I know, a bad pun on the title, but this is still a useful tip. 
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I normally tip 20% these days for good service. So when I get the check I mentally round the bill then double it. $72.50 = $75 x 2= 150 (Tip is $15).
Using the app would save me $0.50 but I like using the math skills I honed running a cash register and making change when I was in school. 
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I take a similar approach, except I look at the total, mentally calculate the 10%, then double that amount for the 20% tip. I’ve never used a calculator, unless it involves splitting the bill among multiple people. I seldom have to do that as I’m usually the one stuck with the bill. 
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I never understood apps for calculating tips. Mental math, it’s just easier and faster. Plus, helps in other situations.
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Just today in the mail I received, in a appeal for donations to some no doubt worthwhile charity, a handy card I could keep in my wallet for calculating tips at 15%, 18%, and 20%.
SMH …
Mercy, I’m obviously not very “with it,” though that is not a major concern of mine. I had to look up what SMH meant. 
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This is the way
20 char
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My solution to this problem is to live in a country where tipping is something that is only really done for exceptional service and is not expected at all. The whole practice baffles me.
The only exception I’ve seen here was one moderately fancy restaurant I went to not that long ago that had it on their POS system. I was far from the only person in the party who found that rather distasteful.
However, if I would be visiting the USA (does it happen anywhere else to the point where it is expected everywhere?), and assuming I could get some cues from locals as to a suitable percentage, I would use the “easy 10%” mental calculation and work from there. And therefore probably never elect to give 18% 
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You wish my friend. 
Restaurants here on the West Coast have started showing tip options starting from 20%. so 20% > 25% > 30%. Yes, you read it right, I am not exaggerating. So you have to select the tiny button below saying “Custom Amount” and enter your numbers. The entitlement is real.
It is so out of control that wall street journal also posted a video on the YT channel recently. Lol
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A recent survey by Bankrate, a consumer financial services company, suggests two-thirds of Americans now hold a negative view of tipping, and the number of people who always leave a tip is declining — even at sit-down restaurants — in just the last two years. - cbs.com
I feel like we should also be tipped for writing a post on a forum, or doing our job, or being good citizens lol. Such entitlement!
And I also wondered, why do some people advocate for tips at restaurants. Why not tip a bus driver, or a bathroom cleaner at the airport? These two jobs are far more difficult IMO.
It’s about the business model. Hiring staff is a huge risk for services like restaurants that have high fixed costs and no income except what they sell on the day and especially where a large proportion of the profit margin depends on “upselling” - a better bottle of wine or an extra course.
It’s tempting for business owners to keep base wages low or even zero and ask customers to pay the server directly through tips and it incentivises those staff to please customers in the hope of a bigger tip. The model falls apart where it becomes exploitative - on staff or on customers or even worse on both where the business takes a cut of tips.
Many countries regulate (e.g. minimum wage) so that any employee has an income per hour worked, then tips, if permitted, become a direct acknowledgement of good service and are at the customer’s discretion.
Of course, what people are willing to pay is quite personal. We have the choice to go elsewhere or not go at all.
I tip for personal service. The wait staff at a restaurant can add to, or subtract from, your experience, just like the quality of the food. So can the bellhop, concierge, and housekeeping staff at a hotel. I also tip cab/uber drivers, etc.
I learned many years ago that hotel and restaurant staff talk to each other and If you frequent a restaurant or hotel, etc. often enough you can get a reputation that can make a big difference in how you are treated.
Another reason to tip restaurant staff is some rely on tipping to supplement a very low base pay. This varies by state in the US but the federal minimum wage for tipped employees is only $2.13 per hour. If they don’t receive enough tips to equal $7.25/hr their employer is required to make up the difference.
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Regardless of where you fall on policy or philosophy, in the US, almost every restaurant pays their staff based on the expectation that they will be tipped. There are very few exceptions.
So if a typical server were to work and not get tips, they would go broke.
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I think the business model is that they have gotten away with it in the US for so long. Plenty of countries don’t have that model and also have restaurants.
I read something the other day that I found appropriate. It was something along the lines of…
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Hehe I was coming here to write the same thing Tipping baffles me. It is becoming more common in the UK I think, because as a country we do like to copy the U.S., but I don’t know that it’s really caught on that much outside of cities. Certainly in my “stuck in the 1980s” part of England tipping is certainly not the norm (nor should it be!).
Having said that, I do notice that Brits have a tendency to round up when paying for things in certain situations (e.g. pubs, restaurants, corner shops, taxis). A bill might for example be £13.64, and we’d round it up to £15, so maybe we do have a culture of tipping a bit, we just don’t recognise it as that. I suspect it reflects more our dislike of handling “small change” (the coins in our currency) rather than any thoughtfulness towards the people serving us. When I used to get taxis for work a lot, it was a set route so the price didn’t vary, but I agreed with the company that I would just round it up to £5 so I only had to use a note and never coins. So technically that driver was being tipped every time, but it wasn’t because I was being nice, I just didn’t want to find coins.
In France (I’m a dual citizen) tipping isn’t a thing either, but a service charge is already included for eating out.
What are these “coins” of which you speak? Honestly, I rarely use cash these days. In fact probably 90% of my purchases are on a credit card that is paid off every month. The only reason for the 10% is the small place in my building that I buy drinks and snacks from does not accept credit cards, so I use a debit card.
I do get the “rounding up” in the hard currency days, but I basically only have a few large notes in my wallet as “just in case” money. I’m pretty sure it was birthday money from my Mum about 3 years ago.
That said, on a recent trip to Singapore, we kept getting caught in places that insisted cash, but then we were buying things we don’t usually buy and often from the types of places we wouldn’t go at home. Then again, a trip there 4 years ago was quite cash-free.
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Amen!- Tipping is a practice that has gotten out of hand. It is being used by restaurants to subsidize payroll. Now they have started adding “service charges” to subsidize god knows what.