Should I tip in Brazil?
The longest serving waiter at Nova Capela being very good-natured about having a camera in his face!
A question I’m often asked by people visiting Rio is: “Should I tip in Brazil? If so, how much?”. It’s usually North Americans who ask this question and I’m sure that is due to the strong tipping culture in that part of the world. Well, the short answer is “For restaurants, yes – 10%”. The more helpful answer is “Yes, but the standard 10% is usually added to your bill without you having to think about it”.
This ‘not having to think about it’ aspect of tipping in Brazil got Mrs Eat Rio and I into trouble last time we were out of the country. We were approaching the end of our trip to Mexico (where a gratuity is usually left off the bill) and as it was our last night in Oaxaca before returning to Mexico City, we decided to treat ourselves to a fancy meal at Casa Oaxaca. It was a wonderful night and all the way home we chatted about the delicious food, the beautiful design/décor and the friendly, attentive service. As we got back to our hotel room, I stopped dead: We forgot to leave a tip! It was too late to go back and we were leaving first thing the next morning, so we were in a tricky situation. I gave them a call and they told me (very graciously) not to worry about it and thanked me for calling. I decided the least I could do is give them a recommendation, so here it is. If you get the chance, go!
OK, so guilty admissions aside, let’s get back to Brazil. Many of Rio’s most beloved bars and restaurants seem, at first glance, to have nothing special to set them apart from 2 or 3 other establishments nearby. Yet that one bar/restaurant has crowds spilling out onto the street while the others are home to some bored looking waiters and a couple of lazy flies. In many cases, the secret of the successful establishment is the staff and this does not go unnoticed. The main culinary awards in Rio have a prize for Best Waiter and there is even a Dia dio Garçom (Waiters Day) on August 11th.
Dia do Garçom: Recognising that waiters do far more than just balance trays and serve tables.
A tip, not a bribe
Spanish speakers beware! The Spanish word for a tip/gratuity, propina, means “bribe” in Portuguese, so unless you’re trying to get something ‘extra special’ from your waiter, refer to it as a gorjeta instead!
Tipping Taxis
The general rule is that you don’t need to tip taxis. In fact if the meter is on R$20.30 when you reach your destination, most taxi drivers will round down to R$20. Of course a couple of extra Reais on top is always appreciated and if the meter says R$19.30, I think most people would give R$20. Natalício Bezerra, president of the São Paulo taxi drivers union, says that instead of leaving a tip, you can help your taxi driver more by taking his number/card and using him again for subsequent journeys.
Tipping at street stalls and juice bars
Most juice bars and lanchonetes (snack bars/diners) have a caixinha (little box) next to the counter for tips. There is also a caixinha at one of my favourite tapioca stands. Here’s what happens if you put a gorjeta in the box:
The thing that most people don’t realise is the tipping culture in the United States is based on food and beverage service staff having their own minimum wage which is about $2.50 per hour (May have gone up now) so they really need to work for their tips, they put the effort in, they deliver service (Usually). If you don’t tip them you had better have a good reason. They don’t get holiday pay, lunch cards, paid holiday, ridiculous laws to prevent even the most incompetent workers getting fired. The staff here, get paid the full wage and in Rio don’t even understand the concept of customer service.
That said, you can still find some examples of exemplary service here and often these are the guys that don’t add 10% they just do it because it is who they are and what they do.
Poor to awful customer service is not limited to Rio. In my experience it is the rule everywhere in Brazil. And other tha,n it just is that way because it has Always been that way, I am at a loss to explain it. In other South American countries (Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay) the customer service, at least the face to face kind, is much more like what is so common in north América. Customer comes face t face with waiter/waitress/whatever, invariably they are greeted wih something like ´’Hello Maam/Sir, how can I help you today, or What can I get for you today’. In fact, if they don’t do that in pretty much all of retail North América, the person is fired real quickly. In Brazil, most of the time when you walk up to a person behind a counter, they look back at you disdainfully and dont say a word. I am used to it now, but for a long time it was shocking to me. Especially considering that retail is SO incredibly competitive in Brazil, I have often thought that if I was a retail business owner here in Brazil, my customer facing people would be friendlier and cheerier than Jehovahs witnesses and Mormons, combined, simply because, it is long proven to be effective, at getting and keeping customers. That very simple concept seems to be almost totally ungrasped in Brazil.
I too have been quite taken aback by the customer service in some places. I remember being the only customer in a wine shop and going up to a counter to get some help. The girl at the till just carried on looking at her phone while I stood there. As a kind of experiment, I just waited to see when she’d look up and address me. After a full minute and a half I gave up and said “Oi!”. Strange… Also, many checkout people in Rio seem to have a complete lack of urgency that drives me nuts.
On the other hand, the lack of stringent rules can be great. When I got back to England and try to buy a beer at 11:02, the pub workers just won’t serve me. At that point I long for the world of saideiras and retail chaos! ;)
Your wine shop experience is exactly what I am talking about. That counter person’s demeanor could very well have cost the shop owner a sale. How customer facing staff treat customers DOES affect the bottom line of the business. Considering how brutal retail competition is in Brazil, I would think proprietors would do everything possible to avoid ever losing a sale, but very few do. Pretty much every time I go into any kind of a shop or restaurant, and see the stress in these people’s faces, that comes from trying to scratch out a living in such a brutally competitive environment, I thank my lucky stars it is not me.
Coming from the service culture of many countries (UK and US included), it would certainly seem like they would lose some customers that way. But my guess is that no Brazilian would ever do what I did and just wait there. My expectations (based on British service culture) are that if a customer stands by the counter looking at the member of staff then that staff member should say something like “Can I help you?”. But I think that most (all?) Brazilians would just say “Oi! Estou procurando blah blah blah…”. So perhaps they wouldn’t lose many or any Brazilian customers?
It bugs the hell out of me when it happens, but perhaps it’s just my cultural expectations that need adjusting?
I don’t know if this is a regional thing… When I first arrived in BH, I used to hate going into stores because I knew the staff would be on me the second I was through the door, and then I’d have to awkwardly mumble something about não falo português or só to olhando, and it would all be very embarrassing. Even now I sometimes wish I could just go in for a browse without the staff leaping at me! I was able to do that back in England that’s for sure.
Oh man! That definitely happens here in Rio too. I still sneak into stores and try to get away with a little browsing before the assistants find me. Zara isn’t exactly an amazing shop but one of it’s big draws for me is that they don’t have enough assistants to bother me while I’m perusing their wares :)
Don’t forget that regardless of country you should never leave a tip if you’re a leper.
Hmmm, I think I may have heard that one before Gritty…
In the US, our Internal Revenue Service, our government’s tax collector, will assume that a server has made 10% or 15% (I don’t know the current figure in the law) of the business’ sales and then tax the server on that amount if the server doesn’t claim at least that amount. This may not happen to all servers, but the IRS can charge them if it wants to. (It all depends on: if the business gets audited or if the server gets audited.)
I go to one particular store, Jamba Juice, because when a worker sees you put a tip in the tip jar, s/he will yell “Tip!” Being a former server, I get caught up in their enthusiasm. (I don’t know if they do that at other stores in the franchise.) Oh, I also love their fresh juices.
I leave a tip in the room for housekeeping when I stay in a hotel or motel. Maybe that’s because I used to clean motels. And a clean room is much appreciated. I was in Mexico once and my bathroom only had hot water. I talked to the front desk several times and nothing was done. I talked (in my broken Spanish) to the ladies that cleaned my room one morning and it was fixed by the time I got in that evening.
Hi Angela – I think it definitely helps if you’ve worked in a job that involves gratuities. Occasionally the guests on my food tours give me a tip and it’s always appreciated. Now I wouldn’t dream of going on a tour and not leaving a tip if I thought the guide did a good job.
Very helpful! We try and research tipping rules before we visit a new destination, and it’s great to hear it from the source. Thanks also for the heads up for Spanish speakers! That could definitely have gotten us into trouble!
Ha ha! I think propina definitely falls into the category of dangerous false-friend, along with (Es/Pt) exquisito/esquisito (exquisite/weird). You don’t want to tell your mother-in-law that her home-baked cake is weird… ;)
Excellent post Tom! But make sure to check if the 10% is added because sometimes it’s only done if it is a bigger party. I usually ask if 10% has been included just to be sure, and I’m not afraid to give more if the service is good.
I also normally tip good cab drivers around R$2 to R$5. I also round up like you said.
Tipping is a great way to encourage good service so I recommend it ;)
Hi Rachel! Good point – they don’t always add the 10% and unless something has gone badly wrong then I think 10% should be the minimum.
The whole concept of tipping is a bit foreign to me, it isn’t something we do here in Aus. But valuable advise for down the track when I hit up your neck of the woods. :)
Wait, are you saying there is no gratuity/service charge in Australia?!