20%

18% of a $97 meal

If you think 20% is too high and 15% is too low, the easy solution is 17%. For which, you just divide by six, and then round up. Six goes into 96 exactly sixteen times, so you'd leave $17.

--M.

Hairdressers? Staff in hotels? Beauticians?

Hairdressers and beauticians are the same thing. For those, a couple dollars, as you see fit. I've been told that you don't tip the owner of the shop, but you do tip the hairdresser if s/he only works there. How would you know? You know if you go to the shop regularly. If you don't, then err on the side of a tip. $2 or so, like I said.

I don't tip hotel maids. I don't know anyone who does. And yet, when I say that on here, I always get horrified responses from people who think I'm an absolute pinch-penny and philistine. Those who do tip maids seem to leave anywhere between $2 to $20 per night, depending on the length of their stay and how messy they are. This one really isn't at all standardized. If you didn't tip the hotel maids, no one would frown.

For bellhops/doormen at fancy-schmancy hotels, you tip them $2 per bag for carrying your bags. If you wish to avoid this tip, it's easy: just carry your own bags. If the bellhop rushes up to you, rush away from him. If you don't make it in time, an "I got it--thanks" works. Better yet, don't stay in the kinds of hotels that have bellhops.

--M.

Here's a tip: ignore 80-85% of what you read here, unless the post is abusive, in which case you should ignore 90-100%, and let the manager know about your poor service.
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More seriously, minimum wage for American wait staff varies hugely from state to state. In, say, Indiana, they get a ripping $2.13 an hour, and the restaurant is only legally required to give them enough from the tips they collect to reach the federal minimum wage, which is under $8 an hour. Of course, in today's economy in the US, I doubt many waiters are pressuring the employer to bring their pay up to the federal minimum, so in those kinds of states, it's a crapshoot, with the employees potentially being treated like crap. So there's no guarantee that a generous tip will benefit the server in any way.
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In more enlightened Washingon state, a server gets at least $8.63 an hour in wages, plus whatever the tipping arrangement might be. The moral: don't be a waiter in a redneck state. The country is a giant IQ test. Get to the West Coast!
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To no one's surprise, the American National Restaurant Association has published research which shows the average tipped employee makes $12 to $15 an hour in tips, not including wages paid. One chain owner said of his servers, ""They get such huge tips that they are all very happy," Well, if a 6-hour shift at $14.13 an hour including wages leaves you ecstatic at the end of the year, a year which includes little or no paid vacation, I'm guessing it's the same kind of joy and contentment the old plantation owners always noticed in their slaves. Yassuh!
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As a Canadian who is frequently in the US (and marvels at what its citizens have been convinced they need to put up with in order to keep from being Commies), I tip the same in both countries. Zero means I've been seriously inconveninced or insulted by the service. 10% means the service was poor and uncaring. 15-20% means that the service was personal and professional. Anything above that means I've been in the hands of a person who helped me enjoy the experience to an extraordinary degree, so I'll remember the experience fondly.
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I also have a top-end limit, though. If I go out for a special occasion and we as a couple order some once-a-year wine at say $150 bottle, and the total bill for our table for two hits $300 as a result, the waiter isn't getting $60! I don't believe it takes any more effort to open and serve a $150 bottle of wine than it does a $30 bottle, so I might tip on 20% of $180, or $36. Even at the lowest legal American pay scale, that still comes to about $20 an hour for the server, and the server will generally be working other tables as well.
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I'm very glad to be a Canadian, where the minimum wage is far more reasonable, and where the social safety net doesnt leave workers constantly teetering terrified on the brink of catastrophe. Also, I can hit the high notes in the national anthem...

Also, I can hit the high notes in the national anthem...

But can you sing it in both English and French?

--M.

Mais certainly.

If in doubt, I always ask the service provider. I have asked beauty therapists, tow truck drivers and others if I'm not sure. I usually say something like it's not customary to Australia to tip so I don't really know what's expected and who to tip and I don't want to offend anyone. They are then usually really nice about giving me an idea or example of what they would be tipped.

In LA, the sales tax is around 9.75%, so in a restaurant I just double that figure and round it up or down depending on the total (makes it easier when I'm not so good at maths). I also usually leave a dollar in a tip jar by the counter when paying on the spot.

They are then usually really nice about giving me an idea or example of what they would be tipped.

They'll always overestimate, though.

They've got this neat thing in the back of Chicago taxicabs now where you can pay by credit card--you swipe the card while you're still en route, so that when you get there, all you have to do is press an "OK" button on a touch screen and you're done. There are several versions of these, depending on what cab company you use.

On one of them that I saw a couple weeks ago, there was a screen that appeared after I swiped that said:

Tip?
{20%}
{25%}
{Other}

NO ONE in the USA tips 25% to taxis. Only the most achingly generous leave 20%. A more common tip for taxis is in the 10-15% range. So the moral of the story is, don't believe the tip that the service provider suggests.

--M.

NO ONE in the USA tips 25% to taxis.

25% is what I was taught by my aunt (a New Yorker, and not especially generous in general), and that's still what I tip taxis in New York (rounding down, though). I have come to realize that outside of New York it's not normal. I'll still do it on occasion even outside of New Yorker, lets say if the fare is $12 and I've got a ten and a five. I wouldn't ask for change back. Would you?

I generally over tip, but I don't feel bound to tip 20%. Usually I double the tax, but not always. If someone had the temerity to upbraid me for what I left I'd tell them to give it back. A tip is a gratuity, it is by no means guaranteed, and it certainly isn't for then recipient to determine the appropriate amount. There is a customary amount, but I'm not sure how that amount has gone from 10% to 20%, I figure it can be any amount I decide to give between 15% and 50%.

If someone had the temerity to upbraid me for what I left I'd tell them to give it back.

That sounds right to me.