10% “optional” tip

Matías, editor in Xataka, was eating with a friend in an Argentine restaurant in Malaga and asked for the account to pay. Upon receiving the ticket, he observed that he included something that we are not used to in Spain, but that he begins to be seen in the hospitality industry: A suggested tip of 5%. Being optional, they decided not to pay it.

The phenomenon. The case that Matías lived in the restaurant ‘The brand‘In Malaga it is not unique. To suggest or recommend tips is something that we can see for a long time in the tickets shared in Google Maps of Restaurants in Madrid as Manero either My seathat upload the bet of the case of Malaga to 10% of the recommended tip, which converts a 197 euros account into one of 217 euros.

What began with isolated cases is not so much, especially in Madrid or Barcelona, more Influence of foreign tourists. It is observed more frequently in establishments oriented to foreign tourists with Greater purchasing power and tip cultureand where digital terminals are more established with automatic proposal to leave tip.

Less classic tip than before. A couple of years ago, the hospitality employer of Spain He affirmed that from the pandemic We pay less in cashsomething that blocks with the European Central Bank figureswhich encourages that “less and less tips are left,” according to the business organization.

Tips to the American. In the United States, tips are not mandatory by law, but it is almost obliged to leave a tip of between 15 and 20%. The logic behind the behavior has to do with the fact that the US minimum federal minimum wage for workers with tips is 2.13 dollars per houran amount that has not changed since 1991.

That the sector’s figure is so pyrrhic (compared to our more than 9 euros gross per hour) makes people tip: the worker has no other way to get decent income if not. In practice, more forced than the theory, when eating in the United States in groups of between a minimum of four and six people, most establishments impose a 18% tip (free) without giving option not to pay it.

Since the last update of the minimum wage, which has varied a lot is the value of money, with accumulated inflation of 137.19% in 34 years. And just its upward evolution with other factors is what has made the Americans leave less tip in 2024 than in the previous six years. As a curiosity, although the practice is so settled in the United States, it has European origin. It is estimated that in England in the 16th century.

Why is it not so popular where he was born. The reason for the practice is not so widespread in Spain and in Europe is related to its nature: here the waiters do not depend on the tip if it were part of the legal salary, but has always been more a prize. And this makes it come to hate our behavioreven when we leave 70 dollars, which we consider here a fortune. The suggestion in the ticket in that case went from $ 130 (20%) to $ 163 (25%).

Bad practices. If the tip suggestion with percentage is already shocking for the Spaniards, it is more to see a case in which a tip has tried to camouflage as part of a total payment, broken down confusing to confuse. I told it Toni onsalo in xshowing a ticket with 10% “optional” tip camouflaged before a large total account. There are already waiters who They position themselves against practiceconsidering that it encourages precariousness and low salaries.

Another less obvious case Lawtips reviewed itseeing a tickt with suggested tip in large, which can be misleading. From Facua They regretted “The bad arts of entrepreneurs” who try to “project in consumers a responsibility they do not have.” Rubén Sánchez, general secretary of the organization, was clear that with something that “may induce the error, it would be clearly violated Spanish legislation and the company could be denounced.”

The future of tips, according to the US. Although in Spain we are still very far, in the United States it is common for years to pay a tablet with a built -in dataphone there is a selected tip figure as a default option.

Those figures, which is not unreasonable to see in 30%, They are increasingly high, because they work When generating more income. Reducing the percentage manually or selecting a low option is always a somewhat uncomfortable procedure of the client to whom he has served. Another booming trend in the country: that they ask for workers from establishments that have only printed a ticket and pressed a screen, or removed a bottle of water from a freezer.

Image | Christiann Koepke (UNSPLASH) and Klaudia (UNSPLASH)

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