When it comes to tipping, Ottawans are the most generous. Calgarians are the cheapest. Vancouverites are pretty close to the bottom of the barrel.
And Victorians — well, we didn’t make the list of a new study. However, local servers maintain we’re pretty good tippers.
The study comes from Square, a mobile payments company, which recently surveyed tipping records in five Canadian cities.
The results (insert drum roll here):
• Ottawans tip 76.7 of the time, averaging 15.6 per cent a tip
• Montreallers tip 70.4 per cent of the time, averaging 14.4 per cent a tip
• Torontonians tip 65.5 per cent of the time, averaging 14.5 per cent a tip
• Vancouverites tip 62 per cent of the time, averaging 13.4 per cent a tip
• Calgarians tip 59.4 per cent of the time, averaging 13.3 per cent a tip
But what about Victoria? I phoned up the publicist for Square. Sadly, he said only data from those five gleaming metropolises were scrutinized.
Although Square surveyed just a few cities (and statistics can be notoriously open to misinterpretation) it’s possible their study does say something about Canadian tipping practices.
Since being launched in Canada in 2012, the U.S.-based company has processed more than $100 million in credit-card transactions for 52,000 merchants across our country.
This week, I conducted my own (slightly less scientific) mini-study of Victoria. It entailed phoning some downtown restaurants and saying, “Hey, are Victorians good tippers?” The results suggest that our generosity ranks up there with Ottawa’s.
For instance, Rodney Harper, a server at John’s Place for the past 27 years, said he regularly gets tips in the 15 to 20 per cent range. Why? He figures it’s partly because this city attracts a lot of tourists, who tend to be generous.
Ceri-Anne Lewis, a server at Pagliacci’s, said she’s routinely tipped 15 to 20 per cent as well. Lewis also told me Vancouverites tipped well when she worked in the restaurant industry there — although that was some years ago.
Speaking of generous tippers, I know someone who worked at the Fairmont Empress during the 1994 Commonwealth Games. The Sultan of Brunei, who’s ultra-rich, was staying there (the sultan’s brother, Prince Sufri Bolikah, competed in a gun competition at the Games).
Anyway, the sultan had an attendant who doled out $100 tips to anyone who vaguely resembled a hotel employee. One night, when his son was enthusiastically boozing at the Bengal Lounge, the sultan gave $1,000 to the guy working the bar to make sure his inebriated offspring got into the elevator, into his room and into bed without mishap.
Now that’s tipping.
My wife and I always tip between 15 to 20 per cent in restaurants. We believe that’s the rule, no doubt hatched by a higher class of person who doesn’t yell: “Cushion-footed bloodsuckers!” when they see a wine list in the $200-plus range.
Even if the service is absolutely horrible, we leave 15 per cent. It’s not so much generosity — we just don’t want to be seen as cheapskates.
I remember, as a teenager, taking a family vacation to Mexico. Breakfasting at the hotel, my dad never left a tip because he believed it was included in the package deal. It took longer and longer to get served (even up to an hour, I think) because the Mexican waiters were getting frustrated by those Canadian penny-pinchers.
These days, it seems everyone expects a tip. Tip jars are everywhere. A friend told me about a small grocery store with a tip jar by the till. No doubt kids selling girl-scout cookies and the guy installing your muffler will have them soon.
Tipping can be confusing. Who to tip? Apparently, the list of present-day tip expectors includes bartenders, hotel housekeepers, movers and personal trainers. It seems as if we’re expected to be like the Sultan of Brunei, doling out loot every time we leave the house.
Bob Parrotta is the Victoria branch chairman for the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association and the head of food services at Butchart Gardens. He has worked in the restaurant business for 40 years — so he knows plenty about tipping.
Parrotta advised me to take the Square study with a grain of salt. For starters, at restaurants many folk like to tip with cash — which falls outside Square’s electronic payment data.
If it seems people are expected to tip more these days, it’s because they are. Parrotta remembers when a 10 per cent tip at restaurants was considered kosher. Now 15 per cent is the norm, rising to 20 for excellent service. It’s not just inflation. Parrotta says more is demanded of today’s server who, at classier establishments, is expected to know about wines (especially local ones), how the meat was raised, food allergies and so forth.
Bear in mind, too, that you’re not just tipping the waiter. Tips are divided among chefs, bartenders and bussers, with the server typically receiving just 50 to 60 per cent.
“You’re tipping the team,” Parrotta said. “I think that’s the way to look at it.”