Melissa does not always go to restaurants, and the ones she went to in Guayaquil did not charge her an additional 10% on the bill for services received in those establishments, nor in hotels and bars.

He looks at the bills and only the value added tax (VAT) detail and the selected meals appear. However, you did tip in certain situations. “When I realize that a boy or a girl craves attention. He asks me what else I want? If the food was good, then I tip him, usually $1″ says Melissa.

Instead, Katiuska went crab hunting last month and spent $37.47. A service charge of $3.07 appeared on the bill, representing a tip. And when that happens, he no longer tips the waiter.

In the country, an additional 10% on consumption is mandatory for hotels, bars and restaurants of the first and second categoryas tips that go to the benefit of workers and which is established by Ministerial Agreement 7 of March 8, 2007. However, not everyone works.

A woman in Ecuador would receive more than $4,000 in tips that her employer never acknowledged

This regulation is in force and explains that stated value should be divided among collaborators and is submitted every month in a document that is very different from the salary.

Doménica works in a restaurant located inside a hotel in Guayaquil and receives tips, but directly from customers. In this case, the employer does not charge the consumer. “It’s something voluntary on the part of the client, because of the good service, the food, because they liked the restaurant as such,” says Doménica, 23 years old.

The young woman points out that there are tips of $1, $2, and sometimes less. They collect this value together with the other four waiters and share it at the end of the day: “It’s a bit, let’s say, sometimes we earn 3, 4, 5 dollars, sometimes 1 dollar. It helps, above all, for mobilization.and it should be emphasized that it is not always, there are days and days,” says Doménica.

The Administration for Economic Market Competition confirms that it has not recorded any data or files related to the collection of tips, either by complaint or by official duty. It also points out that it does not identify the regulation of the practice in question and that it has not been assigned control “because its perspective is more related to the dimension of consumer protection”.

The ministerial agreement specifies that the regional labor director is responsible for the control and implementation of the ten-article document.

He economic analyst Jorge Calderón mentions that there are usually within this topic improper practices such as double billing. “In restaurants, they give you 10 percent of the service, but they also give you a “tip” ticket, so what’s happening with this value that is given 10 percent (on the bill), means that maybe they don’t share it, but they don’t visit on time ”, says Calderón.

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He adds that this payment is voluntary, when it is not charged on the account, but if it is in the document and the worker also charges it, then it should not be canceled. “We are not obliged to pay additional value for this purpose,” says Calderón.

The 10% tip in Ecuador is similar to that in other countries such as Argentina, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. In Mexico it is 15%, and in the United States approximately 20%, and even more cancel.

It’s cultural, you name it economist Guillermo Granja, who claims that unfortunately Ecuadorians do not like to pay in their own country, but want to in another. “We go abroad and give without problems. Sometimes we are narrow towards our own, but very open towards those outside“, Shows.

“It is a cultural issue that needs to be implemented in Ecuador in the sense that it always serves us in the best way. For example, when you go to a restaurant and pay in cash, change is given in coins so that one of those coins remains for the waiter”, explains Granja, who believes that tipping is a way of rewarding workers.

Calderón does not fully agree because he believes that the salary is already included there. “It goes without saying that the cost of the meal or service already includes (the tip) the salary of that person, and therefore you already recognize compensation in the cost of the service you provide. It is a matter of will that has become mandatory,” Calderón points out.

On the other side, economist Hector Delgado believes that Is the tip correct?but everything will depend on the service, and he cites the United States as an example: “There, people earn their salary, but they earn more in tips, so they try to provide better service.”

Granja also agrees with him, who emphasizes that there are different scenarios. “When you go to wash the car, leave a little more than the value in the parking lots… It encourages people to do things better.“, confirms Granja.

While, Could charging customers an extra 10% on spending hurt business? According to Calderón, perhaps because there is an added cost. “10% is not negligible and it led to Some companies agree with their employees not to charge because it is desirable that there is business sustainability. This was shown during the pandemic, that companies, in order to reduce costs, did not use the 10 percent service in order to make the final price more attractive,” explains the economist.

Another point of view is held by Delgado, who points out that there is no affectation. “Because a person who gets good service, in a certain way, would agree to pay that tip. The problem is when the service is not very good and people think twice about going to that restaurant.“, says Delgado.