Majority of Americans frustrated by excessive tipping: 'Gone too far' (2024)

FAQs

Has American tipping culture gone too far? ›

More than three-quarters of Americans believe tipping culture has gone too far as prompts for gratuities on credit card machines pester consumers in virtually every establishment, according to a survey.

A Pew Research Center Survey last year found similar concerns about tipflation among consumers, with 72 percent of Americans saying they were expected to tip in more places than they were five years ago.

According to a recent Bankrate survey of over 2,400 adults across the country, 59% of those surveyed said they had a negative view of tipping, with 35% saying tipping culture has gotten out of control.

One activist organization has made the argument that discriminatory tipping, in which people of color earn lower wages than White people, is a violation of the Civil Rights Act. If you read up on its history, tipping has frequently resulted in lower pay for servers who aren't White.

Experts trace this very American tradition back to weaker unions, business owners who wanted to exploit the cheap labor of a changing workforce and a hotel culture that valued tips as it began to serve more a la carte meals.

It also supposedly perpetuates poverty among servers, “enshrines” racial and gender discrimination, and encourages sexual harassment. Moreover, tipping does not improve customer service, or so the abolitionists say. Tipping abolitionists seek to replace tipping with a “living wage” of maybe $15 or $18.

Nearly 3 in 4 Americans think tipping has gotten out of control, according to a recent WalletHub survey, especially when it comes to the predetermined point-of-sale options. That is up from two-thirds of Americans who had a negative view of tipping less than a year ago, a separate report by Bankrate found.

“While there are no hard-and-fast rules about when to leave a gratuity, it's generally accepted that servers in bars and restaurants should be tipped. The same is true for other service providers such as barbers and hairdressers. Other than that, it truly is at the discretion of the customer,” she says.

Servers might comp your meal (give it to you for free), send your table dessert, or, at the very least, offer you a sincere apology. If you get confronted for not leaving an adequate tip, understand that this is normal. Avoid this in the future and express problems with your server before you pay the bill.

In most other countries, including throughout Europe, “tipping remains a small gesture of gratitude,” said Jaime Peters, Maryville University's assistant dean of accounting, finance and economics. That's in contrast to the U.S., where “tipping is almost obligatory.”

Why do people not tip anymore? ›

There's a common conviction held by some diners, who believe that by not tipping or doing so conditionally, they're actually protesting a broken system. And maybe even forcing employers to pay their staff more.

It seems many Americans disagree. Almost 1 in 5, 18%, of people tip less than 15% for an average meal at a sit-down restaurant — and an additional 2% tip nothing at all, according to a Pew Research Center survey, which polled 11,945 U.S. adults. More than a third, 37%, said 15% is their standard tip.

The survey also found that 35% of Americans believe tipping culture has gone too far. Compared to last year's tipping survey, more respondents now believe tipping culture has gotten increasingly out of control. More than 1 in 3 (35%) of Americans surveyed in 2024 agreed, compared to 30% in 2023.

Americans' persistent tipping is driven by the old-fashioned belief that it encourages good service paired with the recently-intensified pressure to tip more to evade guilt and social scorn coined “tipflation.” Americans also spend more dining out than they did in the previous half-century, so the bar on tips is rising ...

"The wage workers are receiving isn't sufficient," Jung says. "So now everybody is using this very weird way to increase wages while maintaining the same menu price." In other words, tipping is a way to pay workers more without actually paying them more ... so restaurants can keep prices low.

If you think that tip request screens are appearing in strange places, you are not alone. Nearly 3 in 4 people think tipping culture has gotten out of control and more than half think businesses are replacing employee salaries with customer tips, according to a survey conducted by WalletHub.

The COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps an exception, as people tipped more to show gratitude towards those still going to work. Tipping is still expected in more places and at higher rates, and pre-entered tip screens make it easier to suggest higher tips (on the contrary, tip screens sometimes result in smaller tips).

Brazil. In Brazil, a tip is a standard practice as it is in America and Canada. It's expected. When you go out, have enough for the meal and the tip.