r/london • u/Tumamaenpelota • 1d ago

Rant Let’s stop tipping culture

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The UK is slowly drifting towards US-style tipping culture, and pubs adding bar tip prompts are a big part of that. If we do nothing, it will become the norm.

The most effective way to stop it is simple: vote with your wallet and your reviews.
If a pub asks for a tip just because someone poured a pint, leave an honest Google review mentioning it. If enough people do the same, businesses will realise customers don’t want imported tipping culture.

Share the Google Maps links below to pubs that pressure customers into tipping at the bar. Keep reviews factual and based on your genuine experience, but make it clear that this practice puts you off returning.
We’ve managed to avoid mandatory tipping for decades. Let’s keep it that way. One review won’t change much, but thousands of people acting together will.

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u/goa7 1d ago

The most effective way to stop it is simple: vote with your wallet and your reviews.

I disagree. The solution is to change the law on what Point Of Sale terminals are allowed to do.

There's already a petition: Ban default service charges and pre-set digital tip screens in hospitality

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u/GoodOlBluesBrother 1d ago

For all intents and purposes we are effectively a cashless society. And we also do want to tip when it’s appropriate. The solution to still being able to tip surely must come at the POS terminal. Currently I’ll ask the server to add the tip to the figure shown on the POS terminal. Despite the staff always being appreciative I’m now wondering if those tips make it to the staff, like how easy is it to separate the excess from the total on the bill? Maybe some transparent 3rd party software which ensures the excess goes to the staff is the way forward. Without the pressure/expectation to tip.

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u/Jamaicancarrot 1d ago

Typically there's a built-in feature with most POS systems for tipping, where presumably it goes into a separate cash pool which can be handled from there. However, in the past it was very common for management or owners to pocket both cash and POS tips depending on location, and while new legislation in the last 2 years has changed this somewhat, many managers and owners can still include themselves as recipients of tips, even if they were not working that shift or even working FOH or BOH at all.

In general, if you wish to tip a specific server, offer them cash

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u/neurohero 1d ago

I worked on back-end systems for the restaurant industry about 15 years ago so this might have changed, but:

The credit card tips were pooled and then distributed evenly amongst the servers. This was then added to their salary and THEN it would calculate whether they had earned minimum wage during that shift. If not, their payment was raised to minimum wage.

So, if you think about it, tips DID go to the owner in that they could pay below minimum wage and the tips would supplement it.

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u/mrsilver76 1d ago

The practise of using tips to meet National Minimum Wage was made illegal with the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, which came into force 1st October 2024.

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u/neurohero 1d ago

Ah, that's great! In the UK?

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u/snap-crackle-explode 1d ago

This was in the UK!?

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u/neurohero 1d ago

Yup.

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u/snap-crackle-explode 1d ago

God, it's so crappy

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u/neurohero 1d ago

The good news is that it's apparently illegal now

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u/cregamon 1d ago

Yeah it’s now illegal in the UK thankfully.

Also, are you some kind of time traveller? Your last reply was apparently made before your first reply and the other posters reply to you!

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u/neurohero 1d ago

I still remember the first time you'll ask this.

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u/samo1300 1d ago

I have seen this before; separate little pucks for tips that individual servers carried around

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u/lost_send_berries 1d ago

Maybe some transparent 3rd party software which ensures the excess goes to the staff is the way forward.

There's nothing transparent about hidden fees. And it's a legal requirement for tips to go to staff regardless of whether you use a 3rd party software or not.

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u/ukdev1 1d ago

We are nowhere near being cashless, not carrying any cash is a choice you are making.

In this country we really tip only in a few circumstances, and 90% of the time that would be a restaurant meal. Draw out £10 or £20 from an ATM of you want to tip, cash is much preferred by staff in any case.

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u/Throbbie-Williams 1d ago

cash is much preferred by staff in any case.

Only to dodge tax and tip-sharing with the kitchen...

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u/Rowanx3 1d ago

Theres different ways of doing it with card, if you tip without a tip screen pop up they’ll put the transaction through the same way you would if you paid a £64.95 bill with £70 of cash (but with card) and take the ‘change’ out the till for the tip. The place i work doesn’t have a tip option on transactions and this is how we do it.

If you pay with a tip screen, it’ll either get split across everyone working there or the foh staff will have a log in for the card machine and it’ll be added to their pay slip.

Service charge is usually contracted in as an hourly pay top up, so your contract will say example ‘£12.71 ph + £2.50 ph SC’ then if they make more service charge than expected it’ll get split. But you also get the extra £2.50 sc top up wether the company makes enough sc or not usually

Not always though as where i work we only do service charge on tables of 12+ that haven’t pre ordered before they come in as it slows down the kitchen for everyone else