For visitors to British pubs, the largest choice is usually simple: beer or whiskey, draft or bottle, pint or half.
But now British beer drinkers are faced with a new and increasingly common conundrum: to tip or not to tip.
Some of the country’s biggest pub chains are asking guests to top up their bill with tips of 10% or more, creating awkward moments in the pub, an establishment whose centuries-old appeal is ingrained in the robust fabric of British tradition.
“It’s not normal for us to tip when I have to go to the bar and wait in line and all they do is give me a drink,” says Juliette Lane, a 59-year-old project manager from London, as she drinks a rum and coke with friends at the Phoenix pub, located a few steps from Buckingham Palace. “It doesn’t resonate with me.”
Until recently, tipping in pubs was modest, with a few coins thrown into a jar on the bar after pints had been poured. Using a card to get a tip was often impossible and could even cause an eye roll from the unsympathetic bartender. But that’s changing as transactions become cashless and the routines of bars and restaurants in the US permeate UK pub culture. Brewing shift caused tense The pub chain’s profits are confusing to customers who are not used to shelling out extra money for beer.
The pandemic also played a role: as pubs and restaurants reopened after lockdown, QR codes replaced physical menus in many places, giving establishments the ability to nudge customers to tip when paying over the phone.
“You were asked to put in 10%, 15%, and it was just a click of the mouse and it was very, very easy to tip,” says Luke Beavon, who heads the UK division of card payments company SumUp. “People were excited to get outside again and felt generous.”
Tipping is now the second most common tip given in pubs, bars and nightclubs among all merchant categories (higher than taxis and hairdressers), based on UK card transactions tracked by digital payments service provider Dojo. The two largest sectors, including restaurants, cafes, pubs and bars, account for more than 90% of tips nationwide.
Pub chains are trying to increase tips or related fees to help attract staff at a time when their own profits are under pressure from wage inflation and food prices. Rules coming into force in October will also allow this. illegal for employers to withhold any portion of the service charge, further reducing revenue for some businesses.
“It has been a challenge for the hospitality sector to recruit enough staff and retain colleagues,” says Simon Emeny, chief executive of pub chain Fuller Smith & Turner Plc, which passes on all benefits to employees. “The ability to earn tips is an important retention factor in this sector.”
Back at the Phoenix pub, owned by Young & Co.’s Brewery Plc, an order of two pints of Camden Hells lager costs £14.60 ($18.30) with an additional tip of 12.5%, 15% or 20 % offered on the card. reader. Raj Dodhia, part of Lane’s group, says he believes business owners encourage tipping to compensate for the low wages that are the norm in the United States. “This has gone too far,” says the 49-year-old IT worker caring for Estrella. “It worries me.”
“Tipping at our pubs is entirely at the discretion of the customer,” a Young’s spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The functionality of our card machines just makes it easier for them to do that if they want to.”
Stonegate Pub Co. – the UK’s largest pub group – was pilloried last year for a performance price jump during peak hours at many points of sale to increase profits. Stonegate declined requests for comment.
As in many other industries, technology has become a major driver of change. Handheld card readers now allow merchants to offer additional tips, a feature that is being rolled out across service-oriented industries in the UK, as are iPad screens. stimulated the spread of tipping in America, from the grocery store counters in Manhattan to the Starbucks counters in San Diego.
Customers are also using contactless payments for smaller transactions such as a pint, says Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UK Hospitality. “You used to only be able to use your card to buy food, but now you’re using it for more purchases at lower prices.” This, in turn, gives guests the opportunity to add a beer tip to their card.
Companies promoting the pub tipping movement in the UK include Tip jar, a tipping platform that offers dedicated card readers for bar customers so they can leave a standard tip amount, such as £2, electronically without delaying the main payment for drinks and food. This way, “the transaction from employee to customer is not slowed down,” says Tipjar chief commercial officer Dan Hawkey.
Some pubs are resisting the tipping trend. Wetherspoon Plc, another major British chain, says it avoids tipping when paying with cards. The company reported a jump in quarterly sales this week. At Greene King Ltd. Tips vary by brand (the company’s London offices include the Kings Arms in Bishopsgate, Shakespeares Head in Soho and Duke of York in Mayfair). Some pubs have the option to add a tip when paying by card, while others do not.
Tipping has become the norm in UK restaurants. The extra 10% tip has become a 12.5% service charge, which is automatically added to your bill and paid with the tap of your card or phone. The same can be said for pub dining rooms.
However, the multiplicity of approaches can result in tipping requests that are truly prohibitive in the UK, particularly in pubs that serve food.
At the Jugged Hare, a gastropub near London’s Barbican that specializes in game, a recent dinner for five in the dining room cost £385.30 for dishes such as a Scotch egg with haggis and wild Norfolk hare stewed in its own blood.
After a 12.5% service charge of £48.16, the card reader prompted the customer to add a further 10% or more. The result: tips totaling £91.51 – a 24% surcharge that wouldn’t be out of place in Manhattan. ETM Group, which owns Jugged Hare, did not respond to requests for comment.
Ironically, tipping can have began in English taverns four centuries ago. It has spread from Europe to the United States, where railroad car operator Pullman Co. is favored by employers. expanded its use after the Civil War to minimize wages paid to newly freed slaves.
Since the pandemic, tipping has become even more common in the United States, increasing debate about when and how much to tip, and about minimum wage laws that allow employers to pay tipped workers only $2.13 per hour.
In the UK, where the minimum wage for all workers aged 21 and over is £11.44 an hour, the proportion of traders asking for tips has risen steadily over the past few years, although it is still relatively low.
The share of SumUp customers using the tip feature rose to 2.9% in March across all merchant categories from 2.1% in September 2021, according to tracking data provided by the payments company. In pubs alone, the March figure was 2.4%.
However, even within the same establishment, messaging can be inconsistent. On a recent Tuesday at the Counting House, Fuller’s pub in the City of London, two half pints of Lucky Saint were billed for £7 inc VAT, no surcharge, payable with a simple swipe of the card. A little later, at the same counter, a lunch order for two – venison casserole and BLT Steak with triple fried chips – cost £31.45. In this case, before the payment screen appeared, the card reader first asked the customer if he wanted to tip 10% more.
Tips are becoming more common at Fuller pubs and almost always involve food orders, according to CEO Emini. Card readers at the chain’s nearly 400 pubs do not ask for tips when only drinks are ordered, a company spokesman adds.
“It’s really important for British pubs that they maintain their values,” says Emeny, “and don’t actually become like New York or Boston.”