The culture of the tip

The complaint was made a couple of weeks ago the lawyer Andrés Millán and the Youtuber Pablo Cabezali, who together add in their respective accounts of Lawtips and Cenandoconpablo Hundreds of thousands of followers in networks. In A video With more than 15,500 ‘I like you’ (and up) Cabezali explains how when on January 3 he was given the account in a rice in the center of Madrid he saw that the ticket marked 150.7 euros. The problem is that food, drink and VAT really added 137 euros. The remaining 13.7 were the “suggested tip”, which appeared by default already loaded and added.

It is not an isolated case. In fact For a long time And especially in Madrid and Barcelona, ​​cities with a intense influx Of foreign travelers, it is not strange to find it.

“A PERRADA”

“A knife.” Thus they qualify what happened both Influencers in Your videoin which they also show the account of discord, an invoice in which the real amount of the command is written with the same source and size as that of the tip.

Each concept is perfectly identified (€ 124.55 of consumption, 12.45 VAT and 10% extra “suggested tip”); But if the customer does not fix or does not even know how to read Spanish it is not difficult to interpret that € 150 is the sum of food, drink and VAT, without gratification.

“This violates the law of consumers and users because prices should not induce error or deception. It must be clear what the price is, with taxes included. And if you want to suggest a tip should be with another font and size, separately, smaller. Thus it seems that what it cost is 150 turkeys. They clearly want to deceive, ” warns Lawtips. “Even if it were legal, I don’t cool to do these things.”

Millán and Cabezali’s piece It has a clear intention of denunciation, but the truth is that the application of tips on the tickets (‘to the American’) has been installed for some time in some cities of Spain and not always with the purpose of “inducing to error”, as both appreciate Influencers In the specific case they are talking about.

Moreover, invoices also circulate in networks in which the amounts that correspond to the tip appear well identified or even include Emoticons of more or less smiling faces depending on how much the final gratification amounts.

A simple Google search arrives in fact to verify that the practice It is not entirely new. Nor isolated. In 2022 Rac1 already spoke of A group of restaurants Catalan that marked the tips on the ticket itself. In 2023 Efe echoed Another case from Madrid and shortly after the global consumer contributed A third example from Barcelona. One of the pioneer businesses that included tips in their accounts years ago in Catalonia acknowledges that since then they have been asked about the local model of Galicia or the Basque Country.

In TripAdvisor they are also found Referencesas in the networks, beyond the head of Cabezali. A few days ago Carlos Peguer He denounced In their X account that “in Madrid they are putting in many sites the screws to pay and add tip.” “As if we were in failed states … it’s fine,” He added. Cases like that are just the most media.

José explains to Xataka that when he recently asked for the account in a cafeteria in the Atocha surroundings they gave it to him with Tip Automatic: “You get in the dataphone, a large screen one, and pay With the waiter looking at you“

Not everyone applies it in the same way. There are cases that can be more or less misleading, such as the one they comment Cabezali and Millán; and others in which, in Tique itself paper, several options are offered to the client: add 0%, 5%, 8%or even 10% of tip. Clear and didactic.

And where does this come from? The million dollar question. In Spain there has always been the concept of tip. And while it is true that it has traditionally been more associated with hospitality than other sectors in which gratifications (taxis, hotels, cast …) can also be included …) its payment is not as institutionalized as in the US or in closer countries, case, case of Germany or France. These cultural differences have already given rise to Some “encounters”.

Two years ago It went viral The comment of an American waitress who complained that some Spaniards had left him ‘only’ 70 dollars of tip. In Spain that sum would be more than considerable, but the total account amounted to almost $ 700 and in the US it is usual for bonuses to 15, 20, 22 or 25%. “By God, I hate Europeans sometimes. This table only left $ 70 for a 700 account after spending hours at the restaurant. We should prohibit them from traveling until they learn how to behave.”

To meet an account with a predefined space For “tips” like the one who accompanied the complaint of the American waitress, you don’t have to cross the puddle and go to the US. In Spain they are. And the big question is … why?

There are several keys.

A sum of factors

The first is that the best known cases are given in cities such as Madrid or Barcelonawhich suggests that tourism and the influx of foreign clientele, willing to spend, with greater purchasing power and tip culture has much to say.

It is not a strange phenomenon. In other cities, such as Mexico City, the influx of foreigners and digital nomads has already affected something much more rooted in its gastronomy: The spicy flavor of his rooms. There is another fact that points in that direction, that of foreign influence. In 2019 Mastercard and Alpha Research made A study on consumption habits and found that Only 10% of Spaniards They always give tip. In hotels it barely went from 30%.

There would be two other important factors. One of them, the slow Cash sunset. Although the cash still has an overwhelming weight in Spanish consumption (in 2023 it was the main means of payment for 60% of the population), Its use has been slightly reduced in favor of other methods, especially mobile devices. If in 2023 the latter was the favorite means of payment for 8% of the population, last year the percentage It was already 11%. Meanwhile, the cash backed a point, from 60 to 59%.

That is the general trend. If we look at the younger layers of society, the cash has lost much more land. In 2024 it was almost minority among young people aged 18 to 24. 39% assured that it was their main payment method in physical stores, compared to 26% who paid their bills with cards and 35% with devices.

With such data the question is …No coins and tickets In pockets how to leave tips? Is your condemnation, your end? In an attempt to avoid it there are those who have charged them By bizum… And who suggests its payment directly via TPV.

The second crucial factor in the recent history of the Patria tip is Covid. Cash may be giving in a natural way, but during the pandemic the use of coins and tickets was especially affected. And therefore also made the payment of tips, the euro currency or the ticket that we leave on the dish on the bar or the box in which they give us the account.

“Less and less are left, He recognized in 2023 The employer hospitality of Spain. For the same dates He started talking of premises that They included gratification In your invoices.

“In the time of Covid everyone got used to paying by card and carrying less effective in their pocket, therefore less tip. People wanted to leave it, but only had the card,” explained in 2022 To RAC1 the head of a Catalan restaurant who already added in his accounts the option to include tip.

On their tickets the client could select leave 5% of what was consumed, 10% or nothing. And each selection was accompanied by an emoji. The measure, He assured the businessit served to recover the level of prepondondemic tips. And even increase it.

The differences between Spain and the US when ties are not only a matter of habits. There the “Tipping” culture has some deep roots getting hurt until end of the XIX And the beginning of the XX, when the Americans imported the habit of Europe in an attempt to emulate their aristocracy. With the passing of the decades he settled and today there are entrepreneurs in the services sector who assume that their workers will complement their basic salary with the bonuses.

A few months ago another invoice from a US restaurant was viralized, although for a different reason: when specifying the different parts of the account 4% were included For staff health coverage. From hospitality of Spain they warn that in our country the tips are optional and do not complement salaries.

Question of habits … and laws

“The main thing is to clarify that in Spain the tips They are not mandatory. Moreover, it is something that the company should not participate, but it is a voluntary reward from the client as a result of their relationship with the worker, “they reflect from Cehe. “They do not suppose a complement to the salary or anything like that, since in Spain the salary must be assumed by the company and is the one that is agreed between both parties through the collective agreements, which do not contemplate the tip concept.”

“What is certain is that the extension of digital payments has caused a decrease in tips, which were traditionally made in cash,” continues in statements to Xataka, and adds: “The fact that some platforms of Payment and TPV offer this option is foreign to the establishments, which can use it, but that at no time can force to use that option. “

As warned Lawtipsif the hotelier decides to transfer the tips to the account he must do it with tiento. Not everything is worth. And Spanish legislation is clear, as it prevents Rubén SánchezGeneral Secretary of Facua-Consumers in Action.

In 2023 I already warned of the limits. And now he does it again to regret the “Bad arts of entrepreneurs” They try to “project in consumers a responsibility they do not have.”

“Imposing tips is absolutely illegal, suggesting one giving options is legal. Another thing is that it induces you the account and it appears in such a way that the consumer comes to believe that the final price is one that actually has a tip,” , Sánchez warns. “At the time that border is crossed and the consumer can be error, the Spanish legislation would be violated and the company could be denounced.”

Image | Christiann Koepke (UNSPLASH) and Dan Smedley (UNSPLASH)

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