Has Tipping Culture Gone Too Far?

In Europe, tipping your server is a nice bonus, in Australia it's a rarity, and in some countries - like Japan - leaving gratuity is potentially insulting. But tipping is not only expected in the U.S. but vital, with many workers reliant on tip money to make ends meet. [1]

Now, things couldn't be more different. Tip jars can be spotted in convenience stores, gratuity is being added to automated services, and tip prompts on card machines leave customers squirming. Considering this, has American tip culture gone too far?

To find out, we surveyed over 1,199 Americans from different ages and industries to find out how, why and where we tip. To get both sides of the story, we also ran a separate survey of 628 Americans to ask service industry workers their experiences and take on the issue.

Key findings:

• Three in four (76.1%) of Americans say that tipping culture has gone too far.

• Majority of Americans (84.1%) believe minimum wage should be increased for servers.

• Nearly nine in ten (87.8%) service workers underreport the amount of tips they are given - with 51.2% saying they do so substantially.

• Half of tipped employees (51%) would prefer to receive a basic living wage with no tips as opposed to the current system.

• Seven in ten customers (71%) say they are tipping less than they used to.

• Six in ten (63.2%) service industry workers said tips made up more than 30% of their wage - including two in ten (19.1%) where tips comprised 70%+ of their income.

• Almost half of Americans (47.3%) have been asked to tip at automated/self-service, and (45.5%) to tip at a convenience store.

• Half of Americans (56.2%) feel social pressure to tip with friends, and 71.9% feel pressured to tip on a date.

• Two in three Americans are 'guilt tipping' - tipping purely to avoid awkwardness (65.6%) or confrontation (63.1%).

Why, who and how are Americans tipping?

Americans were most likely to tip for food services, with restaurant service (59%) and food delivery (43.8%) coming top of the list. Hair and beauty treatments came third (41.1%), and taxi services fourth (39.6%). Perhaps in higher spirits, customers were slightly more likely to leave bartenders a tip than baristas who clinched the fifth and sixth spots respectively.

When asked how often they tip, the answers were more divided than American stereotypes would suggest. Less than a third (30.7%) always tip - which although the most common answer, was still lower than cultural beliefs would suggest. A similar amount (26.9%) sometimes tip, 22.9% often tip, 13.8% rarely tip and 5.7% never tip.

Seven in ten Americans have asked for service to be removed from the bill

The knock to Americans' tipping reputation didn't stop there. Despite common etiquette suggesting 20% is the golden amount to give, the average percentage-based tip respondents left was 12.9%.

Seven in ten Americans (70.2%) said they had asked for service charges to be removed from the bill at some point, and three in ten (29.7%) said they do so often.

What does the march towards a cashless society mean for 'keep the change' culture? When asked whether they were more likely to tip by cash or card, 39% said that cash was optimal, one in four said card (25.4%), 23.4% said it makes no difference and 12.1% said they were most likely to tip when presented with an gratuity option on the card reader.

Women are three times a likely to leave a big tip

Who are the stingiest - and most generous - amongst us?

Women are slightly more generous than men and are more likely to always tip - (33.2% compared to 28.6%). They are also more than three times likely to leave a large tip behind (6% said they would tip more than 20% compared to 1.8% of men).

Are people with bigger wallets bigger tippers? The study also examined the correlation between income and gratuity. Although those earning $100k + were more likely than average to always tip (35.6%) it was the $75,000 - $85,000 bracket who were most consistently generous (47% - substantially above the 30.7% average).

And when it came to amount given although the highest earners were more likely to tip more than average (with 37.29% tipping between 15-20%), the wage group most likely to tip more than 20% were again the $75,000 - $85,000 bracket who had a 15.2% chance of tipping big (that's 3.8 times more often than average).

The tightest tippers? The most likely age group to never tip were the $25,000 - $35,000 and $75,000 - $85,000 age bracket (both with 6.8%). Unsurprisingly, those with smaller incomes were more likely to just offer the change (with those earning less than $25,000 doing so 30% of the time, and $25,000 - $35,000 doing so 15.9% of the time).

Seven in ten Gen-Z have asked to remove tips from their bill - and four in ten often do so

The older generations were more likely to keep things traditional and still tip the golden standard of 15-20% whereas younger generations were more likely to ditch percentages and round up or add on five to ten dollars.

Age	By percentage: 15-20%	Keep the change	Round up by between 5 - 10 dollars
18-25	10.53%	14.04%	20.18%
26-41	12.11%	12.39%	22.36%
42-56	19.57%	7.66%	17.87%
57-65	38.89%	8.33%	16.67%
Over 65	52.94%	5.88%	5.88%

More self-confidently, there was a clear generational divide on whether you can ask to remove the service charge from the bill. Perhaps most polite, the group most likely to have never done this are the over 65+s (64.7% had never done this), meanwhile, a huge 73.7% of Gen Z said they'd done this - with 40.4% saying they did this often.

There was a clear generational pattern on this topic: the older you are, the less likely you will have asked to have the service charge removed, and the younger you are the more likely you will have often asked for it to be taken off the bill.

Two in three tip to avoid awkwardness (65.6%) or confrontation (63.1%) - and 59.6% said servers have reacted aggressively over tips

It's not surprising that good service is the main intention to tip (60%), but what else motivates Americans to keep their servers sweet?

Around two in three Americans are 'guilt tipping' - tipping purely to avoid awkwardness (65.6%) or confrontation (63.1%). This is not without good reason - 59.6% of respondents said that servers have reacted aggressively when they have either not left a tip, or 'not left enough'. The other reasons Americans tip are:

Most likely reasons to tip:

Reason to tip	%
Because of good service	60.0%
To supplement the servers income	46.1%
To receive better service in the future	38.7%
Because it's polite	38.7%
To flirt with the server	22.9%
Out of habit	21.2%

But what are the main reasons Americans aren't tipping? The biggest reason to leave out the tip was because of poor service (47.7%) but the next biggest reason - perhaps reflecting the cost of living crisis - was to save money (41.3%). [2]

Most likely reasons to not tip:

Reason to not tip	%
Poor service	47.7%
To save money	41.3%
Wait time	38.4%
Poor quality food	32.5%
If no service was really required from the staff	24.4%
The business should pay their staff enough	24.1%
Don't trust management to give the tip to employees	20.6%
Different cultural attitude towards tipping	16.6%

Three in four (76.1%) Americans say that tipping culture has gone too far

Now that we understand the general landscape of why and how we tip, how do we feel about changes in tip culture? When we asked whether tip culture has gone too far, 76.1% said yes - but why? We dug deeper to find out.

Almost half of Americans (47.3%) have been asked to tip at automated/self-service, and to tip at a convenience store (45.5%)

Anecdotes of people asking for tips upfront, of automated machines at the airport charging for gratuity and of tip jars at bodegas have prompted new phrases like 'tip creep' and 'guilt tipping' to trend.[3] To find out if this is just clickbait news or the new normal, we asked which of the following extreme tipping situations Americans had encountered.

Despite nearly eight in ten Americans (79.3%) agreeing that self-service machines asking for tips is going too far, it's also something 47.3% have experienced. Shockingly, 39.7% have been told upfront that they would receive a worse service if they didn't tip - and 20% have experienced a situation where tipping was compulsory.

One of the proposed solutions to an increasingly intensified tipping culture is to raise the minimum wage of servers. Unlike in European countries - where minimum wage is consistent across all job types - in the U.S. the system is a bit more complicated for tipped employees.

If an employee makes $5.12 or more from tips per hour, then the minimum cash wage they are entitled to receive is $2.13. This is the national law, but the minimum wage varies wildly across the country. In total eighteen states follow the $2.13 minimum wage structure, but many states don't, in fact in Washington, the minimum wage is $16.28 before tips. [4]

This is a divisive, and very current issue - with supporters arguing that it reduces exploitation, and critics saying this will reduce employment opportunities or actually reduce take-home income if it discourages tipping. [5]

When we asked "Do you think the minimum wage should be increased from $2.13 an hour", eight in ten (84.1%) agreed. Nearly all (96.49%) of 18-25 year olds and 57-65 year olds (97.22%) agreed whereas the most likely to object were those aged between 26-41 (79.06%).

56.2% feel social pressure to tip with friends, and 71.9% feel pressured to tip on a date

Social pressure also influences our tipping behavior. More than half (56.2%) feel pressure to tip when with friends and 71.9% feel pressured to tip on a date. Not only do people feel pressure to tip on a date, but two in ten (22.7%) tip more than usual when courting a partner.

Does this show of generosity pay off? Only 21.3% said they wouldn't judge a date by how much they tipped, but this doesn't necessarily mean the issue is cut and dry. The most common answer is that 24.9% only judge their date for not tipping if the service was good, 20.8% find it embarrassing if their date leaves a small tip and 17.4% only find it unattractive if they don't tip at all.

Only two in ten wouldn't judge their date by how much they tip

But if you think the safest bet to impress your date is to leave a big tip then think again. Out of all the options, around 15.6% said the behavior that would put them off the most is leaving a flashy tip.

People don't just tip to charm their date. In fact, when we asked for reasons why people tipped, one in five (22%) admitted to tipping to flirt with the server, and 21.9% said they frequently left their number on the bill. Even if your date doesn't go down well, who knows, perhaps you'll find more success behind the bar.

Six in ten service workers rely on tips for more than 30% of their income

To gain an insider perspective, we also surveyed service workers about their experiences to gauge how vital tips are to their livelihoods.

When we asked those who have - or work currently - in the service industry how often they were tipped, the most common response (42%) was that they were 'sometimes' tipped. More than a quarter (27.2%) said they were always tipped, and 23.5% said it happened often.

A typical annual salary for a U.S. service industry worker (which includes roles like restaurant servers, hairdressers and cab drivers) is between 31,896 USD to 67,836 USD. [6] Restaurant servers have a particularly low salary, at $28,176 per year - which is $541 a week or $13.55 an hour. [7]

We asked service industry workers how much they received per week in tips for their job. The average amount a member of the service industry receives in tips is $290. We also asked service industries the proportion of their wage which comes from tips. When you excluded people who made more from tips than their wage (11.9%) the average service industry worker made 49.7% of their earnings in tips.

Half of servers would prefer to be paid a living wage with no tips

When asked, two in five tipped employees (38.5%) are being paid a wage of between $7.25-$10 per hour before tips, with one in three 32% being paid at least $10 an hour. Two in ten (19.5%) are operating on a system where if they make $5.12 or more from tips per hour, the minimum cash wage they are entitled to receive is $2.13.

But how would servers like to be paid? MIT estimates the national living wage to be $25 - which means the majority of tipped employees in our study have to make ends meet with far less.[8] When asked, half (51%) of all tipped employees would prefer to have a wage of $25 per hour and no tips, 39.3% would prefer more optional tipping and 9.7% like the minimum wage and current tipping culture.

Compared to the population average of 84.1%, 99.9% of the service industry workers we polled were for the minimum wage being increased from $2.13. Just shy of half (47.8%) of service industry workers wanted the service charge to be made mandatory too - above the study average of 38.9%.

It's perhaps not surprising that half of the service industry workers we interviewed want to move away from a tipping culture. Three quarters (73.7%) said that they had noticed customers tipping less than they used to, with the most affected industry being taxi and transport servers (87.8% had noticed a drop in gratuity).

Do you think people are tipping less than they did historically?

Which service industry do you work in?	No	No change	Yes
Taxi or transport services	12.2%		87.8%
Beauty and wellness services	17.5%	3.5%	79%
Restaurant, cafe or bar work	20.6%	5.9%	73.5%
Food delivery	21.8%	5%	73.2%
Hospitality	33.3%	2.6%	64.1%

This isn't just a perception - these figures are consistent with the general finding that 71% of respondents said they were tipping less now than they have historically.

Half of tipped workers substantially underreport the amount they earn in tips

Less than one in ten (6.8%) say that they've never felt awkward asking for tips, with just over half (54.3%) often feeling uncomfortable asking for tips, and 38.9% sometimes feeling uncomfortable. And - supporting the earlier finding that 59.6% have experienced aggression from a server over the topic of tips - 46.1% said they often confronted customers who didn't tip fairly, and 46.1% sometimes did, meaning that only 7.6% never had.

But awkwardness and desperation are the tip of the ice-burg when it comes to some of the murkier issues swirling around tipping culture.

One argument about the abolishment of tip culture is that it promotes sexism, racism and exploitation. These concerns are backed up by the data.

And when it came to gender differences and harassment culture, the most unanimous response in the survey was to the question "are more attractive servers tipped more" with 90.7% responding yes. When examining the demographics of who tipped what, female servers were almost twice as likely to have been tipped above $100 in one go (16.01% versus 9.14% of men).

Wage theft is a very real concern too: 57.4% said management definitely or probably skimmed from tips, 30.2% thought they maybe do, while the rest (12.4%) weren't sure or didn't think so. Perhaps influenced by this, 88.8% of servers said they had kept tips directly given to them - with 35.9% admitting they always did so. Eight in ten (83.3%) service industry workers said they had pocketed a $100+ tip given directly to them.

By law, tipped employees have to report what they earn in gratuity. This is a complicated process which involves daily recordkeeping and does not include service charges. When there is mistrust of employers, and a low salary it is unsurprising that 87.8% said they underreport the amount of tips they are given - with 51.2% of respondents saying they do so substantially.

Methodology

We ran two surveys between January and February 2024, surveying 1,827 Americans overall. For the customers and general populations perspective, we surveyed 1,199 Americans through Amazon's survey platform about topics relating to tipping and service charges. Of these, 842 had worked or currently work in the service industry.

The breakdown of the people we surveyed was as follows:

Age ranges:

• 18-25: 10.9%

• 26-41: 62%

• 42-56: 21.8%

• 57-65: 3.6%

• Over 65: 1.8%

Gender:

• Female - 52.8%

• Male - 46.9%

• Non-binary - 0.3%

For a deeper insight into the inside perspective, we surveyed 628 more Americans - 564 of which have current or previous service industry experience.

The breakdown of the people we surveyed was as follows:

• 18-25: 16.3%

• 26-41: 63.1%

• 42-56: 20%

• 57-65: 0.4%

• Over 65: 0.2%

Gender:

• Female - 46.5%

• Male - 53.5%

References

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