Tipping customs

[EDMOND ROWAN]

Just what are the tipping norms for Ecuador?

[EI EXPERT – EDD STATON]

In restaurants a 10% service charge is often added to your bill in addition to the 12% IVA tax. If you wish to leave a bit more give it directly to your server. If nothing is on the bill then 10% is fine (but again make sure your server gets it). Taxi drivers are never tipped, although they may charge more if they’ve had to handle your heavy bags. In hotels give the guy who brings your bags to the room around $1 per bag. I always give the baggers in the grocery store 50 cents to take our bags out to the taxi.

[DON MELLINGER]

I have a question about what Suzan just wrote about tipping, warning not to break the society norms.  How would anyone know if you paid your maid $15 for 3 hours work instead of the normal $10?  Would locals actually hike the prices on her just because she works for a gringo? Don’t you pay her in cash?

[SUZAN HASKINS]

Don, I think you misunderstood what I wrote. So let’s see if I can clarify:

If you, as a gringo, pay your maid $15 instead of $10 then she will not want to work for Ecuadorians any longer at the $10 price. The maid will want $15 and if she doesn’t get it, she’ll look for more work from gringos. Your Ecuadorian neighbor won’t be too happy with this if her maid quits on her because she gets better pay from gringos.

The vendors in the mercado is a separate issue. If they can charge 80 cents for a head of broccoli because the gringos will pay that much, then they want to sell only to gringos who don’t know any better. Again, your Ecuadorian neighbor won’t be too happy about this price hike.

I was using these as examples of how we gringos can unknowingly skew the economy. It’s not a good thing to do. Obviously, in small towns like Vilcabamba and Cotacachi this is more of a problem (more noticeable and with more impact) than it is in larger cities like Quito and Cuenca where the expat population is a much smaller percentage of the total population.

Does this make sense? If not, please let me know….

[DON MELLINGER]

Makes sense, but if the maid can get all gringos at the higher price then why not slowly replace the Ecuadorians with gringos?  Is this not the epitome of capitalism and a free economic society?

[SUZAN HASKINS]

But do you really want your Ecuadorian neighbors to instantly experience 33.3% inflation? I don’t. Not the neighborly thing, really, to bring our capitalist culture with us. And as an expat who knows what the going rate is, I would not appreciate it if my maid came to me and said I had to pay her more because the gringo next door is paying her more. The best thing we can do to better assimilate and be accepted as equals is to integrate into the Ecuadorian culture and do things the way the locals do them. In my opinion, of course.

[DON MELLINGER]

What percentage of the population can afford and does hire a maid at the current going rate?

[SUZAN HASKINS]

I have no idea and I am not sure where you could get that information. Remember, this is largely an under-the-table cash economy.

[EI EXPERT – EDD STATON]

And, Don, please remember in the example Suzan gave regarding maids that  folks talk to each other. If I’m paying my maid too much and she tells her friend who’s also a maid and she tells——. See what I mean? I’ll argue with a taxi driver over 50 cents because I know what the proper fare should be. It is imperative that all of us expats remember we are guests in whatever country we find ourselves and show respect for the culture.

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