Anyone remember arriving at Don Muang pre BKK and being pounced upon by the taxi hustlers in their red or yellow blazers? I was yelled at by this sweating fat guy, tip, TIP, TIP after he had grabbed my bag and yanked me towards a taxi. Talk about culture shock and in your face offensiveness.

25 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

I leave it up to the wife to pay the bill. As I'll ...

... I way overtip basing 20% of days past

... I'll tip when not expected, offensive as ... 'what you think me poor'

Even street vendors, market stalls & ma/pa shop do quite well without tips. Sis's market stall bough a couple houses, cars, MB and sent 2 kids through Uni (out of town), so she does quite well without tips.

500 baht a day isn’t doing quite well. No houses, cars. Barely existing.

The USA needs to start paying staff a living wage. It isn't a question about being a Cheap Charlie. You over pay for the food which is full of things not good for you, and then you have to pay the waiters salary on top. USA companies need to start paying their staff a liveable wage.

If they're not female, attractive, wearing skimpy clothes and being extremely flirtatious, I don't tip.

Sorry not sorry.

Tipping culture and the expectations and entitlement from service staff is in La-La Land and out of control these days... but not so much in Thailand, it's okay, but elsewhere it's nonsense.

I only tip for good service, which has to come before I pay... and I don't mind that. What I refuse to do is to tip, when asked, on and electronic screen in a place where you place your order without talking to a person... that's BS. I've even seen YouTube videos of people that do this on the touch-screen ordering option and the price goes up if you don't tip... that is BS.

However, I never go to such places or eat out very much these days as I'm just not sure of the quality of the food unless at some recognised and quality place.

9 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I didn't see the US graphic when I posted.

The tipping culture in the USA is totally insane.

Ever 20 percent is seen as not great, and 15 percent is insulting.

Add to the menu price inflation and dining out is a luxury item and not a daily thing except for the rich.

If that's the way you feel, then dont tip. And dont feel bad about it. Simple as that

1 hour ago, JonnyF said:

If they're not female, attractive, wearing skimpy clothes and being extremely flirtatious, I don't tip.

Sorry not sorry.

I get you but they like you better if you dont tip and give them attitude on top of it, where you're from and where I'm from I think.

Tip your grab driver's as much as you want though and tell them to drive carefully

16 hours ago, Jingthing said:

20 baht.

This isn't the US.

Why? Do you regard the United States as being of such exceptionally high standing, or Americans as inherently superior to people of other nations?

5 minutes ago, ravip said:

Why? Do you regard the United States as being of such exceptionally high standing, or Americans as inherently superior to people of other nations?

Straw man garbage.

Here in Thailand QR code payments have taken over at so many places that tips are not so usual anymore. Depending on the case I still give some separate tip.

Edited August 25Aug 25 by msbkk

Regardless now if this is AI created or not - AND about the prices and it calculations...

A sign like this is a clear "f... o.." sign for me. Even if it would be "cheap" for the surroundings, quality etc.pp.

I would never support people / owners of businesses who try to make you feel guilty before you enter.

The sign is phony, and there generally is no service charge in the US except with large groups, and the service charge is the tip.

Wait-staff in the US used to be exempt from minimum wages, ergo, the tips.

7 hours ago, HolmesEquivelant said:

500 baht a day isn’t doing quite well. No houses, cars. Barely existing.

She obviously made a lot more than 500 baht a day.

The whole of Thailand isn't working on minimum wage.

My daughter gets more than 500 baht an hour. Works a normal 40 hour week, with weekends off. Actually a little bit less than 40 hour as they cut them loose early on Friday.

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

Straw man garbage.

Whatever your opinion, if 20 B is a great tip... fine.

2 minutes ago, ravip said:

Whatever your opinion, if 20 B is a great tip... fine.

More straw man garbage.

Where I live when in the States restaurant workers get around $15-$18 an hour. The cheapest apartment is about $1500 a month, not counting water and electricity. That leaves them with less than $1000 a month to live on. What would you call a living wage and how much more would you be willing to pay for them to get it? The only place I don't tip is the places that pay their employees $10 hr, but promise them $15 but count their tips toward that amount. I don't tip so they have to pay. A famous chicken place that is never open on Sundays is the one that comes to mind.

Here, I tip, I even bring the girls working at Amazon homemade cookies. Tipping here is so small

15 hours ago, pomchop said:

looks like ai clickbait to me....

It's hard to say definitively if this image was generated or modified by AI.

However, visual analysis and discussions across online platforms point heavily toward this image being a digitally manipulated or completely AI-generated fake designed to provoke an emotional reaction. [1, 2]

Here are several indicators that suggest the sign is not a real physical object:

🔍 Clues and Red Flags

• Identical Background Template: The exact same background scene—including the reflection of the hand holding a phone, the street cars, the glass window pane, and the specific interior seating in the background—has been used to generate multiple variations of aggressive tipping signs. Independent investigations, such as a CultureMap Houston report, have flagged this exact template family as AI-generated "rage bait". [

  , 2, 3]

• Flawed Math Logic: The sign claims the waiter's salary is $2.13 per hour, but then calculates a flat "$3.40" for the specific bill shown. A real restaurant calculation would not tie a fixed, single-hour fraction metric directly onto an individual customer's checkout receipt template like this.

• Unnatural Cleanliness and Text Alignment: The text on the page is perfectly sharp and lacks any natural paper textures, reflections, warping, or minor physical defects that occur when paper is printed out and taped to a window.

That's a completely different picture than that of the OP.

Which now appears to have been removed.

Edited August 25Aug 25 by emptypockets

13 minutes ago, bunnydrops said:

Where I live when in the States restaurant workers get around $15-$18 an hour. The cheapest apartment is about $1500 a month, not counting water and electricity. That leaves them with less than $1000 a month to live on. What would you call a living wage and how much more would you be willing to pay for them to get it? The only place I don't tip is the places that pay their employees $10 hr, but promise them $15 but count their tips toward that amount. I don't tip so they have to pay. A famous chicken place that is never open on Sundays is the one that comes to mind.

Here, I tip, I even bring the girls working at Amazon homemade cookies. Tipping here is so small

maybe if the big corps and billionaires/trillionaires did not get yet another tax cut there would be more $$ to be spread among the people who do the hard work day after day after day rather than sit back and make billions more via insider trading, and often with ceo's paying a smaller % of taxes than their secretary....also sign up for the insider trading early info program from the potus and make even more money for only 100 k a month...trouble with tax fraud, insider trading? no problem buy a few million worth of trumps crypto crap and get a pardon...it's good to be very very rich...not so good to be a working stiff. Trickle down my axx.

2 hours ago, KhunLA said:

She obviously made a lot more than 500 baht a day.

The whole of Thailand isn't working on minimum wage.

My daughter gets more than 500 baht an hour. Works a normal 40 hour week, with weekends off. Actually a little bit less than 40 hour as they cut them loose early on Friday.

A lot depends on location. My sister-in-law's daughter, just out of the Uni, went to an interview for a job in Korat today that was going to pay 11000 a month (275 a day), along with 96 others applying for the same job.

If the waitress is cute and has great norks I will bump my tip from 5% to 7.5%.

17 minutes ago, bunnydrops said:

A lot depends on location. My sister-in-law's daughter, just out of the Uni, went to an interview for a job in Korat today that was going to pay 11000 a month (275 a day), along with 96 others applying for the same job.

And just out of Uni ... 11k, yikes. Daughter's first out of Uni was 30k, (Bangkok), though long hours. Within a year or 2, up to 50k a month. Then they cut it back down, Cya. 2nd job, back to 50k, but hated it, long hours again. 3rd, bit more money, but same same, long hrs & Ahole boss. 4th job, and 80k a month, repeat, long hours, and really hated the boss. Those 4 jobs, about 4 or 5 yrs time.

New job, a few months now, as stated, 100k (plus 3rd month bonuses), buffet lunch supplied, 8 hr day & weekends off. She'll be there forever, till retirement. Doesn't have to drive, and BTS almost door to door. Off hours, so out of rush hour on BTS. If she does drive, parking provided, and even have EV charging for her.

Her high school was at Udon, Uni at Rangsit. No work in Udon, and we left Udon when she went to Uni. So no longer any ties to Udon.

Same with wife, from Nong Bua LamPhu. Went to BKK for work, self taught and on job training, computer graphic design for clothes manufacturer. Some office politics and bad marriage got to her after about 8 yrs of that.

Stress break at Sis's restaurant (market stall) at Udon. Good thing, as where we met, as was a weekly stop for me & daughter. Tasty stuff. Rest is history, 20 yrs on.

Edited August 25Aug 25 by KhunLA

23 minutes ago, bunnydrops said:

A lot depends on location. My sister-in-law's daughter, just out of the Uni, went to an interview for a job in Korat today that was going to pay 11000 a month (275 a day), along with 96 others applying for the same job.

How did you get to 275 a day ?

11,000 x 12 months = 132,000

11,000 ÷ 52 weeks = 2,538

2,538 ÷ 6** days = 423

** labour law is 48hr week, 8 hr a day = 6 days a week.

32 minutes ago, bunnydrops said:

A lot depends on location. My sister-in-law's daughter, just out of the Uni, went to an interview for a job in Korat today that was going to pay 11000 a month (275 a day), along with 96 others applying for the same job.

What was her major?

1 hour ago, pomchop said:

maybe if the big corps and billionaires/trillionaires did not get yet another tax cut there would be more $$ to be spread among the people who do the hard work day after day after day rather than sit back and make billions more via insider trading, and often with ceo's paying a smaller % of taxes than their secretary....also sign up for the insider trading early info program from the potus and make even more money for only 100 k a month...trouble with tax fraud, insider trading? no problem buy a few million worth of trumps crypto crap and get a pardon...it's good to be very very rich...not so good to be a working stiff. Trickle down my axx.

It seems you might not fully understand the topic at hand.

1 hour ago, Ralf001 said:

If the waitress is cute and has great norks I will bump my tip from 5% to 7.5%.

1 hour ago, Yellowtail said:

What was her major?

Probably education, lol

1 minute ago, NewGuy87 said:

Probably education, lol

Or Psychology

I always love to tip for good service, even for average service i will tip.

However, i do resent the automatic service charge and VAT charge they slyly put on bills in Bangkok.

2 minutes ago, DonniePeverley said:

I always love to tip for good service, even for average service i will tip.

However, i do resent the automatic service charge and VAT charge they slyly put on bills in Bangkok.

That there is a service charge most always seems clear to me when I look at the menu.

In any event, it's clear after the first time you go.

3 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

That there is a service charge most always seems clear to me when I look at the menu.

In any event, it's clear after the first time you go.

It's clear. But wrong.

You now have some small establishments who bring a VAT out to tourists, but won't touch locals. Just add on some fees even if they don't pay the vat.