Source: Facebook

The battle over tipping and a livable minimum wage in the restaurant and hospitality industries of the United States has gone beyond that country’s borders and is now going global. The tipping conundrum involves many stakeholders: Servers, restaurant operators and the customers who support them. In Costa Rica, tipping is generally included in the bill; however, expat custom and labor issues complicate the matter in regions such as Guanacaste.

Earlier this year, an online letter and a curious handwritten message reportedly written by an Applebee’s customer fired up Internet social media and was picked up by news publications such as The Guardian from the United Kingdom. The message was clear: Tips are not optional, they are how waiters get paid in America (which should be readas : In the United States). That story later turned out to be partly a hoax, just like the Disney theme park in Costa Rica, but it had the interesting effect of highlighting the restaurant tipping and wages system in the U.S.

Guanacaste is home to one of the largest expat populations in Costa Rica. Many residents are from the U.S. and Canada, two nations where tipping is prevalent. In the U.S., however, tipping is a very important issue, as we can see it explained by Chelsea Welch, the waitress who penned the aforementioned article:

In light of the situation, I would like to make a statement on behalf of wait staff everywhere: We make $3.50 an hour. Most of my paychecks are less than pocket change because I have to pay taxes on the tips I make.

After sharing my tips with hosts, bussers, and bartenders, I make less than $9 an hour on average, before taxes. I am expected to skip bathroom breaks if we are busy.

The above does not apply to server staff in Guanacaste or elsewhere in Costa Rica. The Ministry of Labor explains that according to Article 1 of Law 4946, which regulates tipping in Costa Rica, servers at restaurant and bars have the right to receive tips when they render services at dining tables. Furthermore, employers have the obligation to pay a minimum wage that is promulgated by the government. This means that tips cannot be separated from servers’ salaries; employers must tender 10 percent of each table bill as tips to servers.

Many tourists from the United States tend to tip wait staff in Guanacaste just as if they would back home in Dayton, Ohio or Chula Vista, California. They are not expected to. If the restaurant operator is playing by the rules, then the wait staff will get 10 percent of the sale at the table. With this in mind, tourists are welcome to tip as freely as they want if they consider that the service has been exceptional, and this applies to Guanacaste and elsewhere in Costa Rica.

European tourists who visit Costa Rica do not leave tips because that is hardly the norm in many of their countries. U.S. tourists and expats, however, will feel obliged to tip because they know that waiters in their country could have a pretty hard time making ends meet if they don’t get tips. In Costa Rica, restaurant workers have certain rights; including the right to be paid a wage that includes the minimum set by law plus 10 percent of every sale.

For more information on tipping customs, hospitality surcharges, value added tax, and the phantom “tourist tax,” please read: “OMG, what is this 23% Costa Rica tourist tax?”