Nothing for Something - Tipping in SL and RL

Well, I have traveled a lot and I see this same attitude in a large percentage of Europeans and Asians as well. I think it is closer to our selfish self-centered human nature aspect than anything else.



I make it a point to always tip when I go to these types of places. I feel that the people that create something totally for the use or enjoyment of others definitely should get tips as that is truly their only payment for it.

But only when Americans are involved

Lol, having stood behind British tourists in French Tourist Offices, I could not disagree more. I kept my big mouth shut so it had nothing to do with me Even after the couple I was behind left and a Walloon accent came out I was treated with a helpful attitude.

In the UK it's custom to tip restaurants 10% of the cost of the bill, but you have to be careful because some restaurants will automatically add it on, and you end up paying the tip twice if you don't check.

As far as I know its also custom to tip taxi drivers, at least I've always done so. Hairdressers and people in similar professions, never heard of that. The thing is, here, everyone gets a minimum wage anyway (unless they are working illegally). Some professions, in particular those that deliver goods to the door (eg newspaper, milk & postal deliveries) get a more substantial tip at Christmas. Whats more common here is for there to be a collection box for a charity. I usually put something in those.

In SL I tip DJs and live performers. I tip club hosts and dancers occasionally, and only if there is an absence of gesturespam. I tip venues that offer assistance to newbies, and venues that have no other source of income (non-profits, etc). I wouldn't tip a store or mall, because I figure they're already charging enough for the products and if not why don't they just raise the prices? A store asking for tips feels like begging to me.

In RL I do not tip, it is not a custom here in Australia.
In SL I will tip DJs if they are doing more than just playing songs, dancers if they are emoting and WONT remove their clothing if i do so, Sim owners if i like the place and I can see a lot of effort has been put into it.

Everytime I have had my hair styled since I was 15 I have tipped the hairdresser and her aide. For the hairdresser, I always tip 35 to 40 bucks (and upwards) and the aide gets about 25 to 30. People who dont tip hairdressers should cut their hair at home. I consider it shameful not to reward a hairdresser regardless of the cost of the cut or the wash.

Yes, there are a number of countries where tips are neither required nor desired, and in some countries, it is even considered an insult. If you leave a tip in most parts of Japan, be prepared to run really fast!

I tip in RL and SL....much as others have said. I would like to add one thing that no one else has, yet.

I will preface this by saying that I DO own a club in SL. I know first hand, that usually the one entity in a club that is losing money is the club itself. I DJ and I make decent money doing that, from tips and my fee from clubs (althought most of my DJ income is from tips.) Hosts and dancers make money as well. Live performers, if they are good and have a following and are savvy business people, make a ton of money. I will add that they have expenses as well.

Clubs lose money, mostly, unless it's a club that has 100 kiosks strewn throughout their parcel to help alleviate the costs. I know clubs that are very good at what they do, they have great attendance and are so frustrated by losing money, that they are ready to give up. It's sad, really. What I make DJing goes back into The Savoy to basically pay live musicians that I pay to sing/play there. We're all about the music, so we have no contests or anything like that. If a club has contests and are giving away Linden prizes, you can probably double their losses. I know that for a fact from friends of mine who've done that deal.

Tonight I was at a good friend's club to see a live performer. He made over 5000L in tips and his fee for the night was 4000L, so he made over 9k. My friend probably made 1000L in tips for the evening, if that. So she lost 3000L on the performer, and also has to pay tier soon. That is how clubs work, normally. Some ask why does she do it then, and you can ask me, because I do the same thing. We love the music, the performer, and the social life that evolves from this, which includes several of our good friends. And the other payout is the traffic that comes from a live performer.

In other words, please remember the house tip jar, particularly if you like the club. We need that love too.

I'm the same way. The breakdown for tipping if I remember correctly was 15%-20% for general service like restaurants, but far more if the person is actually touching you or rendering some service where they have to get close. I always tip above what is expected, partly because I was raised that way and because I've had service jobs before where I was making minimum wage and needed those tips to survive.

Exactly. I am in total agreeement. When I am in a certain city I use one stylist I really enjoy and the girl who cuts my hair (and mine is tricky coz its really curly hair actually) is very kind and has such wonderful stories to tell about her sisters and her mum. She never puts me "on teh spot" and I feel so relaxed with her. Then I get talking and we just have a great time.

I think the most intimate of handson is massage therapy and then it is a question of the right thing to do because th therapist ofcourse is a self-employed professional in the same way as a chiropracor. Mine is a really lovely girl my age and she's REALLY wicked. I love her work on me coz I've used her for the past 5 years - except when she got pregnant and then I had to use her substitute. Anyway, I also tip her coz any relief from my back pain is worth any number of dollars. She says I shouldnt but I do coz I can afford it and I say just add it to the fee. I want her to be happy.

I should add that she is my special one for massage and so I count on her when I am nea where she lives.

I usually tip 15-20% in restaurants and salons, a bit more if I am a regular, taxis are dependant on the service, attitude and helpfulness of the driver. I tip home food delivery people as well, usually around 10% unless I get lousy service. In places like the bagel shop or Dunkin' Donuts I might throw the coins I receive in change into the tip jar, but that's about it.

In SL, it depends om how long I spend in a place, how much I enjoyed the entertainment or build, and how much I have in my account at the time. I try to give something if a particular venue has appealed to me, even if it is only 20 Lindens.

I live in the U.S. When I go out to eat, I tip and I tip accordingly to service. On rare occasions, when I've gotten exceptionally good service and a wonderful meal, I've tipped as high as 50% to 100%. I'm funny that way. (^_^)

In SL things are very much more old-world-ish. If someone isn't being directly paid by their audience, odds are, they're not getting any income at all. I don't see many wage models used. So, in many venues, I assume that the tip-jar is 100% of the avatar's income. (^_^)

I, myself, teach classes for NCI at an hourly wage of L$500 and host events with an hourly wage of L$350. So, that said, I'm quite fairly compensated for my time. Still... People insist on tipping. So, really early on I built myself a little set of tip jars that I rez out simply to silence the IMs asking where my tip jar is. (^_^)

One thing I will not do is reject or be offended by someone offering gratuity if they feel I deserve it. Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Because, I'm driven to do the same thing. If I tip, that's my thanks to you for giving me a little more in life than I had before and we're not quite intimate enough for me to express my thanks in any other way. (^_^)y

I only tip low paid people like pizza delivery, I will just round off the bill from say $18 to a $20 note. Sometimes they may only end up making 50cents, but to me the extra time spent digging for change isn't worth it and if everyone tipped them 50cent in a night they'd make an appreciable profit.

I have tipped other people if they provided service beyond their obligations. but tipping isn't really common in Aussie culture, and I'm not rich myself either.

I usually tip anyone in SL providing a service requireng effort.

/me laughs. Exactly. There is definitely something to be said for learning a regions customs and behaving accordingly.

/me ponders. When a Japanese tourist eats at a sushi bar in Vancouver Canada that is owned by a Japanese person, do they tip?

If people can afford to tip then they should tip. I always tip hotel employees - the concierge usually takes care of this for me but to be in the safe side I'll speak to the maids etc if I can and hand them something for their pains, like a 50 bill each. I keep rotten hours when I am using hotels and it must be a real pain to provide for me, so I always express my gratitude. I return to the same hotels over and over and they know me well.

You shouldn't really be having pizza delivered to your home - its bad for you. Pizza delivery is also a dangerous job since many pizzas are delivered to the seamy side I understand. I also dont agree with this trend to stuff the crust with more cheese (which isnt cheese anyway). You'd do much better to make your own pizza and save some money that way.

I have never looked at it this way. I do not go to clubs much but next time I will definitely split my tip between the club and DJ/Live performer.

Yes but if it is the salon owner it is not required and might even be considered an insult (or worse - gauche.)



Better than nothing I suppose. I would not want to share that pizza with you the next time though. It might have a bit of added expectorant.

It depends on the culture on whether they should tip, I'm quite happy not to have to bother tipping every hardware, supermarket or bakery cerk I purchase something from.

If a waiter provides good service and a friendly smile I may tip them but most just amble along doing just over the minimum they are paid to do, but I also suspect those providing service are on better money in Oz than most countries.

Pizza's bad for you but so is fried chicken, chinese takeaway and a lot of eat out food. Nothing wrong with it in moderation, while eating homemade healthy meals other times. Pizza delivered is no more dangerous than eating in at Pizza Hut except for the drivers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBPmMx86FI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICUVfK1EtsM

if I am happy I tip if I am not I leave a tip on a piece of paper.

Tegg - may I ask if you are American? In the U.S., tipping a waiter shouldn't be looked upon as optional, since they are taxed for a certain amount whether they earn it or not. The IRS figures how much they will likely earn in tips and taxes accordingly. It is also legal to pay them less than minimum wage since customer tips are assumed to make up the rest.

I have to wonder if waiters are hurting in this economy. People dine out far less often. Many restaurants' quality has declined greatly, and many places are empty much of the time.

Wow -- my haircut is 40 bucks and many people consider me crazy for going to someone that charges that much as you can go to the really cheapie places and get a haircut for 15 bucks.

However, I do pay the 40 and tip her another 10 because I have gone to her for almost 20 years and she knows every issue with my hair. To me, having someone know my hair and how to get it to do what we want and/or what will and will not work with it is worth the extra price and the tip.



Yes, in RL, it is crucial to know the customs of where you are at.

I think that we do have some tipping customs in SL -- DJs, good live performers, good dancers, engaging hosts/hostesses, non-profit sim created simply for others to enjoy, helping places -- but I don't think there will ever be a custom regarding "how much".




I will admit that I am bad at remembering this one. If the club is a good one and not surrounded by a mall, then I do think they should be tipped, though I have remembered to do so only a few times.

In Australia we have a minimum wage at AU$14.31 per hour which is probably a bit higher compared to other countries, it's not legal to pay people any less than that unless they are on a commission basis or are subcontracting. So we don't tip low paid people like checkout operators, trolleyboys, waitresses, maids and cleaners because they aren't that much below what us middle income people earn.

In comparison Iam a factory Electrician and am on $27 per hour but could easily be earning $35 and hour if I wanted to waste 2 hours a day driving to and from work instead of 15minutes or up to $50 an hour if I wanded to go into outback mining.

For reference a new car starts at about $14k for a 3 door Korean bubble mobile, petrol is about $1.30 per litre, bread $2 a loaf, a Big Mac is about $4.

Actually most of the times the reaction is between a "thanks mate" to a "Oh wow you're the only person to tip me anything tonight"
I usually just hand them the $20 bill and say "skip the change"

I'm giving them not only 50 cents to $2, but something that is much more valuable to most people, 30 seconds of spare time as well as saving myself the same time.

Time is expensive to buy and you can't win time like winning the lotto and you only have a finate amount no matter how much you could cheat.

Really?

Here it well might be tossed back through the door.

We typically tip a fiver for a pizza delivery. More if we order more and the bill goes up accordingly. 50 cents won't even buy a soda here. (Any tip that jingles would be seen as an insult unless poverty could convincingly be pleaded.)

When I couldn't afford delivery I would use coupons and watch for sales on frozen pizza if I had a hunger for one. One brand was delish and two for $5. on sale. Taco Bell bean burrito is less than a dollar also.

Interesting to hear about tipping habits elsewhere.



Sorry. I do not understand this reference.

I am making their job 30 seconds quicker by us both skipping the digging out and counting change routine.

This may or may not mean they go home earlier, but may make their work a little less pressured especially if it added up to 10 minutes over a heap of customers.

It's not big money earned doing pizza delivery so the quicker they get the pizza from the car then get back to their car the more pizza's they deliver and more they can earn.

I have the money ready and usually get to the front door as quick as they do, there would be nothing worse than having to knock on the door, then wait, then wait again while some one scratches around the house for change turning a 1 minute drop off and transaction into a 5 minute one, 10 times in a nights work.