More tipping insanity
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People are tipping less at restaurants than they have in at least six years, driven by fatigue over rising prices and growing prompts for tips at places where gratuities haven’t historically been expected.
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Restaurant servers know customers are annoyed about how often they’re now asked for tips. Payment systems on digital tablets prompt them to add gratuities, even at businesses like airport concessions and gas stations.
“I can see tipping culture in the U.S. cracking,” said Jenni Emmons, a server at an upscale Chicago restaurant. “People are being pressured to tip for things they didn’t used to, and I feel my income is under threat because of this.”
Some worker-advocacy groups maintain that servers, bartenders and other tip-earning workers rely too much on gratuities. They have taken aim at the tipped-wage system, in which many states permit restaurants and other businesses to pay tip-earning workers less than the minimum wage—so long as income from tips makes up the difference.
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Fritz Brogan, who co-owns five bars and restaurants in the city, said the higher payroll costs have led him to raise menu prices by around 10% and trim employee hours. His Mission Navy Yard now charges $15 for an espresso martini, according to the restaurant’s website, up from $13 in 2023, according to an archived version of the site.
He is considering adding service charges next July, when the minimum wage for service staff rises to $12 an hour. That would add some $400,000 in costs across his 350 hourly staff, he estimated.
Brogan said the fees can leave diners confused and wondering whether they should still tip. “The last thing people want is to be doing calculus at the end of the night,” he said.
(NOTE BY ME - then have the prices be "all inclusive (price + tip + tax)!!!)
Mohit Ganguly, a Washington resident, said it’s easy to miss the mandatory fees that most eateries in his area have tacked onto their menus. “Tipping 15% to 20% on top of that feels superfluous,” Ganguly said.
https://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/restaurant-tip-fatigue-servers-covid-9e198567
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Not insanity but it seemed like the right thread.
The conference had an open bar and buffet last night. I like to tip a little at these things. But I never have small bills.
I would actually have appreciated a little tap and pay device that gave the options $1 $3 $5 other.
Not that you had to press through to get your order, but just sitting on the side for you to use if you wanted to or ignore if not.
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Not insanity but it seemed like the right thread.
The conference had an open bar and buffet last night. I like to tip a little at these things. But I never have small bills.
I would actually have appreciated a little tap and pay device that gave the options $1 $3 $5 other.
Not that you had to press through to get your order, but just sitting on the side for you to use if you wanted to or ignore if not.
@jon-nyc said in More tipping insanity:
I would actually have appreciated a little tap and pay device
Aqua's sister wasn't there with you?
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At self checkout buying overpriced snacks.
They add 3% to help cover their staffing costs because the $7 liter of water doesn’t cover it.
Needless to say it’s not optional
@jon-nyc said in More tipping insanity:
At self checkout buying overpriced snacks.
They add 3% to help cover their staffing costs because the $7 liter of water doesn’t cover it.
Needless to say it’s not optional
So much to unpack, here, but first we need to address the fact that you are buying Fuji “Artesianal” water while buying Lay’s potato chips….
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When Garrett Petters, a 29-year-old architect in Dallas, and his girlfriend travelled to Paris last year, one of their favourite parts was eating out. They enjoyed French duck, andouillette, plenty of bread, cheese and coffee and even escargot.
But it wasn’t just Paris’s cuisine they admired. It was also the different tipping culture. “We were talking about how nice it is in Europe that they pay their waiters and waitresses and we don’t have to tip because of it, and isn’t that cool,” Petters said. It felt very different from back in the US, where tipping culture felt “out of control”.
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Self-checkouts, drive-throughs, hotdog stands, drug stores, a bottled water stall at a jazz festival, an airport vending machine, a used bookstore, a cinema box office, a children’s arcade – these are a handful of the surprising places people reported being asked for tips, with several suggesting companies were taking advantage of new social expectations on gratuities.
“Before, tipping was considered generosity,” Petters said. “Now, it’s about guilt.”
But a backlash could be brewing, with gratuities falling from a pandemic peak. Average full-service restaurant tips in the fourth quarter of 2024 fell to 19.3%, which is a six-year US low and down from a high of 19.9% in the first quarter of 2021, according to data from Toast.
Petters said he was adding less on to the bill now, in the hopes employers would be forced to increase pay for staff. But when he mentioned this to acquaintances working service jobs, he added, some people became angry. “I just said, ‘Why aren’t you mad at your boss for not paying you a liveable wage?’
“I think business owners are really taking advantage of the situation.”
