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4w ago

Americans are tipping less than they have in years

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.

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4w ago

Americans are tipping less than they have in years

www.wsj.com /business/hospitality/restaurant-tip-fatigue-servers-covid-9e198567

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4w ago

WSJ: Americans Are Tipping Less Than They Have in Years

www.wsj.com /business/hospitality/restaurant-tip-fatigue-servers-covid-9e198567

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267 comments

You can bet there was some more tolerance for it when there was some guilt for office workers staying at home while service roles had to stay on site during the height of covid.
The fact that so many point of sale make it a default thing to put it directly out there for someone to tip before any service is done and with that decision in view of everyone around doesn't sit well either
- I'm so fucking done with it, that I just assume everyone behind me is too. I happily hit that "No tip" button. Unless you provided an active service for me, or went above and beyond to get me something, then why do you deserve a tip? I have to pay you extra money for you to do your job correctly?
  
  It's actually driven moreso by the point-of-sale vendors. They enable it by default, because they make a percentage of the transaction as a processing fee. The merchant has to request that it be disabled.
  
  I only tip at restaurants and when I get my hair cut. All of this new tipping stuff, I have always assumed was just a generic update to enable it basically everywhere... I've always hit no tip... I don't feel bad for it... You're not getting paid 2 dollars an hour working at some random place that's not a restaurant... I've heard stories of employees not even getting those tips... It's a push for greed... That's it
- And the default options are 20, 25, 30 some places.
  
  Ive been at multiple places starting at 30. Fuck that.
- I was in SoCal several months back and ended up in a candy shop. Nothing but drawers of candy on the walls and one desk in the middle with a young woman sitting behind the checkout tablet. I had a question or two, but she was neither helpful or knowledgeable (it's candy. not a difficult topic). She seemed very disinterested in engagement.
  Well, I finish my selection, she scans and the tablet shows the totals with the big tip screen (NoTip-15-20-25%). I was taken aback that her job would get tips and wondered if she was paid enough before I smashed the NoTip button to finish up since she hadn't done a thing to merit one.

Blame the companies, not the customers. I bought a $12 water at a concert and the attendant acted offended I didn't tip. Don't get mad at me.
- Yea, we're getting exhausted from being constantly barraged by demands for tips.
- I would never go back to that venue. $12 for a water...
- You're fine with getting overcharged for the concert and the water, but paying the worker for their time is where you draw the line?
  
  Most people going to concerts can't exactly leave the building, find a different store selling water, buy it, then bring it back in through the concert venue. (Nor are they capable of magically knowing the prices inside beforehand) The reason the price was so high was likely because the venue knew they had a captive audience, and when people need water, they need water. If someone is just forced to pay $12 for water, asking them to subsidize your worker's wages on top is a shitty move, and if nobody tips, then maybe that company will realize that they can't subsidize the wages they pay with tips, and stop relying on them.
  Then the attendant gets paid fairly from the get go, and they don't need to be offended if someone doesn't tip, because why the hell should anybody have to subsidize a corporation's wages? If they want workers, charge what's required in the price to pay those workers, no tip required.

I mean...
2016, I went to a bar and got a 16oz beer, a burger and a basket of fresh fries for $18. I was happy to throw $3-5 on that for decent service, hell even subparbaervice.
Now it's an 11oz beer being sold as a 12oz beer for $9 and a $22 burger, add fries for $4
If I get 2 beers, it's $50 with a tip.
The fuck?
- Well, I mean, are you going to continue to go out and hand them all that money? Then they'll continue to feel like they can safely raise prices. If you start making burgers at home and buying beer at the local liquor store, you'll be paying a small fraction of what you paid even in 2016. If you need some social interaction, just make it a cookout and invite people. I'm sure they'll be happy to have you at their place in return.
  
  Making an awful lot of (mostly irrelevant) assumptions here.
  I'm simply stating that inflation is a big reason that people don't tip as much.
  
  It's all well and good for him of he stops going, but look at places like McDonald's which has increased prices 100% in the last couple years. They are getting less business so they raise price to compensate. Now the addicts are getting priced gouged even more, so that the line goes up. Late stage capitalism is a motherfucker.

good work Americans, keep it up.
don't stop until the rate is 0%. paying workers is the employer's job.
- Sometimes people try to bring tipping culture to NZ. We show them the door.
  Whats funny is when Americans dont care about our non tipping culture and tip anyway
  
  I once worked for an American company that had a requirement that if you're using company money to pay for a meal, you tip at least 20%.
  That was very awkward in some countries...
  
  saw that once. The waiter said "I am not allowed to accept tips" and the american looked confused/offended. Thought it was quite funny
  
  One time after a meal out in Wellington, the waiter chased us up the street - he'd just realised he overcharged us for wine, and was bringing us the cash.
- Yeah! Thank you so much for punishing the servers and delivery drivers instead of business owners and making it harder for me to pay rent and feed myself! You're all such wonderful people!
  
  That's like employers holding someone hostage and then claiming any harm that comes to them is your fault.
  
  How about you be angry at the business owner for paying a shit wage? Tips should be a bonus you get for a job well done not something that makes your life liveable, that's what your wage is for. We aren't to blame if your boss is a piece of shit who refuses to pay you a liveable wage.
  
  You're a victim of the system you're protecting. Enough with the Stockholm Syndrome.
  
  I mean this is the better way to do it honestly. People generally tipping less means those positions basically pay less. The whole reason people work those jobs is because with good tips you can make some serious bank. Stop making bank, people will move elsewhere, can't hire servers because tips don't pay well enough? Then start paying them. If the alternative is everyone just stops tipping tomorrow then people would really be screwed, because they wouldn't have time to transition.
  Sure it sucks they're getting paid less, but if the alternative is this "you better pay our workers so they can eat because we ain't gonna do it" then I'd say it's a pretty welcome change.
  It's also not like the tip amount dropped to 5% or something. Prices have been going nuts lately, so the tips are probably about the same cash amount as they have been, which is just a smaller percent of the now larger bill.
  
  nah, by law if nobody tipped, they'd have to be paid by their employer in full. You're not punishing them, you're just not accepting responsibility that, by law, is not yours

Worker advocacy groups are pushing to eliminate the tipped-wage system, while the restaurant industry warns these shifts hurt business and employees.
Imagine having to pay a living wage, burger prices would explode!
Except, for example, there is a 12.82€ minimum wage in Germany and a hamburger ist still around 2€ at Burger King (about 1:1 in $ atm). Food and work safety are stricter too iirc. Workers also have 20 days of vacation minimum (if your work full-time), 60h weeks maximum @ 40h on average, as well as extra pay for night, weekend and holiday shifts. And health insurance is about 200 a month at that income I think.
Edit: Oh, and of course still 5-20% tipps.
You are getting screwed over completely. Anyone who claims otherwise is your enemy.
- We had 150 million people decide to keep things going the way they are. Until a major slice of shit hits the proverbial fan, nothing will change. The American population is too fat, stupid, and lazy to make the change on its own.
- I think it's more of a subsidizing thing. In the UK they get all these things and can't budge due to pushback and culture, so they subsidize those costs with cuts to other places, like shrinkflation in the US, and other places. Costs went up to ship their foodstuffs all over the world, buuuut they enabled tipping at POS in the US, getting poor suckers to make up the difference (they hope)
  Not an excuse, but if the US put in place the same things the UK has, fast food would lose their biggest cost subsidy for more expensive places like the UK, and prices would actually go up (because the corpo suits can't take a fuckin pay cut obviously!)
- People who earn tips don't want "liveable" wages. They would hate the pay cut.

Stop tipping culture. Pay your workers.

American tip culture is fucked, and it has been for a very long time. Once gas stations started begging for a tip on my soft drinks I figured it was about time to rip the band aid off.
Unfortunately tipping less means wait staff are gonna get fucked -- no way to soften that. We need to get to a place where their livelihoods aren't dependent on generosity.
- at one point they need to learn that to protect their livelihood unionize is the answer, not asking customers to subsidize what the employers are not giving.
- I still tip wait staff 20% I just don’t tip at the grocery store. The most egregious I’ve seen was a tip at a full self-service counter. Like who am I even tipping? The cash register?
  
  I still tip wait staff 20%….
  Why? Did your salary increase with inflation these last several years vs food pricing that’s unhinged from reality?
  15% is the new normal.
- I did self checkout for the first timw last week. Mothee fucking thing asked for a tip!
- They what?
- no way to soften that
  Don't go there. E Z
  
  I don't understand how this is any different to just not tipping? Both situations lead to the worker needing to look for another job, right?

This is only going to get worse as late-stage capitalism continues to wring every last penny it can out of the working class.

I wonder if all of the places like Subway that are asking for tips and getting $0 because who the hell tips at a Subway, are throwing off this stat at all.
- Probably not directly, but I think tipping fatigue is definitely affecting things. If you’ve been prompted 10 times already to tip at places you usually wouldn’t tip and then are in a sit down restaurant, you may very well feel inclined to tip less.
  
  Employees at places like Subway and Starbucks could be getting screwed by no one using cash anymore too.
  If I'm using a card there's no change to toss in the jar.
- Considering the article specifies “full-service restaurants,” Imma go with no
- People will judge you more for going to a subway in the first place then not tipping at one.
  You can make a sandwich. I believe in you.
  
  You don't go to subway because you want a sandwich. You go to subway because you know you need to put a food like substance in your food hole and you don't have the time or mental capacity to do it properly.

When was a kid in the 90s, tip was 10% of the $20 bill. By the time I was eating out a lot in my 20s we left 15% on the $35 because we liked the servers. Now the check is $50 and the "recommended" is creeping past 30%.
- Yes this irks me to no end. The tips were going up on their own, so why did the percentage go up?
  
  Because wages didn't go up

I've seen tipping options on websites to pay your landlord
- I don’t get the ones for products. I pay for a trendy pillow or whatever, also shipping at a flat rate, but then there’s a tip button? I just know that’s going straight to Shopify or management.
- My electric company has a tip line when paying the bill.
- It's T I M E

"Corporations and Restaurants refuse to pay waiters a living wage, subsidizing their salaries with their already drawn thin customers' depressed wages."
There, I fixed the title so it identifies the actual problem rather than causing divisions in the working classes.

You flew too close to the sun, you insufferable, greedy pieces of shit. Pay your workers a livable wage yourself, we're done subsidizing your labor abuses.

A gas station that I go to added a tips jar a few years ago. Wtf. You aren't doing shit but tapping on a sale screen. I really like the people working there. They remember me and we chat. But I'm not tipping you because I bought a Gatorade and you rang it up.
On the other hand, I dated someone from another country who didn't live a tipping culture. When she covered a meal and didn't tip, I'd leave cash because I know it's expected. I was embarrassed that she didn't agree with our custom.
Tipping needs to go. Just pay people a fair wage.

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).
- I don’t really agree that restaurants couldn’t make it work. It’s just going to have to take all or nothing.
  Getting away from tipped wages is the real problem. Give all restaurant workers fair livable wages, they won’t be on tighter budgets on would spend more going out.
  Workers can’t live paycheck to paycheck just for the profits to sit in some CEO or owners back account. The economy is heathy with an exchange of money. More money in the pockets of the people the more they will spend.
  Of course it won’t work if one restaurant (or any single company) does it differently when everyone is still on tight budgets. You won’t get the business from your own employees but need others to have the means to come to you too.
- I'd rather we just eliminate wait staff in most places. There's almost zero value to a person over a tablet.

Tip fatigue is real. When every interaction with a touchpad asks you for a little something extra on top of inflation, it gets old fast.
I tip 20% when I get served by a person. I typically add 10-15% on carryout, for their troubles.
A brewery I go to weekly for dinner with friends recently changed the tip buttons on the pad to 18, 22, and 25. I like them a lot, but the place is pricey, and you have to go to the bar to order. They get the 18% button now. (I could do the math, but... beer)
- I typically add 10-15% on carryout, for their troubles.
  When will you start tipping your car dealer 10-15%? your lawyer? PCP? insurance agent?
  The troubles are real after all.
  Don't forget to tip your landlord while you're at it, and give an extra 10% to the fed come tax time (so now.)
  Do you tip 10-20% at the drive through? It's equivalent to take out except you don't have to get out of your car.
  Can't wait until we start tipping our colleagues for replying to our emails. It's only fair.

You all are nuts for how much you tip these days.
It used to be you tipped waiters at restaurants (not register jockeys), your hairdresser, the valet guy, the hotel maid, and maaaaybe the delivery guys if they went above and beyond hooked stuff up and you made them carry something heavy up 10 flights of stairs. That’s it.
The waiter got 10-15% for good service. I dunno about hairdressers but I think around 10% was normal. Everyone else got a few bucks to a fiver (unless you drove a Lamborghini)
Tipping landlords - are you kidding me? Tipping when you weren’t served? - gtfo Do you do it because you’re afraid of conflict? You’re doing it to yourselves - it was bad enough before and you all are just feeding the beast.
- The final straw for me was 5 Guys. They added a gratuity on (wtf for idk coz I got my own EVERYTHING) the ticket, then had the audacity to have a tip jar. Never going back.
- Tipping landlords
  Nobody does this.

Im glad I never eat out due to dietary restrictions. Why does ordering more expensive food entitle a server to more money for doing the same amount of work?
I assume I'm probably just too poor to understand.
- Excellent point about price of food vs tip.

Good! Tipping culture is NOT generosity; it is a symptom of an exploitative economic model that values capital accumulation more than basic human dignity.

I think at some point we need to agree as a society on a no-tipping day in which we stop paying tips, and just keep it up. After that point, no tipping for anything, and rather than not tipping being a stigma, tipping becomes a stigma.
- Not tipping doesn't fix the problem, it just hurts those barely getting by who are also victims of a shitty capitalist system.
  Going Luigi on those furthering income inequality would be better.
  
  We can do both. And the first encourages the second, as well as encouraging unions.
  The whole threat of workers suffering without tips is the financial equivalent of terrorism. "Fork over the cash or these innocents get it".
  It needs to end, and it's not going to end by giving into those demands.
  
  You can look at what happens when you actually go Luigi by looking at what happened with Luigi. They're the ones with the real guns and thanks to advertising dollars and social media ownership, control over the media narrative. Violence is the excuse they need to crack down.
  But they can't make us keep paying them.
- Just stop going to places that expect you to tip their workers. It's easy, as those are often the most expensive places to go to.

Tipping is beyond fucked up.
Guy at home depot loading your heavy ass lumber into the truck? No tip.
Some dipshit behind the counter punching numbers on a screen, you better believe that's a tippin!
STOP TIPPING unless somone is actually serving you!! Ask yourself, is this service closer to the guy loading the lumber, or the gas station attendant sitting behind the register?
- STOP TIPPING ~~unless somone is actually serving you~~!!
  FTFY
  
  Also good!

I used to love ordering pizza for delivery, and I'd give like 5-10 bucks as a tip which might be 30 or 50% just depending. But now nobody does their own delivery anymore, I pay extra for the food because they're outsourcing to Door Dash, and it takes two hours to get a pizza.
Delivery is dead as far as I can tell. All that's left is going through the fast food drive-through which is like 12-15 bucks nowadays. I'd rather just eat at home.
The only time I go out nowadays is when I'm with a friend.
- I pay extra for the food because they're outsourcing to Door Dash, and it takes two hours to get a pizza.
  It takes 2 hours because they're sending a bid to drivers for your delivery contract, which may also include someone else's delivery on the same route, for a base pay of $2 plus your tip. After enough drivers decline that, they add 25 cents and send it around again. This process repeats until someone (hopefully) eventually accepts it. And – whoops – the merchant''s contract with DoorDash requires the driver to have a pizza bag. So the bid only even gets seen by the subset of drivers who do.
  That's $2, plus your tip. And that's if the merchant was nice enough to actually pass that tip along when they outsourced the delivery. They aren't contractually required to do so, and some don't.
  As an unpaid independent contractor, if I can see it's an outsourced order (placed through the merchant instead of through the delivery marketplace), I won't even accept it, because it's also going to mean losing 10-20 minutes of unpaid time standing around waiting for the merchant (who sent out the contract way too early) to actually start making your pizza, that they already lied about being ready when they sent a notification to you and to me. It's nearly always a disaster.
  Edit to add: Just order from Domino's, they do everything in-house.

Inflated prices and a lack of disposible income will do that.
- I also think it's unfair to compare the percentage amounts of current tips to those from 2021, a time when the pandemic was still roaring through the country, a lot of people were trying really hard to support service workers, and everyone had received a bunch of extra money.

I'm pretty well done tipping unless I'm going to a sit down restaurant and the service is really good
You know what tipping is supposed to be used for
- You know what tipping is supposed to be used for
  Yes, allowing management to pay less than a living wage so that the public can cover the rest.
  I get your meaning (and agree), but tipping as a practice should be dead and gone.
  
  Yet no server will want to increase that wage because tips are much better.
  This argument is always put out there but any server at a decent place would complain if you asked them to take a higher wage instead. Which we have seen over and over again. It's going to be hard to undo the tipping culture due to this.

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 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).
  
  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.

When I go out, I usually tip well. My sister used to be a bartender and waitress and she relied on tips.
That said, tipping is really screwed up now. I went to a stadium for a game once and the employee said that they don't receive the tips when you tip for buying a beer or whatever unless it's cash. That's messed up if true.
I used to think Mr. Pink was an asshole, but he was on to something. I wish tipping was eliminated completely.
- she relied on tips.
  That's the real problem.
  No employee should rely on the arbitrary generosity of their customers.
  Employers need to pay their staff properly for the job they're doing.
  And if some staff member happens to go above and beyond, a customer can optionally choose to reward them for that extra level of service with no societal pressure or guilt..
- Mr. Pink was definitely an asshole

Good, the only way people will get a living wage is if the people stand with them and refuse to tip
- Refusing to tip does nothing to convince an employer to pay more. It only further exploits an already exploited worker.
  If you actually care don't patronize businesses that have a tipped wage and lobby for a higher minimum wage.
  
  Your advice would require people to drastically change their lives right now. Everything's tipped.
  Telling people to stop tipping requires almost nothing from them.
  And yes, it will make things worse for the exploited workers - they'll have to find new jobs if they're not happy with their agreed-upon remuneration. But it's this that will convince the employer to pay more - if they can't attract staff they'll have to offer more
  Stopping tipping also puts the burden where it should be. You are the one saying your pay isn't enough (and thus need tipping) - you fight for it yourself.

The worst part is when you go to a place you need to pay before service is rendered.
If I go to the bagel shop and get a dozen I pay before I pick them out. TIP? Are you kidding me, what what, you have not served me yet.
A tip is to reward good service at a sit down place. I still think it shouldn't be and if we have it, it should be back to the 5-10% like most countries that have tipping.
But if you ask for a tip before you render service i get a little angry.

I swear when I was a kid in the 90s 5-10% was standard.
Anyone else remember this?
- Yup and tips were only for a short list of things like waiters or cabbies.
  
  "Let me tip the taco time drive through"
  Statement from the deranged.
- Im 40. It had always been 15% as long as I can remember, and my memory of it goes pretty far back. When I started learning percentages in math class my parents made me the tip calculator whenever we'd go out so that would have been 8 or 9 years old?
  
  10 bad, 15 average, 20 good service. I've always gone above 20, having worked plenty of years relying on it for income myself
- No, it's been 15% as standard for food.
  For whatever reason you can go lower on things like haircuts, and drinks were always a dollar (finally getting down to 15% now)
- I grew up waiting tables in the late 90's - early 00's. The state I was in had a mandatory 8% tax claim on total sales for the day. So if you did $2000 in food / liquor sales, you had to claim $160 in additional, taxable wages within the time keeping system at the end of your shift. We also received a base wage that was equivalent to the state minimum wage at the time.
  Based on my experiences working everywhere from small chaim restaraunts in mill towns to hipster bars in metropolitan areas, that 5-10% was pretty accurate.
  However, there were usually one or two anomalies every shift that meant you'd clear an overall net closer to 20% for the day.
  The smart ones budgeted around a 0% take home and treated their tips as a supplement, the rest of us lived together so rent was cheap enough we could still waste our money on drinking and partying after shift.

Well, we past our tipping point in the US a while ago, so...

And now that Trump wants to make tips tax free, I'm about to tip even less. At least by the amount of the tax deduction.

Wasn't trump talking about making tips tax-free? It's only going to make the problem a lot worse. Maybe the problem getting so bad will reach a breaking point and we're seeing some of the effects of this aggressive push to shove tipping everywhere now.
- Yes... Donald Trump, a man famous for keeping promises. /$
  
  Right, it's assuming he keeps that particular promise, but it was a proposal so seemingly popular that Harris's team adopted a version of it but with restrictions on what kind of tips would be exempt (I think it was restricted to waitstaff or something along those lines). Trump's version is so much more open to abuse that it could be used as a sort of wink wink nudge nudge way to avoid taxes if you simply agreed to pay in part as a "tip". Given the popularity among those who rely on tips to live and also the rich who can find ways to use it intentionally to avoid taxes, I feel like it's not impossible that Trump would actually go through with it.
- I'm sympathetic to tipped labor, but I can't imagine why they shouldn't pay taxes on it. These are their wages and if they get paid so little that they need to not be taxed but still pay them we need to either adjust the progressive taxation tiers or to figure out something else. Because this feels more like an attempt to normalize removing taxes than an attempt to alleviate the burdens on the poor

I'm totally down with tipping for good service. But it's backwards. I'm suppose to tip before service. Personally, we have cut back going out with a lot of times thinking that it's too expensive. The worst is when there's a line behind you and the lowest tip preset is at %25. You have everybody looking at you while you try to set it lower.
- Why are you tipping if there's a line? The line implies self service.
  
  Fast casual

I will tip wait staff because I know they rely on it. Someone at the counter at Starbucks? No. They're not getting less than minimum wage and expected to make up the difference in tips.
- Depends on the state, too. In Washington wait staff get full minimum wage, which is the highest in the country.
  So I feel a lot less bad leaving a smaller tip in Washington because they're being paid the same as everyone else, not artificially paid less with "tips supposed to make up the difference."
  Also, semi-related: Olympia, Washington was one of UberEats best-tipping cities in 2023.
  https://www.uber.com/newsroom/2023-uber-eats-cravings-report/
  Customers in Olympia, WA, Asheville, NC and Bismarck, ND were the most generous tippers in the U.S.
  So a city with the highest minimum wage in the country is also one of the cities that tips the best. Interesting.
  
  In my experience service industry workers tip the best, so in a city where they are more often flush they probably tip even better.
  
  To be fair, I don't think Uber Eats is paying minimum wage hourly anywhere

I'm not in the best health so I do a lot of order at home.
GrubHub/DoorDash/etc. all calculate the tip based on the order + their fees, not the order itself.
If I order a $60 dinner, I'm tipping 20% of $60. Not 20% of $60 + your delivery fee and your service fee.
- Tipping has always been a stupidly arbitrary thing to base tips on anyway, especially for delivery drivers.
  As a driver, I accept runs based on dollar per mile because that's what actually factors into my income. I don't care what you ordered unless it's 100 items at the grocery store with cases of water bottles. The price is always irrelevant

Meanwhile federal minimum wage is still $7.25/hr. Less, if you're a server.

I've been tipping more, but that's mostly because I live in a relatively low-income area and I know people around here are cheap/frugal. I've also worked in food service before (though not deliveries) and I know just how awful it can be. I hope I can be the one delivery that allows the person to call it an early night and spend time with their family. Shit like that.
That being said, I don't know what kind of notes the drivers get when they see my order pop up, but I will say that 99% of the time, my service has been impeccable. They know.
HOWEVER, don't take this as approval for tipping culture. I hate it and would love to do away with it. Unfortunately, I understand that these people depend on my tips for a living wage and that sucks.
- Make sure you're tipping cashiers too then

Tipping was essentially an American invention to not pay black people. (Who were the majority of service industry workers in the late 1800s/1900s?)
Also keeps that servant/master power dynamic.

People tip more than 10%?

What they need to do is scale the tips up to 40, 50, and 60%, and get rid of that pesky custom button
- Then I'm going to pay in cash if I need to buy it, or else I'll just walk away.

I refuse to go anywhere I have to tip.

I am a big believer in tipping and always tip the same way: I start at 18-20% and go down from there, based on service, friendliness, and food quality.
That said, I go out a lot less post-Covid, as the quality of the experience isn't what it used to be. I tend to stick to poke and sushi nowadays, as it tends to be fresher and the service better.
- You know the server doesn't cook, right?
  
  Food establishments I am familiar with see tips split/shared between front of house (servers, host, etc) and back of house (kitchen staff)
  
  The server doesn’t get you seated. In many places they don’t bring your food. They don’t cheat the table. They don’t prep the food or wash the dishes
  
  I'm going to assume you are referring to the food quality being part of the tip. While the server isn't directly responsible for that, their presentation and delivery of the order, as well as attitude and reaction to what I might send back and the resolution thereof, is. If they go out of their way to make me happy, for better or worse, they did their job correctly and deserve the tip.

Good, keep it up

Obligatory Reservoir Dogs scene

I know it's bad, but I've become a never tipper when I door dash food... It's just so insanely expensive for what I'm getting. I know I'm the problem, sorry
- What's the problem?
  
  That they're using door dash at all.

No tips required when I make aldis toquitos and drink in the basement. Why would you give business to a place that expected tipping?
- The problem is that there is a rise of expectations for tips in places that previously didn't involve tips. That, and the expected percentage for places where it is normal to tip has gone up. And people are reasonably tired of it.
  It's perfectly ok to do both, to be tired of it and avoid such places.

What are we supposed to tip with? Shit is so expensive it's tough to afford eating out at all and when we do go out, we pay more for less and it's often made poorly compared to what it once was.

American tipping culture is so pervasive, anerican POS software companies don't even bother localising POS systems to remove the tipping step.
Like, why is this button here, practically no one is ever going to use it.
If we leave a tip, it's in a tip-jar almost without exception, in cash. It's where you put your poop change or a couple of gold coins ($1 or $2)
(Australia)
Grumble

Here's the tip reform I want:
Every restaurant/bar/etc with their staff decides on a default gratuity that represents their service standards/aspirations.
Menu prices must include this gratuity. (And include taxes - why not.)
At time of payment, the customer can choose how much they want to tip: the default, or some amount more or less.
Transparent prices. No unwritten rules. Bar staff still make $$. And no disadvantage to restaurants who pay a higher hourly wage instead of tips.

Chinese tip always 2 dollars

This is why I upped my tipping on the rare times I do eat out.
Edit: yeah, how fucking dare I?

That's funny, wife and I haven't even tipped at all in years
Wait, no, I lie, I did tip the lady who went above and beyond this one time to make sure my meal went super smooth
ETA: lol, knew I'd get downvoted by butthurt idiots who don't know shit. I live in one of the states with full minimum wage for the tipped roles (5 bucks more if it's fast food) so why the fuck should I tip anyone if they're making the same as anyone else at the bottom of the ladder?
Buncha fools

i actually give everyone a 600% tip because i want to show everyone that i love american lifestyle

Lot of assholes in this thread. If you're rich enough to eat out, tip.
If you dont have enough to tip, dont order out.
- Here’s a tip: organize and make employers pay a fair wage.
  
  Yes.
- Explain to me why tip percentages should increase along with the cost of the food?
  Seems to me there was a built in raise and then people started saying it should be 25 percent.
  I was pretty pissed off when it went from 10 to 15. At 20 it is just obscene.
  I will tip for service. I even tipped well yesterday for take out because they see me come in and actually remember me and begin my order before I have to give it. For that knd of service I will tip well.
  But other take out places... Why am I tipping then at all?
- Wow a very bad take without exceptions.
  
  Exception: when you pay in a State that has laws protecting their workers from this abuse, you dont have to tip.

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