Watch the video for the full Cansu experience!
Hey, happy you’re here! I’m Cansu and I make videos to help international twenty-somethings like me navigate life in nyc. When I moved here three years ago, it made absolutely no sense to me that I was expected to tip every single time I did something. Now I know why that’s the case and I think it’s so important that you know too, so if you’re gonna be a bad tipper it should be because you’re a bad person, not an ignorant one. Jk!
Here’s what you should know about tipping in nyc!
First of all, there’s a reason to this madness. Tipping became a thing in the 1900s, the Americans who went to Europe saw tipping as a part of the culture there and brought it back to the US to show that they are more cultured and worldly than other Americans. But they got too excited about it and the amounts they tipped were way above the European norms.
And in the 1960s, it became legal for employers to pay under the minimum wage if their employees earn tips and make up for it. So it’s like the customers chip in to employ them. It would be awesome if they were paid $30 an hour and nobody had to tip anyone. But it’s not the world we live in. These service workers have a small paycheck and they depend on tips to make a living. So we shouldn’t punish that one person for the whole system.
And the system calls for 15-20% tips in generally everything.
For instance, your restaurant server: 20% is the norm. 25% if they go way and beyond and you have the means, and still 20% if they mess it up because you don’t know what’s going on in their lives outside this job, they may be having a bad day, and I wouldn’t make it worse.
Also, usually what happens at the end of the day is that they calculate how much tips they got and divide it by the whole crew that helped serving you. So it’s not just the person you interact with, it’s for the entire team in the kitchen too.
And to calculate 20% you move the decimal one point to the left and double it, and that’s how much you need to tip! Or you use the calculator app. Your call.
And it’s the same case with takeout orders. I used to feel like it makes sense for me to tip when I’m at the restaurant but not so much when I’m ordering take out. But now I feel like that it’s not really about the specific service we get, it’s the culture. Besides, the servers prepare our order, they put it in a bag with utensils and napkins and everything while at the same time attending the customers at the restaurant, so it’s not like they are not serving us. They do a bunch for us.
Moving on! At a coffeeshop, you’d tip $1 per drink. It’s the same at a bar, $1 per drink. It doesn’t really matter if they prepare an artisan cocktail or just do this: pick up the beer from the fridge and open it and give it to you. It’s really not about how much they’ve done for you. Always remember that it’s the system, it’s the culture. So that beer is actually not $6, it’s $7.
Ok, your taxicab or Uber or Lyft driver- I had a hard time putting my head around this because in Turkey we would wait to get the last penny of our change let alone tipping the taxi driver. But here in nyc a 10-20% tip is the norm. But then also, I wouldn’t be going home safe and comfortable at the back of a car unless my Uber driver was working at 4am on a Friday night so, it’s the nice thing to do!
It’s the same idea behind tipping your delivery person. If they weren’t working, you wouldn’t be enjoying your sushi at the comfort of your home. And be generous especially if there’s a thunderstorm outside, they would for sure love to stay home just like you, but they do the trip for you.
And here’s another thing to keep in mind, the Grubhub driver, for example, see on the app if you’ve tipped the driver or not. And if they see that you didn’t, they may take their time picking up your order.
So because tipping is so much embedded in the culture, you can even get in a saloon’s blacklist if you don’t tip your hair stylist, they can be like, no we don’t have any availability. You probably want to avoid that, so tip the people who make you pretty.
And most people prefer cash tips because that’s what you bring home at the end of the day. That’s why it’s handy to always have a few dollar bills with you. If you want to tip the band or the musician at the bar but you don’t have cash, they won’t be like awww she’s the sweetest, she wanted to give a generous tip but she doesn’t have cash! It’s not their problem that you don’t carry cash. Yes, nowadays you can Venmo most people but, as they say, cash is king.
Don’t see tipping as a way of ripping you off, see it as part of the American culture and if you move to nyc from abroad and are looking to becoming a true New Yorker, look out for fellow New Yorkers and be a good tipper. Also, I believe in karma, you leave a $30 tip here and get a $30 discount at a random place. That’s how the universe works.
Also, if you cannot afford paying 20% tip, you probably can’t afford that massage. Always think if you can budget an extra 20% for whatever you’re getting and position yourself accordingly. That’s why I always add tip and tax in my head when I see prices on a menu. A $5 coffee never costs $5. Welcome to New York!
And I promise you, being a bad tipper is not how you save money. Meet me here for how!