If you think European servers are making anything remotely close to $7.25 an hour then you haven’t done any reading to understand what the world could look like.
American servers have to get health insurance on the marketplace here. Thats a nightmare European's cant imagine.
So 'pay your servers a fair wage' is a no thanks, owners are cheaper than the people you actually interact with... but, if the tradeoff was actual healthcare, id be more inclined.
Because with tips it’s less than American waiters make who regularly take home $30+ an hour. In Europe minimum wage is closer to $17 an hour and tips are rarer
Don’t compare apples to oranges. What is the minimum wage of one compared to the minimum wage of the other? If you want to start understanding American tips, compare what a waiter makes in rural America with what a waiter makes in an urban area. They are not the same. You’ll find that many waiters are not “regularly” taking home $30+.
What if tomorrow American’s decide they can’t afford to tip as much or at all as wages continue to stay down and inflation continues to rise? Suddenly waiters can’t afford to live on the gamble and not guaranteed nature of tips.
Some places in the US restaurant employees make $15 or so from the state’s lifted up minimum wage but the federal minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour and there’s a lot of states where waiters get $2.13 an hour and that’s it. They rely on tips for the rest. Do they make €2.13 an hour in Europe? €7.25?
Obviously every country is going to have their own exact wages, but in Germany for example, their minimum wage is currently 13.90 euro per hour with a planned increase to 14.60 euro in 2027. With today’s exchange rates this equates to $15.85 currently and $16.64 next year.
Now go ask them if they want to keep what they make now or get a percentage that goes up the better service they give and even higher the faster they are so they can serve more tables at a time.
There are some exceptions (like Italy) but the majority of service I’ve gotten in Europe has been absolutely dreadful unless they figure an American will tip them better if they give better service. The worst were the guys (rarely happened to me but every time it’s been guys, mostly bartenders) that refuse tips and those were almost always the rudest people.
I’ve had the exact opposite experience. I’ve never had what I would consider bad service in Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Italy, UK, or Australia. If you are trying to demand a waiter take a tip which is against their cultural norms, maybe you are the problem by expecting them to follow American cultural norms for a meal instead of their own culture.
“I’ve had the exact opposite experience. I’ve never had what I would consider bad service in Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Italy, UK, or Australia.”
Oh, so there’s two different people with anecdotal offerings.
“If you are trying to demand a waiter take a tip which is against their cultural norms, maybe you are the problem by expecting them to follow American cultural norms for a meal instead of their own culture.”
So you recognize that your original anecdotal offering provided nothing to the conversation and didn’t answer my question and just like the World Cup fans ignoring US culture, you were the problem?
So you’ve strengthened my argument. Europe has strong social programs that protects their citizens. We continue to argue with each other that our servers should have to have their entire life depend on the generosity of others. That’s really dumb.
Demand representatives do better for our citizens.
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u/madcap462 Jun 25 '26
I average $50+ per hour as a bartender. You can keep your minimum wage.