this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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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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[–] militaryintelligence 59 points 4 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 35 points 5 hours ago

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.

[–] hark 7 points 3 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 35 minutes ago (1 children)

That they're using door dash at all.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 minutes ago

I can understand that! I won't use it.

[–] UnfortunateShort 48 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 hour ago

People who earn tips don't want "liveable" wages. They would hate the pay cut.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 hours ago

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.

[–] Exusia 2 points 4 hours ago

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!)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 hours ago

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.

[–] hedgehogging_the_bed 24 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

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%.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago

Yes this irks me to no end. The tips were going up on their own, so why did the percentage go up?

[–] gnomesaiyan 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

You know the server doesn't cook, right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 27 minutes ago

Food establishments I am familiar with see tips split/shared between front of house (servers, host, etc) and back of house (kitchen staff)

[–] gnomesaiyan 0 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] foggy 63 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (9 children)

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?

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

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

[–] Alteon 34 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

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?

[–] JWBananas 3 points 2 hours ago

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.

[–] Joeffect 5 points 3 hours ago

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

[–] AbidanYre 22 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

And the default options are 20, 25, 30 some places.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago

Ive been at multiple places stsrting at 30. Fuck that.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 hours ago

Inflated prices and a lack of disposible income will do that.

[–] FabledAepitaph 13 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] JWBananas 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

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.

[–] MeekerThanBeaker 11 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Mr. Pink was definitely an asshole

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