Unlock the Editor’s Digest without cost
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly publication.
“What’s the value of a tip?” That is likely one of the questions being debated within the US and around the globe in latest weeks after presidential contenders Donald Trump and Kamala Harris proposed tax breaks on suggestions for service employees, a transfer some view as a technique to win votes in swing states.
The act of tipping for service means one thing completely different to Individuals than it does to folks within the UK. In Britain and Northern Eire, gratuity is often elective, seldom exceeding 13 per cent of a complete restaurant invoice. In distinction, the US has seen tipping evolve right into a near-mandatory observe for a a lot wider vary of companies, with advisable quantities rising to as a lot as 25 per cent in latest months.
Tipping tradition: advisable studying
As Brooke Masters highlights in her column within the Monetary Instances on tipping — which attracted a whole lot of feedback from readers — this development is ingrained within the US employment system, the place decrease wages and subsidised pay for restaurant employees have lengthy been an accepted normal.
What do you assume? Ought to US employers be required to pay service employees a full minimal wage, no matter suggestions? Or is 25 per cent a suitable normal gratuity? Inform us your views by voting in our ballot or writing within the feedback part beneath.
