And European tourists are notorious for not tipping, because they have not taken the time to understand our bizarre customs which we don’t even like.

Combine that with the fact that tourists everywhere are more difficult and time-consuming to deal with and it’s a recipe for resentment.

Just last week I saw a group of Spanish visitors to NYC create a confusing maelstrom of orders at a coffee shop and then override the tip to zero, all while shouting across the room to each other.

I frequent a bar in a tourist area with many international tourists. They finally just by default added an 18% service charge and a line for an additional tip.

The servers and bartenders are always very explicit about the tip being included.

This feels much more fair to me.

Here in the UK, it's common for a "service charge" to be added to bills which is the equivalent of a tip, but considered mandatory for large groups. I think the next step is to just roll the tips/service charge into the food prices and thus not be pushing employee wage issues onto customers.

That is simply a markup and should be reflected in the price. Euro style tipping is annoying enough but percentages in the US are huge. It is really not an afterthought to the whole transaction. Imagine you bought a car and the dealers profit would be totally optional for you to decide. The situation is frankly ludicrous

If they say up front on every menu that the tip is included and the servers/bartenders are up front and you can actually remove it (I guess you can put less on the bottom line), what’s the issue?

Taxes also aren’t included in the menu price.

I can’t imagine any of the servers who don’t like the status quo or that would come out better even if they made $20 an hour.

>>Taxes also aren’t included in the menu price

That's insane as well. Why aren't they?

>>If they say up front on every menu that the tip is included and the servers/bartenders are up front and you can actually remove it (I guess you can put less on the bottom line), what’s the issue?

Nothing. Some restaurants in London started doing this now, the menu says a service charge of 10% will apply unless you ask to remove it and very few people have any issue with it.

Taxes are hardly ever included on ABY prices in the US.

Ok, same question applies - why? It's not like the restaurant doesn't know what the taxes are.

Because if one restaurant or retailer in general added taxes and no one else does, it makes their prices seem higher. Everyone in the US knows that taxes aren’t included.