Tipping in the US
In all the time we spent in the US, one of the things that often foxed my husband and I was how much we should tip for any given service interaction. Some of the rules seemed to us somewhat obtuse and to add to the confusion, everyone we asked regarding who and how much seemed to have a different answer.
How much do you tip a taxi driver?
My favourite piece of advice was in the letters section of a newspaper where someone had written in to ask why they should pay a 20% tip on a $200 bottle of wine in a restaurant, when all the wait staff had to do was fetch it and open the bottle. The response was that if you can afford a $200 bottle of wine you should stop being such a tightwad and cough up the $40 tip. As well as making me smile, I found it difficult to disagree with this answer.
What we ended up taking away with us was, if in doubt tip (generously), as this never offends.
When writing some advice around food and drink in the US for our practical stuff section, I did attempt to get some information in on tipping, but it is a long way from a full etiquette guide to tipping in the US. However, this morning I got sent this.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1aYHDS
I don’t know how recent it is, but I think this is probably the best summary guide to tipping in the US that I have ever seen. Hope you find it useful too.
