In most of Europe a tip is far more discretionary and often smaller. Eg In the uk I would not tip at all if the service was poor/average and perhaps 10% for good service. I would think of it as being much more performance related and far more discretionary in Europe.

I wouldn't feel bad about not leaving a tip and whilst a waiter/waitress might be disappointed they be overly wouldn't insulted.

In the US I've seen much wider range of people expecting a tip. Eg in the uk you might sometimes round up a taxi fair, but I've had a new York cab driver get positively aggressive (initially refusing to give us our bags) when we didn't tip after he his inability to find a major hotel had added $30 extra on the meter.

Here in Israel it's similar, although ten percent are considered okay.

After one year here it still annoys the hell out of me. In Germany you only give a tip if you consider it appropriate. Your service costs exactly what the bill lists, not more. Especially in crappy places a 'forced' tip feels bad and wasted.

If the place is crappy don't leave a tip. That's the whole point.

I fail to understand your answer. Maybe you've got a good point, but the current reply is too short. I fail to see what you mean.

The 'whole point' was a discussion about mandatory tips. If you don't tip here it's not rare for the service guy/girl to get quite mad and insulting. You HAVE to tip, forced by social norms and by demanding workers.

As an Australian any kind of expected tip is odd.

As an Eastern European, I concur. Here (Bulgaria), it's common to round up (only to the degree of 1 leva (0.50 euro)) for taxis and restaurants. This is "normal". If you tip higher, for example if you round up from 47 leva to 50, it's mostly regarded as a "tip", which means the server will be delighted. Anything more than that, is mostly regarded as unwise and unnecessary. Most of Eastern Europe (with the exception of notable tourist destinations like Greece and Turkey) is quite the same.

I disagree about Greece, people don't generally tip more than 2-3 euros in restaurants, and usually just round up to the euro for deliveries, if that.

Also: Hey neighbour!

Hey there :) Well, my observations are mostly from some seaside resorts, where I've seen more tipping. From what you say, the "normal" areas are just like in Bulgaria in this aspect.

The justification for this 15% is that government assumes that customers give tip to waitress/er, and thus take taxes off the waitress/er pay-check according to this 15% supposition. So basically, when you don't pay the 15% tip, the waitress/er is paying extra taxes because of you. Unless the service is bad, the normal would thus be to pay the 15% tip, unless its a tip-less kind of job.

Some jobs are identified by governments as being tip-supported. Thus, the minimal wage for these jobs is lower than the normal minimum-wage, assumed that the real revenue comes from tip (which is actually true). To get their taxes share, they use the waitress/er sales to compute how much is due in taxes. Basically, governments have destroyed the whole purpose of tipping, which is to recognize good service. However, they make it cheaper for restaurant owner to hire new employees (the minimum wages is lower).

I found this post from a cocktail waitress actually pretty informative on the subject of tipping:

http://cocktaildoll.com/tippingtips.htm

Specifically:

"Each casino and the IRS have an agreement as to how much to allocate each cocktail waitress, and whether to allocate her by the hour or per drink. The agreement is different with every casino, and within each casino, the allocation amount is different for each cocktail waitress depending on her shift and station. I will use the following as an example, and please keep in mind...this is just an example, a hypothetical, a not-for-real made-up FYI.

"Let's say I am allocated 25¢ per drink. If I bring out a hundred drinks that day, the IRS assumes I made $25.00, and that amount is added on to my paycheck as income. Whatever income bracket I fall into at the end of the year determines how much in taxes I will have to pay, or have paid. How does the IRS know how many drinks I take out? Because each time I get an order from the bartender, he swipes my ID badge, or enters my employee number, and he records whatever drinks I take out on the computer. By the way, whether it's a bottled water or a Long Island or a glass of champagne, they are each counted as one drink.

"If I am allocated by the hour, it works the same way, except now it doesn't matter if I take out one drink or a hundred in that hour, I will be allocated the same amount. (The bartender still records my drinks for the casino's records.) Obviously it would be to my advantage financially to take out more drinks. Let's say I get allocated $10.00 an hour and it's really slow, or I'm a lazy-ass and just stand around; if I serve just one drink that hour and I get stiffed, I'm still going to be taxed on $10.00 even though I haven't made it.

"Did I mention that the above is just an example, to be used for reference only? Please do not quote a quarter a drink or $10.00 an hour as fact or an absolute for all cocktail waitresses! I do not know how much each cocktail waitress is allocated, and it is also not my own personal allocation. It is just a clarification.

"Another thing: the IRS agreement is already in place with each casino, but each girl has the option of signing it or not. This is a very private matter, so while I don't know for a fact, I'm going to say that 99% of all cocktail waitresses do sign it. If a waitress does not sign the agreement, she is required to report her own tips."

Not quite. Servers report tip amounts to their employer and that information goes to their W-2. Because they get tips, servers can be paid less than minimum wage. But even so, if their tips and wages combined aren't enough to get them up to minimum wage, the employer must pay them the difference.