There comes a point every time one eats out at a restaurant where one must broach the complicated topic of tipping. But I’ve got good news for you: Tip This Much is here to save the day! This nifty little website both informs you how much you should tip, helps you calculate exactly what you should leave, and even divides up your bill for you so everyone covers what they should. Hoorah! No more fighting over who owes what!
The best part is that Tip This Much isn’t just limited to the United States — it’ll tell you what the tipping procedure is like in countries all over the world. All you need to do is select where you are from the drop-down menu, then plug in your bill total, what percentage you plan on tipping, and how many people to divide the bill between. For the U.S., it’ll look something like this:
While for places like Denmark or Italy, where tipping isn’t the norm, it’ll look something like this:
I think I speak for all of us when I say that Tip This Much is an etiquette life saver. It both stops you from making a huge faux pas by tipping in a country where it’s not generally done, and saves from being That Guy or That Gal. Y’know — the one who doesn’t tip when you should. The one everyone ends up giving dirty looks when the time comes to divvy up the bill and he or she won’t throw in a buck or two. Sometimes we call that person Mr. Pink.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: The tipping system sucks! The only way we can crush it is to stop doing it! Down with tipping! But here’s the thing: As was pointed out in a recent thread on the Change My View subreddit, refusing to tip doesn’t actually hurt the restaurants or prompt them to do away with tipping. All it does is screw over the wait staff, and the back of house staff, and the front of house staff… basically, everyone who relies on tipping to bring them at least up to minimum wage. Most wait staff don’t make minimum wage on their hourly pay. It’s true that in a lot of places, management is required to make up the difference if their wait staff’s tips don’t bring them up to it; most waiters, however, aren’t in a position to leverage with their bosses to do so. They’ll just get fired for their troubles. If you don’t like tipping, then make it a point only to eat out at restaurants that specifically have a no-tipping policy.
So do yourself a favor. If you don’t already have an app like Check Please! or whatever on your phone, make a point of pulling up Tip This Much whenever you go out. Your restaurant staff will thank you; your friends will thank you; and you’ll thank yourself for not making some poor waiter eat whatever he or she doesn’t make on any given day.
Image: justard/Flickr
