25.5.10

How to tip like an Israeli

 Yeah, your ulpan teacher may have told you that the 
Hebrew for "tip" is "tesher," but it's not: it's "teep."

This is one of those random topics that seems inconsequential, but it's what visiting friends tend to ask about the most. So, here's a quick and easy guide to tipping like an Israeli. Hint: it involves exact change!

1. Most Israelis tip between 10-15 percent. This is something I'm still uncomfortable with... I get flashbacks to my college friends working in Chinese restaurants for 2 bucks an hour, plus tips and assorted leftover boxes of beef broccoli, and I almost always leave 15 - 20 percent as my tip. In my experience, though, most Israelis tip less.

2. Guard your tip with your life. When some of my Israeli friends leave tips, they cover their assorted shekels with their hands, flag over the waiter, point at the money, and in general operate with covert prowess. I guess the thought is that someone else might walk along and scoop up the ten shekels if you aren't careful. I don't worry about this one much either, but it's worth mentioning.

3. Most important of all... that little line below your total on your restaurant credit card receipt? It's not for your tip. I always wonder how many Americans shortchange their servers out of blissful ignorance this way. Yes, in the US this line usually lets you add in a tip to your credit card total, but here this line on your credit card receipt is for your telephone number. Which, by the way, you should never write down on any receipt unless someone insists... that would be giving away information. I've never found a way to tip using my credit card in an Israeli restaurant, so bring cash.

4. Aside from restaurants, you're expected to tip workers in a number of other random transactions. Honestly, I still haven't figured this one out, so your best bet is just to ask the person recommending something to you whether you should tip. For example, we paid our movers 700 shekels and then tipped each worker and the driver 50 shekels each-- another 150 shekels. (They were worth their weight in shekels, btw... hiring movers was one of our best decisions. Aleks could lug 20 boxes up two flights of stairs in one trip like nobody's business.) Other transactions, such as getting our washing machine fixed or receiving a mattress delivery, didn't involve tipping. Remember, though, even if you don't plan to give a service person a tip, make sure you offer them coffee... failing to do so would be simply inhumane.

Ok, this appears to be a very simple topic. Is there anything I left out? How much do you usually tip in Israel?

18 comments:

  1. There actually is a way to tip on a credit card, as I learned when we went with friends for breakfast one day. Just ask the server to "iron" (legahetz - "to charge") a different amount than is on the bill. Doesn't always work, apparently, but you can always ask...

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  2. ooh, thanks for the great tip! (No pun intended...)

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  3. Wonderful post! From the standpoint of someone who spent many years in America in service professions, I am grateful at your appreciation of and sensitivity to service workers.

    I have been told by wait staff never to tip on the credit card, because it then goes to "the house," and not to them. Also, Israelis have suggested not to "tip like an American," because then it makes it tough on the locals: wait personnel begin to see folks who live here as "chintzy," because they can't tip as much. So, 10 to 15 per cent is good.

    Thank you for helping us to "be Israeli"!

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  4. Americans are already known as great tippers so it is always expected of us. I wonder do Israelis fight over us if we go into their restaurants cuz they assume we'll give the bigger tip?

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  5. Love the "guard your tip with your life" comment - SO Israeli!

    Have you figured out tipping at hair salons? I went to the salon owner and didn't know what to do. My Israeli family insisted not to tip him and to only tip the guy that washed my hair. It just felt so wrong...

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  6. I'm always amazed that the natives don't seem to realize that Americans are known to tip well. Once when my family was visiting, I took them to a restaurant and when we go the check, "service not included" at the bottom had been crossed out and a gratuity had been calculated - at 12%. We wouldn't have tipped less than 15-20%, so whoever wanted to insult us also cost himself or herself some money.

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  7. Natalie, I haven't been to a hair salon since my first week after aliyah (which was more than two years ago) so... um... I'm not sure. Can anyone else help?

    NG, that's kind of hilarious. And sad. I wonder that too!

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  8. Tipping at the hairdresser in Israel requires nothing short of a Ph.D. I don't tip if my hairdresser is the owner of the salon (usually this person is the only one there to start with). I also don't tip my current hairdresser, she works out of her house. If there is a girl there who does the hairwashing I will give her 5 shekels or so. My daughter is now studying hairdressing at Shuki Zikri, and people can come in off the street to be guinea pigs and get a haircut for only NIS 35. I used to do this when I lived in Jerusalem. I would pay my 35 sheks to the school, and then tip the student another 20 sheks. These kids don't get paid at all for this, they are actually paying a hefty tuition for the priviledge.

    Have you figured out tipping cab drivers?

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  9. I tip 10-12% in restaurants. I don't tip cab drivers, cab rides in Israel are a rip-off without the tipping. My hairdresser owns the place so I tip only the guy who does the hair washing, 5 shekels. If the hairdresser don't owns the place, I tip him 10 shekels.

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  10. great post. The coffee is SO important. One of our first days here we were getting our phone/internet hooked up (so we thought) while doing five thousand other things at the same time and having 2/3 kids crying at any one time, and not knowing Hebrew, let alone why we needed two separate companies for internet (the foundation, and the service, or something like that), all on very little sleep and a lot of jet lag... so being friendly wasn't at the top of our minds. The service man made sort of a snide comment about us not having water. In retrospect, I'm glad he said something, because now we know to do it, AND I now know how to ask. Is it more polite to give them a to-go cup or would that seem cheap?

    I thought you were supposed to tip cab drivers, but when I give them extra, they give it back as change and I don't know what to do next. I hate to tip when I get charged 25 NIS to go down the street or around the corner when I am too sick or have too many groceries to walk.

    How much to you tip at a falafel stand or for takeout? How about the Pizza man? If your landlord (well not YOUR landlord...Mazel Tov) pays for something, do they tip, or do you have to? In America, people give holiday tips to a whole list of people from the mail man, the lawn guy, your kids' bus driver, etc. Is there an Israeli equivalent of that?

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  11. When I get my groceries delivered (it's usually 2 'baskets' and often includes 2 packages of diapers, a 4 pack of wipes and various bottles of soda) I tip the guy 5 shekels every other time. There is a certain amount of schlepping involved (up one flight of stairs) so he gets a tip.

    In addition, I make sure to thank him every time (and say hello when I see him in the store).

    The shampooer gets a small tip as well.

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  13. Love this post, Maya. As an American who (bitterly) worked for more than two years in retail, I tend to tip generously because I remember how sad it was for me to work for minimum wage and not get tips, but now I know to pull back when I go to Israel.

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  14. Just as important as tipping is being really friendly. Israeli culture definitely requires that you be nice to anyone giving you a service, in your house or out of it. And you will get better service for it.

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  15. The Israelis cover the tips because sometimes in restaurant or coffee the owner collects the tips from all the waiters and pays them with it.
    The Israeli knows and covers in order that only the waiter can take it without anyone knowing and have it for himself.

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  16. "service" on a bill in a retail establishment in East Asia will be going to the house, not the help. I imagine its the same in Israel

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  17. What would be an appropriate tip for taking a sherut mini-van from the airport to Jerusalem?

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  18. THANK YOU for your post. I am currently in Israel and have been assuming the 'TEL' was for a tip - since there seemed to be no other option. Not even my tour book mentioned the inability to tip on credit card receipts.

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