Summary
Tipping in U.S. restaurants has dropped to 19.3%, the lowest in six years, driven by frustration over rising menu prices and increased prompts for tips in non-traditional settings.
Only 38% of consumers tipped 20% or more in 2024, down from 56% in 2021, reflecting tighter budgets.
Diners are cutting back on outings, spending less, and tipping less. Some restaurants are adding service fees, further reducing tips.
Worker advocacy groups are pushing to eliminate the tipped-wage system, while the restaurant industry warns these shifts hurt business and employees.
Key cities like D.C. and Chicago are phasing in higher minimum wages for tipped workers.
You can bet there was some more tolerance for it when there was some guilt for office workers staying at home while service roles had to stay on site during the height of covid.
The fact that so many point of sale make it a default thing to put it directly out there for someone to tip before any service is done and with that decision in view of everyone around doesn’t sit well either
I’m so fucking done with it, that I just assume everyone behind me is too. I happily hit that “No tip” button. Unless you provided an active service for me, or went above and beyond to get me something, then why do you deserve a tip? I have to pay you extra money for you to do your job correctly?
I only tip at restaurants and when I get my hair cut. All of this new tipping stuff, I have always assumed was just a generic update to enable it basically everywhere… I’ve always hit no tip… I don’t feel bad for it… You’re not getting paid 2 dollars an hour working at some random place that’s not a restaurant… I’ve heard stories of employees not even getting those tips… It’s a push for greed… That’s it
And the default options are 20, 25, 30 some places.
I was in SoCal several months back and ended up in a candy shop. Nothing but drawers of candy on the walls and one desk in the middle with a young woman sitting behind the checkout tablet. I had a question or two, but she was neither helpful or knowledgeable (it’s candy. not a difficult topic). She seemed very disinterested in engagement.
Well, I finish my selection, she scans and the tablet shows the totals with the big tip screen (NoTip-15-20-25%). I was taken aback that her job would get tips and wondered if she was paid enough before I smashed the NoTip button to finish up since she hadn’t done a thing to merit one.
I mean…
2016, I went to a bar and got a 16oz beer, a burger and a basket of fresh fries for $18. I was happy to throw $3-5 on that for decent service, hell even subparbaervice.
Now it’s an 11oz beer being sold as a 12oz beer for $9 and a $22 burger, add fries for $4
If I get 2 beers, it’s $50 with a tip.
The fuck?
Well, I mean, are you going to continue to go out and hand them all that money? Then they’ll continue to feel like they can safely raise prices. If you start making burgers at home and buying beer at the local liquor store, you’ll be paying a small fraction of what you paid even in 2016. If you need some social interaction, just make it a cookout and invite people. I’m sure they’ll be happy to have you at their place in return.
Making an awful lot of (mostly irrelevant) assumptions here.
I’m simply stating that inflation is a big reason that people don’t tip as much.
Inflation and wages not going up.
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Maybe I’m just weird (probably), but the cost of something has absolutely nothing to do with my choice of a tip. If item + what I feel is an acceptable tip = more than I want to spend, I simply don’t purchase that thing, not tip less.
I see a thing as worth a certain number of wage-hours. When the number of wage-hours doubles, but the thing still brings the same essential value to me, as my own wage stagnates, why would I pay a “i feel bad that you also are a wage slave” premium on top? Fuck that. Tipping is an absurd politeness. If those workers are fed up with being underpaid, they should be looking to their bosses, not at my broke ass who just wants food on my break. If they want the tips they have come to expect to be part of their wages, they should look at congress, not my broke ass who just wants a decent haircut.
Worker advocacy groups are pushing to eliminate the tipped-wage system, while the restaurant industry warns these shifts hurt business and employees.
Imagine having to pay a living wage, burger prices would explode!
Except, for example, there is a 12.82€ minimum wage in Germany and a hamburger ist still around 2€ at Burger King (about 1:1 in $ atm). Food and work safety are stricter too iirc. Workers also have 20 days of vacation minimum (if your work full-time), 60h weeks maximum @ 40h on average, as well as extra pay for night, weekend and holiday shifts. And health insurance is about 200 a month at that income I think.
Edit: Oh, and of course still 5-20% tipps.
You are getting screwed over completely. Anyone who claims otherwise is your enemy.
We had 150 million people decide to keep things going the way they are. Until a major slice of shit hits the proverbial fan, nothing will change. The American population is too fat, stupid, and lazy to make the change on its own.
I think it’s more of a subsidizing thing. In the UK they get all these things and can’t budge due to pushback and culture, so they subsidize those costs with cuts to other places, like shrinkflation in the US, and other places. Costs went up to ship their foodstuffs all over the world, buuuut they enabled tipping at POS in the US, getting poor suckers to make up the difference (they hope)
Not an excuse, but if the US put in place the same things the UK has, fast food would lose their biggest cost subsidy for more expensive places like the UK, and prices would actually go up (because the corpo suits can’t take a fuckin pay cut obviously!)
I wonder if all of the places like Subway that are asking for tips and getting $0 because who the hell tips at a Subway, are throwing off this stat at all.
Probably not directly, but I think tipping fatigue is definitely affecting things. If you’ve been prompted 10 times already to tip at places you usually wouldn’t tip and then are in a sit down restaurant, you may very well feel inclined to tip less.
Employees at places like Subway and Starbucks could be getting screwed by no one using cash anymore too.
If I’m using a card there’s no change to toss in the jar.
Considering the article specifies “full-service restaurants,” Imma go with no
I’ve seen tipping options on websites to pay your landlord
I don’t get the ones for products. I pay for a trendy pillow or whatever, also shipping at a flat rate, but then there’s a tip button? I just know that’s going straight to Shopify or management.
My electric company has a tip line when paying the bill.
American tip culture is fucked, and it has been for a very long time. Once gas stations started begging for a tip on my soft drinks I figured it was about time to rip the band aid off.
Unfortunately tipping less means wait staff are gonna get fucked – no way to soften that. We need to get to a place where their livelihoods aren’t dependent on generosity.
Inflated prices and a lack of disposible income will do that.
Blame the companies, not the customers. I bought a $12 water at a concert and the attendant acted offended I didn’t tip. Don’t get mad at me.
You’re fine with getting overcharged for the concert and the water, but paying the worker for their time is where you draw the line?
Most people going to concerts can’t exactly leave the building, find a different store selling water, buy it, then bring it back in through the concert venue. (Nor are they capable of magically knowing the prices inside beforehand) The reason the price was so high was likely because the venue knew they had a captive audience, and when people need water, they need water. If someone is just forced to pay $12 for water, asking them to subsidize your worker’s wages on top is a shitty move, and if nobody tips, then maybe that company will realize that they can’t subsidize the wages they pay with tips, and stop relying on them.
Then the attendant gets paid fairly from the get go, and they don’t need to be offended if someone doesn’t tip, because why the hell should anybody have to subsidize a corporation’s wages? If they want workers, charge what’s required in the price to pay those workers, no tip required.
I know I’m being redundant, but again: they are okay paying money to Ticketmaster (or another billionaire), they are okay paying money to the venue, but they refuse to pay someone who actually works for a living? It’s not complicated…
They’re refusing to encourage the venue to underpay the person while using tips to make up for it. In practice, it’s not the same thing.
The immediate direct implication is, yes, not giving that person money, but if people as a whole continue to engage in that behavior, companies can go ahead and tell their workers “sure we aren’t paying you a living wage directly, but everyone will tip you enough to make up the difference” and that will allow them to keep more of the sale proceeds for themselves as profit, rather than paying it to the worker.
However, the more people refuse to tip, the less and less the employer can use the excuse that “they’ll make up for the difference with tips,” and will then be forced to pay the employee directly without making their income dependent on guilt-tripping people for extra cash, because otherwise, that employee will simply quit because they’re not getting paid enough, and no new employee will fill that position if it’s clear there aren’t enough tips to cover the difference between their actual wage, and a livable one.
The only reason tips as a concept exist is to allow employers to pay people less, then promise other people’s generosity will bring that pay up to par. If it’s too expensive for the business to offer fair wages with their current prices, then they should just incorporate tips into the price if it’s going to be necessary for their workers to receive tips anyways. If the business is making more than enough, and is simply using tips to subsidize what they would otherwise pay their workers, then a lack of tips necessitates them slightly cutting into their margins and paying their workers fairly.
The inherent act of not tipping in itself is denying the employee a payment in the moment, but the goal of such an action is to discourage the behavior by the corporation, to then make it necessary for that corporation to pay a living wage directly, which is objectively good for all parties involved (workers know how much they’ll make and get stable, livable wages, and customers know what they’re paying without feeling bad if they can’t afford making their $12 water $15.)
The longer you allow a system like this to exist, the more you’ll see what’s already happening, companies pushing it in where it traditionally was never present, minimum suggested amounts going up from 10% to 12% to 15% to 18% etc, and wages staying low as companies try using your generosity to subsidize wages they would otherwise have to pay themselves to retain workers. Not tipping is inherently a rejection of this system, and the only way you stop such a system from expanding is by rejecting it.
When was a kid in the 90s, tip was 10% of the $20 bill. By the time I was eating out a lot in my 20s we left 15% on the $35 because we liked the servers. Now the check is $50 and the “recommended” is creeping past 30%.
I’m pretty well done tipping unless I’m going to a sit down restaurant and the service is really good
You know what tipping is supposed to be used for
You know what tipping is supposed to be used for
Yes, allowing management to pay less than a living wage so that the public can cover the rest.
I get your meaning (and agree), but tipping as a practice should be dead and gone.
I will tip wait staff because I know they rely on it. Someone at the counter at Starbucks? No. They’re not getting less than minimum wage and expected to make up the difference in tips.
Depends on the state, too. In Washington wait staff get full minimum wage, which is the highest in the country.
So I feel a lot less bad leaving a smaller tip in Washington because they’re being paid the same as everyone else, not artificially paid less with “tips supposed to make up the difference.”
Also, semi-related: Olympia, Washington was one of UberEats best-tipping cities in 2023.
https://www.uber.com/newsroom/2023-uber-eats-cravings-report/
Customers in Olympia, WA, Asheville, NC and Bismarck, ND were the most generous tippers in the U.S.
So a city with the highest minimum wage in the country is also one of the cities that tips the best. Interesting.
In my experience service industry workers tip the best, so in a city where they are more often flush they probably tip even better.
I wouldn’t say they’re more often flush, though. Olympia is getting as expensive to live in as Seattle and service industry folks can’t live alone in that city, they’re still going to need roommates. The cheapest studios in the area are around $1200 which would require someone making more like $20 an hour to qualify to be able to rent it on their own.
Olympia is the state capitol so service industry jobs are about the only jobs outside of government jobs. It’s probably more likely decently paid government employees being decent people.
To be fair, I don’t think Uber Eats is paying minimum wage hourly anywhere
I’m totally down with tipping for good service. But it’s backwards. I’m suppose to tip before service. Personally, we have cut back going out with a lot of times thinking that it’s too expensive. The worst is when there’s a line behind you and the lowest tip preset is at %25. You have everybody looking at you while you try to set it lower.
Why are you tipping if there’s a line? The line implies self service.
When I go out, I usually tip well. My sister used to be a bartender and waitress and she relied on tips.
That said, tipping is really screwed up now. I went to a stadium for a game once and the employee said that they don’t receive the tips when you tip for buying a beer or whatever unless it’s cash. That’s messed up if true.
I used to think Mr. Pink was an asshole, but he was on to something. I wish tipping was eliminated completely.
I used to love ordering pizza for delivery, and I’d give like 5-10 bucks as a tip which might be 30 or 50% just depending. But now nobody does their own delivery anymore, I pay extra for the food because they’re outsourcing to Door Dash, and it takes two hours to get a pizza.
Delivery is dead as far as I can tell. All that’s left is going through the fast food drive-through which is like 12-15 bucks nowadays. I’d rather just eat at home.
The only time I go out nowadays is when I’m with a friend.
I am a big believer in tipping and always tip the same way: I start at 18-20% and go down from there, based on service, friendliness, and food quality.
That said, I go out a lot less post-Covid, as the quality of the experience isn’t what it used to be. I tend to stick to poke and sushi nowadays, as it tends to be fresher and the service better.
