish the meal, good luck getting the waiters attention to bring the check. European dining is the worst, every time I am back stateside I feel like im being waited on in the white h…

[deleted]

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#62

Post by alpineman » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 10:48 AM UTC

getfacl wrote: post #31

The biggest barrier to ending tipping in the USA is that restaurants are almost always over staffed there. The owner wants the maximum ratio of servers to customers possible. In the typical USA system, being paid primarily in tips means the server is highly incentivized to upsell the customer as much as possible and do everything they can to increase the total bill, and therefor increase their tip. Essentially a comm…

Plus customers don't need to pretend to be interested/impressed when they stand there and recite the 'specials' menu

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#63

Post by QuantumNomad_ » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 10:48 AM UTC

rock_artist wrote: post #37

getfacl wrote: post #31

The biggest barrier to ending tipping in the USA is that restaurants are almost always over staffed there. The owner wants the maximum ratio of servers to customers possible. In the typical USA system, being paid primarily in tips means the server is highly incentivized to upsell the customer as much as possible and do everything they can to increase the total bill, and therefor increase their tip. Essentially a comm…

It depends and also is culture based. In Spain you can find some places (eg coffee place) with 1-2 workers. Sometimes it takes a lot of time to get your order at rush hours, but the culture tolerates patience and waiting.

At least they don’t demand a bunch of extra tips. I’m European (well, Scandinavian, which some Europeans consider European and some don’t) and my rule of thumb is that if I go out I tip 10%.

If the service is extra good I might tip extra.

If the service is very bad (unreasonably slow, or staff forget or mix up the order in a significant way, or they are very rude), I tip 0%. Of course everyone can mess up things a little so it’s not like I immediately tip 0% just because of some minor thing. It has to be properly bad.

Also something I have learned from the Spanish is to always order something small and quick for the table even before we have decided what to eat. Then if it takes 40 minutes before the food comes it doesn’t matter that much compared to when you are starving for food. So this is a very neat trick that helps a lot to have a good experience even at slow places, and something I have started always doing.

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#64

Post by catoc » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 10:49 AM UTC

jamisteven wrote: post #39

getfacl wrote: post #31

The biggest barrier to ending tipping in the USA is that restaurants are almost always over staffed there. The owner wants the maximum ratio of servers to customers possible. In the typical USA system, being paid primarily in tips means the server is highly incentivized to upsell the customer as much as possible and do everything they can to increase the total bill, and therefor increase their tip. Essentially a comm…

LMFAO, have you ever been to a restaurant in Europe? The service is horrific. Sit down and wait 15 minutes for the menus, another 15 to place a drink order, another 10 for the drinks to get there, another 10 to place food order. Now you finish the meal, good luck getting the waiters attention to bring the check. European dining is the worst, every time I am back stateside I feel like im being waited on in the white h…

> European dining is the worst

Europe has 40+ countries with what, a million, restaurants… let’s conflate them all! Horrible! The whole continent! 1 star (and not a Michelin one)!

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#65

Post by dtech » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 10:49 AM UTC

jamisteven wrote: post #39

getfacl wrote: post #31

The biggest barrier to ending tipping in the USA is that restaurants are almost always over staffed there. The owner wants the maximum ratio of servers to customers possible. In the typical USA system, being paid primarily in tips means the server is highly incentivized to upsell the customer as much as possible and do everything they can to increase the total bill, and therefor increase their tip. Essentially a comm…

LMFAO, have you ever been to a restaurant in Europe? The service is horrific. Sit down and wait 15 minutes for the menus, another 15 to place a drink order, another 10 for the drinks to get there, another 10 to place food order. Now you finish the meal, good luck getting the waiters attention to bring the check. European dining is the worst, every time I am back stateside I feel like im being waited on in the white h…

It seems your expectations are very mismatched. Most restaurants operate because people go there occasionally and relax and socialize.

If you just want a quick meal there's more than enough places but you generally order at the counter there, don't sit and wait for a server.

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#66

Post by jasode » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 10:49 AM UTC

getfacl wrote: post #31

The biggest barrier to ending tipping in the USA is that restaurants are almost always over staffed there. The owner wants the maximum ratio of servers to customers possible. In the typical USA system, being paid primarily in tips means the server is highly incentivized to upsell the customer as much as possible and do everything they can to increase the total bill, and therefor increase their tip. Essentially a comm…

>European restaurants typically use a team service model,

American chain restaurants also use the team model. The server that writes down the order often isn't the same person bringing out the hot plates of food. Maybe less of team than Europe because the waitress taking the order will typically be the same one refilling the drinks.

It's the white tablecloth high-end restaurants where the one waiter is the only person handling all interactions with the table.

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#67

Post by ButlerianJihad » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 10:49 AM UTC

chung8123 wrote: post #35

Rygian wrote: post #6

As a foreigner in the US, I've made the faux-pas of assuming waiters and waitresses were being paid a full salary by their employer. I even suspect that I received sub-par service from some of them, who may have identified me as a "no-tip risk" from the first moment.

To be honest they are paid a full salary. Tipped wage does not preclude the minimum wage. In addition there are many states like CA that do not have a tipped wage.

Actually not. In my state and others, when a business is designated as accepting tips, the workers can be paid less than minimum wage, while expecting that the tips they collect will make up for it.

So it’s really a way to extort good tips from customers, because it’s understood that our gratuities are the only way they can make minimum wage!

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#68

Post by daef » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 10:49 AM UTC

sudo-i wrote: post #24

daef wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

welcome to europe, where tips are optional and sales tax is denoted

Unless it's a bottle deposit tax, then it gets added outside the advertised price ;) 2 Euro bottle of Coke, great, I have 2 euro left, pay 2 euro 20 please... Fawwwwwkkkkkkkkk

yeah, this one also gets to my bones. and then you cant return every deposit-taxed bottle everywhere - but only in stores where it's sold. then some friends leave bottles at your place which you cannot return anywhere near... what a mess

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#69

Post by deadbabe » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 10:49 AM UTC

hombre_fatal wrote: post #13

deadbabe wrote: post #2

Retail stores should also ban tips.

It's insane how it takes advantage of good people who feel like they're doing something wrong for hitting "no tip" in settings where nobody was asked to tip just 5-10 years ago.

Flip the script, you're a greedy ASSHOLE for asking people to tip in this economy! Now it becomes easier to hit 0 tip. Even try negative tip, some devices allow this bug.

Re: Why some US restaurants are banning tips

#70

Post by tdeck » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 10:51 AM UTC

phreeza wrote: post #3

Next also include sales tax in label prices.

We're going in the other direction. In Seattle it's common for restaurants to tack on an extra "service charge" that's not a tip, just because. It's supposed to be declared somewhere.

With tip your bill can easily end up 40% higher.