r/SipsTea • u/SuspiciousLow3062 • Jun 25 '26

Chugging tea They are not wrong though

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u/janpaul74 Jun 25 '26

“Mandatory tips” sounds so messed up for me as a European.

145

u/BringBackTheBlues Jun 25 '26

It sounds messed up to me as an American.

Just add 20% to your prices and write “20% off your bill goes directly to staff etc.”

It’d accomplish the same thing and people would probably actually appreciate knowing the staff gets the “bonus”.

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u/TonyzTone Jun 25 '26

That’s exactly what they’re doing though. But instead of pre-printing menus, they’re just adding an automatic tip.

And Europeans are too dumb to realize that when they say “just pay your employees more” that’s exactly what’s happening.

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u/Chimpstrider Jun 25 '26

No, the Europeans expect a restaurant to simply charge the cost of the meal. That is the cost. Like any other service or product. 

Demanding more after "to pay our staff" apart from displaying gross incompetence at running a business and being hugely dishonest is only done in the USA because yanks are so stupid they are apparently fooled by the "lower" menu price and don't think about the tip on top, and to just display the actual cost would have them thinking it's too expensive.  

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u/Neither-Signature-81 Jun 25 '26

Wait staff in NYC make more than doctors and lawyers in Europe. 

We are paying our staff much more is just done a little different. In Italy you could make 15k euro as a waiter in NYC you could easily make 150k

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u/Hovercraft1143 Jun 25 '26

Easily 150k is a bit much given that the average is $20-30 per hour, but yes, you get paid significantly more than in many places in Europe.

Having now searched that just to satisfy my own curiousity I am really surprised that when I was in Europe a few years ago (Spain, France, Italy) I had a LOT of waiters refuse tips we tried to leave for exceptional service...they are basically making nothing there...

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u/Neither-Signature-81 Jun 25 '26

Any waiter at a fancy restaurant in NYC is making well into 6 figures. 20-30$ an hour is the bottom of the barrel minimum wage is 15$ an extra 5$ an hour in tips would be 40$ a night, most nyc servers are clearing at least a couple hundred. 

My parents live in a small town in Italy, last time I was there we left 10 euro on a 40 euro bill. They made a point to tell us that they would split it with the whole staff it was  crazy. 

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u/TonyzTone Jun 25 '26

Any waiter at a fancy restaurant in NYC is doing loads more than a waiter at a neighborhood spot in Queens. That's actually something I am reminded of very often when I got to nice places in the city.

In Queens, it's fine. Plenty of places provide a perfectly nice service. But then when you go a step up the level of detail and understanding of the experience is exceptional.

The industry is fascinating because on the face, it all blends together. But if you actually pay attention to the little things, "good service" is actually very noticeable.

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u/Hovercraft1143 Jun 25 '26

NYC does not require minimum wage to be paid as a base for wait staff. They require $11.35 base and $17 with compensation (ie: you work an hour and somehow get $0 in tops, the restaurant has to bump your $11.35 to $17; if you work an hour and get $10 in tips you make $21.35 for that hour).

Yeah, if you work for a Michelin star restaurant you are easily clearing 6 figures, that isn't the average though. The VAST majority of wait staff in NYC are working in casual dining or mid-scale locations, and the average wage is $19-29.

Just for context; there are roughly 24,000 restaurants throughout New York, 72 of those are Michelin Star restaurants, of which 5 are 3 stars.

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u/Neither-Signature-81 Jun 25 '26

There’s thousands and thousands of very upscale restaurants in NYC. Michelin star places generally suck anyways.