Travel Stories

One of the main questions that travelers to Russia ask is whether they are suppose to tip. The answer to this question is not so simple. From a very start, you should know that Russians themselves rarely tip Russian waiters.

Why is this? Why did tips have become a social norm in the west and why they have not become such in Russia? In the west, people starting tipping waiters and waitresses because they were seriously underpaid by their employers. In Russia, however, it was a quite different story.

Russians don't tip because they remember what waiters were like during soviet times. In the USSR food supply to households came in two forms. Official stores (there were no private stores) sold food at fixed prices, much lower than the market prices. As a result, speculators (it was considered a bad word in the Soviet Union) bought the food from the official stores and sold it on the back market, at market prices. For ordinary people this meant less food at higher prices.

Restaurants were a part of the Soviet industrial machine. Their supplies were determined by how well their managers negotiated with government officials (often times this meant how well they "dined" the government officials). Good service for the government clerks meant more resources for the restaurant which would be then sold on the black market or provided to restaurants employers. In this dilapidated model waiters and waitresses did not need any tips. In fact, they were some of the best-off people with a never-ending access to foods and alcohol that could be easily transformed into any other goods, such as vacations, cars, and furniture or consumer electronics.

Then the Soviet Union crumbled, so did this model. Many have abandoned to be waiters. If earlier this profession was dominated by men, it has gradually shifted to be a woman's job now. Restaurant waitresses today don't earn nearly as much as their Soviet counterparts. However, one should keep things in a perspective. A waiter of virtually any restaurant earns more money than a school teacher, not from tips, but from an official salary.

In the US tips are paid because restaurants continue to underpay its staff. In Russia, private restaurants provide a market-based compensation for waiter's services and tips come as an extra.

Of course, Moscow is a slightly different story. It acts like a mature European capital where waiters may even demand a tip from you. But you should know that a typical Moscow waiter makes least $25,000 per year after tax, has his medial insurance and college paid for and enjoys subsidized heat and gas. If you want to have some fun, don't pay a tip in Moscow and hope that waiter makes a scene. Just so you know, the Russian law prohibits them from charging you more than it is included in the bill. They don't mess with the Russians, but my try to demand something from you. Of course they would be wrong and there is nothing they could do.

In short, think twice before giving your money. Tip only if you got an exceptional service. Never tip with more than 10%.

S. Shirokov