During my trip to Europe, one of the weirdest things that took me days to figure out had nothing to do with foreign languages.  Their tipping culture was so odd to us.  I had even heard stories about some waiters/waitresses becoming offended in some European countries after receiving a tip. We couldn't figure out the expectations...and none of the locals could or would give us a straight answer.  I would often be left feeling even more confused than before I asked.  I turned to Facebook for some advice from my friends who had already been to Europe.

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As the week wore on, I saw that the tip money was generally already built into the bill. European waitstaff, hotel concierge, cab drivers and others are paid higher wages than that of their American counterparts...making tipping relatively unnecessary.  We found the service to be top notch, suggesting that maybe Europe might be on to something.  We'd usually leave an extra 4-5 Euros on top of the bill, but a tip was truly not expected.

It got me wondering if maybe the Europeans have a better system when it comes to compensating in service industries.  What do you think?

 

 

Additional Reporting by Madisyn Bozarth.

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