To those who live in or who have visited the United States.
Growing up in the 90’s, the “minimum acceptable” tip was 10%, average was 15%, and a good tip was 20%. These days, I just round to the nearest dollar and tip 20%, but I’ve heard these days it’s not unusual to tip up to 40%!
What do you usually do?
I usually aim for the nearest dollar around 30%.
I’m a defense contractor and none of the “work” I have ever done in my life has done any human any good. I think it’s important to use my nonsense salary to pay the people who actually add value to society.
I always tip 20%, more for exceptional service. I’ve worked as a cook for about 15 years, at various places from dive bars to fine dining. At some places the servers and bartenders make insane money, often more than the chef who is usually on salary and not eligible for tips. But at a lot of places, the servers barely make ends meet and live not only check to check, but hand to mouth, week to week depending on the business. I never assume anyone is making bank so I tip well as a professional courtesy and to make up for people who don’t tip.
Increasingly these days, I’ve heard about and worked at places where the tips are split with the back of house crew, up to 40%. That ends up meaning that nearly 50% of our monthly pay is in tips, and that’s a blessing and a curse. Having PTO is basically worthless because missing out on the tips hurts so much.
Here in Seattle, they just raised the minimum wage to just over $20 an hour, and tips and benefits can’t be counted towards that. It’s a step in the right direction, but because capitalism is going to capitalism, it means that’s barely enough to live in the city with a single income source. So I still tip well regardless.
Most places in the country are not that fortunate, so I encourage everyone to tip their servers. If you think you’re going to force owners to pay people more by not tipping, you’re not only wrong, you’re actively making life harder for people who will likely never make as much as you if you work any sort of office job.
The system sucks, and needs to change. Some people can’t afford to tip generously, and that’s fine. But if you don’t tip out of principle, you’re just an asshole.
20%—I feel for tip-based workers, but I’m also not running charity nor am I in a financial place in life to be tipping much higher than that.
If 20% is not in the list I will enter 20%.
0%. We do not have a tipping culture, nor will I ever move in the direction of us having one.EDIT: I’m not in the U.S so my answer does not apply
Still a good answer 😆
I avoid restaurants that require tipping. When I do have to tip, I give way too much if the service was good. IMO, good service is to not try to talk to me too much, and to be responsive to what I need done (refilling drinks, taking additional requests). Bonus tip if I know they’re overworked and handling it well.
15% floor. Throw an additional $10 sometimes. Always direct to the worker because these places steal tips. Also I tip cooks sometimes.
But I avoid going to these restaurants.
20% minimum even if service sucked since it’s virtually always systemic reasons why the service sucked
I usually try to tip relative to the cost of the food. If I bought something really cheap (few dollars) for a few dollars I might tip up to 40% but if I got something more expensive I will usually tip like 15%. I try to consider how much effort the server has put in since I think it makes sense that way. If I only see the server 3 times but they deliver a really expensive plate of food I don’t think they deserve as much as someone who might have delivered multiple plates or had to do extra work like splitting the check.
I don’t live in the US but I tip around 20%, sometimes more or less depending. Tbh I’m never sure what tipping etiquette is supposed to be here, but if it’s obvious how much the worker is getting (eg ride shares or food delivery where you can see the delivery fee), I tip them how much I think is reasonable to be paid for that job, which is usually quite a bit more than I’m charged for the service. And ofc not all of the initial charge goes to the worker anyway.
15-25% usually 20%. I have worked for tips so I get it.
My wife tipped 25% at an ice cream parlor last night. Which I thought was ridiculous considering he just pulled three pints out of a freezer behind him.
It’s too many places now.
Americans: “I don’t care how bad the service is, you HAVE to tip a minimum amount.”
Also Americans: “My experience at the DMV was bad. Fire all government employees!”
100-200% depending on how good the service was.
Downside to this is I can’t afford to go out as often. :C
I have generally tipped at least 20%. But tipped workers in my state just fought to keep their sub-minimum wage, because republicans convinced them that people would stop tipping if they were paid more. Tipped minimum wage was going up to $6, but now it’s only going up to $4.74. I’ve been tipping too much, and will bring it back down to max 15%.
Typically somewhere between 15-20%. I do a rough mental calculation figuring out 10% by moving the decimal, then either double that or figure out what half of that is and roughly add that amount to the 10% amount, then go with a nice roundish number (to the nearest quarter) in that range. Usually a little higher than my rough estimate for 15% if I’m on that low end just so my rough math doesn’t inadvertently shortchange the server.
I make my calculation based on the total with tax included. I know some people go on the pretax amount.
BONUS: If I’m doing a delivery service like DoorDash, I look up my distance to the restaurant and make sure the tip is always at least equal to the mileage. I used to drive for them and $1/mile was always my minimum. DoorDash at least would typically only kick in $2/delivery, unless there were bonus promos. Since the driver might not be at the restaurant I figure that’s probably enough to get them to the restaurant, then the tip will get them from there to me. Actually, at home my house is several miles from any restaurants, so I usually go $4 above that to make sure the driver doesn’t lose money getting back to civilization. If I’m at a hotel close to restaurants I won’t necessarily do that. If it’s something where I’d like to try to get the best service I’ll go higher; they typically offer the highest pay orders to their top rated drivers first.
Followup question, how much do y’all tip your landlords /s
