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.
Door dasher in Australia here: after about 500 completed orders, I can say I’ve been tipped once, by this old lady like A$5.
Tipping is stupid. I’m not incentivised to do anything better. The app would just give everyone crappier orders if everyone tipped.
The point of tipping isn’t generosity, it’s because some jobs in the US make $2 an hour, that tip is their wage.
You tip servers and delivery drivers.
The point of tipping is to incentivise staff to do a good job. Of course employers saw staff getting extra money and decided they didn’t need to pay as much any more. Tipping has now grown to the point where you are expected to pay extra for just about anything or else the worker doesn’t get paid, which is not only counter-intuitive, it’s just stupid.
I travelled through Eastern Europe a while ago and got so sick of extra “taxes” added to the price of everything that I just stopped buying stuff. I imagine tip fatigue being pretty similar.
The point of tipping is to incentivise staff to do a good job.
Maybe originally, but for servers and delivery drivers, it’s the only compensation for their labor they receive.
The standard federal minimum wage still applies. If tips aren’t enough to get you there then the employer has to make up the difference.
Tips are literally a subsidy paid to your employer so that they don’t have to pay you (just the $2.13 federal tipped minimum wage).
Almost no employers do this. And even if they did, 7.25 isn’t enough to live anywhere in the US.
employers legally have to, if they don’t they are in violation of federal law.
That’s true. They still don’t.
People tip more than 10%?
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Are you American? If so, yes.
Lol, as an American those tip rates can get fuckef
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I’ve been tipping 10% at restaurants for the last decade and don’t tip anywhere else. Shrug
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Nope, but I’ve worked for minimum wage.
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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).
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