How do Britons like to tip? Survey reveals UK tipping culture

Almost 80 percent of UK customers think it’s unfair to pay service charge to a restaurant and prefer to pay it directly to staff, according to a survey by Perrys Chartered Accountants.

Meanwhile, 7 percent of Britons never tip at all, 51 percent only tip if they deem the service to have been 'excellent' and 26 percent think it's important to tip staff as they rely on it to supplement their income.

A regional breakdown of the study, which used data collected from 1,000 people across the UK, showed that people in the North East of England, Northern Ireland and Wales are least likely to leave a tip at all, while people in Scotland and the South East are most likely to leave a tip.

Despite it being a contentious issue among hospitality workers, 22 percent of respondents said they didn’t know the difference between a tip and service charge.

How much is it to fair to tip?

More than half of respondents said a 10 percent tip – which is the standard in the US, where front of house staff are paid very little by their employer and are expected to make up most of their wages with tips - is a fair and reasonable amount.

On a national scale, 37 percent of people said a five percent tip is enough, but in Yorkshire this number was much higher, nearing 50 percent .

What are your thoughts? Do you think restaurants should put “discretionary” service charge on bills? Should customers tip waiters individually or should the money be shared with bar staff, runners and hosts? Do you think customers should tip a percentage of the bill, or should they decide based on the quality of the service? Leave your answers in the comments!

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