People are a little bit stingier in barber chairs and Ubers than they were just a few years ago.
The shares of adults who say they always tip their hair stylists, servers at sit-down restaurants and food delivery people have each fallen 8 percentage points since 2021, according to a Bankrate survey released Wednesday. That rate slipped 7 percentage points for taxi and ride-hail drivers over the same period.
Three years ago, the economy was reopening from the pandemic and inflation was higher than it is now, but so was concern for front-line workers.
At the time, three-quarters of consumers reported always tipping restaurant servers, but today just two-thirds do. Despite modest upticks since last year, barely more than half of people now count themselves reliable tippers of hairdressers (55%) and food delivery drivers (51%), while only 41% say the same when it comes to ordering a ride.
The survey reflects Americans’ growing ease bypassing ubiquitous tipping prompts, from coffeeshops to airport terminals in the post-Covid economy, especially as sticker prices have risen. While consumer spending has held remarkably steady, many households are feeling the squeeze from persistent inflation and tightening their belts accordingly. Some of that newfound caution may be factoring into when, where and how much people tip.
I’m a generous tipper at sit down restaurants, but draw the line at places where I’m grabbing a prepackaged sandwich and drink and being asked to tip the employee to literally ring up the items at the cash register. I wonder if the expansion of this practice is turning people off of tipping even when it’s warranted, hence these statistics
there’s a new fast food drive through near me and if you buy a $13 burger with plastic they turn the little machine to you at your car window and expect you to enter a fucking tip.
I’m an overtipping bastard. I learned to tip from Steve Martin in My Blue Heaven. i love to tip.
I even tip at the weed store and the liquor store if they give me suggestions or any kind of service in addition to ringing me up.
YOU CAN SUCK MY DICK ASKING ME TO TIP IN THE GODDAMN DRIVE THROUGH!!!
I’m not eating there because the burgers are too expensive for how good they are ($5.50 for a plain kids burger come on) but even if I loved the food i’m not tipping for fast food.
To be clear, it’s never warranted. It’s just some cultures that have normalized the practice for certain services. Companies should always fully pay their employees. Full stop.
Not true. It depends on the job and the state. NY for example, has a tip allowance of $5 per hour. That means establishments can pay their servers $10 per hour and still meet minimum wage law, because the staff is expected to make at least $5 per hour in tips.
While I agree that employers should pay their staff well, it’s standard practice for servers in NY to be underpaid and rely on tips as part of their income.
All of that also being known as…normalization.
That’s fair. I thought you were implying societal normalization by identifying cultures rather than governments. I see how this would be considered systemic normalization.
Yeah. The blurbs examples are places you really need to tip. They are providing a direct service to you. But pretty much every digital pay interface is asking for tips now. And a lot of them aren’t even offering 15%. They start at 18% and go up. It is really souring me on going out at all.
The blurbs examples are places you really need to tip. They are providing a direct service to you.
Do you really not realize how ridiculous this sounds?
Yes. But there is no other alternative in America. If you stiff servers, they get hurt. If enough people do it, they quit and your favorite places die. You can encourage places that don’t allow tipping and pay a living wage but those are so rare as to be pointless.
Only assholes refuse to tip for service in America.
Pretty much every sit-down restaurant now has tips calculated on the bill, and 15% is never one of the calculations. It’s typically 18%, 20%, and 22%, but I’ve seen them start higher.
Is this due to the same machines? Since it can differ, I assume it’s the owner who chooses to make it higher.
It depends on what payment thing they use. Most places use a third-party payment POS and stick with default settings.
Anyone else notice the “essential workers” never got that minimum wage increase?
I get republicans not supporting it, but the moderate Dems not fighting for them is going to hurt in November…
Voters know Republicans obstruct progress, but they need to see that Dems are at least willing to have the fight.
Where I live they got it. While it isn’t law, the local fast food is all starting at $16/hour or more.
In California they got it. Fast food is $20 an hour to start.
…
I mean, wages can go down, and will go down when there’s a larger labor pool.
Which is why we should have taken advantage of the small labor pool during COVID to raise minimum wage.
We had a chance to raise it while workers have leverage, but republicans will always oppose it and moderate Dems didn’t push for it, so nothing happened.
That’s wildly considered the biggest negative of moderate Dems, they don’t act when we have the leverage to get things done. They tell us to be happy with temporary things we can lose tomorrow, like how they refused to modify Roe v Wade while we had the numbers to codify it, now it’s gone.
They don’t actually want to fight for us. They’re controlled opposition to make sure when we do have the opportunity/leverage to fix shit, we waste that time “looking into” if we should really fix it. Then when the opportunity passes, they say they tried.
But they didn’t.
- Uber’s get $1 - $3 depending on driver/distance
- To-go orders get NOTHING.
- Sit down food gets 15-20%, depending on server
- Drinks at a bar get $1-$2 each drink.
- Barber probably gets the biggest tip at $10-$15, but base price is going up so maybe adjusting down next time.
And I do not do delivery apps.
The more work i have to do the less I tip.
I’m mostly with you. To-go gets $1-$2.
Stop that.
- To-go orders get NOTHING.
My comment is entirely scoped to to-go orders; I agree with everything else you say (though I haven’t used a ride share in forever).
I always tip for to-go orders in my hometown. Now my favorite places call out my name as I enter and treat me great. I’ve seen them replace the pizza stacked with my order with a fresh pizza right out of the oven, for example, or they’ve given me an extra pizza or side.
When I’m on the road, I still tip $1 for to-go orders because I know the workers are still getting a shit wage.
Granted, I’m in a financial position where I can afford to do this. But I’d love if we could get rid of the whole tipped-minimum-wage thing and just raise minimum wages across the board/enact UBI to make tipping only for exemplary service.
It’s a genuinely nice thing you’re trying to do, so on the one hand, I don’t want to discourage it, but on the other hand, every tip workers get is an incentive to not raise wages. Hell, if they make enough in tips, they’ll start actively lowering wages for new hires. Someone I know always likes to tip, but I just see management thanking them for covering their labor costs for them.
As a service person, this sounds great. You actually tip your barber more than I do.
The only thing I think you didn’t account for is fancier bars with elaborate cocktails, which tbf most people do not frequent. I’d do 15-20% for those, simply because it’s more involved service and more involved drinks.
I always tip my hair cutting person 100%. I wanted a hair cut, the hair cut cost $x, that person literally does the entire thing often with their own equipment that they paid for. The place will charge me $x because that’s what the haircut is worth to me but I know the person that actually physically cut my hair with their skills and labor won’t get $x and I think that’s bullshit.
In many other kinds of transactions someone can go “oh well the business deserves a cut of the profits because they provided the ingredients, or they stocked the inventory, or yadda yadda yadda”. But the hair cut is the one place where with my own eyes I witness the full body of labor occur and see who does it. That person deserves the value that their labor produced, not some owner sitting off in their beach house doing plenty I’m sure but one thing I’m damn sure they aren’t doing is cutting my fucking hair.
Nope.
- Pay the Uber driver based on whether they get out of the car and help you with bags. $1 or $2 per bag. I used to do that job. Driving the car is not that hard. Everything else needs a tip.
- To go orders get 5%. They are doing something for you. It’s not fast food.
- Sit down food should be 20% minimum. Adjust based on the service, or the worst employees are getting paid the same as the best.
- The other guy is right. You should tip based on the skill involved. Pouring a beer: $1. Making a mixed drink: $2 to $3.
- You are tipping your barber too much. Avoid the chain and go to the local place where the barber gets 100% of the money, they just rent the chair. Tip 20% like normal.
- Delivery apps are totally fine in areas with lots of delivery drivers.
Basically, tip based on effort. Or you will end up with people who do not put in effort. It’s true they don’t tip in Europe. But it’s much harder to get the attention of a waiter there. “Oh I’m sorry, am I interrupting your coordinated smoke break with all the other waiters? I just wanted to exchange money for food if that’s ok with you.”
Bullshit, I get good service, even in Germany. People take their jobs seriously if they get paid enough. We just round up to a sensible sum and that’s it. Fuck shelling out 20% for a tip, that’s just straight up dumb.
When they flip that screen, I cringe. US tip culture sucks.
I went to get blood lab work done today. When I went to pay the kiosk asked for a tip.
It happened to me at the urologist. They were taking the piss!
This has to be the USA right?
Yup
I imagine it’s just built in to the POS software they use, which is probably generic. Doesn’t really make that better, but
For me there’s 3 tiers
Takeout/drive thru food of every kind? No tip. If it’s labeled fast food and I have to drive to you to get it, you can pry that shit from my cold dead heart.
Family owned non-chain restaurants. That’s a tip. These people out here trying their best against a McDonald’s franchisee. Easily worth a few extra.
Delivery is where I tip, they put extra wear on a car and had to put up with the American public on roads between here and the store. That’s worth the extra $5-10 Dollars. Especially if it’s raining/almost midnight.
Pretty much the same, delivery I tip based on how much stuff, how difficult, or bad weather is getting it to me. NOT on the item cost. It’s not any harder for the delivery person to deliver sushi than it is a breakfast sandwich.
- laughs in european *
STOP TIPPING. The whole world doesn’t tip, it’s a strange and stupid US thing. Just stop tipping please!
This should be the next “movement” the internet gets behind. Everyone stops tipping, and watch people freak out.
And then, after a bit of confusion, tipping will end and waiters will get paid the right amount – no tipping needed
Also, while you’re stopping dumb shit like tipping, may as well switch to the metric system as part of the integration!
https://media.tenor.com/D8tqN5Dc45cAAAAM/puffer-fish-join-us.gif
to embed your gif in your comment. Important is the exclamation mark at the start, which is what distinguishes it from a regular hyperlink.TIL! Good bot.
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Germany does tip sometimes. But mostly we round up to the next thing that feels right. For me it is usually between 1-5€, but I never tip a percentage or use the tip option on a payment terminal. Sometimes I just don’t tip. It is never a problem. It is a bonus not a necessity here.
Drivers should not be tipped as they cannot do anything different. Either you get there or you don’t. If you get there slower they are incomitent. If you get there faster they broke the law and your tip indicates you enticed them to do so and so you are guilty.
Dude, pizza delivery guys in the days of “30 minutes or it’s free” were fucking crazy.
Yes they were. It wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right now.
If you get there faster they broke the law and your tip indicates you enticed them to do so and so you are guilty.
Hahahahaha… Is this for real?
This is very real. Take an ethics class sometime - indirect effects and what things look like are very important.
Unless you’re tipping them for driving smoothly.
I quit tipping. That is not true. The last pizza I had delivered to work I gave the lady a ten. Physically gave it to her. Not added it to a app that you know is going to give them less than the tip. If they give them anything at all. I quit tipping through the checkout/payment process.
In the US, it is quite illegal to not give any of the tip to the worker. Managers and apps can’t keep any amount of the tip, and the only way it’s legal for the worker to not get the whole thing is if the service uses a tip sharing setup where it goes into a pool that is distributed (in which case it is evenly distributed amongst the participating workers, management still can’t legally take any).
Illegal things happen, but almost certainly not as often on an app that helps records like that than you’d think
I have a rule I’ve long lived by: never piss off the people who cut your hair, make (or get) your food, and work on your teeth.
We tipping fucking dentists now??
No. Just don’t piss them off.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this written about so -
The reason these tipping prompts are so egregiously inescapable now is that those point of sales systems are handed out by Clover and the like when the business starts using them for POS and inventory and credit card processing.
For each CC transaction, the business pays something like 2-3% of the transaction and so the CC processor becomes incentivized to make that transaction amount higher. That’s how we got here. You’re being guilted into tipping a shitty tech company.
Carry cash. Pay cash whenever possible. That’s how you avoid that screen.
No
Is clover getting money for cc transactions? I thought it was the cc companies charging that fee.
These used to be separate things, but now most of the older POS systems have been bought by the processors or, with the “newer” systems, were in the business of processing from the get go. It’s all very incestuous.
Point of sale companies like Clover charge a fee and the credit card company gets a cut of that. The rest is for the point of sale’s services.
Credit Card companies (ie MasterCard or Visa) typically have a flat per transaction fee that is very small (like fractional cent small). The processors are the ones that take the percentage cut (PoS and your bank). It’s been a bit since the last time I looked into it, so things could be a bit different, but I would be surprised if it was.
Clover or whoever also gets money for letting whoever use their system. They get an upfront fee then a percent of sales.
I ain’t never been into tipping as I’m not contributing to this system by playing along.
Sure it sucks if you’ve gotta work for tips but still.
You aren’t fighting the man by not tipping (in the traditional areas), you’re screwing your fellow worker.
You’re just being cheap.
You’re absolutely “fighting the man”. You not tipping puts pressure on the owner class to pay a decent living wage to their employees or risk losing their workforce over time. Just need to all continue to hold on this trend that the article describes and keep that arrow going down. At the same time, these workers will be motivated to unionize and get the worth of their labor with current union momentum that’s on the increase.
“Not fighting the man”… What a hollow statement?
You’re absolutely “fighting the man”. You not tipping puts pressure on the owner class to pay a decent living wage to their employees or risk losing their workforce over time.
No, you’ve got it wrong. By going and not tipping, “the man” is still making their money. It’s the server you’re putting pressure on to leave that job and find something better. Sure, at some point, this might rise up and screw “the man” but the reality is that it requires stomping on a bunch of workers for your own benefit. You’re basically telling a server, who might even like tipping because it benefits them, that they have to do the work to make the change you want. It’s selfish, just like not tipping.
If you want to stick it to those owners who don’t pay fair wages to their workers, don’t patronize their establishments.
Don’t have the energy for everything that needs response in that, maybe reread it a couple times and respond to yourself
Then just leave? What’s the point of a comment like this? Do you not realize how childish it makes you look?
Childish is you being completely oblivious to any nuance in my previous post and not responding to it substantively when you choose to respond. You’re a child in a room full of adults having a conversation and you’re punching kneecaps and screaming down there, feisty little guy!
You hold a smartphone with the collective knowledge of humanity in your hand, and you think that because you have quick access to that intelligence, it means you are intelligent. But you have no idea what you’re actually talking about.
You don’t have the energy to make a point, but you do have the energy to throw around empty insults. Good for you, really have your priorities straight.
This only works in an idealized perfect scenario which doesn’t exist. You not tipping only hurts the delivery driver and doesn’t touch the man whatsoever. Furthermore companies are only required to pay 7.25 federally unless state has other laws, which many don’t. So best case scenario you are bumping people up to 7.25 which isn’t even close to a living wage and wouldn’t do a thing for vehicle maintenance and gas.
You are welcome to believe that you are sticking to the man not tipping but the reality is that you are fucking over hard working people short term. Even if everyone unilateral agreed to stop tipping it would take years for the system to fully catch up and again you would be fucking them over during those years.
It will always be like this… until it isn’t. Your argument is tired. “The moment” eventually has to happen to force change. You take things like the 40 hour work week and weekends for granted, but people died in labor demonstrations and factory disasters to secure that comfort for us all. I pay my federal/state taxes and local levies, I support social safety net programs. These tips will not be the difference between someone eating or not, but it may be enough for them to force the ruling class to cede just a little more profit to the workers (or pressure the state to act against business of those social safety net programs are being more heavily utilized).
Your argument isn’t grounded in reality which is my argument, propose a plan that will actually have impact past screwing service workers.
I’m not sure what your point is with labor demonstrations, those people got change though very bloody(not voluntarily bloody) organized protests, not tipping isn’t even close to an accurate comparison. A little more profit to the working class is a crumlet and just doesn’t do shit for service workers, let’s focus on taking the pie back which again not tipping isn’t doing.
Don’t forget that it’s the employer paying the shitty wage that is the one screwing over the worker. This is exactly what those employers want, to be able to pay shitty wages and have the blame shifted to someone else.
Don’t forget that it’s the employer paying the shitty wage that is the one screwing over the worker.
I’m not defending the tipping culture, but it’s baked into the idea of how much these people are paid by their employer. By not tipping, you’re just screwing them, not sticking it to the man. It’s just an attempt to justify being cheap.
Again you’re blaming the consumer but totally overlook the employer being cheap and paying shitty wages. You’re playing right into their hand.
Again you’re blaming the consumer but totally overlook the employer being cheap and paying shitty wages.
It’s currently part of our culture and an expectation. We all agree that it should go away, but as of now, regardless of whether the boss is being cheap, if you don’t tip you’re being cheap and only screwing the worker, as the boss still makes their money.
I tip if there was something to tip. Fast casual dining with me bussing, nope. Receiving a cup for coffee that I pump and setup, nope.
Its crazy how many businesses in the US are asking you to tip on checkout and make it appear that’s normal. WTF would I be tipping at Subway
i stopped tipping when i was double charged for the tip included.
i tried keeping track of each POS that included gratuity but i can only get burned so many times before i stop using that stove altogether.
