Tipping is a bizarre practice but Americans seem to like it and it’s spread to much of the world where it didn’t used to be customary. But tipping practices vary even in the United States. Better for workers to be paid their full wage by their employer, and price listings to reflect the full cost of goods, services and experiences.
If you’re going to tip, tip for actual services provided. Tipping when picking up fast casual food ‘to go’ or when you’re in line buying food at a place where you’ll bus your own table just doesn’t make sense, the pre-populated tip percentages on the tablet you’re asked to pay with notwithstanding.
Nationally consumers are tipping:
- 16.9% on bills at quick-service restaurants
- 19.6% on bills at full-service restaurants
- 14.5% on takeout and delivery
Percentage of tips is misleading, though, because the base on which that percentage is calculated varies a lot. An expensive restaurant with a pricey wine list is different than sub-$20 meals. You’d expect higher percentage tips on lower bills, for instance $4 on $20 is 20%, but $100 on $800 is ‘only’ 12.5%.
According to data from restaurant management system Toast, the ‘top tipping states’ are:
1 Indiana: Avg. tip of 21%
#2 West Virginia: Avg. tip of 20.8%
#3 Ohio: Avg. tip of 20.7%
#4 Delaware: Avg. tip of 20.7%
#5 Kentucky: Avg. tip of 20.7%
#6 Wyoming: Avg. tip of 20.5%
#7 New Hampshire: Avg. tip of 20.4%
#8 Wisconsin: Avg. tip of 20.3%
#9 South Carolina: Avg. tip of 20.3%
#10 Pennsylvania: Avg. tip of 20.2%
And the bottom tipping states are:
#1 California: Avg. tip of 17.5%
#2 Washington: Avg. tip of 18.3%
#3 Florida: Avg. tip of 18.5%
#4 New York: Avg. tip of 18.5%
#5 Hawaii: Avg. tip of 18.8%
#6 Texas: Avg. tip of 18.8%
#7 Nevada: Avg. tip of 18.8%
#8 Louisiana: Avg. tip of 18.9%
#9 New Jersey: Avg. tip of 18.9%
#10 Arkansas: Avg. tip of 18.9%
I have to think that some of the bottom-tipping states have some of the highest dining bills (California, New York and New Jersey, Hawaii, Las Vegas) and so it may be that people in these states are actually tipping the most, not the least, even if the percentages are lower.
And it may be the case that dining in West Virginia and Kentucky skew fast casual, so higher percentage tips on a lower base bill. Are Ohioans especially generous tippers, or do they eat less expensive meals? We’d need more data from Toast about the restaurants on their platform in each state to say.
What they don’t tell you about is all of the other situations where people might tip. Marriott was first out of the gate trying to get you to pay the wages of housekeepers directly, to save hotels money, by leaving little envelopes in rooms.
But did you know that American Airlines customer service employees are allowed to accept perishable gifts worth less than $100? So pack those chocolates for your next trip. But don’t tip in Flagship First Dining and you’re not expected to tip in an American Express Centurion lounge but tipping at the bar and in the spa where offered is permitted.
The truth is that you can get away with rounding up, and doing whatever feels comfortable. The important thing is not to feel pressured about tipping, or be made to feel uncomfortable by the experience.
I’m with ya Gary. I hate tips. Also hate certain groups of people. But we have to keep up the polite fiction.
I vote Democrat but I hate at least 20% of Democrats due to their outrageous extremism accelerating the demise of the country. Good news for me is I speak fluent Mandarin and can move to Beijing as soon as they become the next world superpower.
The minimum acceptable to these days is 20% but many Republicans still tip 15-18% which shows how behind the times and ignorant they are of the modern world.
Actual Statistician, dumbest statement of the day? I do love Peking Duck though hmmm.
Don’t forget California is a huge state. The good people are concentrated in SF and LA. Venture even 50 miles away from either city center and you may as well be in the Deep South with their ignorance and lack of class.
1. In my experience (as a non-Ohioan who has spent a lot of time there over the past 20 years), Ohioans are indeed generous tippers.
2. Lumping takeout and delivery data together is silly. Who is tipping the same way in both of those scenarios?
Tipping – The great ruse. I only tip for great service. Employers love the fact that people have been brainwashed that they need/have to tip – because of this, employers do not have to pay their employees what they should be paying them. I am not responsible to give my money to someone when they are doing their job – I don’t receive tips while I am at work and I don’t expect to be tipped.
@Actual Statistician: I adore the arrogance.
Looking forward to seeing your world come crashing down to reality when the Dems are slaughtered in the mid-term elections because the majority of the country doesn’t like the crap you are selling and certainly don’t like the effects they are witnessing.
But keep up with the name calling. Makes it easy to spot the demented progressives.
@Actual Statistician – It is easy to spot a lying liberal, such as yourself – you/they are the ones walking around with their heads fully inserted into their anal orifice.
for a statistician, you clearly don’t get the concept that the LA and SF metros ARE the vast majority of where dining dollars are spent and average reflects that.
Perhaps when you get to Beijing, you’ll have time to dust off the textbooks.
Whatever the reason, the notion that flyover country people are more generous than the coastal elite has got to be blowing up Hillary and Joe’s brains.
David Miller- you should be grateful for the current system. If tipping was eliminated and establishments had to raise their prices to compensate (many friends who bartend and serve make $30-$50/hr) you would have to pay up. With the current system, the prices remain the same, and you get to fly under the radar like the cheapskate you are.
Slanky – when the day comes that I receive tips for doing my job will be the day I consider tipping for less than great service. Calling one a “cheapskate” – do I tell you how to spend your money, moron?
Don’t forget there is sometimes this notion that tipping is supposed to offset the reduced wages of tipped workers. That is not the case in CA and WA (and a handful of states) which require the same minimum wage for all workers, before tips. To that end, the concept of the customer picking up reduced wages doesn’t exist as much in these states, which could explain part of why they tip lower, and why some of the high tipping states appear to be in areas with less progressive labor laws.
Only in America – where the people serving us alcohol and fried foods are actually voluntarily given more money by us but when asked to volunteer more money to teachers and cops (via taxes) we yell communism. Tipping needs to go away as fast as the media got rid of the hunter biden laptop story.
Anyone ever put a big fat ZERO on the tip line at a high end restaurant? I dared the server to challenge me, but he didn’t. Santa Fe years ago. Otherwise I’m a cross the board 20% and from the deep South Thank You.
I agree with Gary’s reasoning on this one. Prices should reflect all costs.
I believe many servers in restaurants don’t keep their tips. Tips are often pooled and shared among various groups of employees in various percentages. While customers think they are rewarding their server, most of the reward is probably going to others with whom they have had no contact. Leaving a big tip can make some people feel important or good about themselves.
LOL @David Miller actually eating the troll’s spam! Bwahaha what a sucker 😀 😀 😀
I’ve waited tables and lived off tips to pay my higher education. As much as I appreciate this unreported cash income, tipping is getting out of hand in the USA. Going up to a counter for cup. of beverage and the POS systems are only giving you options of 20, 22 and 25% is ridiculous.
Is “TIPPING” a name of a City in China?
Uncle Jeff makes a great point. Denver tipped wages go to 14.26 per hour on 1/1/23. More and more places have to do tip pooling or “service charges” to balance front and back of house wages.
Who the hell tips for take out?
Gary – you are supposed to tip the same percentage (20% or so on total bill – used to be pretax) regardless of amount. In the example you had with an $800 bill you tip 20% ($160) not $100 simply because the bill was more!
Also Actual Statistician (one of my majors BTW) you are wrong. Most Republicans like me too very well but there is a significant group of reliable Democratic voters that rarely tip well (and I also worked as a waiter years ago so have first hand knowledge)
@heckfair – anyone with a brain tips on takeout. My daughter worked takeout and there is significant effort to assemble the order, make sure it is correct and ensure the customer is happy.
Now I do 15% on take out (or delivery) instead of 20% but you should tip takeout (except at a fast food restaurant)
Rather than ranking the states, I find it far more interesting how tightly grouped they are. There really isn’t that much of a difference between the top and bottom. If you aren’t leaving 18-20%, they’re noticing.
I think there may be a correlation between charitable donations by state and tipping, but would need to dig into it a bit more. Would be interesting if true.
I did tip take out during Covid – I appreciated the fact that they were out there while I was working from home. Or lost their jobs when everything shut down for months at a time. Now, starting to dial that back.
The lowest tipping states are also the most international tourist heavy, and thus may not tip to the levels of Americans.
Agree with @David Miller
It’s all a scam by the ARA to pass on the buck (living wages) from corporations & business owners to the sheep (the dining public) – don’t fall for this scam!
The bottom line is: tip if you want to, afterall it’s your money! But I have yet to see stellar service to warrant a 20% or more tip!!!
@Jerry… When have taxes ever been “voluntary”?
@Kalboz – be cheap if you want but don’t rationalize it by asserting you didn’t receive stellar service and that is why you don’t tip. Like it or not tipping is expected for certain professions and they don’t have to go above and beyond to “earn” it. I was in Iceland and Sweden recently with almost no tipping (the few places that has a tip line I usually left 10% which is generous there). It was very nice but that isn’t the US. You are expected to tip. You can while about it being a scam but if you can afford to eat out you can afford a 20% tip to the servers. Yes they are underpaid and it would be nice if tipping wasn’t required for them to make a living wage but that is the way things are so get with the program.
On the other hand if you regularly go to any restaurants and don’t tip (or tip a small percentage) I expect you have had your food spit in numerous times so enjoy that.
AC – what kind of an idiot tips on an amount that includes tax?
Fred – I make it simple. Just multiply the total by .2 You can round down to eliminate cents and it ends up being 19+% of total w tax and likely 20-21% pretax. The tax amount isn’t enough to worry about and if $1 either way bugs you then you have other issues. Just don’t eat out in places that expect a tip if you won’t go with the convention and ensure the servers (and others that split tips) are taken care of.
BTW – I am retired and have no “skin in the game” related to restaurant workers just feel we should all follow the conventions and not quible.
A $215 check (my last one) had 7.5% tax, that’s $16.13. An extra $3.23 doesn’t bother me, today, but doesn’t scale well over the course of the year. The server hasn’t done shit for that tax, so why would I tip on it? The “convention” is to tip, not to follow meaningless “guidance” from worthless buffoons like you – who more than likely is a McDonald’s customer anyway.
@Kalboz – Are you so brainwashed that you actually think that tipping is “expected” and “people don’t have to earn it”? And that “if you can afford to eat out you can afford to tip”? And if you don’t tip you can expect to have your food spit in? Grab a dictionary or Google the word “moron” – then go to any mirror, look at the image and say ” I am a moron”.
@Fred – haven’t eaten a McDonalds burger in years. Everywhere I go a tip is expect and I usually do 20% of the total. If you want to be cheap over the tax then you be you but I don’t worry about a few extra dollars one way or the other. BTW I like Del Frisco’s where my wife and I typically run around a $250 bill and I gladly add a $50 tip
Finally, all my meals (and tips) are paid by me (since I’m retired) I like most of you that are cheap even on the company dime. SMH
@David Miller – well we know you are cheap. Jesus the reasons people bring up to avoid tipping (which is expected in the US in 2022 whether you like it or not) is amazing.
AC – You spend your money any way you want -I will spend mine likewise. You will not tell me how to spend my money – calling another person “cheap” is an insult. Don’t tell me “what is expected in the U.S.” – expected by who – people such as yourself who have to have others others them how to conduct their lives? Save your “orders” and “expectations” for those who havn’t a clue, such as yourself, and apparently need/want others to direct them thru life.
I guess what is going over everyone’s head here is that if the businesses are passing the buck to the dining public by having them compensate their staff via tips, the other option is for them to pass the buck to the dining public again if there was no tipping because they would raise the prices dramatically. Staff are not going to just take a 60-80% pay cut. There is a precedent of what a server can earn, what a busser can earn, what a dishwasher can earn. I do payroll for a mom and pop restaurant, and most of the staff earn most of their money from tips.
@David Miller – Mirror or no mirror, a moron is a “person” such as yourself with zero comprehension!
As for the other, @AC your erroneous assumption that I don’t tip or I need to rationalize anything to your or your likes! The bottom line, the tipping culture is a scam perpetrated against working people and the dining public!
I keep thinking that the expansion of tipping in restaurants is going to kill the golden goose. Restaurant dining in America is generally a bad use of disposable income now: with higher costs, it’s just too expensive for what it is, and then you have to add a high tip to avoid looking like a cheapskate. I have to believe that most Americans are eating out less, which would obviously be bad for that that industry.
I wish that commenters here would avoid political statements. This is a travel forum, not a place to express your disdain for members of one political party or the other.
Tipping is out of control. A few retired buddies and I recently had pub food and beers at a new local bar. A couple dozen craft beers were on tap; you served yourself and paid by the ounce. After each pour, you were offered a percentage to tip even though you were the person pouring the beer and the payment was automated. Food was ordered by scanning a QR code on your table and then selecting what you wanted on your phone. A text message informed you when the food was ready (several minutes late and not warm, but that’s another issue) so that you could walk to the bar to pick up your dish. Payment for food, of course, included choices of 17%, 20%, 25%, and, if you looked deeply for the small text in a link, offered a custom choice. The food fill also included a non-negotiable 4.8% service fee for the kitchen staff.
I tip generously at a normal sit down restaurant, especially after COVID. But, to expect tips at a place like this where the customer does all the serving, except for removing dishes from tables, is ludicrous.
I’m to the right of Genghis Khan, live in marxist Evanston IL, and I never tip less than 25%, often more. I appreciate the hard work that service folks do. I grew up working class (went to college and have a successful career), and I know the value of hard work…
The comments never disappoint. As someone who used to wait tables and bartend. I now travel. When I see the 18% in certain areas on your post, it is because it is added to the bill. I was hoping to see your list include by occupation, gender….. lol jk. Your server probably already knows if s/he will be tipped. There was an amazing post on let’s eat south Florida, where a local restaurant gave teachers free meals up to $35 this week. A teacher still complained. (Teachers are usually the worst tippers)
Gee Wendy I wonder why teachers aren’t so generous with tips. I have a hunch. You feel me?
Tipping is so out of hand. And getting more entitled.
Teachers are paid a lot more than they claim they are, especially considering the amount of time they have off. Don’t make me pull out the actual numbers for urban and suburban teachers with 10 years experience, it won’t be pretty.
I remember a few years ago, a school district in our area tried to pass a tax increase to increase teacher salaries, after the pulled their usual poverty claim. It was initially favored, until someone realized that what teachers are paid is a public record. Once the residents of the district saw the teachers were already making more that most of the district’s residents, the proposal went down to flaming defeat. Teacher pay has never been brought up as a reason for a tax increase since.
Remember the markets that Toast generally services. You’re getting much larger sample sizes in places like California and usually at more expensive places. Further, wait staff must be paid at least minimum wage in California, regardless of whether they are tipped. None of this abusivr $2.62 an hour and tip credit BS. Californians are aware that staff are being paid at least $15 an hour, or more depending on the municipality, and the guilt factor in pushing tips to the extreme isn’t there. In bigger cities like San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, wait staff regularly earn 6 figure incomes.