How much do you tip?

I've become uneasy about tipping in restaurants as I don't think it always gets passed on to the staff who do the work. My young niece had a Christmas job waitressing-the boss took all the tips and allegedly gave the staff a day out-in February! She was back at university by then.
I tend to round off taxi fares to the nearest pound or tenner.
I'm not a comfortable tipper-too British!

Agree with BlueBelle and we rarely tip.

I'll probably ruffle some feathers here, but I think it's archaic and insulting to give "Christmas boxes". I also think that tipping just to get preferential treatment (tables, appointments) is not good. I will tip youngsters or trainees who are unlikely to be earning much, otherwise no. It's the thin end of the corruption wedge IMHO.

I very rarely tip unless the service is really exceptional. These workers get paid at least minimum wage just like I do. I do not work in an area where you get tips and I've never really understood the concept of tipping. So, I get minimum wage but I'm suppose to pay a waitress etc. extra when they also now get minimum wage!!!

I'm always unsure about tipping and relieved to see others find it confusing too. We don't have much of an income to be able to give tips since my OH had to give up work last year due to ill health. If we go out for a meal we use our Tesco Clubcard Points so we can quadruple them up to go to the local Brewer's Fayre restaurant. If it's just the 2 of us we don't tip but if we go out with family we will use our points to pay for everyone's meal and as our daughter law thinks it's essential to tip we usually will as we don't want to come across as mean, although maybe we do!

I have a hairdresser who come to my house every couple of months to cut and blow dry my hair. I wash my hair before she comes, using my own products, my electricity and have to clear up after she has gone, but I do give her £1 on top of the £20 she charges me. I know it's not much but this money is cash in hand for her so I don't feel I should give 10%. When I learnt hairdressing myself back in the 70's and was paying for the privilege of doing a private course, not once in the year I was there did I receive a tip from the clients you came in and got their hair done at reduced rates, not did I expect one either, despite the fact that most of the clients worked in the same building at M&S head office and probably were on quite good salaries.

It never occurs to me to give the window cleaner a tip, but having read how many of you do that I might start to as he does a very good job for just £12 a month. We rarely have the same postman each day and we don't have a paperboy either or ever use taxis, so no tips to worry about there!

Should you tip a hairdresser who has her own business in her own house or a girl who does your nails in her own home? I attend these two people and never know whether I should tip! I tend to think as its their own company a big tip is not expected!

I'm a pensioner. I always just give my hairdresser £2 which is just under 10% for a cut but I've short hair and it takes no time. I tip for anything that I feel I've had good service like a meal, usually 10% . But I don't tip for anything where I don't feel I've had service.. rarely use taxis but if they put my luggage into car etc I would. If I get specially good treatment anywhere I sometimes write a thank you card they can put up as an advert. But I do complain if something isn't right, which has taken me a long time to be comfortable doing this.

10% generally ..... Though nothing at hair salon as the guy who does my hair owns the business. Present at Christmas & birthday instead.

If I'd just paid £60 in spa I might have just given a fiver.

I'm not keen on the whole tipping scenario and would much prefer that waiters, for example, were paid a decent wage.

Funny story from Fortnum & Mason ..... My sister and I took the kids there for afternoon tea. The service was hopeless and the food disappointing. The bill arrives. At the bottom it read "service not included". My clever sister wrote underneath "yes we noticed" .....
Still makes me giggle 30 years later.

My DD works for s large coffee chain . Their tips are saved up and it pays for a staff night out at "that time" of year.

Same as many of you. My son is a waiter and so I tip generously (20%) when I can afford it and the service has been good.

I always tip 10% in restaurants but I think that for regular people The gift at Christmas is a great idea.

After the Costa coffee exposure (that the staff don't get the tips) I have become brave enough to actually ask the waiter if they get the tip. Very different answers, so I don't tip or do leave cash depending on the answer. In Cafe Rouge I was told the tips are divided between all the staff, so unseen kitchen staff, etc, all get something. I liked that.

I am retired, (no private pension)so quite a fixed and limited income. If I do manage to afford the occasional hair do, meal out etc.it is by dint of careful money management and that doesn't include giving financial gifts to people who are already paid to give the service I have received. If the particular industry they have chosen to work in doesn't pay well They are welcome to join my "club"

10%

I am a none tipper,most of the time, Hairdresser charges £39 for cut and blow, I have been going to him for 40 years. He owns the salon I was always taught you don't tip the owner. If the person who shampoos me does a good job I will give £1. Don't tip beauty salon, owner does me.

I go to lunch with ex colleagues once a month and we may give a £1 each.

Used to tip Postman but we never see the same one twice any more.

I worked in school and we were not allowed to accept any gifts from parents even at Christmas anything was placed in the Secure Room and used for School Fair days as prizes.

What really anmoys me is in America where large tips sre expected and they virtually ask for them. If you pay cash in a restaurant they ask 'Do you want the change?' To which DH answers yes I do! He then decides whether to tip but it makes him not want to.

Marileez DD2 is a teacher and has just had an exceedingly generous end of year 'tip' from the parents of the children in her class in the form of a gift voucher for White Stuff. On top of that she was kindly given flowers,plants wine, chocolates, plants and a couple of mugs. Parents are generous and kind ut it is a tricky decision.
I do leave a tip in a cafe/restaurant but when I had my hair cut /coloured on Wednesday at my hairdressers flat I took a box of macarons. We each ate a couple with a cup of tea and I left the rest for him! I have never tipped a beauty therapist or a delivery person (unless a huge /awkward item.) I do give a Xmas 'box' to milkman/paperboy . It is odd who we tip and who we don't! I agree we should not feel obliged to tip and that wages /salaries should be decent enough to live on and workers should never be relying on tips to make a decent living, especially if company profits are huge and big bosses earning mega bucks on the back of lowly paid front line workers. Small businesses may be different.

You see I think that is all wrong too the giving of expensive presents to teachers it is very very difficult for the parents who can't afford it and makes the poorer children feel awful just imagine all the kids coming with their arms full of flowers and wine and the little kid whose mum goes to the food bank is watching on the sideline
Just in the same way the NHS is very clear about nurses and doctors not accepting gifts I think schools should have the same policy

In restaurants I tip between 10 & 15% depending on how good the service has been. I always check the bill though, if a service charge has been added, I have that removed and give the tip in cash to the waiter/waitress!
Just once, when the service had been slow and the waiter was extremely surly and offhand, the tip I left was written on a napkin (a fabric one to boot!), and said 'Part of your job is to smile, if you'd tried it with us you'd have £9-00 cash in your pocket instead of nothing but this note'!
I appreciate that there are times when staff perhaps don't feel great, or are tired, or worried about something, but having worked with Joe Public for 38 years and never once failing to smile and be friendly, every damn day, I get very cross when I don't get the same treatment as I always gave!
At Christmas, postman and window cleaner get £25-00 each, bin men £30-00 between the three man crew. Our postman, Pete, is wonderful, and thoroughly deserves his 'tip'! The bin men get a tip because they do a horrible job that I'd hate to have to do! Our window cleaner is a lovely young lad, he works for his girlfriend's dad, who takes 35% of the takings every day! He's like a little monkey, up and down ladders in a flash, makes a brilliant job of the windows and earns very little for doing it, so a decent tip makes up for some of his lousy pay!
I take boxes of home made biscuits into the hairdressers, bank and Drs at Xmas for all the staff to share!

You must be very well off to give £9 to a waiter on top of the bill (why £9 and not £10) and over £80 in Christmas tips Bin men might do a horrible job in your eyes but they seem to get a fairly good wage and is that more horrible than a nurse cleaning up alcoholic sick on a Saturday night or a policeman finding a stabbed body

I actually think your note to the waiter was mean but there you go

Of course it's archaic, but I still tip 10% in restaurants, hairdressers and taxis, round up to the nearest pound on food deliveries, give a fiver to the paper girl at Christmas, and that's it. I used to leave bottles (full ones ) out for the binmen and milkman, but stopped a few years back.

Service in a restaurant would have to be atrocious for us not to tip, and I can only remember it happening once. I once failed to notice that 10% had been added on when we had a big family meal, and stuck another 10% on. Obviously it still rankles!

Again I agree BlueBelle teachers should not be accepting gifts, it should be the school's policy .

We did have a policy re gifts and hospitality at the school where I worked. Each member of staff had to declare gifts, and was only allowed up to £120 worth per annum. This is good practice, but not many schools seem to follow it. The school was in an area of deprivation - a small bunch of flowers or box of chocs was the norm, though many children just gave cards.

I very rarely tip. Why would you tip a waitress on minimum wage but not the checkout operator on the same wage for example. Here in the UK where we have the minimum wage it seems grossly unfair how certain low paid (and not so low paid) positions expect a tip but others don't. Our postman and Hinman get very friendly in December.... I wonder why! We were in the states recently for 3 weeks. The taxi driver asked for a tip. My husband asked him what for. The driver was shocked to be challenged. He said "because I drove you here". My husband asked what the taxi fare was for. He was told to cover the cost of getting us to the location. So what's the tip for? The guy couldn't answer. We went out for lunch once during our stay. Simple burger joint. Again we were asked for a tip. We said no. We had been ignored the whole time as the waiter was busy chatting to locals. So much so we didn't manage to order more drinks. Why would we tip someone for giving the kitchen our order and then bringing our order to the table. I'm told American food places pay their staff really poor wages and they depend on tips. At $55 for 2 burgers and fries and 2 cokes, I'd have to see their prices if they paid the staff more. I may sound really mean but I work in the NHS so in effect I serve the public but I don't expect tips and rarely if ever so much as get a thank you note despite the fact I regularly go out of the way for my service users.

Well said glammygranny I worked in the NHS too, as does one daughter a thank you is always enough and so should it be
£120 per annum sounds a huge amount to me Maggiemaybe As there's three terms in a year that's a present worth £40 each term did you mean 120 ?