The tipping culture in South Korea

Today, I am going to talk about one of the things that I like about South Korea, which is their tipping culture. Or more than that is their non-tipping culture. When I was in Spain, many restaurant staff pushed you to give a tip, and mostly, I didn’t give tips. Even though I understand that this is part of their salaries, I think this shouldn’t be like this because it makes these business owners take advantage of their staff. If they wanna have good service, they should pay higher salaries or give a better working environment, even if this means that they have to increase the price. I, as a customer, shouldn’t expect that I pay an extra fee to cover your employees’ salaries, as you, as a business owner, should be the one who covers that cost.

Also, if you are forcing your customers to give tips, you are dishonest with your prices, and push to other restaurants to do the same, therefore, in the end, we would have to add a percentage as tipping fees.

Luckily, in Korea, giving tips is very uncommon, and I like that a lot. Recently,  a restaurant in Yeouido had the brilliant idea of putting a tip jar on the counter. Someone took a photo of that, and it became viral very quickly. Many Koreans complained and said they were already paying, so why should they pay more? And I think that they are completely right. Also, another restaurant in Nowon tried to the same, asking for 300 won as a tip.

However, the regulation in Korea regulates tipping very strongly. According to the reported note below, it is not allowed to make a tip mandatory, and the price should reflect the final cost of the meal. However, voluntary tipping is allowed, which causes a grey zone.

In my case, if a restaurant asks for a tip, it is a restaurant that will try to avoid it in the future.

Source. The Korea Times