But at some local restaurants, the hospitality appears to be wearing thin. At least two eateries admit they allow servers to add an automatic gratuity on the bills of diners who appear to be Québecois. Why? Because Canadians are presumed to be bad tippers. A few local servers even have a nickname for the surcharge: They call it the “Queeb tax.”
It’s not just Vermont. Quebecers are notoriously bad tippers, even in Canada. Slap the tax on them.
Yes, because surely ALL quebecers must be the same. You know there are some very generous quebecers out there too. Jim, why post this sad bit of generalizing xenophobic nonsense that passes as news here? Disappointed.
I’m really not sure about this. In Montreal the norm is to tip 15% pretax. I’ve never seen a restaurant here automatically add a tip unless the party is large. Tipping practices in my experience are consistent across Quebec and the US, with the exception that I think Quebecers are more likely to tip in coffee shops than Americans.
Montreal is the only city in which I’ve been stopped in an accused of not paying a tip (which I had done).
I live there! ( VT, not QC ). Many Quebecois (Montrealers anyway) seem blissfully unaware of the people around them and ignorant of whether they’re imposing on someone else. It might explain their driving and queue jumping too.
The funny thing is they’re very friendly on their own turf. I’ve never figured it out.
First, I’ve never heard of this in Canada, we are used to 15 percent tips. I used to live in Montreal and never encountered this. I don’t like the policy of automatic tips, but sure go for it if you want. The US economy is doing bad enough and if you don’t want our business, maybe we will just stay home.
loop is really going downhill.
This Americanised idea of tipping is a crock of shit. Why should someone get a tip for doing the job they are expected to do? That’s what wages are for. Tips should only be given to those who go out of their way to give better than expected service. A tip should be an unexpected bonus, not an impost. Go the Quebecers.
As a Montrealer, I always tip 20% if the service is good. Well, not in Vermont anymore, as I’ll make a point of avoiding eating a restaurants in Vermont from this point on.
And as for this blog… This is the third or fourth dump-on-Canadians post in the last several weeks. I’ve had enough. Not coming back. Bye.
Maybe Jim was just trying to prove that Canadians aren’t always polite. 🙂
Anyway, I’ll go further than what I said before. If Americans aren’t being paid a fair wage, maybe they might try taking that up with their own government rather than bitching about Canadians. You’re not a third world country and you shouldn’t be depending on our charity to get by. If the richest country in the world can’t take care of it’s own people, it sure as hell ain’t our problem.
Please and thank you.
You do realize a subset of your readers are from Quebec right? I’m one of them, at least I was until this idiotic commentary. I won’t let the door hit me on the way out.
I’m guessing you’ve never had to rely upon waiting tables to make a living.
I generally agree as I used to work in the industry (and I always tip well.) But are you really suggesting that American service workers cannot make enough money to get by without the tips of foreign visitors? If so, I suggest you have a problem that has nothing to do with the foreign visitors. If your workers are paid so poorly, and not even provided health care, in many cases, you dare to blame us for this?
If you don’t like your situation and your system, then fix it yourselves. You’ve got to love Americans that bitch about “socialist” Canada, then complain about not making enough money and not having health care. Take your hypocritical self-righteous bullshit, and shove it.
Right, so my job doesn’t pay me as much as I’d like. Does that entitle me to expect charity from others?. Or to perform my job in a shitty manner if they decide not to, or simply are not aware that I expect said charity? It’s not like someone waiting tables is not aware of the low wages before they start.
Not blaming anyone for how poorly our service workers are paid. Responding to “the idea of tipping is a crock of shit.” It’s not. It’s a continuing attempt by what’s left of our middle-class culture to take care of our own.
And we have been trying to fix that situation for decades, but we have a little problem getting legislation through a government that sells more of itself every year.
I have never bitched about Canada’s “socialism.” I envy it. But thanks for the presumptive abuse. As a middle-class American, I accept your anger on behalf of American millionaires everywhere.
The issue of tipping is long-standing, I agree. Blaming Canadians isn’t going to change the situation. If you have an issue with American millionaires, take it up with them and leave us out of it.
Thanks, but it’s not considered charity here. It’s a cultural standard. Nobody’s telling you to like it or agree with it. But Americans are often criticized — and rightly so — for ignoring local traditions whenever they travel abroad. Are Quebecois exempt?
To be fair, I should have said “I’m guessing you’ve never had to rely upon waiting tables in the United States to make a living.”
I’m not very familiar with Vermont, so the situation this article describes is unknown to me. But in the parts of America where I’ve lived, most of us try to take care of our server. It’s not charity, it’s a custom that expresses appreciation within a capitalist system that often leaves service workers at the short end of every stick.
That Quebecois apparently don’t have that tradition, and that Vermonters are reacting to that in a specific way is only of academic interest to me. The abuse from people I’m assuming are of Canadian origin here is kind of hilarious.
“This is the third or fourth dump-on-Canadians post in the last several weeks. I’ve had enough. Not coming back. Bye.”
See ya but know that of the people who write for The Loop on a regular basis, two thirds of them are Canadian. 🙂
Unlike some, we have a sense of humor about our country.
I’m not blaming Canadians. I’m making fun of Canadian generalizations about Americans.
If you have an issue with Vermonters, take it up with them and leave the rest of us Americans out of it.
See what I did there?
See Shawn King’s response above. The irony is palpable.
It’s interesting that the flag bearer for capitalism and the free market should have to rely on “cultural customs” to get lowly paid employees over the bread line. Mind you this is the country that put all their tip money into the troughs of the banks to stop the market forces of capitalism from doing their job! America. A strange and wonderful place.
America is owned and run by a plutocracy that has systematically rejected many of the egalitarian benefits its citizens helped create in the last century.
Most of us here spend much of our lives trying to overcome the effects of what relatively few powerful individuals force the rest of us to support. Please don’t paint us all with the same brush. You wouldn’t want anyone else to do that to your country, would you?
Bye, from a fellow Canadian.
We are indeed the richest country in the world. And we’re also among the poorest. Keep an eye on what’s happening here as our rich rulers continue to eat the middle class and re-create the Gilded Age for themselves. You might want to make some popcorn.
Compared to what?
So, despite all the dictators you’ve imposed, the wars you’ve started, and the millions you’ve killed, you still haven’t managed to create a just society? Excuse me while I shed a tear.
I’m sure the billions of poor around the world, living on less than a couple dollars a day, will start a telethon to help support the poor starving Americans.
Really? Wow.
Guys I’ve been following you for years, all the way back to the very beginnings of MacCentral (as an independent) and The Mac Show. I’m so insanely disappointed by your comments… I can’t even begin.
What the hell kind of stereotypical crap is this?
As for the sense of humour… I believe there’s a certain tone that needs to be used in an inside joke. This simply feels mean spirited and frankly, well below you.
There are cheapskates out west, in the Maritimes, in Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Moncton, Halifax and Vancouver. In France and Germany and Spain. I don’t think Quebec has the monopoly on this and I certainly don’t believe you can simply apply a fault to an entire population. When you do it can go downhill very, very fast.
As you can tell by my name I’m not from Saskatoon 😉
But it has nothing to do with how I feel.
This post? It’s not worthy of your blog. Period.
Sorry.
Wasn’t asking for sympathy, either. But your response is interesting nonetheless.
Careful. Your cynical sarcasm resembles ours to a remarkable degree. Enjoy your high horse while it sinks into the tar sands.
Certainly it must be that all the serving staff feel entitled and demand charity in the form of tips and certainly it isn’t the restaurant owner demanding charity in the form of tip subsidized labour costs.
Clearly, it’s restaurant service staff that are strangling the economy and must be stopped.
Jim, as a Quebecer, I don’t mind all the Canadian jokes here and on the podcast (also, thanks for letting me know that the password was changed, I was still using dogsled and it didn’t work anymore.) I’m a little surprised by the Quebecer article though, because I’d never heard of this before, and tipping on our own turf is happening just fine. At this point, it could be just a few incidents, building a false reputation, but until I thought about it and read past the article title, it appeared to be the norm in Vermont. This must be overblown.
“I won’t let the door hit me on the way out.”
…don’t you mean oot?
Thanks Odi, that very well could be the case.
You’re quite right, I haven’t. But I have owned a restaurant business that I relied on to make me a living (not in Canada or the USA) and had to pay my wait staff a proper wage so that they had a reasonable living. Getting tips was a pleasant surprise and, of course, most welcome. At no time, however, we’re tips expected. When we did get one, all of us knew we had done our jobs well. All tips went into a jar and were shared equally between all staff. After all, running a restaurant effectively is a team effort; From the chefs right through to the people washing the dishes.
I’m Canadian and I enjoy the humorous posts about stolen maple syrup reserve, dog sleighing in the middle of summer, caribous and what-nots. But please… this is not humor.
If only more businesses here were run that way.
As an European, I enjoy the fact that service is included in my bill. And as such, I love it that I don’t get hassled for a tip because employers pay very low wages, supported by a government which applies substandard living minimum wages. And on top of that, my bill with service also pays for the server’s healthcare and possible future unemployment.
And then I end up in the US or Canada, and have to figure out how your customs work. Flip out my obnoxious smartphone when the bill arrives, to add 15%, or 18% or 20% to any bill that is comparable to EU prices anyway. And if I don’t, or I don’t tip enough or the incorrect percentage, I get harassed?
It’s only because I know the server shouldn’t be stuck up because of my ideology, that I keep tipping.
“There are cheapskates out west, in the Maritimes, in Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Moncton, Halifax and Vancouver. In France and Germany and Spain. I don’t think Quebec has the monopoly on this…”
Agreed. And when stories pop up that talk about those people, I’m sure one of us will post it.
What a copout. Two-thirds may be Canadian but how many are Quebecers?
A mind that harbours a prejudice and stereotype like that probably harbours more. Tell us Jim, what are Jews or Hispanics “notorious” for? What else ya got?
— A Quebecer transplanted from Ontario
I can’t help but note that a number of people who took the time to post here probably complain about American cultural imperialism.
And yet, their response can be summed up in: “This American cultural practice is a ‘crock of shit’ “.
As a famed Canadian once said, “I guess irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.”
Tips are supposed to be buyers choice, not mandated by the restaurant or the server. You get tipped for great service, not for doing your job. That is how it should be and in my mind that is how it will be. Any place that just adds it to my bill will get a shit storm of complaints and I’ll never go there again.
I’m sick and tired of restaurants and servers using tips as wages to avoid paying taxes, higher wages etc. Especially when they haven’t earned it or worse have these kind of policies of blatant racism etc.
Tipping should never be the solution to employers or governments not setting decent wages. Changing the laws should be. After all, if servers are getting jacked up because of legally allowed low wages then other folks are likely getting jacked up as well. Folks that work in places that don’t have tipping. So why should this group be allowed to legally or by custom give themselves a raise, especially without earning the money with great service, while these other folks are stuck with their shitty pay.
Amusingly, I feel the same way about celeb actors. We are willing to pay someone like Tom Cruise $10 million dollars plus profit sharing because he’s supposed to put butts in seats because he is Tom Cruise. But that doesn’t always happen and the films don’t make back their budget but he gets to keep his $10 million etc. Not fair and he certainly doesn’t need the money. So how about we pay him more like $4 million in wages and if he does his job and the butts are in seats he’ll get ‘tipped’ a bigger bit of profit sharing. Rather than inflating the budget so that the movie doesn’t make a profit and the rest of us that were paid a reasonable wage plus ‘points’ never get any pay off from that.
Last Tuesday, an english-canadian tried to kill the newly elected prime minister of Quebec and murdered one french-canadian guy who happenned to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The english-canadian after being arrested was yelling it was payback time for english-speaking Quebecers.
Anyway, I’m a Quebecer and was in New Jersey two weeks ago. We stopped to eat at a family restaurant. It was one of the worst service I had from a waitress in my life. I gave a 15 percent tip. I felt stupid to do so.