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.
Tipping was essentially an American invention to not pay black people. (Who were the majority of service industry workers in the late 1800s/1900s?)
Also keeps that servant/master power dynamic.
That’s funny, wife and I haven’t even tipped at all in years
Wait, no, I lie, I did tip the lady who went above and beyond this one time to make sure my meal went super smooth
The worst part is when you go to a place you need to pay before service is rendered.
If I go to the bagel shop and get a dozen I pay before I pick them out. TIP? Are you kidding me, what what, you have not served me yet.
A tip is to reward good service at a sit down place. I still think it shouldn’t be and if we have it, it should be back to the 5-10% like most countries that have tipping.
But if you ask for a tip before you render service i get a little angry.
i actually give everyone a 600% tip because i want to show everyone that i love american lifestyle
People tip more than 10%?
Are you American? If so, yes.
It’s $1 per drink at a bar, 20% at sit down restaurants (even if it’s not super nice), it gets ambiguous outside of that.
I’ve been tipping 10% at restaurants for the last decade and don’t tip anywhere else. Shrug
10% is insultingly low. Have you worked in the service industry?
Nope, but I’ve worked for minimum wage.
Are you American? If so, yes.
Lol, as an American those tip rates can get fuckef
🙄
I’ve been tipping more, but that’s mostly because I live in a relatively low-income area and I know people around here are cheap/frugal. I’ve also worked in food service before (though not deliveries) and I know just how awful it can be. I hope I can be the one delivery that allows the person to call it an early night and spend time with their family. Shit like that.
That being said, I don’t know what kind of notes the drivers get when they see my order pop up, but I will say that 99% of the time, my service has been impeccable. They know.
HOWEVER, don’t take this as approval for tipping culture. I hate it and would love to do away with it. Unfortunately, I understand that these people depend on my tips for a living wage and that sucks.
Make sure you’re tipping cashiers too then
Here’s the tip reform I want:
Every restaurant/bar/etc with their staff decides on a default gratuity that represents their service standards/aspirations.Menu prices must include this gratuity. (And include taxes - why not.)
At time of payment, the customer can choose how much they want to tip: the default, or some amount more or less.
Transparent prices. No unwritten rules. Bar staff still make $$. And no disadvantage to restaurants who pay a higher hourly wage instead of tips.
You flew too close to the sun, you insufferable, greedy pieces of shit. Pay your workers a livable wage yourself, we’re done subsidizing your labor abuses.
I swear when I was a kid in the 90s 5-10% was standard.
Anyone else remember this?
No, it’s been 15% as standard for food.
For whatever reason you can go lower on things like haircuts, and drinks were always a dollar (finally getting down to 15% now)
Im 40. It had always been 15% as long as I can remember, and my memory of it goes pretty far back. When I started learning percentages in math class my parents made me the tip calculator whenever we’d go out so that would have been 8 or 9 years old?
10 bad, 15 average, 20 good service. I’ve always gone above 20, having worked plenty of years relying on it for income myself
Yup and tips were only for a short list of things like waiters or cabbies.
“Let me tip the taco time drive through”
- Statement from the deranged.
Tipping culture and systems need to die off. Sadly, because they often get paid more via tips than they would by increased hourly wages, tipped employees are often against such reforms.
And, to be fair, for most restaurants, it would be really hard for them to pay their wait staff appropriate wages in many cities where rent is extremely high and the cost of the food products they use to create their meals is rising as well. It’s not a simple matter of “the employer should pay their employees’ wages, not the customer.” The industry is built around tipping, and that’s not something that can be changed overnight.
Still, I firmly believe it needs to happen. And if that means increasing the price of restaurant meals, so be it. I suspect people eat out too much these days anyway and should learn to cook themselves. I used to eat out a lot until I did some calculations and realized I was spending way too much on it. Since learning to cook, I’ve saved a lot of money and now prefer my own cooking to a lot of restaurant fare out there (although not the really good stuff—I’m no professional chef).
If you can’t make your business work without paying people below the minimum wage than you have a bad business.
In my city restaurants have just gotten more expensive. It’s also led to better conditions for staff and these places are more desirable to work at. It works. I don’t go out as much because I pay often $200-$300 instead of $80-$150 like I used to but so be it. Going out to eat is a luxury, we budget accordingly.
I’d rather we just eliminate wait staff in most places. There’s minimal value to a person over a tablet.
I don’t really agree that restaurants couldn’t make it work. It’s just going to have to take all or nothing.
Getting away from tipped wages is the real problem. Give all restaurant workers fair livable wages, they won’t be on tighter budgets on would spend more going out.
Workers can’t live paycheck to paycheck just for the profits to sit in some CEO or owners back account. The economy is heathy with an exchange of money. More money in the pockets of the people the more they will spend.
Of course it won’t work if one restaurant (or any single company) does it differently when everyone is still on tight budgets. You won’t get the business from your own employees but need others to have the means to come to you too.
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?
“Corporations and Restaurants refuse to pay waiters a living wage, subsidizing their salaries with their already drawn thin customers’ depressed wages.”
There, I fixed the title so it identifies the actual problem rather than causing divisions in the working classes.
Chinese tip always 2 dollars
Good! Tipping culture is NOT generosity; it is a symptom of an exploitative economic model that values capital accumulation more than basic human dignity.
