How much to tip in the US: Service charge means you could pay twice

The Man Who Pays His Way, Sometimes Grudgingly

(Getty)

Under the watchful eye of the proprietor of the Rim BBQ and Pizzeria, I reached into the tip jar, fished out a $5 bill and folded it into my wallet.

I had enjoyed a modest dinner sitting on the patio as the setting sun inflamed the raw, red rock of the Capitol Reef — a monstrous sandstone wall that reveals 120 million years of the world’s story in its strata.

“That’s fine,” she said, although her expression suggested she was, in fact, rather miffed.

The location was the small town of Torrey, Utah (yes, the place that gave its name to the Torrey Canyon, the stricken oil tanker which devastated the beaches of Cornwall half a century ago).

A few moments earlier the proprietor had told me the total. I had calculated $5 would represent a tip of about 15 per cent, and placed a five-dollar-bill in the tip jar.

Tipping 15 per cent is the absolute minimum in the US; restaurant checks often include helpful calculations showing a gratuity of 18, 20 or even 25 per cent to help you tip. But those figures look like turbo-charged tipping to me.

As I walked away, I saw on the receipt that 18 per cent had already been added as a service charge. For good measure the gratuity incurred sales tax — taking it to almost 20 per cent.

Even in a culture where it’s legal to pay waiting staff less than the minimum wage, adding one-fifth to the bill seemed quite enough. So for the first time ever, I retrieved a tip.

British travellers to America these days are getting financially squeezed, especially in restaurants. Resign yourself to interpreting prices on the menu as sterling, not dollars. By the time tip and tax (and tax on the tip) are added you will be paying upwards of $1.25 for each dollar on the menu.

Brits are not renowned in the US hospitality industry for their excessive generosity. A friend tells me: “My ex-wife waited tables in a swish Upper East Side restaurant in Manhattan and whenever the hostess seated anyone with an English accent, their table was the booby prize.

“No servers want the table and, assuming the worst, they tend to give bad service if they get stuck with it.”

Our dismal reputation and consequent lack of service is reinforced by UK travellers who doggedly tip 10 per cent because that’s what they do everywhere. In most places, for example continental Europe and Asia, 10 per cent is too much; in America it’s too little.

Now US restaurants are starting to take revenge. In a break from tradition, they are automatically adding a service charge, typically a handsome 18 per cent, and inviting diners to tip even more. Some do it by adding a line on the bill for an additional tip. And others do it by omission, failing to point out that service is included.

On a two-week trip, the only place I found offering complete transparency was Ruby’s Inn in Bryce Canyon City. The waitress not only highlighted a 15 per cent gratuity; she also offered, unprompted, to “remove it if you like”.

She deserved a couple of extra dollars on top of the 15 per cent. And her millions of counterparts across the US deserve a decent wage. The higher the tip threshold rises, the more it seems that restaurants keep their pay rates artificially low on the assumption that diners will make up the difference.

Let’s hope we are reaching peak gratuities. If the expected amounts rise any further, then the percentage you will need to tip on occasions when you actually want to reward outstanding service will reach an absurd level.

But it’s the Americans’ country, and they seem relaxed about turbo-tipping, not to mention the addition of sales tax – which by law and custom in Europe is included in menu prices.

So tip fairly and tip frequently in the US, but always check the bill for added charges before you hand over extra cash. Rummaging in the tip jar is never a good look.