Consumers say they're pulling back on tipping servers, drivers and hair stylists
Consumers say they're pulling back on tipping servers, drivers and hair stylists
Higher sticker prices have made some people stingier in recent years, a new Bankrate survey finds. “They’re no longer appreciating service industry workers as much.”
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
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.
When they flip that screen, I cringe. US tip culture sucks.
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.
I’ll tip my waiter/waitress. I refuse to tip a PoS device. I have no shame selecting the “No tip” button on those things.
If everyone stopped tipping at the same time, say labor day, then businesses would need to properly pay their staff again. As soon as tipping became expected the whole system was fucked.
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.
I don't know about hairdressers and drivers, but many servers are legally paid less than minimum wage because they are expected to make up the difference in tips.
So this is essentially people being fucked over by not being paid enough fucking over other people who aren't being paid enough. And if you object to them not being paid enough, the solution isn't to not tip them, it's to not go to the restaurant.
Pizza Hut prompted me for a (minimum) 18% tip on a take out order. I could see tipping for takeout if it's a large, complicated order, but this was not. 18% is for standard table service.
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.
- 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.
I worked in craft beer pre-pandemic. Man, beer release days were nice. Get a bunch of bozos all lined up for the minute we open, all want a whole case of the latest IPA for like $100, all of em blindly tapping the 20% tip option. Like, homie, I did nothing for that tip. I'm over here bartending, getting less from the people I'm actually serving beers to. Thanks I guess?
So now, especially that the economy is fucked, I'm very particular about what I tip on.
Yesterday I went to a juice place. Got 2 bottles of juice and a fruit bowl thing. I'm only tipping on the fruit bowl thing. I'll tip 20% on it, but you simply grabbed the bottle of juice from a fridge. That's not a service.
All in all it looks like an 8% tip, because their juice is $11 a bottle and the fruit bowl is like $20 after everything I added to it.
$4 tip. That's 20% on your $20 bowl. I'm ignoring the other $22 on the bill. That wasn't a service. I'm not tipping $9 for this interaction. A fruit bowl and two juices isn't worth $51 dollars. It's hard enough to justify the $4 tip when the juice is $11... The boss can't pay you better with margins like that? Or is the fruit vendor raking it in? Fruit isn't that expensive...
I don't get it.
they should honestly ban tips on credit card machines and mandate a "cashback" option instead allowing 1-10 dollars of cash back.
- laughs in european *
