[glimmertwin]

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10% is standrd in uk. as a waiter a few years ago some douche tipped me about .005% [5p]which sucked and even handed it to me as if i should be grateful so i just put it back on his table... at 30% shaniac would have been my biggest tip!

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10% is standard, which is lower than the USA, but higher than many other European countries. The Dutch, for example, just add a few coins. Of course, most of those places seem to be able to manage to pay their staff a decent living wage without their having to rely upon tips -- which I'd much prefer. A gratuity should be precisely that -- something that you give to somebody to reward them for services over and above the bare minimum.

I remember talking to some women in NY one night. They'd been out to eat in one of those Italian restaurants in Little Italy, where the waiters are all greasy old Italian men. Throughout the course of the evening, they'd been patronized and insulted by the waiters, who implied that they were [censored], that they were lesbians, etc. etc. etc.

When I asked them whether they had withheld the tip, they were really shocked. The idea simply hadn't occurred to them, but even if it had, they said that they wouldn't have done it for fear of being confronted by the waiters about being cheap.

I find this attitude completely bizzare. These [censored] completely ruined their evening. I would have been refusing to pay for the meal, never mind withholding a tip.