Why Doesn’t Europe Tip Like America?

In America, leaving a 15 to 20% tip at a restaurant is considered normal. Across much of Europe, tipping is far less expected and service is often already included in the price. But America and Europe weren’t always so different. Tipping began as a European tradition, and there was once a time when European waiters also depended heavily on customers for their income. Over time, Europe made employers more responsible for workers’ wages, while America allowed tips to become deeply embedded in restaurant prices, wage laws and customer expectations. This is the story of how tipping developed in America and Europe, and why getting rid of it is far more complicated than simply asking restaurants to pay their staff more. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 0:40 - What the receipt means 1:26 - How USA servers' are paid 2:08 - Example of high paying US state 2:45 - Where tipping originated 4:11 - How Europe changed it 4:44 - America's attempt at European tipping 5:49 - Customer service 6:47 - Europe isn't all the same 7:45 - Outro Credits: “Union Square Cafe” — Americasroof, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Edited for this video. “SBB TEE Train Dining Car” — ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Heinz Baumann / Com_C12-127-001-005, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Edited for this video. “De Horecaf tentoonstelling” — Polygoon-Profilti / Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Edited and transcoded for this video. “CGT committee at Café du Globe” — Camille Sauvageot, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Edited and transcoded for this video. “Opleiding voor kelners” — Polygoon-Profilti / Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Edited and transcoded for this video. “Wedloop voor kelners en serveersters” (Waiters and Waitresses Race, 1952) — Polygoon-Profilti / Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Edited and transcoded for this video. Quoted research screenshot: “Tipping: From Scourge of Democracy to American Ritual” — Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 2024. https://www.richmondfed.org/publicati... Quoted research excerpt: Franklin Crawford, “Studying the attitudes of gratitude that affect gratuities,” Cornell Chronicle, August 16, 2000. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2000...